Academic Affairs. Dean, College Of Natural Sciences, Forestry, And Agriculture. College Of Life Sciences And Agriculture (University Of Maine) Records

In 1964, during the tenure of University of Maine President Lloyd Hartman Elliot the existing College of Agriculture was renamed the College of Life Sciences and Agriculture to reflect the developing program and staff orientation within the College. The objectives of the College were to provide high quality educational opportunities in the agricultural and life sciences and to contribute generally to the economic, social and cultural development of the state by means of basic applied research and various extension educational techniques to help groups and individuals better understand the need and action necessary for properly managing and developing Maine’s resources: people, land, forest, water and climate. The three functions of the College were resident instruction, research and instruction. The College offered a number of baccalaureate, graduate, and associate degree programs.

The College was composed of the School of Forestry, the School of Home Economics, and the departments of agricultural business and economics, agricultural engineering, animal sciences, animal pathology, bacteriology, biochemistry, botany and plant sciences, entomology, food sciences, and plant and soil sciences. Both schools and departments were considered as departments of the Agricultural Experiment Station. The College also managed a number of facilities including for poultry, dairy and other livestock work done on or near campus, greenhouses, forestry land, fruit and vegetable farming. Over the years the names of the individual departments would change and there were a number of reorganizations. The College received a mixture of state, federal, county, industry, and donor funding.

Overseeing the work of the College was the Dean of Agriculture. The first dean of the newly named College of Life Sciences and Agriculture was Winthrop C. Libby who had been Dean of Agriculture since 1957 when he had succeeded Arthur L. Deering. In 1968, Libby was appointed first interim and then permanent University of Maine president. In 1969, Bruce R. Poulton was appointed as Libby’s permanent successor as dean and director of the College. In 1972, Poulton was succeeded by future University of Maine president Frederick E. Hutchinson (1992-1997) who served as dean from February 1972 to September 1975 when he was appointed Vice President of Research and Public Services. In 1976, Kenneth E. Wing was appointed dean, a position he would hold until the 1981-1982 academic year when Wallace C. Dunham became first acting and then permanent dean. The material in this record group is mostly from during the tenures of Libby through to Wing.

The Dean was assisted by an Associated Dean for Resident Instruction, and Associate Director of the Cooperative Extension Service and a Director of the Maine Agricultural Experiment Station. There were also heads of the two schools (forestry and home economics) and ten department heads. There were three standing committees: College Coordinating Committee, College Executive Committee, and College Advisory Committee and a number of advisory groups.

In 1988, under Dale W. Lick’s tenure as University of Maine president the University went through a reorganization which resulted in the College of Life Sciences and Agriculture being disbanded and the creation of a College of Food, Agriculture & Applied Sciences and College of Sciences.