Earlier this year the Mushroom Industry lost a friend. Carl Bozicek passed away at his home on March 7^th 2012 after putting forth a valiant struggle against Pancreatic Cancer.

Anyone who has ever had the pleasure to meet or better yet know Carl would appreciate his unique sense of humor and determined outlook on life.  I personally had the pleasure to know Carl for over fifteen years but there were many aspects of his life that were totally unknown to me. Besides being addicted to our industry and helping others try to figure out why their mushroom crop wasn’t going the way they hoped, he was into a variety of other activities including raising prize winning chickens, sports cars, and the big surprise to me was his love of Karaoke.

Carl was born and raised in Broughton where not surprisingly he started smoking at a young age and was known for his “friskiness” in school. Carl went on to get an Honors Degree in Electrical Engineering from  Nottingham Polytechnic which he made good use of at Oxford Products. Then for some reason, perhaps known only to Carl, he entered the mushroom industry. He quickly became the Technical Manager for Middlebrook Mushrooms Ltd in Market Harborough, and in 1996 Carl came to work for Amycel as a sales manager for the UK sales team.

In his position with Amycel, he was sent all over Europe including trips to the US and Mexico to share his knowledge and enthusiasm for growing mushrooms.

Over the years, Carl was the target of a lot of jokes over his love for raising chickens. But his collection of ribbons and trophies are a testament to his love for animals as well as his determination to succeed at everything he touched.

In August of last year, Carl sent me a photo a beautiful trout that he had caught that weekend that weighed in at 7 pounds 14 ounces. I didn’t even think a trout could get that big.  Unfortunately for Carl, his health was beginning to fail at that point but he was still trying to live and enjoy life to the fullest.  

Certainly Carl had a varied life experience and he excelled at everything he tried. During his twenties and thirties he and his wife Julie got heavily involved into motorsports and rallies and he eventually became the Chairman of the Mid Northants Motor Club. Then he got into fishing which had him spending a lot of his free time at the Eyebrook Reservoir. Carl eventually became Chairman of the Kettering Fly fishers which may have given him an inside edge on catching the 7 pound plus monster trout.  All this while he was also a champion at breeding and showing his chickens, and winning awards at the National level. He was also chairman of the British Faverolles Society up until his illness forced him to give it up.

Carl was such a strong willed person that it was hard for any of us to accept that he could be overcome by anything . I think we all expected him to suffer from his smoking or his admittedly odd diet.  And in the end Carl showed such an incredible amount of dignity and strength that he will always be remembered by those of us who knew him as a good man that was committed to everything he undertook. There was never a halfway for Carl - it was all or nothing.

At this difficult time, all our thoughts are with his wife, Julie and his family and feel sure he will be missed by everyone in the industry.

Sincerely and on behalf of everyone at Amycel,

John Kidder