Charles "Charley" Hess (AG’53, Horticulture) served as the inaugural dean when the Rutgers College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences became Cook College in 1973. Richard Merritt (AG’54 Agriculture and Environmental Sciences), GSNB’56, ’61 Horticulture) was first appointed associate dean of operations in 1973 of the new college, and later dean of instruction in 1974.
Charles "Charley" Hess
When Charley Hess entered the College of Agriculture as an undergraduate in 1949, he planned to study plant science and then return to his family's nursery business. But he became captivated by research and pursued advanced degrees at Cornell. He and his career returned to Rutgers and the renamed College of Agriculture and Environmental Science (CAES), after he taught at Purdue—where he was selected as one of Perdue's most popular professors—and completed a two-year stint as a lieutenant in the U.S. Army Chemical Corps.
In 1966, Hess accepted an invitation to chair the Department of Horticulture and Forestry. "I was pleased to come back," he says. "The department was well-recognized nationally."
In 1971, he was appointed associate dean and director of the New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station (NJAES), and six months later became the acting dean of CAES. During the next few years, he worked on the reorganization of the college. On one memorable day, he, along with associate dean Richard Merritt and director of extension John Gerwig, waged a preemptive strike to gain support for the formation of the college. The trio traveled to Bennington College in Vermont to sell the proposal for the formation of Cook College, to Edward J. Bloustein, then president of Bennington College, and incoming president of Rutgers.
"Bennington was pretty relaxed," recalls Hess. "Bloustein was in a tee shirt and sneakers." In the calm atmosphere of Vermont, the destiny of Cook College was forged: Bloustein committed himself to supporting the formation of the proposal. Cook College was established and the first class of students entered in the fall of 1973, with Hess serving as dean.
The uniqueness of Cook College was apparent from the beginning.
"The Cook concept was to build on the strengths of CAES and apply the land-grant college approach of teaching, research, and extension to a broader spectrum of society, with special concern for the social and physical environment. By having a residential college with our own student life programs, we had the opportunity to treat the student as a total person, and we developed a totally integrated program and higher quality education for them." The changes paid off: Cook became one of the more popular colleges at Rutgers University. In 1975, Hess accepted an offer to become dean of the college of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, at the University of California–Davis. His replacement, Grant Walton, helmed Cook for the next decade.
Richard "Dick" Merritt
It would be difficult to find anyone who is more homegrown than Richard Merritt. He earned his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. at Rutgers. By the age of 29, he was appointed director of resident instruction, and associate dean of the College of Agriculture. He also kept these titles when the College of Agriculture became the College of Agriculture and Environmental Science (CAES). In the middle of obtaining his degrees, he served as a first lieutenant/captain in the U.S. Air Force.
The story behind Merritt's progression from undergraduate to dean belies the momentous changes that were taking place on campus and throughout the university. Livingston College was newly created, and there were plans to create two more new colleges. When tightening budgets made the creation of new colleges impossible, CAES dean Leland Merrill Jr. appointed Merritt to serve as chair of the committee to propose a viable alternative. The committee proposed an outgrowth of CAES, Cook College, which would focus on "man and the environment." Deans Merrill and Hess chaired two other subsequent committees, which resulted in Cook College in 1973. Merritt was appointed associate dean of operations in 1973, and in 1974 he was appointed dean of instruction for the new college.
Merritt remembers those years as being particularly invigorating. "We were building buildings; we were offering courses in chemistry, anthropology, physiology, and ethics, among others; we brought in over 100 faculty with unique educational credentials."
In 1981, after 20 years at CAES and Cook College, Merritt left the dean's position and followed Charley Hess out to the University of California–Davis as a visiting dean and professor, while also directing the USDA-funded National Agriculture and Natural Resources Curriculum.
Note: The piece above were adapted from articles written for the Fall 2003 issue of ConneXions.