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New day in North Carolina agriculture heralded at joint foundations meeting

The fall joint meeting luncheon of the N.C. Agricultural, Dairy and Tobacco foundations on Nov. 10 was charged with excitement over news of a potentially impactful future for NC State University, the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and the state.

“It’s an exciting time for agriculture in North Carolina,” said Dr. Richard Reich, associate commissioner of the North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, who brought greetings from Steve Troxler, state agriculture commissioner, as well as news about the successes of the recent N.C. State Fair.

“There could not be a more exciting time for N.C. agriculture,” said Dr. Richard Linton, CALS dean, who updated the foundation board members on the college’s Plant Sciences Initiative (PSI). The initiative aims to include an interdisciplinary research and collaborative systems approach that builds on the strengths of academe, industry and government to increase agricultural yields and profi tability – and to make North Carolina the global hub for plant-related innovation.

“It is indeed a very exciting time,” said Richard Campbell, CALS’ new chief communication offi cer, as he outlined strategic efforts to

Terri Leith

Virginia Yopp, executive director of Extension development, and Richard Campbell, CALS chief communication offi cer, meet before Campbell delivers news about the Connect NC Bond Package.

engage college stakeholders and inform audiences about a Terri Leith new bond package that will, among other things, enable the plans for the PSI and needed research facilities to come into being, without incurring new taxes or tax increases. Dr. Travis Burke, former interim Extension director, (left) and founda

The Connect NC tions members Nelson Powell and Paula Woodall attend the joint founbond, announced in dations luncheon. October by N.C. Gov. Pat McCrory, NC State Chancellor Randy stituents in what the bond can mean for the Woodson and Troxler, along with other state state’s citizens both rural and urban. leaders, is a $2 billion package that citizens “Agriculture built North Carolina,” he said. across the state will vote on March 15. The pro“The N.C. Plant Sciences Initiative will keep it posed Plant Sciences Research Complex is one growing.” of two university projects for the NC State CenReturning to the podium, Linton said that, tennial Campus that the bond would benefi t. if asked the biggest potential impact of the

The bond would also provide for a new PSI, he might say it would be the innovaNCDA&CS lab, enable projects in 76 counties tion that grows the state’s biosciences jobs, and enhance vital infrastructure investment, markets and businesses, or it could be the as well as funding building and repairs for economic dividends of increased productivparts of the UNC system and modernizing the ity and profi tability. Or perhaps the promise state’s community colleges. of educational opportunities and of ongoing

“We’re very blessed to have the partnersignifi cant basic and applied research. Or ships with these three foundations and the perhaps healthy, safe, affordable food. Or the NCDA&CS,” Campbell said. “And with the generation of public and private partnerships PSI, we have a chance to revolutionize how among multiple disciplines. plant science is done.” However, he said, “I truly believe I’d like

Thus, he said, the challenge now for the us to say in the future that this was the fi rst foundations members and other college staketime North Carolina came together to push holders “is to be ambassadors and educate something like this forward. And this can be your communities on what Connect NC is.” an example, a template of what we can do not

While asking those present “to fi re up your only in plant sciences but in other research ag base,” he reminded them that “this is in fact areas to grow North Carolina.” a historic agriculture investment in our state.” As a screen image near the podium pro

He called upon the group to help mobilize claimed, “It’s a new day in North Carolina local community efforts to help educate conAgriculture .”– Terri Leith

Horton endowment created to fund biochemistry scholarships

On Sept. 9, Dr. H. Robert “Bob” Horton, William Neal Reynolds Distinguished Professor and professor emeritus of molecular and structural biochemistry, and his wife, Roberta, signed a memorandum to establish a new biochemistry scholarship endowment at NC State University.

The H. Robert and Roberta A. Horton Biochemistry Scholarship Endowment was created in an agreement between the Hortons and the N.C. Agricultural Foundation Inc. in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. The endowment will support awards to CALS students based on both merit and need.

