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June 2026 Magazine

 

Jobs and work have always been our key topics for June. While everyone is hellbent on talking about A-I and technology, we need to keep in mind that traditional career opportunities abound and offer deep job satisfaction. Barbara Lloyd McMichael writes about a farmer who owns Johnson Pecan Farms in Beebe, Arkansas. Dr. William Johnson, Jr. is growing crops and cultivating farmers for the next generation. As a longtime farmer on a farm that has been associated with his family for generations, he knows the challenges firsthand.  My Friend Sue is an essay about a wonderful friend. I’m astonished that the things we did as little kids predicted who we would become as adults. I think we might have been acorns. A theory about acorns asserts who we are destined to become is imprinted on our souls from the first moment of our lives. Robin Lindley interviewed renowned Professor Doug Underwood, who has recently launched his debut novel, Always Tessie, a Tale of the Turbulent 1960s that is set in the Pacific Northwest. Robin Lindley also interviewed Australian Director Anthony Maras about his new film “Pressure” that captures the intense planning for D-Day immediately before the invasion during World War II. Please see the entire interview that was originally published in the Hollywood Progressive.  ––Patricia Vaccarino

 

Growing Crops and Cultivating Farmers

By his affable manner and down-home speech, you might not figure the man for a college professor and prominent agronomist. But you’d be underestimating Dr. William Johnson, Jr. By the time Johnson was 15, he’d become a member of Future Farmers of America. He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in agronomy at Arkansas State University-Jonesboro. At first he was taking 16 hours a semester while also working 40 hours a week at a steakhouse to pay his way through college. In 1995, he received his PhD from the University of Arkansas. On his own farm, the legacy property of his ancestors, Johnson is growing 300 tomato plants of multiple varieties this year, along with a couple dozen jalapeño pepper plants, and a limited crop of okra.And then, of course there are the pecans…