The following brief overview of the department's first fifty years appears in The Centennial Record of the University of California, 1868-1968, compiled and edited by Verne A. Stadtman and the centennial publications staff [Berkeley, University of California Print. Dept., 1967].
Food Science and Technology: The present
department can trace its origin to the Volstead Act in 1918. That year, the
Department of Viticulture and Enology (on the Berkeley campus), founded by
Eugene W. Hilgard and chaired by Frederic T. Bioletti, promptly terminated most
of its activities related to wine making and substituted the term "fruit
products" for "enology" in the departmental title. William V.
Cruess had presented a lecture course as early as 1915 on canning, drying, fruit
juices, and non-alcoholic beverages. After 1918, he was assigned to the fruit
utilization program and named Arthur W. Christie to handle the area of
sun-drying and dehydration and John H. Irish to the area of fruit juices,
concentrates, and non-alcoholic beverages. By 1924, Cruess and Christie had
collaborated on a technological book Commercial Fruit and Vegetable
Products. The department was then housed in Hilgard Hall, with offices,
laboratories, and a small pilot plant.
During 1918-26, the shipment of early fresh California fruit was
geared to the demands of the eastern market, a system which created potentially
valuable wastes (culls). Primary research emphasis was given to the problem of
utilizing such farm wastes by processing, rather than to the development of food
processing methods. During 1926-30, Cruess and M. A. Joslyn proposed freezing
storage to preserve fruits and vegetables for consumer use and a laboratory
course was added stressing [that] method of food preservation. In this same
period, Christie was succeeded by Paul F. Nichols and Emil M. Mrak, Maynard A.
Joslyn, George L. Marsh, Byron J. Lesley, Harold S. Reed, and Gilbert A. Pitman
were added to the non-academic staff.
During the five years following the repeal of Prohibition in
1933, courses were expanded to include biochemistry and microbiology as well as
fermentation. The present chairman (1967), R. H. Vaughn, joined the staff in
1936 to teach microbiology. Upon Bioletti's retirement in 1938, the Division of
Viticulture and Fruit Products was split into the Division of Fruit Products,
with Cruess as chairman at Berkeley, and the Division of Viticulture and
Enology, with Albert J. Winkler as chairman at Davis. The former became the
Division of Food Technology in 1944. In 1949, the year after Mrak became
chairman, dairy industry and viticulture and enology became associated majors by
Academic Senate approval of a food science curriculum developed by joint action
of the three groups. This same year, a graduate program leading to the M.S.
degree was begun.
In 1951, instruction began in a new building (now known as Cruess
Hall, following dedication ceremonies in March, 1960) for food technology at
Davis. Professors Mrak, Marsh, Vaughn, Herman J. Phaff, and Clarence Sterling
were the first academic staff members. They were later joined by Clinton O.
Chichester, Alloys L. Tappel, Richard A. Bernhard, John R. Whitaker, Martin W.
Miller, and George K. York.
In 1959, the division became the Department of Food Science and
Technology. Chairman Mrak was named chancellor at Davis and the dairy industry
and the food science and technology staffs were consolidated under the
chairmanship of George F. Stewart, who was succeeded in 1963 by Vaughn.
The consolidation of the dairy industry and food technology
groups added seven staff members: Edwin B. Collins, Walter L. Dunkley, Eugene L.
Jack, Nikita P. Tarassuk, Walter G. Jennings, Thomas A. Nickerson, and Lloyd M.
Smith. Recent additions include Robert E. Feeney, Michael J. Lewis, Mendel
Mazelis, and Morris H. Woskow. Three emeriti professors complete the present
staff complement: Cruess, Chester L. Roadhouse, and Jack.
George L. Marsh