Sherret Spaulding Chase

ASHOKAN NY – Sherret Spaulding Chase, of Ashokan NY, died June 7, 2021, at his home.  Born in Toledo OH on June 30, 1918, his parents were Helen Mar Kelsey Chase of Toledo OH and Clement Edwards Chase of Omaha NE. 

 

One year ago (March 2020), Dr. Chase was awarded by Iowa State University’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and its Doubled Haploid Facility, the first-ever Award for Sustained Excellence for his work in developing the Doubled Haploid Method, where he was referred to (by the Founder and Director of the Doubled Haploid Facility), as the “father of” the doubled haploid method in plant breeding.  Dr. Chase demonstrated how a visionary scientific concept requiring various obstacles to be overcome was successfully turned into an important breeding method – he proved the concept. 

 

The method enables one to obtain inbreds in two rather than 6-8 generations.  The Doubled Haploid (DH) Method helps to accelerate the development of inbred lines and, with this, accelerating also the breeding process and genetic gains.  As the DH lines are genetically uniform, and with genomic selection strategies being dependent on accurate genotypic information, maize breeding programs, with the use of predictive performance software programs, have been able to rapidly develop and deploy sophisticated genomic selection strategies. 

 

Dr. Chase was also awarded in May 2020 the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Science by Northern Illinois University for his work in developing the Doubled Haploid Method and for his legacy of scientific work in maize research and maize production.

 

The international impact of the use of the Doubled Haploid Method was made clear recently by an internationally recognized consultant working with the GEM Project (Germplasm Enhancement of Maize), a USDA/universities/private companies consortium project that has just completed 25 years.  The Gates Foundation funded a DH facility in Kenya to help all private and public organizations in Africa.  The program had been established in 2012 and has since been helping all the breeding organizations in Africa to (quickly) develop superior hybrids for all the regions in Africa.  The most important of all the improvements achieved by this DH facility is the development of germplasm resistant to Maize Lethal Necrosis, a disease caused by a virus that came into east Africa from outside and which rapidly spread to seven countries in east Africa. The DH system made it possible to create resistant cultivars in a very short period of time. 

 

“In August [2018], I witnessed the achievement of the first batch of hybrids with true resistance, all possible because of the speed that DH allowed.  A project that (in the best hypothesis) would have taken at least ten years was achieved in just six years!  All possible because of the DH methodology!”  

 

“This is a huge accomplishment for the poor African farmers that cannot afford to apply insecticides every week to kill the thrips and aphids which are the main vectors of this disease.  You, Dr. Chase, should be very proud of the impact that the techniques that you developed are not only impacting the developed countries but also a lot of other countries particularly the developing countries!”  “The merit for the speed is totally yours!”  [Walter Trevisan, personal correspondence, October 12, 2018]

 

His mother was a graduate of Wells College (NY) and a Master Horticulturist from the Ambler School in PA and his father, a Civil Engineer in bridge design and construction from Cornell University, was a partner with the firm of Modjeski, Masters, and Chase.  Sherret (Sherry) was the youngest of three children; his older siblings were Clement Kelsey Chase and Alice Chase Gibson, both now deceased.  He was a very inquisitive youngster, with wide interests in the natural world.  His mother had an extraordinary garden.  As a very young boy, Sherry was given 12 cabbage plants, which he planted in her garden – six with roots up and six with roots down.  When questioned why, he replied that he wanted to see what happened – the scientific method.  He and his older brother enjoyed being Boy Scouts in the new Devon 50 troop in Wayne PA, where the family lived until 1935; he was a Boy Scout between 1931 and 1935, and the Senior Patrol Leader from 1933 to 1935, when he aged out, as a high school graduate.  During his first year 1931, he was a mounted Scout, riding on Cavalry horses.  The mounted Scouts performed in 1932 at Valley Forge with General Pershing viewing the performance. 

