Bob Markey Honored
Odyssey International Productions
On Friday, November 18, 2022, Rahway resident Bob Markey was honored by Odyssey International Productions, a non-profit organization that has been recognizing the efforts and accomplishments of phenomenal individuals and organizations for their outstanding business and community services contributions for the past 23 years.
Bob Markey was born and raised in Rahway, New Jersey. He attended Rahway grammar schools and graduated high school from St. Benedict’s Prep. in Newark. He received a B.A. from Monmouth University in 1972.
Bob’s parents loved gardening; and like many children, his first experience with the family garden was weeding. “I can’t say that as a kid I enjoyed weeding. It was hard, hot work. However, as a young man in the 1970s, I became fascinated reading about Scotland’s Findhorn Gardens where enormous size vegetables were grown using organic gardening practices. I started to garden using those same techniques and soon found that working with vegetables, flowers, shrubs and trees was becoming one of my life’s great passions.”
Bob noted, “I’m not a horticulturist, I’m a retired real estate broker. I’m grateful that over those working years, I was able to combine my avocation with my vocation; helping buyers and sellers understand the financial, emotional and healthful benefits of incorporating good gardening and landscaping practices into their real estate decisions.”
Since 1975, Bob has volunteered in countless garden-related community projects from downtown street tree plantings and organizing city-wide flower box contests to helping plant breathtaking rose hedges in municipal parking lots.
Bob earned his Square Foot Gardening Instructor Certification in September 2008 while attending a workshop in Eden, Utah. “I had the privilege of working closely with the founder and best-selling author of Square Foot Gardening, Mel Bartholomew. That was pretty special,” Bob noted.
Bob is most proud of the Square Foot Gardening program that he created in 2008 for YMCA summer campers. “Since its inception, the program has taught over 1,000 summer campers the basics of gardening. These kids have a ball each summer growing veggies and flowers organically, helping them to embrace better nutrition and reconnect to nature; aspects of their lives that are sorely missing for most kids today,” Markey noted.
“At the end of each summer camp season, we run a series of fun-filled gardening events for the campers. The grand finale is my signature event, The Great Zucchini Race, themed ‘Grow’em, Race’em, Eat’em.’ That’s the event where kids began calling me Mr. Bob the Gardener,” quipped Bob.
The Square Foot Gardening Program for Y campers is now operating at three New Jersey YMCA’s and it’s Bob’s dream that someday YMCA USA will adopt and implement his program at other YMCA’s around the country.
For more information on Odyssey International Productions visit odysseyip.com.
