Creator: Frank Dennis

Subjects: Anniversaries, Sesquicentennial

Description:

Frank Dennis graduated from Cornell University with a BS in 1955 and completed his PhD in 1961. He came to MSU in the fall of 1968 to teach pomology courses (fruit growing) in the Department of Horticulture. His research centered around dormancy in fruit trees and the damage of frost, especially in cherry trees. He also worked in the area of parthenocarpy or the development of seedless fruit. Another of his research projects centered around gibberellins which were naturally occurring compounds in fruit that inhibit flowering thus reducing fruit set so berries are father apart and thus become larger.

In the mid-1980s Dennis was one of the organizers of a working group on the production of temperate-zone fruits in the tropics and subtropics. He organized a conference in Quitu Equador in 1982 to study the growth of Naranjilla (Spanish for “little orange”) which is in the tomato family. Dennis served briefly on the Academic Council and University Curriculum Committee, contributing his editing talents to clarifying terminology for many of the motions that were passed. Although he retired in 1996, Dennis remains busy by writing a history of the Department of Horticulture, serving as an editor for four years of HortScience, working on the history of his hometown (Rose, New York), editing a newsletter for that city, and photographing all tombstones in the Rose City cemetery.

Topics Covered in Interview include: Walter Adams; M. John Bukovac; Art Cameron; Academic Council; University Curriculum Committee; National Science Foundation fellowship; Paul Edinger; Jim Flore; Bruce Fox; John Hannah; Bob Herner; Jack Kelly; George Kessler; George Martin; pomology; gibberellins; DDT; HortScience; SDS; Alar; ReTain; fruit set; Eugene Mielke; John Neilsen; Jean Nitsch; Mabel Smith; Bob Smock; Harold Tukey; Clifton Wharton; Don Wilson; Sylvan Wittwer

Date: 2000-2009

Collection Number: UA 3

Language: English

Rights Management: Educational use only, no other permissions given. Copyright to this resource is held by Michigan State University and is provided here for educational purposes only. It may not be reproduced or distributed in any format without written permission of the University Archives & Historical Collections, Michigan State University.

Contributing Institution: University Archives & Historical Collections, Office of the Provost

Relation: Sesquicentennial Oral History Project

Contributor: MSU Archives and Historical Collections