HILLSBOROUGH: Duke Farms leader stepping down

Tim Taylor oversaw dramatic transformation of 2,700-acre estate

    Timothy M. Taylor, the nine-year executive director of Duke Farms in northern Hillsborough Township, has stepped aside in a move designed to bring renewed management to the former 2,700-acre estate, now that the property has been freely open to the public since May.
    Credited with “living and breathing” a transformation that came to fruition earlier this year with a “grand re-
opening,” Mr. Taylor, a former real estate executive and retired Navy captain, crafted a strategic vision based on the literal interpretation of the last will and testament of heiress Doris Duke, who passed away in 1993.
    Peter Simmons, chief operating officer of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, will serve as the interim executive director until a replacement can be identified and hired. That will allow Mr. Simmons to become intimately involved in all aspects of the property and their budgetary implications.
   ýPage=002 Column=001 OK,0008.05þ
After years of advice from consultants whose focus was directed toward using the property for cultural entertainment and tours based upon historic preservation, Mr. Taylor arrived in 2003 and openly engage the governments of its five surrounding communities, Somerset County and state regulatory agencies in how the property could play a more cooperative role in their plans.
    He also became the chief salesman to convince Ms. Duke’s Board of Trustees that the best way to achieve her intent — to use the site for “the preservation of endangered species both flora and fauna” — was to ensure that their habitats within a broader eco-
system didn’t become overrun with invasive, toxic species, but rather to regenerate those degraded habitats with native plants and trees that the insects, birds and animals had become dependent for their food source over several millenia.
    Mr. Taylor also directed the initiation of educational programs along agricultural, horticultural, ecological and historical disciplines, and partnered with other area non-
profits with the expertise and programs to be delivered at Duke Farms.
    Those first group of proýPage=002 Column=002 OK,0008.08þ
gram partners were brought together early in order to form a critical mass with the staff of Duke Farms to meet the revised mission that Mr. Taylor led the effort to create — “to be a model of environmental stewardship for the 21st century, and inspire visitors to become informed stewards of the land.”
    Those partners are Northeast Organic Farming Association’s New Jersey Chapter, Rutgers University’s College of Environmental & Biological Sciences and its Continuing Education unit, and New Jersey Audubon.
    After years of deferred maintenance and needed repairs on several 100-plus-year-old buildings and a thousand acres of the 2,740-acre property, Mr. Taylor was instrumental in convincing the board to allocate $50 million from the endowment of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation for the renovation of buildings, utilities and landscapes.
    ’’Begun in 2005, the master plan envisioned by Mr.Taylor led to formal processes of design, engineering, construction, and commissioning. He also convinced the board to ensure the property be open to anyone regardless of socio-
economic status, thus making ýPage=002 Column=003 OK,0018.08þ
it free for admission to explore the unique architecture and landscapes of wildlife habitat.
    “Although I only knew Doris Duke briefly back in the 1970s, I’ve been tremendously grateful to the board and officers of her charitable trust to have been given this opportunity to lead such a transformation, and extremely proud of what our staff has accomplished here,” he said. “My hope is that our visitors now find this property as intriguing, educational and enjoyable as we have had in bringing it to its current state.”
    Mr. Taylor is now turning his attention toward philanthropic entrepreneurship involving the simultaneous development of real estate and agricultural careers for amputees of the Iraq and Afghan conflicts. He said he owns a 70-acre farm in New York State.