Display Title

1973 Honorary Life Member Inductees​

Richard E. Goodin*

It is an honor and pleasure to introduce R. E. (Dick) Goodin. Dick has been known across Ontario for many years as “Mr. Potato” and “Father of the Potato Industry Conference.”

His early years were spent on the home farm on Goodin Street near Spencerville in eastern Ontario. Following high school he attended the Kempville Agricultural School and later graduated from the Ontario Agricultural College, specializing in Agronomy. Dick then joined the Cooperation and Markets Branch of the Ontario Department of Agriculture as a marketing specialist. During the war years under the system of government control of food supplies he worked closely with the authorities to keep potatoes moving to market. Following the war years, as Assistant Director of the Crops Branch Ontario Department of Agriculture, Dick became deeply involved for the next 15 years in innovating improved potato policies and projects which had a major influence on improving the potato industry. A few of these may be cited for the record. The Potato Section of the Crop Improvement Association was actively developed with grower representation. Federal and provincial services were coordinated. High yield pet- acre clubs (500 Bushel Potato Clubs) were initiated. Regulations were introduced and surveys made to successfully control the dreaded bacterial ring rot, which threatened extinction of the potato crop.

In addition to these responsibilities and activities Dick was active in other respects. He was a member of the Canadian Horticultural Council for 30 years and served on many committees and deputations. He sparked the formation of the Annual Canadian Potato Industry Conference and organized the first one in Ontario. Dick was Secretary-Treasurer of the provincial potato organization for over 20 years. He was a member of the Provincial Scab Research Committee and organized and was secretary of the Ontario Seed Marketing and Publicity Committee. Dick was a committee member of the Royal Winter Fair for 30 years and was instrumental in establishing it as “the one-time best potato show in the world.”

In addition he was a popular judge at leading potato shows for many years, a regular contributor of feature articles in agricultural publications and in demand as a speaker. He took a special interest in promoting a potato processing industry in Ontario and received a great thrill of accomplishment when Salada Foods Ltd. built their plant in Alliston, Ontario in 19~9 an4 he was asked to turn the first sod.

Dick took on new responsibilities in 1963 when the Ontario Food Council was organized and he became its first secretary and marketing development specialist. In 1968 he retired from official duties but as a resident of Oakville, Ontario, he has been and still is very active in church, educational, conservation, park, music and social services. In 1967 Dick received The Centennial Medal For Service to Nation and Community. Throughout this long period of many contributions to the potato industry and to his fellow citizens Dick has had the encouragement and unfailing support of his gracious wife who is a university graduate in public health nursing. They have three daughters and the oldest is also a public health nurse. It is especially fitting that Mrs. Goodin is here tonight to share this recognition of her husband.

Mr. President, I am privileged to present R. E. (Dick) Goodin as a candidate for Honorary Life Membership in The Potato Association of America — a distinct honor which he rightfully deserves for his dedicated and humanistic efforts towards the welfare of the potato industry in particular, and good citizenship in general.

~Everett W. Franklin, Nominator

Robert E. Nylund*

Mr. President, honored guests, ladies and gentlemen: It is an honor and our pleasure to present Dr. Robert E. Nylund for the award of Honorary Life Membership in The Potato Association of America.

“Bob” was born in Ely, Minnesota on January 22, 1916. He married Catherine E. Wina in 1940 and they have two sons, James and Thomas. He received his B.S. (with distinction) in 1938, M.S. in 1942, and Ph.D. in 1945 in Horticulture at the’ University of Minnesota. From 1939-1941, he was an instructor and station Horticulturist at the Northwest School and Experiment Station, Crookston, Minnesota. In 1941, he became a staff member of Horticultural Sciences at the University of Minnesota, rising to the rank of full Professor in 1959.

He has had an active role in both research and teaching. He has assisted local industries and farmers groups in all areas of horticulture in solving their immediate practical problems. Evidence for the extensive nature of his efforts can be seen in his more than 250 publications, many of which are on potatoes and cover almost every area of the industry, including cultural practices, handling, storing, marketing and processing.

Bob’s skill has also been widely recognized abroad and has led to requests for his services in many nations of the world. He received a Fulbright lectureship at the University of Helsinki, Finland, 1959-1960. In recognition of his valuable services to the University they awarded him the medal of Merit, an honor reserved for the very few. He returned to the University of Helsinki in 1972 on a joint Fulbright lectureship. In 1965 he received a travel grant from the Office of International Programs to study horticulture and horticultural research in India, Thailand, the Philippines, Korea, Japan and Hawaii.

Besides his own significant accomplishments Bob can, be assured that he will continual contributing to horticultural and potato research, through the efforts of his many graduate students, including 7 M.S.’s and 18 Ph.D.’s. He has always shown the greatest concern for his students and has sacrificed much of his own research effort to see that their abilities were fully developed. We know that these students in particular and the potato industry both here and abroad wish to join in tribute, to Dr. Nylund by presenting him for Honorary Life Membership in the Potato Association of America.

~Merle Weaver, Sharon Desborough & Florian I. Lauer