The Passing Of Sylvan Wittwer
January 26, 2012 Former Michigan State University (MSU) researcher Sylvan Wittwer, age 95, passed away Jan. 20 in Washington, UT. On top of his work as a researcher, for many years he was a contributing editor to several Meister Media magazines.
Wittwer’s career began as an assistant professor at MSU in 1946 and became a leader in world agriculture while retaining his roots as a horticulturist. He relished the challenge of feeding the world, and wrote the book “Feeding a Billion.” He sponsored two international conferences on crop productivity while serving as director of the Michigan Agricultural Experiment Station. And while carrying out these global activities, he left an indelible mark on Michigan horticulture.
He was just as comfortable receiving the “Golden Pickle” award from the Michigan Pickle Processors Association as being made Honorary Professor in the Peoples Republic of China. And as a horticulture researcher, he made breakthrough discoveries in the role of plant hormones and played a key role in the discovery of gibberellins and the use of radioisotopes to understand plant metabolism.
Wittwer was a hands on, dirt on your boots, type of horticulturist who also was not reluctant to tackle tough problems in agricultural policy on the national and world level when he was Chairman of the Board of Agriculture of the National Research Council.
For many years, Dr. Wittwer was a popular author for American Fruit Grower and American Vegetable Grower magazines, also Farm Chemicals, now known as CropLife, and Farm Chemicals International. Despite his vigorous travel and work schedule, he was always available and ready to share his knowledge.
When he retired to the Moapa Valley in Nevada, he built his own vegetable research station, personally planted and grew vegetable crops that set records, and convinced the Nevada Extension Service to publish his bulletin “Vegetable Gardening in the Moapa and Virgin Valleys.” The bulletin is remarkable for insights into productive vegetable growing.
Wittwer received his undergraduate degree from Utah State Agricultural College in l939 and his PhD in agriculture from the University of Missouri in 1943. He joined the Department of Horticulture at MSU in 1946.
He was a person of great energy and insatiable curiosity about crop production and a distinguished member of the land grant college system which made American agriculture pre-eminent. He was a man of vision and dedication and his legacy is that he not only unveiled secrets of plant science, but traveled the world to help others.
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