Matthew Edward Highlands Papers

Matthew Edward Highlands was a graduate of the University of Maine and later a faculty member there. He was born in 1905 and after being orphaned at a young age, was raised by relatives in North Berwick, Maine. He graduated from the University of Maine in 1928, received a masters degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1934, and a doctorate from the University of Massachusetts in 1951. Dr. Highlands was a food technologist for the Frigidaire Corp. before returning to the University of Maine as a professor of bacteriology and food technology in 1935. During World War II he was head of the Dehydrated Products Branch of the U.S. Army Quartermaster Corps, in charge of research and development of hydrated foods for the military. He also played a role in the Berlin Airlift, during which he and his team reduced the weight of the food needed sufficiently so that the airlift could be carried out successfully. After the war, Dr. Highlands returned to the University of Maine where he continued to teach and conduct research in the Food Sciences and Technology Dept. Dr. Highlands married Ramona Faye Poley in 1931; she died in 1999. Dr. Highlands died on Jan. 21, 2003.