WINDSOR, N.S. – Howard Dill, whose prize-winning giant pumpkins took many trophies, has lost his battle with liver cancer. He was 73.
Dill was diagnosed with inoperable liver cancer last fall and was admitted to hospital shortly after Christmas.
As far as the pumpkin-growing world goes, Howard Dill is considered by many to be king.
Seeds for his personal variety – aptly named Dill's Atlantic Giant – are sold to competitive growers around the world, and his enormous gourds are a staple at the pumpkin regatta, an annual event in which competitors row across a lake in hollowed-out, decorated pumpkins.
Dill made a name for himself in 1979 when one of his early creations took the top prize in the International Pumpkin Association's annual weigh-off, tipping the scales at 437 pounds.
He went on to rule the competition for the next three years, and his wins were chronicled in editions of the Ripley's Believe It or Not books.
