Endowed Chairs
As the nation’s largest land-grant university, OSU is located in Columbus, Ohio and is proximate to some the nation’s largest food R&D and manufacturing facilities. The University values partnership with industry. The FS&T Department works closely with the food manufacturing industry in Ohio (the state’s largest industry). This industry has made possible two endowed chairs.
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Carl E. Haas Chair in Food Industries
The Haas Endowed Chair is made possible by the fruit and vegetable processing industry proximate to Ohio. It is one of the college's largest endowments and features the distinguished work of Endowed Professor Steven J Schwartz.
Established by Mr. Haas ('18 B.S. Horticulture), industry , alumni, and friends. Major corporate donors included the Mid America Food Processors Association; Bob Evans Farms, Inc.; Heinz USA; L.K. Baker & Company; Rudolph Foods, Inc.; Bryan Canning Company, and others. Mr. Haas made many contributions to the food industry. Mr. Haas served in the infantry in France during World War I, where he began as a private and left as a 2nd lieutenant. He retired from President of a long and successful family business (The Haas Brothers Company) in Cleveland, Ohio. This fresh fruit and vegetable wholesale company was founded by his father and run by the family; by the time it was sold, it had existed for more than 80 years. He was very tied to the Cleveland community, felt strongly about his accomplishments, and had continued interests in The Ohio State University. Mr. Haas died July 25, 1989, a the the age of 96. He was past president and director of Northern Ohio Food Terminal and was a member of the Director's Council for the Food Industries Center. OSU recognized that the food industry constitutes a major segment of the nation's economy; and most of the nation's largest food-related corporations operate facilities in Ohio to process, package, and distribute the state's diversified food production. The University has had a reputation for supplying the food industry with the research and technical information required in today's sophisticated system, along with highly trained graduates capable of their own research programs and implementation of data into industry procedures. Thus, the Haas Chair was established as a way of reaching the dedicated goal of excellence in foods at OSU.
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J.T. Parker Endowed Chair
Several industry leaders saw the need to keep Ohio at the fore-front of dairy products research and began to investigate the possibility of creating a endowed chair specifically for dairy foods in the 1980's. Key among these was Joseph Soehnlen of Superior Dairy, who investigated the potential for obtaining such a chair, and presented the idea to John Lindamood. Later, as chair of the Department of Food Science and Nutrition, Jim Martin then championed the cause. It was soon evident that to raise the amount of money needed would required the dedicated effort of some enthusiastic industry supporters. The resulting committee was chaired by Webb Jennings. Many people spent much time and effort in money raising efforts. Among those most active were Webb Jennings, Jim Linedeman, John Miller and Keb Lehman.
The J. T. "Stubby" Parker Chair was established on February 2, 1990 following a major gift from Thomas L. Parker in memory of his father, J.T. "Stubby" Parker. J.T. Parker's life work was in the dairy industry and he was the originator of Drumstick in Columbus, Ohio. Over the years when the dairy plant was fully operating, Drumstick frequently used the pilot plant facilities in testing new concepts. Additional gifts from 28 companies and numerous individuals provided the required $1,250,000 by 1993. Since then re-investment of some of the funds and additional gifts have brought the principal to more the $1,800,000.
The objective of the endowment is that "the income shall be used to support the work of a distinguished professor whose research, teaching and public service focus on stimulating new research into the chemical, microbiology and/or engineering phases of the dairy foods industry."
Chair Holders:
To date, two Professors have held the position of the J.T. "Stubby" Parker Chair in Dairy Foods:
Professor J. H. (Jim) Martin, 1990-1991
Professor Martin was a strong supporter for the formation of an endowed chair in dairy foods and was very dedicated in helping it to become a reality. His special interest was dairy microbiology and as the Chair in Dairy Foods he gave special attention to the emerging field of probiotics and continued his research on cottage cheese. Five publications resulted from his relatively short tenure in the Chair. He developed methods for enumeration of Bifidobacteria and showed that some strains of Bifidobacteria ware resistance to acid and showed good stability up to eight weeks in products such a Yogurt. Another research project resulted in the development of procedures for fortification of cottage cheese with calcium.
Professor W. James (Jim) Harper 1993-1998, 1998 to 2004 and 2005-2010
Professor Harper's interest in dairy foods is very broad and encompasses microbiology, chemistry and processing. Particular attention has been given to dairy products as food ingredients -- including cheese, milk fat and milk proteins. Physical, physico-chemical and flavor aspects of these ingredients have been emphasized. Most recently, attention has been directed to the biological function of milk components and their potential in the development of "functional foods" CIP, which Harper and Seiberling investigated to the 1950's is being revisited with a special CIP test unit developed by Dale Seiberling.
