Beneath the pecan canopies: OSU Extension educator’s career leaves a pecan legacy beneath the canopies after 38 years

Friday, May 22, 2026

Media Contact: Kristin Knight | Communications and Marketing Manager | 405-744-1130 | kristin.knight@okstate.edu

As a high school student, Becky Carroll worked summers at Cimarron Valley Research Station picking peaches, caring for trees and collecting data for the researchers on site.

As a Perkins High School cheerleader, Carroll said, other student workers doubted she would last a week.

Today, Carroll is a well-known pecan specialist. Her work with Oklahoma State University Extension supports Oklahoma pecan growers and the state’s $23 million pecan industry.

This summer, the former cheerleader, who was thought not to last a week, is set to retire after a 38-year career.

Mike Smith, a longtime OSU horticulture professor and Carroll’s former instructor, said he recognized her work ethic early in her career.

He later hired her as a research technician, where her precision and reliability set her apart, he said.

“She is unselfish, reliable and capable,” Smith said.

Carroll built her reputation not only through technical knowledge but through the way she treated growers, he said, as she approaches each interaction with patience and a genuine desire to help them succeed.

“Her ability to combine scientific accuracy with personal connection made her a trusted resource across the industry,” Smith added.

Early impressions of Carroll’s work ethic foreshadowed a career path she had not originally planned, she said.

Carroll said she began her college career studying journalism at Northern Oklahoma College in Tonkawa and then moved to early education before finding her way to horticulture at OSU.

Looking back, she found a career in Extension, which allowed her to merge all of her interests, Carroll said.

Carroll’s move into the Extension faculty role was unconventional, as she does not hold a master’s or doctorate degree, she added.

However, after she filled the position on an interim basis, department leadership recognized her decades of hands-on experience, qualifying her for the position, she said. She was later promoted to senior Extension specialist.

In this role, Carroll helped guide the Oklahoma pecan industry.

Most notably, Oklahoma became known for crop-load thinning, a method in which growers remove part of an overloaded pecan crop during late summer to ensure trees produce more consistent yields the following year.

The process, Carroll said, stemmed from listening to local growers.

“The pecan growers asked, ‘If we thin apples for better quality, why don’t we thin pecans?’” she said. “That’s how the whole project started.”

Choosing the right pecan variety can shape a grower’s operation for decades, highlighting the important role Extension specialists serve, said Mike Spradling, a pecan grower with more than 50 years of experience.

“A tree may take nearly 10 years before producers know whether their decision paid off,” he said.

Carroll became a primary connection between researchers and producers, sharing information from national organizations and coordinating educational programs to help growers make long-term decisions, Spradling added.

“Her recommendations will benefit generations to come,” Spradling said.

His perspective reflects decades of professional collaboration with Carroll, which developed through industry leadership roles and Extension partnerships, he said.

“She helped organize conferences and bring in speakers from across the country,” Spradling said. “Growers relied on that connection.”

Susan Raybourn, a third-generation pecan grower who manages her family’s orchard in Haydonville, Oklahoma, said she is the second generation in her family to work with Carroll.

“She brings the smallest of growers into the fold with the larger growers,” Raybourn said. “She constantly brings every bit of information to growers as she finds it, and as it comes out. She brings everyone together.”

Trust is the foundation of Extension, Carroll said.

“If growers don’t trust the information, they’ll look elsewhere,” Carroll said. “Our job is to provide research-based guidance.”

Carroll models Extension excellence, said Domona Doye, OSU Extension associate vice president.

“She’s responsive to stakeholder needs, grounded in research and sustained by decades of trusted relationships,” Doye said.

For three decades, Carroll helped lead OSU’s pecan management class, a program started in 1997 to teach growers everything from orchard establishment to pest management.

Some attendees arrived before planting their first tree, while others came to refine practices they had used for generations, she added.

“The pecan management classes helped people decide whether pecan production was truly the path they wanted to take,” Carroll said.

Throughout her career, Carroll traveled across Oklahoma conducting workshops, field days and site visits.

The interactions allowed her to observe, firsthand, the challenges growers face, Carroll said.

This included managing diseases, making orchard spacing decisions, and responding to environmental concerns that impact crop health and productivity, she added.

Carroll hosted monthly Zoom meetings for growers during COVID-19, critical for maintaining communication, Raybourn said.

As the meetings drew international attention, Carroll was invited to present virtually to Brazilian pecan growers, who were facing similar overcropping challenges at the same time, Carroll said.

At one point, her monthly webinars included participants from 10 different countries, she said.

Still, Carroll remains most proud of the relationships built across Oklahoma’s 77 counties, she said.

“I have friends in just about every county,” Carroll added.

Carroll speaks of growers not as clients, but as extended family; people she has watched grow up, marry and pass operations down to children and grandchildren, she said.

“Carroll is on everyone’s speed dial,” Spradling said.

Through the years, Carroll spent time discussing orchard decisions sitting at kitchen tables, attending funerals and celebrating milestones with her pecan family.

“Relationships are probably the biggest thing — it’s like a big family,” Carroll said.

Carroll’s leadership and service have strengthened not only Oklahoma’s pecan industry, but also the reputation of OSU Extension.

Carroll said she hopes people will remember her as approachable, kind and someone who offered good advice as she transitions to the next chapter.

Marking both Carroll’s retirement and the 100th anniversary of the Oklahoma Pecan Growers’ Association, this year feels symbolic, she said.

“It takes a team,” she said. “I couldn’t do anything by myself.”

Story by Zoe Carmichael | Cowboy Journal