CORVALLIS - A barbecue in Walnut Park has been scheduled for the evening of June 5 to honor Lloyd Swanson, who has retired after a 28-year career as a professor of animal sciences at Oregon State University's College of Agricultural Sciences.

Those interested in attending the event for friends, colleagues and former students of Lloyd Swanson may contact organizer Laurel Busse at 737-1890 for additional details.

During his years at OSU, Swanson has written or co-written 44 journal articles, 33 abstracts and three book chapters. In 1996, he developed a new course, Companion Animal Management. More recently, he developed a new writing course in contemporary issues that reflects the changes in emphasis in animal science since he started working at OSU in 1971.

"There certainly has been a change in the composition of students," Swanson said. "When I came here it was farm boys interested in agribusiness. Now we've got mostly females with an urban background who are going here because they want to get into vet schools, or they are interested in horses and pets."

OSU's Animal Sciences department has been responsive to those changes. For example, Swanson will finish his teaching career this spring teaching two courses, One of them is a class titled "Ethical Issues in Animal Agriculture."

Swanson's career has been more than teaching and research. He served three stints as interim department head during 1987, again in 1990 and between March 1997 and June 1998.

James Males, who was named head of the animal sciences department last summer, said he particularly appreciated Swanson's above-and-beyond efforts.

"He didn't approach the job as interim department head as a caretaker, but definitely tried to make things work better for the new department head," Males said.

Swanson said he is looking forward to traveling with his wife, Grace, to destinations both foreign and domestic, but he will miss the interaction with people involved in agriculture.

"Agriculture is very rewarding because of the caliber of the people," Swanson said. "Whether on farms, or faculty, or the students, they are pretty fine people to work with."

Source: 

Laurel Busse, 541-737-1890

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