All of this teaching, research, and outreach have been recognized by the industry. Several years ago, Mark Tobin, a Stockbridge and UMass alumnus and past president of the Massachusetts Arborists Association (MAA), was talking to Dennis Ryan about the future of commercial arboriculture on campus after Ryan retires in a decade or so.

"I told him the only way the MAA could guarantee that a commercial arborist like me could be hired is to endow a chair," says Ryan. He thought nothing more about the conversation for about 18 months, at which point Tobin called him and said, "OK, we're going to do it." Ryan still has a five-foot-long replica of the original $125,000 check on his wall. By spring of 1999, that larger-than-life gift had inspired about $1 million in additional pledges and gifts. Graduates of the UMass programs can be counted on to have the education they need for safe and effective tree care. Says Virginia Wood, executive director of the Massachusetts Arborists, "Many of our members are chomping at the bit for UMass grads."

A Land-Grant Idealist
The fact that any UMass professor, living on a faculty salary, would be in a position to fully endow a professorship is remarkable in itself. But the word remarkable applies to Frederick "Jack" Francis in every way. Francis learned so fast in his one-room schoolhouse in Ontario, Canada, that he was ready for high school at 11 and for college at 15. Life on his family's small farm was a breeding ground for frugal habits. "I always lived below my means," says Francis. About 40 years ago, shortly after coming to UMass in 1954 to teach in the Department of Food Science, he found himself with little extra money, and although he didn't live any less frugally, he started buying stock. "I didn't know anything about finance," he says, "but I could judge the science. "

Francis' successes are not measured merely in dollars. Author or co-author of nine books, he has written 365 technical papers and won awards, prizes, and professional leadership positions all over the world. He is the 1979 recipient of the Nicholas Appert Medal, the highest award given to a food scientist. In 1990, the year of his retirement, UMass honored him with its highest faculty honor, the Chancellor's Medal. Francis' specialties are in the areas of maintaining the quality of produce after harvesting and processing; food safety; and the links between food science and nutrition.

Fergus Clydesdale, current head of the department, was one of Francis' students. He remembers his mentor as a devoted teacher, spending many hours with his students both in and out of class. A course he gave for non-scientists enrolled 28,000 students in 16 years. He was also known to host legendary holiday parties, at which students would parody their professor's characteristic sartorial splendor of red bow tie, red socks and red blazer. A hands-on indoor and outdoor gardener, Francis decided to learn to recognize every edible plant that would grow in Massachusetts, and raised them all in his home garden, using his castoff scientific journals as mulch.

The endowed chair, the largest gift ever given to the College of Food and Natural Resources, comes with no strings. It would be "presumptuous," says Francis, to try to dictate the department's future priorities. But the department's current priorities suggest that - at least for now - the chair will go to an expert in bioprocess engineering.

Says Clydesdale, "We're interested in finding someone who can take what we're doing at a biological level and apply it to the effects and efficiencies of processing and production." What this means in the real world is trying to find new "value-added" processes for Massachusetts food production. One such existing process involves turning fish waste - what's left after you filet the fish for eating - into fertilizer. It's one of those win-win situations: You don't have to pay to dispose of the waste fish and meanwhile you create an additional useful product.

Professor emeritus Jack Francis' generous gift will ensure that the department will be able to carry on a great tradition. Himself a living embodiment of the land-grant ideal, Francis combines in one person, in one lifetime, the activities of teaching, research, and outreach.