Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, March 7, 1995                   TAG: 9503070106
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: ALLISON BLAKE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

EXTENSION DIRECTOR'S LAST MONTHS TOUGH

But little did the director of the Virginia Cooperative Extension Service know what a tough several months his last ones would be.

After years of budget cuts, extension faced perhaps its hardest battle yet. In the recently ended General Assembly session, legislators restored $7.3 million that Gov. George Allen wanted to cut from the agency's budget.

Bill Allen has taken Virginia Tech up on its faculty buyout offer. He says the endless budget cuts are not the reason he's leaving.

``It certainly contributed to it,'' he said. ``It made the job less enjoyable than if the stress wasn't there.

``But I want to say I've enjoyed this job tremendously. It's been an aspiration of mine. I think Virginia Cooperative Extension is truly a wonderful organization.''

Bill Allen, who will be 56 when he retires June 30, was appointed extension director last May, after serving 20 months as interim director.

``I've never let the word 'interim' get in my way,'' said Bill Allen, who listed among his achievements the move toward creating community-based citizen leadership councils to set priorities for local extension offices.

``I have loved it, and I want this organization to remain strong. I want people to support it, and that's where the strain has come from this winter, thinking we might be in the position of having to dismantle the organization. We haven't had the opportunity to build as much as I would like to have.''

But he also said the support from legislators and Tech administrators has been gratifying.

``Bill Allen's done an incredibly fine job, and we're going to miss him,'' said Virginia Tech President Paul Torgersen. ``There's no question about that.''

But as extension launches an internal review, Bill Allen's departure may offer an opportunity, Torgersen said.

``It does give us an opportunity not only to see if we need to refocus extension efforts, but it gives us the opportunity to have somebody join the institution, [or] to be promoted, at the same time we're making changes.''

In a statement, the dean of Tech's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences called Bill Allen's leadership ``brilliant.''

``His consensus-building style, his thoughtfulness and consideration of each person in the organization, his determination to reshape programs to meet Virginia's needs - all have served Cooperative Extension, Virginia Tech and the commonwealth exceedingly well,'' Dean Andy Swiger said.

Bill Allen has worked in extension for 31 years. He came to Tech in 1983 as the university's extension entomologist after spending years as a county extension agent in his native Florida. He also worked for extension in Indiana while studying for his master's degree at Purdue University.