24   SEEDWORLD.COM/CANADA   JULY 2026
informally as “The Three Amigos” — or, depending on the 
mood, “The Three Stooges.”
“We liked to make fun of ourselves,” Turkington says. “We 
weren’t trying to be serious scientists.” 
Ask Turkington what mattered most about his career, and 
he becomes emotional surprisingly quickly.
“I kind of get a bit choked up about this,” he says. “But it’s 
the people you work with.” 
The Prairie crop disease committees. The oat, barley, wheat, 
and triticale recommendation groups. The extension staff. The 
consultants. The producers. The fellow scientists who became 
lifelong friends.
“It’s that network that makes the work you do fun,” he says. 
“It engages you, and it helps you get through the more routine 
and challenging aspects.” 
Retirement won’t mean inactivity. Turkington plans to 
spend more time with family scattered across Saskatchewan, 
Alberta, and Idaho. 
But perhaps the most important retirement project is 
quieter. Turkington has become the family genealogist. Boxes 
of old family slides and photographs dating back to his great-
grandparents sit waiting to be digitized. Preserving those 
memories for his children and grandchildren has become 
increasingly meaningful to him. 
“As you get older,” he says, “some of these things become 
much more important, and you want to know a bit more about 
your history.” 
Listen to our Seed World Podcast interview 
with Kelly Turkington!
Kelly Turkington, seen here in 2022 with 
dog Lola, has retired after a long career as 
a plant pathologist.
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