Dr. Dale Reeves – South Dakota State University

Dale Reeves began his career while finishing a Ph.D. at Colorado State. From 1963 till 1969, Dale worked as an instructor and agronomist at Colorado State, and finished his Ph.D. in plant genetics. He had previously completed an MSc in genetics and agronomy and a B.Sc. in agricultural education from Kansas State. Dale also added to his profession and the lives of many by working two years in Botswana, Africa on a USAID project.

In 1970, Dale began a distinguished career at South Dakota State University in Brookings, South Dakota as a teaching professor and a small grains breeder. During his great career, he released 11 popular oats varieties and 1 rye variety, as well as conducted many extensive agronomic experiments. Of particular note was the landmark work done on herbicide and oat interactions, work that is still cited today. He conducted investigations into the effects of hail on crops, and helped establish hail adjustment factors that are still used in many states today. His development of high protein oat lines, including Spear and Lancer in the 1970’s and 1980’s were of particular interest to the millers and livestock nutritionists His work on crown rust resistance, test weight improvement, and stress tolerance has been utilized by many other breeding programs. He also wrote “How an Oat Plant Develops”, a colorful oats physiology bulletin that is still extensively used in teaching and extension work on oats around the world, even though it is 25 years old and has been reprinted many times. He also authored a lab manual for use in crop production courses entitled “General Field Crops Lab Manual”.

Equally important to his contributions to the oats variety development program, however, was his dedication as a teacher and an advisor. During his career, he taught crop production, grain grading, and crop seed purity classes to over 4,200 undergraduate students, and personally advised over 400 undergraduate students. He inspired, directed, and advised 8 Ph.D. Students and 10 MS students, all of whom share in my respect admiration for Dale and his work. Dale also served as acting Plant Science Department Head at SDSU twice in his career, as well as served on many department, university, state, and regional committees. He is respected by all with whom he served, and is remembered as a quiet, effective, and efficient team member and leader. He continues to live in Brookings, South Dakota with his lovely wife JoAnne, and travels extensively to visit his 3 children and countless friends around the world.