A Century of Plant Pathology in Nebraska

The original idea for this book began unknowingly 10 years ago when we were observing and celebrating the centennial of the Panhandle Research and Extension Center (PHREC) in 2010. Since then, I have written dozens of historically-oriented articles pertaining to plant pathology and its development at the PHREC in Scottsbluff as well as the Department of Plant Pathology in Lincoln. Approximately one-half of the chapters appearing in this book are updated modifications of these articles, previously published in various scattered sources, including newspapers, professional newsletters, and grower-oriented, commodity magazines. About a year ago, I began to consider collating all these articles and designing a vehicle to assemble them together into one volume. Thus, this book is a result of those cumulative efforts, completed primarily with this purpose in mind. In addition, I have written another 12 to 15 articles over the last year to include stories and events not previously covered. However, another major reason for producing this publication at this time is to coincide with the centennial of the Department of Plant Pathology at UNL in 2020. I wanted to document the department’s birth and development as well as historically look back on its growth and accomplishments over the previous 100 years of existence.