 

He had opportunities as a youth to travel: in 1933, with the Experiment in International Living to Germany and Austria (this was during Hitler’s first year in power); for skiing in the well-loved Laurentiens in Quebec; to Vermont as a summer counselor at The Putney School (founded by his father’s sister Carmelita Chase Hinton); in his first undergraduate year of college at the University of Arizona (where his older brother was a student) with explorations together of Mexico; driving to Okanogon Lake in British Columbia with his great aunt Helena Modjeska Chase Johnson Drea (another of his father’s sisters); in the summer of 1936, as a backpacker with his first cousin William Hinton for the renowned Mundy/Hall mountaineering expedition in the unexplored Coastal Range area of the Klinaklini Glacier in British Columbia for the first ascent by everyone in the party of Silverthrone Mountain [he had the naming privilege for the first ascent, also that summer, of Fang Peak]; in Mexico City, after transferring for his second year of college to Yale College, for summer courses in language and arts and more exploration with his brother; two summers 1938 and 1939 as assistant to Mr. Ernst Heyl in Newfoundland exploring and guiding salmon fishing; exploring Cape Breton Island and the Gaspe Peninsula of Quebec; in 1939 leader of a Putney School group bicycling and camping in the circuit around Cape Breton Island, and on the Gaspe Peninsula.

 

He spent his first year of college in Biology at the University of Arizona, where he spent one year “in order to have a western experience.”  He transferred to Yale University and completed his undergraduate degree in 1939.  At Yale, he began his interest in Botany.  He accomplished his graduate work in plant cytology and genetics, with a minor in philosophy, at Cornell University, where his major thesis was comparing different species of the aquatic plant family Najas.  The entire life cycle of Najas takes place underwater.  The 1930’s were a dynamic time at Cornell University in the new field of plant genetics.  He found he was drawn to this new field of plant genetics, especially in maize (corn).  He pioneered his non-thesis research in studies on haploidy in corn with two primary advisors – Lester W. Sharp and Lowell F. Randolph.

 

His research at Cornell was cut short when he was called to military service in the Army Air Corps on December 7, 1942 (the one-year anniversary of Pearl Harbor).  He served as a Second Lieutenant and lead navigator in B-24’s in the 15th Air Force, 760th Bomb Squadron, 460th Bomb Group, in southern Italy.  He flew over fifty combat missions, including over the oil fields of Ploesti in Romania, and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross during his service.  He was in service for three years (1942 – 1945) until September 1945, as the war ended.  He left as a First Lieutenant.  He returned to Cornell that fall to complete his PhD, which he received in 1946. 

 

He continued his interest in haploidy, preparing to take his initial research in parthenogenesis and monoploids to his first teaching position, as Assistant Professor and later Associate Professor, at Iowa State University in Ames IA.  His development of his “monoploid method,” later referred to as the “Doubled Haploid Method,” for deriving homozygous diploid lines of maize, was accomplished at Iowa State University.  Monoploids/haploids have only one set of chromosomes per cell and can occur naturally in a field of corn (or rice or sorghum or other plants).  He learned that the rare and unusual trait of having a single set of chromosomes happens in only a small fraction of plants.  Once a haploid plant is recognized, and if viable pollen occurs on its tassel, it can then be self-pollinated.  The offspring or progeny will have a dual set of identical chromosomes and will be equivalent to an inbred line.  Inbred lines are developed to focus on some very specific positive characteristic, such as rot-resistance, stiff stalk, particular height at harvest time, etc.   Developing inbred lines (the parents of production corn) in the traditional manner generally takes about six years.  With the Doubled Haploid Method, the development time is cut in half, or less.   This is the important aspect of utilizing the Doubled Haploid Method; this technique provides the equivalent to inbred lines in a shorter period of time, at a lower cost, and at a higher quality (that is, with more purity).

 

In 1953, he accepted a Research Geneticist position with DeKalb Agricultural Association (later DeKalb AgResearch) in DeKalb IL, where he further developed his doubled haploid method and was successful in using it as a practical tool for plant breeding.  DeKalb adopted the innovation, allowing for expansion of its corn breeding research and development.  He was appointed International Maize Breeder and then Director of International Seed Operations for DeKalb, where he worked with associated companies in Argentina, Australia, France, Italy, India, and Spain. While at DeKalb, he developed the first successful commercial maize hybrid using doubled haploids.    