Horton is an international authority on protein processes and enzyme systems. A native of St. Louis, Missouri, he received his 1956 bachelor’s degree in chemistry from the Missouri School of Mines and Metallurgy. His 1958 master’s and his 1962 Ph.D., both in biochemistry, are from the University of Missouri.

He came to NC State in 1964 as an assistant professor of chemistry, transferring to the Department of Biochemistry in 1966. He rose in the ranks to full professorship in

Ruby Vann Crumpler McSwain, or “Miss Ruby” as she was known at NC State University, where she was a generous benefactor, died Aug. 30 at age 97.

Among her donations to and support of the university is her gift funding the Ruby C. McSwain Education Center building and complex at the university’s JC Raulston Arboretum. Designed to enhance the educational activities at the arboretum, the center houses the York Auditorium, staff offi ces, volunteer offi ce, membership offi ce and headquarters for the Garden Club of North Carolina. It also features the fi rst green roof at NC State University.

A native of Sampson County, where she was born March 31, 1918, the youngest of six children, she grew up in Salemburg and then attended Pineland College. She married Ernest P. McSwain in 1945, and over the years the two conducted entrepreneurial ventures in Sanford and in Ontario, Canada.

CALS Advancement

Dr. H. Robert Horton signs the agreement creating the new scholarship.

1972. He was named an Alumni Distinguished Professor at NC State in 1979. In 1981, he was one of three CALS professors honored with the college’s most distinguished professorship, when he was named a William Neal Reynolds Distinguished Professor.

Presiding at the September signing celebration, held in Polk Hall on the NC State campus, was Dr. E. Stuart Maxwell, interim head of the CALS Department of Molecular and Structural

Remembering Ruby C. McSwain, philanthropist and JCRA benefactor

Biochemistry. Dr. Sam Pardue, CALS associBecky Kirkland She was a garden and horticulture enthusiast, as was her husband. Among their businesses were fl orist and greenhouse Ruby C. McSwain operations in Lee County. The center at NC State that is named for her is nestled among the extensive gardens of the JC Raulston

Arboretum, a place beloved by Miss Ruby and where she was regularly a guest of honor at the arboretum’s annual Gala in the Garden.

She also served on the board of the N.C.

Agricultural Foundation Inc., in the university’s

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, and was a member of NC State’s William Joseph

Peele Society, a lifetime giving society for those having given $1 million or more. She was awarded an honorary doctorate in huate dean and director of academic programs, brought a message of appreciation from college administration. Bob Horton, endowment donor, also spoke at the signing event.

Horton reminisced about meeting his wife, the former Roberta Geehan, at the University of Missouri, where she earned her master’s degree in medical microbiology. He recalled his arrival at NC State in 1964 and the formation of the Department of Biochemistry in 1965. In 1974 he moved his family to Sweden where he was a guest professor in the lab of Dr. Klaus Mosbach. And in 1989 he wrote the fi rst draft of Principles of Biochemistry, an internationally translated text now in its fourth edition.

Among his NC State students was Pardue, who took Horton’s biochemistry graduate course. “Not only was Dr. Horton an outstanding teacher,” Pardue said, “but he was a truly kind person who cared about helping his students learn and be successful.” – Terri Leith

For more information about this and other endowments for the department, please contact Chris Cammarene-Wessel, cwessel@ncsu.edu or 919-515-7678.

mane letters by the university in 2005. She also was honored in 2001 with the Order of the Long Leaf Pine, awarded by the governor of North Carolina.

Her generosity to CALS and Cooperative Extension included her support of the building of the Ernest and Ruby C. McSwain Education and Agriculture Center in Lee County. She was likewise a longtime supporter of Meredith College in Raleigh, as donor to its library, its scholarship programs and its grounds, and as a trustee. She was a donor to and trustee of the North Carolina Museum of Art, as well.

