Generations of Experience

Audra Cochran was in kindergarten when her mentor, Randy Brooks, first joined the University of Idaho Extension team serving timber-rich Clearwater County in May 1996.

Among UI Extension’s close-knit group of forestry experts, institutional knowledge traces back generations, and a mentor’s guidance is always close at hand. Cochran, 34, who became a UI Extension educator specializing in farm and forestry topics for Clearwater County in August 2023, has supplied fresh ideas and enthusiasm to a team with a proven track record of service and a long memory.

“I remember her being in 4-H and livestock, and I watched Audra grow up. She got her master’s degree with me,” said Brooks, who is the state Extension forestry specialist. “I always joke I’ve been training Audra since she was 6 years old to be an Extension educator.”

In turn, Brooks, 62, still works closely with the professional who showed him the ropes when he first started — Chris Schnepf, 63, area Extension educator in forestry. And neither Brooks nor Schnepf were alive when Norm Fitzsimmons, 93, who has remained an active supporter of Extension in retirement, put in his first day as a local county Extension educator on June 5, 1955.

“They’re great people and I believe in the program, and if they can promote those programs, I think it’s the greatest thing in the world,” Fitzsimmons said. “I think Audra is going to do a great job, too.”

4-H shaped the course of Fitzsimmons’ life. As a child, he was active in 4-H and earned a $100 scholarship that Union Pacific Railroad awarded annually to a 4-H member.

“There was a livestock judging program and a farmer in Idaho County gave a traveling cup to the top livestock judge of the year,” Fitzsimmons recalled. “I won that and that was kind of a boost to my ego.”

He met his wife through a collegiate 4-H Club while enrolled at the University of Idaho. After serving in the Air Force, he helped run the family ranch while his stepfather recovered from illness, before returning to college. In 1952, Fitzsimmons earned a bachelor’s degree from U of I in animal husbandry. He later earned a master’s degree from U of I in general agriculture.

His first job in Extension was as an assistant county agent in Nez Perce County, working primarily with the 4-H program.

“I enjoyed working with the kids, and of course I enjoyed working with the adults because we had a super group of leaders who worked with the kids,” Fitzsimmons said. “You’re basically developing responsible adults who have got some citizenship and leadership and sportsmanship and all of those other ships.”

After four years of working in Nez Perce County, Fitzsimmons moved to Clearwater County to administer the 4-H program for youth and agricultural education programs for adults. He remained in Clearwater County until he retired from Extension in 1986 to help his widowed mother save the family’s ranch.

“I still run into people who were in 4-H programs,” Fitzsimmons said.

Among Fitzsimmons’ lasting legacies is a three-day forestry-themed camping adventure he started for local sixth-graders, entering its 61st year. The trip introduces youth to forestry professionals and exposes them to all aspects of the timber industry. Both Schnepf and Brooks had turns in running the program, which Cochran now oversees.

“I remember the 50th anniversary of that program,” Brooks said. “We had Norm come up and we gave him a plaque.”

Schnepf filled the UI Extension, Clearwater County educator position vacated by Fitzsimmons in February 1988. The position’s emphasis shifted to forestry and alternative agriculture, with a 40% focus on 4-H. Schnepf acknowledges he faced a high bar in replacing a “living legend.”

“Norm Fitzsimmons built a lot of positive capital for UI Extension in Clearwater County,” Schnepf said. “He’s just a great former Extension person to have in your county.”

Brooks replaced Schnepf in Clearwater County in May 1996, after Schnepf moved to Kootenai County to become an area Extension forester. Brooks was promoted to area Extension forestry educator and remained in Clearwater County until 2011, when he moved to Moscow to become state Extension forestry specialist.

During a chance meeting at the Palouse Mall in Moscow, Brooks invited Cochran to be his graduate student, and she accepted the offer. After she graduated with a master’s degree in forestry and natural resources, Cochran worked in recruiting for the U of I College of Agricultural and Life Sciences. She then spent two years working in Extension in Lewis County before joining the UI Extension, Clearwater County team last summer.

Because they share forestry, range and natural resources as a common program area, Schnepf, Brooks and Cochran meet regularly to plan programming and share ideas.

Fitzsimmons was among the first people to stop by the office and welcome Cochran in her new role. That’s also when she was reminded about Fitzsimmons’ wry sense of humor. He asked Cochran for guidance to save a struggling field of soybeans — nobody plants soybeans in northern Idaho.

“Norm is the quintessential county agent. He’s what people think of when they think of the Extension system,” Cochran said. “He is a pillar in our community still, and he still comes to our events because he is a tried and true Extension supporter.”