TO ENRICH ENVIRONMENTAL HORTICULTURE
In 1980, a major gift from Gordon and Margaret Bailey established the Gordon and Margaret Bailey, Sr., Endowed Chair in Environmental Horticulture. The chair supports work to expand and enrich the area of environmental horticulture at the University of Minnesota by focusing research, teaching, and extension activities on woody plant and tree fruit production, culture, breeding, over-wintering, and other needs of the nursery industry.
Leaders in the state's nursery industry, Gordon and Margaret Bailey funded the first chair in the College of Agricultural, Food, and Environmental Sciences, formerly the College of Agriculture. Four generations of the Baileys are University graduates. Gordon's parents, John Vincent and Elizabeth, met at the School of Agriculture, graduating in 1896, and Gordon attended the same school and graduated in 1925. Several of Gordon and Margaret's children and grandchildren are University of Minnesota alumni. Gordon Bailey joined the family nursery business that his father started in 1907. During his long career in the horticulture industry, Gordon Bailey served as president of the Minnesota Nurserymen's Association and as chair of the board of Bailey Nurseries.
A HISTORY OF EXCELLENCE
In 1982, the college named Wesley P. Hackett as the first holder of the Gordon and Margaret Bailey, Sr., Endowed Chair in Environmental Horticulture. Professor Hackett conducted extensive research in the physiology of woody perennial plant species and contributed substantially to both the teaching and research statute of the college. In 1997, Professor Hackett retired from the University of Minnesota.
In 2000, the college named the second holder of the Bailey Endowed Chair, Jerry D. Cohen. Dr. Cohen has conducted extensive research on plant development, especially its regulation by plant hormones and growth regulators. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in microbiology from the University of California, Riverside, his Master of Science degree in plant physiology from San Diego State University and his doctoral degree in plant biochemistry from Michigan State University. He began his scientific career as a plant physiologist/research chemist with the USDA-ARS Plant Hormone Laboratory in Beltsville, MD in 1981 and in 1986 held an adjunct appointment as associate professor and later professor of Plant Biology at the University of Maryland, College Park. The late 1990's saw a critical change in the research tools available to scientists and the potential for the funding of these new efforts in plant biology in the United States. Aware of the need for plant scientists to be directly involved in guiding these changes, Dr. Cohen took a leave of absence in 1998 from his position with the USDA. During this time he served as Program Director for Cell Biology and later Deputy Director for the Division of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences at the National Science Foundation.
The endowed chair has helped attract renowned scientists to Minnesota, and in so doing has positively benefited the educational environment on the campus. As Professor Hackett once noted, "The chair position gives considerable freedom to pursue questions we think are important. We have been encouraged to do this by the donor of the chair, and I'm very grateful to the Margaret and Gordon Bailey family for being so supportive in this regard."