Speaking of Miss Ruby to The Sanford Herald, Keith Oakley, CALS assistant dean for College Advancement and president of the N.C. Agricultural, Dairy and Tobacco foundations at NC State, said, “She was really one of the most prolifi c philanthropists in the last 20 years.” He added that her gift to establish the Education Center at the JCRA is “still the largest gift in the history of the arboretum.”

Traditional tailgate activities enhance scholarship support

Neither high winds nor pouring rain could dampen spirits at the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences’ 24 th annual Tailgate, which took place Oct. 3 before kickoff of the NC State-Louisville football game.

Becky Kirkland

While the event featured popular Tailgate staples like barbecue, college exhibits and a visit from Mr. and Mrs. Wuf, there also were a number of new elements. For starters, Tailgate took place in two locations for the fi rst time in the event’s history.

The outdoor experience, featuring CALS exhibits and a DJ, was held under a large tent at the east side entrance of PNC Arena.

Among a number of different interactive exhibits, visitors could “meet” live tarantulas at the Entomology Department booth, sample fresh sliced North Carolina apples at the

Department of Horticultural Science booth CALS Tailgate, which took place in areas inside and outside PNC Arena, was again held in conand check out the award-winner quarter-scale junction with the annual NC State Ag Day at Carter-Finley Stadium. tractor built by Biological and Agricultural

Engineering students. The tent remained crowded and festive, despite the less-than-favorable conditions whipping at its sides. During the barbecue lunch, Linton gave brief remarks, along with George Simpson, president of the CALS Alumni and Friends Society Board, and NC State Chancellor Randy Becky Kirkland

The arena’s club level was host to the inWoodson. door experience, which included a traditional “This is a great day for CALS and NC

Tailgate meal, sponsor exhibits, entertainment State,” Linton said. “Tailgate is one of my and giveaways. Participants could snap a selffavorite events of the year, along with last ie in a photo booth with cardboard likenesses of CALS Dean Richard Linton and North Caronight’s CALS distinguished alumni awards event, and I am proud to be dean of this colThe Entomology Department’s exhibit was a big hit. lina Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler, lege. I want to thank each of you for all that sample Howling Cow ice cream and chat with you do to support CALS and advance North Tailgate was held in conjunction with the students in the Warren Fellows Program, Carolina agriculture.” third annual NC State Ag Day, which is hosted among many other activities. Also new at Tailgate this year was the in partnership by NC State Athletics, Wolfpack unveiling of a Sports Properties and the college. Becky Kirkland limited-edition CALS T-shirt featuring a unique student design that celebrates Located in the Fan Zone outside PNC Arena, Ag Day featured family-friendly interactive exhibits, agriculture machinery displays and entertainment. As the rain tapered off, visitors agriculture. Proceeds crowded the Fan Zone for a chance to sample from sales of the local foods, play games and take selfi es in the T-shirts, which were TapSnap photo booth. produced in North During the football game, Elizabeth Walsh, Carolina with cota freshman animal science major from Greenston grown by North boro, was recognized on fi eld as the inaugural Carolina farmers, recipient of the Ag Day Scholarship. In addiwill benefi t the CALS tion to this annual scholarship, an endowment Alumni Enhancewas introduced during the 2014 event that

Tailgaters queue up for the ever-popular Howling Cow ice cream from the ment Fund Scholarwill leave a lasting legacy for this signifi cant college’s Department of Food, Bioprocessing and Nutrition Sciences. ship. partnership between athletics and agriculture.

Throughout the course of the game, individuals involved in the North Carolina agriculture industry were featured in video board segments.

“Through Tailgate and Ag Day, we’re proud to celebrate and honor those individuals who dedicate their lives to improve the health and economy of our state – on and off the farm,” Linton said. “What better way to celebrate North Carolina’s nearly $80 billion agriculture and agribusiness industry than with these two fantastic events?” – Suzanne Stanard

More scenes from Tailgate 2015

perspectives College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Campus Box 7603 North Carolina State University Raleigh, NC 27695-7603

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