CH Chuck Musgrove

Born in Okemah, Oklahoma December 23, 1927, graduate of Okla. State Univ. (OSU), Chuck resided in Riverside for over 65 years. He served as a research scientist for 25 years with the Citrus Experiment Station, later the Department of Biological Control at the University of California, Riverside. Because of his pioneering efforts in the promotion of integrated pest control countering the surge of chemical pesticides, he became a founding member of the Association of Applied Insect Ecologists, as well asmember of the Entomological Society of America and invited member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He left UCR to found his own company Intergrated Citrus Pest Management covering several thousand acres of citrus and alfalfa throughout Southern California. Western Fruit Grower magazine labeled him as having an “encyclopedia like knowledge of both pests and predators”. He, also, farmed and harvested his own organic citrus groves.

Chuck served as a major advisor to the President’s Council on Environmental Quality’s 1974 landmark report “Integrated Pest Management” laying the groundwork for much of the pest management strategies and research dialogue in U.S Agriculture. It balanced the need for a growing food supply while maintaining the quality of the environment and warned of the dangers of the growing menace of insect resistance to chemical pesticides.

The love of nature was his calling. His later years were spent on probably the last 11 acres of wild canyon and gullies in Riverside where he nurtured wildlife habitat and watchedred-tailed hawks and coyotes escape the developers. Binoculars and a pocket hand lens were his tools. In addition to stopping on every family outing to identify the ants and other critters on the sidewalks and gravel roads, he entertained his children and grandchildren with this mandolin and guitar pickin songs of his Oklahoma childhood.

He predeceases his sister, Neta Smith and her daughter Sheri Porterfield of Enid, Oklahoma. He leaves behind his three loving children, Jackie Riegger of Scottsdale, AZ, Connie Musgrove of Arnold, MD and Kerry Musgrove and his wife Sue of North Tustin, CA. He’s the beloved grandfather of Kyle Reed (Malibu, CA), Keegan Sawyer (University Park, MD), Barbara Davis (Los Alamitos, CA), Brenda Musgrove (Huntington Beach, CA)and Michele Musgrove (Orange, CA); as well as nine great grandchildren.