Gerald "Jerry" Musick, Former U of A Dean/Department Head, Passes Away

Gerald Joe "Jerry" Musick, former dean of the U of A's Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences who mentored countless students and faculty members, passed away on July 4 in Fayetteville. He was 86.

Musick, after serving as interim director of the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station, succeeded Glenn Hardy as dean of what was then the College of Agriculture in 1987. He served as dean until 1994 and retired in 2002 following a career devoted to education, research and public service.

Born in Ponca City, Oklahoma, in 1940, he earned his bachelor's degree in agriculture at Oklahoma State University in 1962. Musick went to Iowa State University in a graduate research position, earning his M.S. in 1964 before becoming an entomology instructor at the University of Missouri, where he earned his Ph.D. in entomology in 1969.

He later worked as an assistant professor of entomology at Ohio State University and with the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center before moving to the University of Georgia's Coastal Plain Experiment Station in 1976, where he served as head of the Department of Entomology and Fisheries and associate professor.

Musick then became head of the Department of Entomology at the U of A in 1979 before becoming interim director of the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station in 1986. He was named dean, director of the AAES and associate vice president for agriculture - research for the Arkansas Division of Agriculture in 1987. His dual appointment as dean and director marked the first time since 1959 the positions had been combined. He returned to teaching and research in 1995 and developed an academic program in turf science.

"Dr. Musick was an important leader in our department, and especially in the college and agricultural experiment station during a critical period of growth," says Ken Korth, head of the Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology. "When I joined the university, he was a fixture on several college committees that benefited from his administrative experience."

During his tenure as dean, Arkansas Sen. Dale Bumpers took over chairmanship of the Senate Subcommittee on Agricultural Appropriations. In 1989 alone, through the efforts of Bumpers and others, $3 million in federal grants were secured - $1.4 million for alternative pest control, $1.4 million for food safety and $200,000 for a poultry disease isolation unit. This led to the development of the Consortium for Food Safety, the John Kirkpatrick Skeeles Poultry Health Center, the Rosen Alternative Pest Control Center and the Center of Excellence for Poultry Science.

As dean, he also guided the development of new core curriculum and presided over initiatives to enlarge the scope of the poultry science, food science and alternative pest control programs. Core research programs related to commodities such as beef cattle, cotton, rice, soybean and wheat also received increased support.

Musick was administratively responsible for 11 academic and research departments/schools on the Fayetteville campus, five regional Research and Extension Centers and three research support locations throughout Arkansas.

In 1998, he was elected chairperson for the Campus Council, which provided leadership for the development of courses and curricula on campus. In 1999, he was elected chair of the campus faculty, which represented the faculty to campus and U of A System administration.

He was elected to several leadership positions in his professional society, the Entomological Society of America, and he served on several professional committees. He was also elected vice-chairman of the Southern Association of Experiment Station Directors, chairperson and vice chairperson for the USDA Committee of Nine (committee had oversight for all U.S. agricultural research, advised many regional research committees) and served as chairperson for the Tri-State (Arkansas, Kansas, Iowa) Consortium for Food Safety.

He married Florene in 1962, and they had two daughters, Linda Kaye and Mary Lou, and a son, Randall Scott.

About the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences: Bumpers College provides life-changing opportunities to position and prepare graduates who will be leaders in the businesses associated with foods, family, the environment, agriculture, sustainability and human quality of life; and who will be first-choice candidates of employers looking for leaders, innovators, policy makers and entrepreneurs. The college is named for Dale Bumpers, former Arkansas governor and longtime U.S. senator who made the state prominent in national and international agriculture. For more information about Bumpers College, visit our website, and follow us on Twitter at @BumpersCollege and Instagram at BumpersCollege.

About the University of Arkansas: As Arkansas' flagship institution, the U of A provides an internationally competitive education in more than 200 academic programs. Founded in 1871, the U of A contributes more than $3 billion to Arkansas' economy through the teaching of new knowledge and skills, entrepreneurship and job development, discovery through research and creative activity while also providing training for professional disciplines. The Carnegie Foundation classifies the U of A among the few U.S. colleges and universities with the highest level of research activity. U.S. News & World Report ranks the U of A among the top public universities in the nation. See how the U of A works to build a better world at Arkansas Research and Economic Development News.