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Michigan State University
215 Farrall Hall
East Lansing, MI 48824
Phone: 517-355-4720
Fax: 517-432-2892
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BAE Distinguished Alumni Awards
Dr. Henry Affeldt, Jr.
Henry A. Affeldt Jr. was born and raised on a small farm in central Maryland. It was here that he developed a joy and a knack for building barns, repairing equipment, raising crops and rearing animals. During his youth he was very active in 4-H and received many awards, these awards brought him a job with USDA Agricultural Research Center in Beltsville, Maryland. At this same time he attended the University of Maryland, to obtain his B.S. in agricultural engineering.After graduation he continued to work for USDA and pursued both his M.S. and PhD. at Michigan State University. He obtained his M.S. in 1984 and his PhD. in 1987. Henry continued to work for USDA for 11 years and was stationed at research and development centers in Washington D.C., Maryland, Maine and Michigan. He worked on a variety of domestic and international high-technology sensor and automation projects for food quality, production and processing.
During this time, Dr. Affeldt was approached by the California-based Sunkist research and development center. He joined Sunkist in 1990 as a project engineer, focusing on automated fruit grading and packing systems. He served as Chief Engineer from 1990-1995, he was promoted in 1995 to Director of Research Engineering, and in 2005 he was made the General Manager of Sunkist Research and Services Division. This division is one of seven divisions in the company and the only one that is an independent, self-supporting business unit. As such, Dr. Affledt is wholly responsible for both the research and development activities of the unit, as well as the operation and growth of the unit. The unit is currently focusing on global business opportunities in South America, Europe and China.
Dr. Affeldt, as authored over 30 papers, recipient of the “AE 50" Award and holds 18 U.S. and many international intellectual property patents. Henry also enjoys private business ventures as well. He is founder and Chief Operations Officer of Crystal Creek Investments, co-founder and President of HARTCO. He is an active member in several professional societies, ASABE, OSA, SBA and BARD. He also holds several volunteer positions in his local church and non-profit youth athletic organization.
Dr. Affeldt currently resides on a small, mile-high hillside ranch in Southern California with his wife, son and two daughters.
Dr. Essex Finney, Jr.
Essex E. Finney, Jr. is a native of Powhatan, Virginia. He received his B.S. from Virginia Polytechnic Institute, an M.S. from The Pennsylvania State University and was the first African-American to receive a PhD. in the Department of Agricultural Engineering at Michigan State University in 1963. He was a Princeton Fellow in Public Affairs from 1973-74 at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University.Dr. Finney served as a military officer from 1963-65. He then accepted a position with USDA/ARS in 1965. He continued with USDA until his retirement in 1995. His early research was on drying cereal grains and the physical properties of agricultural products. He continued with research on instrumentation and non-destructive techniques for measuring the quality of food and other agricultural products.
He has a long and lustrous history with USDA where he has served as Chairman of the Agricultural Marketing Research Institute, Assistant, Associate and the Director of the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center, Senior Policy Analyst in the office of the Science Advisor to the President, and Associate Director of the ARS 12-state North Atlantic Area. In 1992, he was appointed to the number two post as Associate Administrator in the Agricultural Research Service (ARS), from 1993-94 he served as the Acting Administrator of this agency. ARS operates 375 research groups at over 100 locations in the United States and in seven foreign countries on an annual budget of $700 million.
Dr. Finney is a member of the Institute of Food Technologists, Tau Beta Pi Engineering Association, American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers. He served as editor of the Transportation and Marketing section of the CRC Handbook Series in Agriculture, was appointed to the 1976 World Food and Nutrition Study Team of the National Academy of Sciences, and served on the Technical Advisory Committee for the United State-Israel Binational Agricultural Research and Development Fund.
In 1983, Dr. Essex Finney Jr. was elected a Fellow of the ASAE, in 1985 he received the Outstanding Engineering Alumnus Award from the College of Engineering at The Pennsylvania State University, and in 1994 he was elected to membership in the National Academy of Engineering.
Dr. Finney currently lives in Mitchellville, Maryland with his wife Rose Ellen.
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