Rob Sirrine is coming home to northern Michigan.

The 1992 Traverse City Central graduate has been selected to replace retired Michigan State University Leelanau Extension director Jim Bardenhagen. He reports for duty Aug. 1.

Rob Sirrine

“I’m thrilled to have been chosen for the position,” said Sirrine, whose parents, Bill and Margo Sirrine, live in Traverse City. “I’ll be joining a great staff already in place there.”

Like many young people growing up in northern Michigan, his first experience with the fruit-growing industry came as a teenager working in the harvest.

“I did everything from pulling tarp to driving the forklift,” he said.

A graduate of the University of Michigan, Sirrine studied natural resources and went on to complete graduate work and later teach at the University of California-Santa Cruz. In 2003, Sirrine earned UCSC’s graduate student award for Preserving the Viability and Cultural integrity of a Northern Michigan Farming Community: an Interdisciplinary Framework for Sustainable Tart Cherry.

He became interested in the topic during a trip to Costa Rica taken after his completion of studies at U-M.

“I spoke with a professor there who studied cover crops on coffee plantations,” said Sirrine, whose focus is agroeconomics. “It’s a broader perspective. The problems (faced by the industry) are not just agricultural, but cultural and economic as well.”

Sirrine was one of 13 applicants — and three interviewed — for the vacant seat created by the retirement of longtime Extension director James V. Bardenhagen early this year. An 8-person search committee was involved in the process. Members were Patrick Cudney, director of MSU north; county commissioner Melinda C. Lautner; Antrim County Extension director Stanley Moore; Don Coe of Black Star Farms; fruit grower Ben LaCross; Solon Township farmer Wes Parker; Francis Otto of the Leelanau Horticultural Society; and Maggie Sprattmoran, director of the Leelanau Children’s Center, who represented the human services of the community.

“Rob’s broad background (in production and with the northern Michigan fruit industry) make him uniquely qualified for the position,” Cudney said.

Sirrine, who was also among three candidates interviewed in October to replace James Nugent as director of the Northwest Michigan Horticultural Research Station, will be formally introduced to the county Board of Commissioners at their Aug. 14 executive session. An open house in his honor will be held from 2 to 4 p.m. that day at the courthouse in Leland.

Sirrine and his wife, Dorothy, have two sons: Wyatt, 4 1/2 and Whelan, who is almost two.