alumni spotlight B
FEEDING BODY AND SOUL
Nion McEvoy ‘70 McEvoy Ranch, Organic Olive Growers Petaluma, California www.mcevoyranch.com
Nion McEvoy and his mother, Nan Tucker McEvoy, are founders and owners of McEvoy Ranch, the largest producer of organic estategrown olive oil in the nation. The ranch consists of 18,000 organically farmed trees and a state-of-the-art Rapanelli mill, the only one of its kind in the United States, and sits on 550 acres in the rolling hills west of Petaluma in Northern California. Once a dairy farm, it has now been reincarnated as an organic olive tree orchard. A large organic garden covers well over two acres, supplying seasonal produce for ranch staff and for the McEvoy family. In addition, Nion is chairman and CEO of Chronicle Books LLC, an independent publishing company based in San Francisco, California. Chronicle Books is known for its excellence in design and production and the strong popular appeal of its titles, including such best-sellers as The Beatles Anthology, The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook, and Top Chef: The Quickfire Cookbook. Nion joined Chronicle Books in 1986, and served as the Editor-inChief of the adult trade division until the acquisition of the company by the McEvoy Group in February 2000. He worked previously in the business affairs departments of the William Morris Agency in Beverly Hills and of Wescom Productions, and is a graduate of the University of California at Santa Cruz and Hastings College of the Law. He currently serves on the boards of SFJAZZ, SFMOMA, and the UC Santa Cruz Foundation. He has two sons and a daughter, and plays drums in the elusive rock band Rough Draft.
ow did your Portsmouth Abbey education, and specifically H its Benedictine foundation, affect your career choices? I am both a rancher and a publisher. Portsmouth helped me develop a love for language, both through my rigorous French, English and Latin courses, and from hearing the monks chant their offices in Latin. My Art and Civilization course with Father Hilary had a huge influence on me and still helps me make decisions about art and design in publishing. And the beauty of the Abbey grounds helped me develop an appreciation of land.
Do you see farming/growing food as an extension of the Benedictine way of life (ora et labora)? I do. The value of the payer and work united are abundantly clear on a farm, where God’s hands and ours are always joined. Man proposes on a farm, and God disposes; but then again, God proposes – through soil, climate, weather and innumerable other factors – and man disposes, too.
What is the best part of your day on the ranch? Each day there is a blessing, from the quiet early hours of the morning, through the work and comradeship of the day, to coming back in the late afternoon – though I especially like lunch.
What kind of impact on others have you seen as a result of your work? The Ranch was originally my mother’s idea. She envisioned a place in the country where her grandchildren could cavort. Then zoning laws drove her to consider agriculture. Not inter-
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