By Professor Emeritus Richard Zeyen
This online history was written by Professor Emeritus Richard J. Zeyen, who was associated with the Department of Plant Pathology from 1967 - 2023. Web design, editing and web production were done by Dylan VanBoxtel, Grant Czadzeck and Annie Harvieux.
A primary source for the early history was the Departmental news magazine, the Aurora Sporealis. Other sources included the University of Minnesota Library Archives, Departmental records and various oral and written histories. Many photographs, films and other materials were in the personal possession of the author, who digitized them over the years.
Thanks go to Professors Louise Dosdall, Helen Hart and Carl Eide for the preservation of Departmental records and the placement of these in the Plant Pathology Library, a special branch of the University of Minnesota Library from 1942 through 2015. They also oversaw materials that went directly into the University of Minnesota’s Archives and Digital Conservancy.
Special thanks go to two professional librarians, now retired from the Minneapolis Public Library System: Susan Tertell and Carol Van Why. They fully indexed the Aurora Sporealis from the first issue in 1924 through 2006. This index was invaluable.
Thanks go to Elisabeth Kaplan, former Head of the University of Minnesota’s Digital Conservancy. Kaplan oversaw the digitizing of all the Aurora Sporealis issues since its 1924 inception, and to Erik Moore, Head of the University’s Archives and Digital Conservancy, without whom this project would have been much more difficult.
Much of the early history of the Department would have been lost were it not for the authors of the 1947 Special Edition of the Aurora Sporealis. They lived through and documented the first 40 years of the Department’s history. In that edition, the first decade’s history was written by Edward Freeman, the second decade by Julian G. Leach, the third decade by Louise Dosdall, and the fourth decade was written by Elvin C. Stakman.
Thanks also go to the editors of the 1983 Special Edition of the Aurora Sporealis, Carol Windels and Carl Eide, for their efforts to document the first 75 years of the Department’s history.
In that issue, Clyde M. Christensen wrote the history of the fifth decade and Carl J. Eide wrote the sixth decade.
Decades seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven and twelve were written for online presentation by Richard J. Zeyen.
Thanks go to the late Professor Emeritus Roy Wilcoxson and to Marguerite Clemens for their well annotated Index of Graduate Students Theses -1996,162 pages. This index included all MS and PhD theses beginning in 1905 and ending in 1995.
Finally, thanks go to members of the Department for their help and encouragement in writing this online history. They are former Heads of Department, James Bradeen and Carol Ishimaru, and faculty members Robert Blanchette, James Kolmer and Brian Steffenson.
Kudos to all the former Editors-in-Chief of the Aurora Sporealis from 1924 through 2021, and especially to Professors Deborah Samac and Nevin Young who served in this capacity.
Key References Utilized
Campaigns Against Hunger - by E.C. Stakman, Richard Bradfield and Paul C. Mangelsdorf, 1967. Harvard University Press.
Facing Starvation: Norman Borlaug and the Fight Against Hunger - by Lennard Bickel, 1974. Readers Digest Press.
E.C. Stakman, Statesman of Science - by C.M. Christensen, 1984. The American Phytopathologial Society Press.
The Man Who Fed The World - by Leon Hesser, 2006. Durban House Publishing Co. Inc.
Borlaug the Mild-Mannered Maverick Who Fed a Billion People ( Vol. 1, Right off the Farm, 1914-1944) - by Noel Vietmeyer, 2008. Bracing Books.
The Viking in the Wheat Field - by Susan Dworkin, 2009. Walker & Company.
Our Daily Bread: the Essential Norman Borlaug - by Noel Vietmeyer, 2011. Bracing Books
Key Internet Sources
The Aurora Sporealis (Dept of Plant Pathology, U of MN, Newsletter)
Norman E. Borlaug (site written by Professor Emeritus Richard Zeyen and Donald Henry, PhD)
The Rockefeller Foundation’s Mexican Agricultural Program