 

He resigned his position with DeKalb in 1966 in order to return to university and public service.  He was awarded sequentially the Bullard and the Cabot Fellowships at Harvard University, where he continued his studies of tree breeding, genetics, and reproductive forest tree biology in association with the Arnold Arboretum.

 

He accepted a position as Professor in 1968 in the Biology Department at the State University of New York (SUNY) College at Oswego, where he taught genetics, cytogenetics, and economic botany.  He resigned from SUNY in 1981 after several more years of research in maize genetics and the plant genus Salix.  In the year following his retirement from SUNY, he was appointed Director of Plant Breeding and Acting Director of Cell Biology and Director of Farm and Greenhouse Operations for the International Plant Research Institute (IPRI) in San Carlos CA.  In 1983, he left California and came back east to New Jersey, where he became the Manager of Plant Breeding and Agricultural Research and Member of the Scientific Advisory Board for the DNA Plant Technology Corporation (DNAP) in Cinnaminson NJ, where he remained until September 1987.

 

At that point, he really did retire, but continued private corn breeding and research in Ulster County NY and maintained his consultant status with multiple international companies, including those in Haiti, Indonesia, Thailand, and Puerto Rico.  He continued his involvement in several professional societies, community groups, and public activities.  His most significant local achievement was as a founder and as the founding President of the Catskill Center for Conservation and Development, where he served for over fifty years.

 

His wife Catherine Ross Compton Chase (Kenny), whom he married very happily in 1943 and before she died in 2012, made homes for him and their family in 12 different locations during their lifetime together: including Houston TX, Ithaca NY, Ames IA, Sycamore IL, Cambridge MA, Oswego NY, San Carlos CA, Philadelphia PA, and Ashokan NY.  As a child, Sherry’s home was Wayne PA.  From his college years onward, Ashokan NY was his hometown.  Ashokan was always a part of his life – two abandoned farms in the northern Catskill Mountains purchased by his grandparents in 1920 – a touchstone for him during his life changes, and where he and Kenny ultimately retired.

 

Much appreciated by his offspring was the fact that his chosen work could include his children and his nieces and nephews and the children of friends.  All could work in his research nurseries as seasonal pollinators, workers doing the important specifically directed and carefully controlled cross pollinations.  This was brain work taking place in fields of experimental corn, where one could work among 150 friends of high school and college age while getting a tan.  The dirt was “good clean dirt” and the pay (in the 1960’s) was 76 cents per hour farm labor – not bad!!

 

We had family camping trips that covered many places all across the US and eastern Canada – a camping road trip to and from California; canoeing in Lake Temagamie in Northern Ontario; back-packing in the Wind River Range of Wyoming; canoeing on the Serpent River off of Spragge, Ontario; camping on Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia and the Gaspe Peninsula in Quebec; in our back yard and the Boy Scout camp near our home in Illinois.  We became acquainted with nearly all the National and State Parks.  We camped in farmer’s fields, we car-camped when a tornado came upon us.  We siblings learned how to work together in setting up camp.  Mom and Dad did so many things right.  We did family things as a family.

                       

Sherret Spaulding Chase is predeceased by his wife of 69 years Catherine Ross Compton Chase (2012) and his daughter-in-law Susan Ruth Page Chase (1998) and his son-in-law Jeffrey Blair Peters (2019).  He is survived by his five children – Catherine Harrington Chase Peters - born in Houston TX, Helen Kelsey Chase – born in Ithaca NY (Edward G. Zellefrow), Sherret Edwards Chase – born in Ames IA, Wilson Compton Chase – born in Ames IA (Mary Foxworthy), Alice Ross Chase Robeson - born in Ames IA (Robert E. Robeson, Jr.); eight grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.  One past son-in-law and two past daughters-in-law are fondly acknowledged – John R. Long, Lindsay Chase-Lansdale, and Kathleen Edwards Chase.

You may share a special memory or condolence on Sherret's Tribute Wall at gormleyfuneralhome.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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