PULLMAN, Wash. — A $250,000 donation to help renovate the Washington State University Livestock Pavilion was announced Friday (April 11) at WSU’s animal sciences department recognition program.
The program honored three department alumni, this year’s outstanding students and scholarship recipients.
Audrey Helen Ensminger, Sun City, Ariz., widow of Marion Eugene Ensminger, chair of the animal science department, 1941-1962, presented a $250,000 check to WSU President Lane Rawlins Friday afternoon.
That evening, WSU animal scientists presented their 2003 Distinguished Service Award to Edward A. Heinemann, it’s 2003 Outstanding Alumnus Award to Peter Rademacher, and its Distinguished Graduate: Science, Education and Technology Award to Rupert Grant Seals.
Heinemann, 85, Olympia, attended WSU during the depths of the depression, on a $100 scholarship from the Union Pacific Railroad, which he earned for excellence in 4-H projects.
He graduated with a degree in animal sciences and became a county extension agent in Lincoln County. Heinemann served as a pilot during World War II and returned to Washington where he was a leader in the state’s horse industry until his retirement in 1985.
Heinemann’s service to WSU included chairing the animal sciences department and college advisory boards. He also was a founding member of the Howard Hackedorn Scholarship and was instrumental in getting the governor to appoint alumni to the WSU Board of Regents.
Rademacher, Medina, Ohio, received a degree in animal husbandry from WSU in 1953. He began boxing at WSU and excelled as a boxer while in the U.S. Army. In 1956 he represented the United States as a heavy weight in the Olympic Games in Melbourne, Australia. There he knocked out his Russian opponent in one round to win the Gold Medal, and went on to a professional boxing career that spanned 1957-1962.
After his boxing career, Rademacher embarked on a business career and became an inventor, receiving numerous patents. He retired in 1987 as president of Kiefer McNeil/Richey Industries.
Seals, Reno, Nev., received his doctorate in dairy technology and chemistry from WSU in 1960. He was the fifth African American to receive a doctorate at WSU. He went on to become dean of the College of Agriculture and Home Economics at Florida A & M University and subsequently became the coordinator of special research programs for the USDA in Washington D.C. He returned to academia and served in several high posts at the University of Nevada-Reno and the University of Arkansas- Pine Bluff before concluding his career as director of international programs at Florida A & M University.
As the leading authority on funding of the historically black land-grant institutions, Seals continues to serve as a consultant to the U.S. Justice Department on land grant university matters, and to North Carolina A & T State University.
Seals also received the WSU Alumni Achievement Award.
Also honored at Friday’s banquet were outstanding students and scholarship recipients.
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