UF’s New Frazier Rogers Hall To Be Dedicated On Nov. 29

By:
Chuck Woods (352) 392-1773 x 281

Source(s):
Direlle Baird baird@agen.ufl.edu, (352) 392-1864, ext. 120
Don Poucher info@mail.ifas.ufl.edu, Don Poucher (352) 392-0437

GAINESVILLE, Fla.—Dedication ceremonies for Frazier Rogers Hall, a new $9.2-million facility for the University of Florida’s agricultural and biological engineering department, will be held on Thursday, Nov. 29, beginning at 10 a.m.

UF President Charles Young will preside over the ceremonies, and Mike Martin, UF vice president for agriculture and natural resources, will welcome and recognize guests at the event.

Direlle Baird, chair of the department, will introduce the dedication speaker, Joseph Ross, professor emeritus in biosystems and agricultural engineering at the University of Kentucky. Ross, a distinguished alumnus and former Gator football player, earned his bachelor’s degree with high honors in agricultural engineering from UF in 1955. He completed his master’s and doctoral degrees at Purdue University.

Cynthia O’Connell, member of the UF Board of Trustees, will dedicate the building. Young will accept the building on behalf of UF and Martin will accept it on behalf of UF’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS).

Ray Bucklin, professor of agricultural structures, will accept the building on behalf of the department’s faculty. Melissa Baum, president of the American Society of Agricultural Engineers, Student Branch Club, and Baynard Ward, president of the Agricultural Operations Management Student Club, will accept the building on behalf of students.

Baird said the agricultural engineering department was established at UF in 1923. Professor Frazier Rogers was appointed as the first head of the department. By its 25th Anniversary in 1948, the department had expanded to six faculty members, and the department’s role included teaching, research and extension functions. The department now has 25 tenure-track faculty on campus and six located at UF/IFAS research and education centers around the state.

“The first agricultural engineering building was dedicated in 1955 and named Frazier Rogers Hall in 1959,” Baird said. “The new Frazier Rogers Hall is on the same footprint as the original building but is essentially new except for the front exterior walls. In addition to greatly improved quality of space, the new facility provides 12,000 square feet of additional space. Total square footage is 54,000.”

During its 78-year history, the department has graduated more than 1,000 students in various agriculture and engineering academic programs. A bachelor’s degree in agriculture with a major in agricultural engineering was initiated in 1925. Next came a bachelor’s degree in engineering, with an agricultural engineering major in 1950 and a bachelor’s degree in agriculture (mechanized agriculture) in 1958.

A doctoral degree in agricultural engineering through the College of Engineering was approved in 1982. The agricultural operations management degree through the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences was approved in 1986 to replace mechanized agriculture. A new packaging science program was started in the fall of 2000, offering a bachelor’s degree.

To accommodate expanding disciplinary opportunities, the name of the department was changed to agricultural and biological engineering in 1994. Teaching, research, and extension remain the central role of the department, which is part of UF/IFAS.

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Posted: November 20, 2001


Category: UF/IFAS



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