Gary Bernard Mount, 81, a New Jersey farmer, conservation advocate and co-founder of Terhune Orchards, died peacefully at his Lawrence Township home on the farm on Dec. 29 following a battle with glioblastoma brain cancer.
Born in Princeton in 1944 to Bernard Mount and Lillian Meyer Mount, he grew up on Mount Farms along Route 1, where he and his three brothers lived on a working apple orchard near the Delaware and Raritan Canal.
He attended Princeton High School and later graduated magna cum laude from Princeton University in 1966 with a degree in psychology.
Mount married Pam Hazenhal in 1967. The couple served as Peace Corps volunteers in Micronesia, near Guam, from 1967 to 1970 before returning to New Jersey.
In 1975, they purchased a 55-acre farm that would become Terhune Orchards. Mount later said that when they first arrived, the farmhouse was uninhabitable and he, his wife and her sister lived in a repair shop across the road.
“When we first came here, for a while, we couldn’t even get into the house, so we lived in the repair shop across the street,” Mount said in a 2025 interview. “My wife and her sister and I lived in the repair shop for quite a while.”
After renovations to the farmhouse, the repair shop became apple storage. In the early years, Mount trucked apples to farmers in South Jersey, renting storage space from larger growers during apple season.
“Fortunately, I got to be friendly with some farmers down there and I rented space from them,” Mount said. He specifically credited Howard Heritage and the Heilig family, peach growers in Gloucester County, for providing storage.
Terhune Orchards later expanded to 250 acres. The farm now grows more than 60 crops, including 35 varieties of apples, and employs about 40 full- and part-time workers year-round, with seasonal employment rising to about 80. The retail farm operates year-round except on Christmas Day and New Year’s Day.
On March 6, 2025, Mount and his wife marked 50 years in farming at an informal gathering at Terhune Orchards attended by family members, farmers, agricultural leaders and supporters. Their daughters, Tannwen Mount and Reuwai Hanewald, who manage and operate the farm, attended with family members.
“One of the nice things about this place is all of this around here is preserved farmland,” Mount said at that gathering.
“On this side it’s preserved, on the other side it’s a county park,” he said, referring to the property at 330 Cold Soil Road.
Mount said his grandfather, George Mount, farmed apples in the 1920s on land along Route 1 where Carnegie Center is now located. Mount and his wife were ninth-generation farmers, and their daughters represent the 10th generation at Terhune Orchards.
In the early 1980s, through New Jersey Future, Mount participated in efforts that led to passage of the Farmland Preservation Act of 1982. The program allows farmers to sell development rights while permanently restricting land for agricultural use. Approximately one-third of New Jersey farmland, including all of Terhune Orchards, is preserved under the program.
Mount served on the board of the Stony Brook-Millstone Watershed Association and as a commissioner of the New Jersey Water Supply Authority. He also held leadership roles with the state and Mercer County boards of agriculture, the Mercer County Soil Conservation District, the Trenton Farmers’ Market board, and as a founding trustee of Howell Living History Farm.
He served in leadership or trustee roles with the New Jersey State Horticultural Society and the International Fruit Tree Association.
In 2005, American Fruit Grower magazine named him Apple Grower of the Year. In 2012, the International Fruit Tree Association inducted him into its Hall of Fame.
Terhune Orchards later became the only farm in New Jersey equipped with controlled-atmosphere refrigerated storage, allowing apples harvested in late summer and fall to remain available for sale through winter and early spring.
In 2003, the Mounts purchased a 65-acre property on Van Kirk Road and transitioned it into certified organic vegetable production. Beginning in 2005, they also began experimenting with grape growing and wine production.
By 2010, Terhune Orchards began selling bottled wine and opened a tasting room in a renovated barn. Today, the farm grows 18 grape varieties.
“It was a big step for us to transition into making our own wines,” Tannwen Mount said in 2025.
Mount published a book, A Farmer’s Life, a collection of writings drawn from farm newsletters and reflections on decades of farming.
Outside agriculture, Mount served for more than 25 years as captain and later treasurer of the Carnegie Lake Rowing Association. He remained active with the Princeton University Class of 1966 and hosted annual class gatherings.
Mount is survived by his wife of 58 years, Pamela Hazenhal Mount; daughters Reuwai M. Hanewald and Tannwen E. Mount, and their spouses; grandchildren Maya, Sasha and Tess Hanewald, and Becket, Clayton and Hadley Washburn; his son, Mark B. Mount; brothers Lee Mount and Timothy Mount; and extended family. He was predeceased by his brother William Mount.
A memorial service will be held April 14, 2026, at 1:30 p.m. at Terhune Orchards, 330 Cold Soil Road, Princeton.
In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to agricultural research through the New Jersey State Horticultural Society Research Grants and the International Fruit Tree Association Research program.
Gary Mount.,
