Perry Greeley Holden

Perry Greeley Holden (1865 to 1959) was the first professor of agronomy in the United States. Born in Dodge Center, Minnesota, he graduated from Michigan Agricultural College in 1889, taught there until 1893 and took a master's degree in 1895. At the University of Illinois from 1896 to 1900 he was assistant professor of soil physics and the first agronomy professor in the country. After two years promoting better corn seed at the Funk Brothers Seed Company he joined Iowa State University in 1902, becoming head of its Extension Service in 1906, and his outreach on seed selection earned him the name corn evangelist. He later directed International Harvester's agricultural extension department, worked on boll weevil damage in the South and retired in 1932.