KELSEYVILLE, Calif. — This year’s Kelseyville Pear Festival will have as its grand marshals two people who have been stalwarts in Lake County agriculture, particularly in the pear industry.

Festival organizers said they named Phil and Toni Scully as the event’s grand marshals.

The Pear Festival takes place on Saturday, Sept. 28, in downtown Kelseyville.

Through Scully Packing, Phil, Toni and their family pack and ship pears from about 19 family farms from California’s three major growing regions, Sacramento, Mendocino and Lake County, with Lake County’s premium mountain Bartletts being “the crown jewels,” the festival reported.

The festival said Scully Packing alone ships about 40% of all the California Bartletts destined for consumer markets.

At the same time, Lake County growers still produce about 25% of all the pears grown in California.

Phil and Toni Scully moved their young family to Lake County in 1974, when Phil became manager of The Lake County Fruit Exchange, one of the two largest grower-owned pear packing facilities in the county.

When the Scullys moved to Lake County, there were nine pear packing houses in the county.
Nine years later they went out on their own and acquired Lollilla Packing Co., Lake County's oldest operating packing shed from the Harrell family.

The deal was sealed on Feb 1, 1984, their 20th wedding anniversary, when their sons, Pat and Andy, were ages 17 and 7, respectively, at the time.

“The whole family dug in and over the years replaced the old outdated facility with the efficient packinghouse you see today,” the festival announcement said. “In 1998 they took another leap of faith and bought their second packinghouse, the Scotts Valley Fruit Exchange.”

Brothers Pat and Andy Scully run the day to day farming and packing operations and represent the county in industry forums. Phil Scully is active in sales seasonally.

Toni Scully is active in Lake County California Women for Agriculture and its award winning AgVenture program. CWA also bakes a mountain of pear pies and popovers for sale at the Pear Festival.