 Four years later, he became Chief of the Citrus Fruits Section in the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).In 1949, President J. Hillis Miller prompted Reitz to return to the University of Florida by appointing him the university's provost for agriculture.During his time as provost, he was also appointed to the administrative boards of the Escuela Agrícola Panamericana in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, and the Instituto Interamericano de Ciencias Agrícolas de la OEA in Turrialba, Costa Rica.