History of Cornell Scientists Located in the Hudson Valley

The objective of this history is to document the time frames and activities of Cornell scientists who lived and worked in the Hudson Valley between 1923 and 2020. Some of this history was covered by Chapman and Glass in The First 100 Years of the New York Agricultural Station at Geneva which was published in 1999, but that document provides only a limited record of scientists who were stationed in the Hudson Valley.

Information for this history was compiled from numerous sources, but especially useful sources were the Annual Reports of the New York Agricultural Experiment Station at Geneva and the weekly Station News that was published for many years at the Geneva station. The history below was compiled by Dave Rosenberger between 2015 and 2020 with the capable assistance of Carol Rosenberger, who conducted many of the library and on on-line searches for details of Cornell scientists who worked in the Hudson Valley between 1923 and 1980. We have done our best to accurately document periods of employment and activities of the scientists, but we very likely have missed some individuals and activities that should have been included. We apologize for any errors or omissions that may be detected by readers.

As of December 2019, this history is still a work in progress. Thus, we have not yet completed the history from 1977 to the present, and additional materials on earlier periods will be inserted as they become available.

Reports from Cornell University research in the Hudson Valley prior to 1923:

Although Cornell scientists were first given long-term assignments in the Hudson Valley in 1923, scientists from the N.Y. Agricultural Experiment Stations in Geneva and Ithaca were actively involved in fruit and vegetable research in the Hudson Valley much earlier than that, as illustrated by the following Experiment Station Bulletins covering studies completed in the Hudson Valley:

Timeline 1b

  • Little is known about entomologist F.H. Lathrop who served just one year in the Hudson Valley, other than the mention of his appointment in the history published by Glass and Chapman and a report on his studies of pear psylla as referenced in the Poughkeepsie Eagle Newspaper on April 15, 1924.
  • Accomplishments at the Hudson Valley Lab from 1923-28 were documented in a special report that provides interesting insights: Tukey published and traveled extensively (see pages 13-15 of the report), Mundinger reported several publications, but Shear reported none. The lists of equipment that scientists requested for future work were rather interesting, especially the request by Shear for a new typewriter, a need that is glaringly apparent from the quality of print in his report.
  • H.B. Tukey moved to Geneva in 1927, later completed his Ph.D. and moved to Michigan State University (news item) where he had an illustrious career (Tukey obit., 1971).  He contributed to the founding of the International Fruit Tree Association (item from Fruit Grower News).
  • Mundinger transferred to the Geneva Experiment Station in 1935 where he remained until his retirement (obit., 1972). Shear eventually ended up running his own fruit farm (highlighted item in Geneva Station News).
  • Bulletins published by Tukey that documented his work in the Hudson Valley include the following:
    1927 Responses of the Sour Cherry to Fertilizers and to Pruning in the Hudson Valley, Bulletin 541.
    1929 Fruit Regions and Varieties of Eastern New York, Bulletin 563.

Timeline-1930-37

  • Drs. Chapman and Hamilton worked together closely while working in the Hudson Valley. Both of them spent only the growing season in the Hudson Valley and returned to work at the Geneva Experiment Station during the off-season. Both of them eventually secured full-time positions at the Geneva Experiment Station and later became chairmen of their respective departments. (Hamilton obit., 1987; Chapman obit., 1993).

Timeline 3c 1938-42

  • Dr. Brann moved on to a position at Cornell University in Ithaca (obit. 1990)
  • In 1942, Hudson Valley Fruit growers bought an old school house on the outskirts of Poughkeepsie to house Cornell scientists. Up to this point, they had been housed at Vassar College.
  • Dr. Oscar Hammer, entomologist, resigned in February 1942 after an undetermined period of working at the Poughkeepsie lab.
  • Dr. Douglas E. Greenwood, entomologist, resigned in April, 1943, after an undetermined period of working at the Poughkeepsie lab. (Scroll down after opening the link to see relevant info.)

Timeline 4-5 1943-53

Timeline 1954-67

On Feb. 22, 1962, a fire destroyed the laboratory building in Poughkeepsie. Although the Geneva Station News reported that most equipment and documents were lost, Dave Rosenberger inherited some files from Dr. Palmiter that had scorched edges where the file cabinets in which they were located got hot enough to scorch the paper without setting them on fire.

R. W. Dean was on leave from February of 1956 to February of 1958. His job responsibilities were carried out by a Mr. Shea, about whom little else is known.

Timeline 1968-73

  • In July 1968, Mr. Lewis Waters was appointed as fruit entomologist at the Hudson Valley Lab and in April 1969, Mr. James Fritrich was appointed as plant pathologist. Both of these positions were refilled with non-Ph.D. scientists who were expected to function under the direction of lead scientists within their disciplines at Geneva. Both were reportedly dissatisfied with this arrangement, as were the Hudson Valley fruit growers who had become accustomed to having independent Ph.D.-level scientists working at the Hudson Valley Lab.
  • Following the resignations of Mr. Waters and Mr. Fritrich, representatives of the Hudson Valley Fruit industry met with Cornell administrators and successfully argued for upgrading the fruit entomology and plant pathology positions to Ph.D.-level and ultimately for returning them to tenure track positions. These decisions came to fruition in the hiring of Drs. Pearson and Weires and their subsequent promotions, along with Dr. Straub who had been hired earlier, to tenure track positions in 1975 as noted below.
  • In the Annual Report of the NY Agricultural Experiment Station, it was noted that on December 1, 1968, Dr. Chick Forshey was given the title of “Professor and Superintendent” of the Hudson Valley Laboratory. This was the first time that any of the lab scientists were assigned an official administrative function, although informal leadership had previously been assumed by senior scientists as described in the retirement story about Dr. R.W. Dean.
  • After his retirement in April 1970, Dr. R.W. Dean  and his wife moved to Hawaii. No obituary for him has so far been located either in Cornell libraries or via internet searches. However, searches of the Poughkeepsie Journal newspaper for the time that he worked in the Hudson Valley showed that he managed to get news coverage for many aspects of his professional life, as did his wife who was employed by Vassar College.
  • Obituaries for Dr. Bud Palmiter (1972) and Dr. J. Alfred Adams (1988).
  • July 1975, R.C. Pearson, R.W. Weires, and R.W. Straub were all promoted to tenure track positions as assistant professors.
  • Dr. Pearson moved on to a successful career as a grape pathologist at the N.Y. Agricultural Experiment Station in Geneva (obit., 1993).
  • Dr. Dave Rosenberger was appointed as plant pathologist at the Hudson Valley Lab.

Timeline78-90

  • In 1990, Dr. Forshey retired and moved to Florida (obit., 2017), and Dr. Weires passed away less than a year after being diagnosed with a malignancy (obit., 1990)

 

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