Arkansas State University today announced a gift commitment of $1 million to establish the university's third endowed academic chair, the Judd Hill Chair in Agricultural Biotechnology.

Mike Gibson of Osceola, trustee of the Judd Hill Foundation, revealed the foundation's commitment to fund the chair at an afternoon announcement attended by faculty and staff of the ASU College of Agriculture, the board of directors of the Arkansas State University Foundation Inc., and other university and community representatives. The pledge will be filled over a 10-year period.

"The Judd Hill Foundation is very proud to have the opportunity to once again partner with the Arkansas State University Foundation," Gibson said as he announced his plans. "We hope this project's future successes will some day have global implications."

Dr. Les Wyatt, president of ASU, expressed the university's appreciation to Gibson and the foundation for their generosity.

"Throughout his long association with Arkansas State University, Mike Gibson has constantly demonstrated a desire for this institution to grow and progress and succeed in every way possible," Wyatt said. "Once again, he wants to help us extend our capabilities in a way that would not otherwise have been possible. We will always be grateful to Mike Gibson and the Judd Hill Foundation."

Through a similar endowment gift announced in May of 1994, Gibson established the Judd Hill Chair in Environmental Biology. Dr. Jerry Farris, who directs the university's doctoral program in environmental science, is the chairholder.

Dr. Greg Phillips, dean of the College of Agriculture, commented that the latest gift will play an important part toward helping building the College of Agriculture's relationship with the Arkansas Biosciences Institute, the facility for which is now under construction on the south edge of the campus.

"This endowed chair also will help us develop a strong agricultural biotechnology program in the College," he added. "The endowed professorship will help us recruit premier faculty members for leadership in this area."

Gibson explained that the purpose for the chair in agricultural biotechnology grew out of the Judd Hill Plantation and the family which owned it.

"Esther Chapin, who founded the plantation, was interested in two very broad fields, agriculture and health care. The Judd Hill Chair of Agricultural Biotechnology joins those interests of agriculture and medicine into a study to produce farm-raised pharmaceuticals, accomplishing both of her purposes," he stated.

"In addition, the endowment will make possible the study of disease resistance among plant varieties and the development of plant varieties that tolerate various soil types, thus promoting Mrs. Chapin's love of farming."

ASU's involvement with Judd Hill Plantation has grown much closer over the years, Phillips added.

"We have had a longstanding relationship with the Judd Hill personnel," Phillips added. "With this gift, our college really looks forward to expanding those interactions and developing a stronger research and service presence in the agricultural community."

As with other endowed chairs, proceeds from the endowment fund will help support a distinguished faculty member who can devote research and service toward a specific academic focus.

Under the agreement between the ASU Foundation and the Judd Hill Foundation, the chairholder will serve a five-year term. Dr. Susan Allen, vice chancellor for Research and Academic Affairs, and Dr. Greg Phillips, dean of the College of Agriculture, will make the selection in consultation with Gibson, as foundation trustee.

Examples cited for chairholder's research activity would include molecular plant pathology and the study of mechanisms to improve disease resistance among plant varieties; plant stress physiology that will examine the development of plant varieties that tolerate certain specific conditions in various soil types; and plant-made pharmaceuticals and the study of genetically enhanced organisms by using plants as factories for the production of vaccines or other pharmaceutically active agents.

The Judd Hill Plantation, south of Trumann in Poinsett County, also may be used for experimentation.

Judd Hill Plantation

Mike Gibson, trustee of the Judd Hill Foundation, explained in 1994 that the foundation's philanthropic goals were established to honor the wishes of the late Esther Hill Chapin, who was very interested in promoting research, experimentation, and education on the conservation and management of soil and water resources.

Mrs. Chapin, who died in 1991 at age 91, owned and operated the plantation, which was named for her father, Judd Hill. Hill acquired what was then wooded acreage in the 1930s and gave it to his daughter and her husband, Sam Chapin, as a wedding present. The couple gradually cleared the land and developed it into one of the largest contiguous row crop farming operations in the Mid-South, more than 4,600 acres.

Gibson said that Mrs. Chapin wanted the farm to have a perpetually beneficial impact on Poinsett County and the entire region. The Judd Hill Chair of Environmental Science, announced in 1994, and the Judd Hill Chair of Agricultural Biotechnology, announced today, have the potential to make the impact Mrs. Chapin desired.

Additional information about the Judd Hill Plantation and its history is available in an "Oral History of the Judd Hill Plantation in Poinsett County, Arkansas: Summary of Findings," written by Sam Morgan in 1997.