Hi, CALS, and welcome to the semester!
Watching the great Cyclone win in Dublin and having an interesting email chat with Josh Selsby (professor of animal science) over the weekend reminded me of a graduate school committee member I had at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who was also an Iowan, Iowa State alum and Iowa State football recruit – Dale Melvin Norris Jr. ('52 zoology, entomology, '53 MS entomology, '56 PhD).
He was a truly inspirational person – always challenging. He was on a quest to demonstrate that sulfur was a key element in stress physiology and more. In 1980, Iowa State recognized him with a high honor! He once told me a great story, which makes the football connection. Growing up in very rural Page County, Iowa, one hot, dusty summer day just after high school, he was cutting hay, without a real career or professional goal in mind. He saw down on the gravel road a big fancy car pull up and stop at the bottom of the field. Curious, he walked down to see what was up. When he got close, a back seat window rolled down and cool air came rushing out of the window. He had never felt air conditioning coming out of a car and had hardly ever felt it at all. The man in the car introduced himself as the Iowa State football coach (would have been Emmett "Abe" Stuber), who knew about his excellent high school football career and invited him to come to Ames to go to college and be on the team. Dr. Norris told me, as I recall, that he had not contemplated going to college or that his small town football experience mattered, but on the spot, mostly because of the AC coming out of the car window and a feeling of “I want that,” he said "OK" and told his parents that evening that was his plan! Worked out pretty well.
I have tried to find the 1948-1952 football team rosters to figure out if Dr. Norris had, in fact, made the team, and if so, how he played. Maybe someone reading this is better at such research and can let me know!
Last week was full of departmental and college retreats (ironically, meant to be fuller conversations than usual to ADVANCE our goals), all across the campus. True, too, in CALS. I held two - one with all the department chairs (a truly great group of leaders), and one with the dean’s office staff (also terrific leaders). I also stopped in at a few others to make some remarks, take questions and listen. It was a good week and included some other events, as the pictures/captions below attest.
This week, there are more departmental meetings to help launch the semester, the start of classes and more. Somehow I have no less than 32 meetings on my calendar for this week – yikes!
Some upcoming events you should consider attending:
- SoyFest: Wednesday, Aug. 27, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. near Parks Library and Marston Hall. Come celebrate all things soy and enjoy some great food and activities!
- CALS ice cream social: Friday, Aug. 29, from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. on the Harl Commons patio (or indoors if the weather demands). Come celebrate the start of the semester and the close of its first week.
- CALS Alumni BBQ: Saturday, Aug. 30, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Hansen Agriculture Student Learning Center prior to the first home football game. You, our alums and friends are all invited to attend! President Wintersteen will make remarks, we’ll present some awards and have a terrific run-up to the game with food, music and Cyclone spirit. Please come out for this!
Please also remember to try and attend one of the four Provost and General Counsel sessions in the Memorial Union this week.
My best, and let me know what you’re thinking. - Dan
Scenes from CALS
Photos of cool agricultural machines at the Midwest Mechanical Weed Control Field Day on Aug. 20 at the Iowa State University Horticulture Research Station, and from the company PowerPollen at their own field day held at the ISU Digital Ag Innovation Lab.
