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Michigan State University
215 Farrall Hall
East Lansing, MI 48824
Phone: 517-355-4720
Fax: 517-432-2892
MSU | Contact Us | Site
2005 BAE Distinguished Alumni Awards
Galen Brown was born and raised on a fruit farm in Byron Center, Michigan. He earned his B.S. in Agricultural Engineering at MSU, M.S. at University of California-Davis, and his Ph.D. in 1972 here at MSU. After earning his B.S. in 1961, he was employed by the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) of the USDA as a Research Engineering and Research Leader, at cooperative research locations with Land-Grant Universities in California, Ohio and Michigan. During this period, he worked on harvesting and handling projects for dates, cling peaches, prunes, apricots, pears, citrus, avocados, boysenberries, grapes, blueberries, jojoba, tart and sweet cherries, and an array of other fruits and vegetables as well as nursery crops. He retired from the ARS-USDA in 1995 and joined the Florida Department of Citrus as the Harvesting Program Administrator, working cooperatively at the University of Florida Citrus Research & Education Center at Lake Alfred. Galen retired again in 2003 after cooperative work to develop commercially viable mechanical harvesting systems for processing citrus. He also initiated R&D projects on fruit abscission and automated robotic harvesting for citrus.Galen has over 200 professional publications to his credit, has received several awards, and is recognized as a national and international expert. His cooperative work with undergraduate and graduate students, research technicians, inventors, manufacturers and grower associations has been very productive. Galen and his wife Ann now reside in Winter Haven Florida.
William Splinter was raised on an irrigated farm west of North Platte, Nebraska. He graduated from the University of Nebraska in January 1950. Received his M.S. in Agricultural Engineering from Michigan State College in 1951, and his Ph.D. from MSU in 1955. While pursuing his Ph.D., he with his major professor, Dr. Walt Carleton, worked on the dielectric properties of wheat and the electrostatic deposition of dusts. He also filled in for Clarence Hansen while he was in Colombia.
He went on to have a distinguished career, first by joining the faculty at North Carolina State College in 1954 as an Associate Professor. In 1968, he returned to University of Nebraska as Head of the Agricultural Engineering Department. While there he developed the doctorate program, and modernized the 1916 Agricultural Engineering building. He served as the Associate Vice Chancellor for Research, then Vice Chancellor for Research. During this time, he moved the university’s research funding to a Category One Carnegie rating. In addition, he served as the Dean of Engineering and Technology (twice), Director of Nebraska State Library, and developed, and serves as volunteer Director or the Lester F. Larsen Tractor Test and Power Museum. Known as an agricultural engineer, educator, administrator, for invention and development of safer aerial spray systems and improved harvesting systems, he was one of the first in his profession to show the relationship between basic biology and engineering, and became advocate for development of alternate fuel sources, holder of four U.S. and two Canadian patents, authored more than 90 publications, participated in projects or presentations in nearly 15 foreign countries.
He is a Fellow in ASAE, AAAS, and NSPE. He has received the Massey Ferguson and John Deere Gold Medals. He served as President of ASAE and was the first President of the ASAE Foundation. Serves on the committee for Greatest Engineering Achievements of the Twenty-First Century, the National Academy of Engineering. The list goes on and on.
In his personal life Bill married his first wife, Eleanor Peterson while attending MSU. They were married for 46 years and raised 4 children. In 2001, he married Betty Calhoun from his home town of North Platte and acquired four more children and five more grandchildren to add to his own 4 ½.
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