Angus “Gus” Alexander Hanson

Angus “Gus” Alexander Hanson, 83, retired director of the USDAs Beltsville Agricultural Research Center (BARC), died unexpectedly April 30, 2005 at his home in Riderwood , MD.   Dr. Hanson devoted 30 years to the USDA until his retirement in 1979 when he joined W-L Research, Inc. as Vice President and Director of Research.  He retired from W-L to become a member of the Board of Directors in 1987.

Angus met his wife of 56 years, Helen Gertrude Crook, at MacDonald College , Quebec , in 1946 where she took his class in Agricultural Statistics.  They married in 1948 in Ayer’s Cliff , Quebec and emigrated to the United States in 1949.  He was a loving husband who considered his highest calling to be his devotion to his wife and family.

Dr. Hanson was born January 1, 1922 at Chilliwack , B.C. on his grandfather Alexander McKenzie’s farm. He worked his way through college as a tugboat fireman, a saw mill operator, a tram car operator in the Brittany Mine, and as a potato inspector.  He earned degrees in agronomy from the University of British Columbia (B.S.A.,1944), McGill University (M.Sc.,1946), and  Pennsylvania State University (Ph.D., 1951). He worked as Lecturer and Assistant Professor at Macdonald College in Quebec from 1946 to 1949 for forage crop breeding and management. In 1949 he was named Project Leader for grass and legume breeding at the U.S. Regional Pasture Research Laboratory in State College , PA.   He became the Research Leader for grass and turf investigations in the USDAs Agricultural Research Service (ARS) (1953); Chief, Forage and Range Research Branch (1965); and following the regionalization of the ARS, he became the first director of BARC (1972).  At W-L Research he lead the proprietary alfalfa seed development program.

Dr. Hanson was a gifted public speaker who traveled, lectured, and consulted extensively in Latin America, Asia, and Europe .  He served as the contact scientist for an ARS/AID program to Vietnam on plant and seed multiplication in the early 1970s and in 1984 he lectured on forage crops at the Northwestern College of Agriculture in Shaanxi , China .  He was a guest at the 50^th Anniversary Meeting of the V.I. Lenin All-Union Academy of Agricultural Sciences in Moscow in 1979.  From 1976 – 1979 Dr. Hanson represented the U.S. at the meetings of the OECD Seed Scheme negotiations in Paris ; he continued to attend these meetings as an observer for the American Seed Trade Association from 1980 to 1985.

During his career Dr. Hanson authored over 130 technical and review papers and was coauthor of one textbook.  He served as editor for the Crop Science Journal and the Journal of Environmental Quality.  He was the senior editor for two American Society of Agronomy monographs, “Turfgrass Science and Technology,” and “Alfalfa and Alfalfa Improvement.”  He served as editor-in-chief of the CRC Press Agricultural Handbook Series and editor of the CRC “Handbook of Practical Agriculture.”

Dr. Hanson received the Superior Service Award, the Distinguished Service Award, and a Merit Certificate for Outstanding Performance from the USDA; he received the Distinguished Grasslander Award from the American Forage and Grassland Council.  He was a fellow of the ASA, the CSSA, the AAAS, and was a member of the Cosmos Club in Washington . D.C. He was a member of the Colesville Presbyterian Church.

In his retirement Angus was fond of memorizing and reciting his favorite poems by Robert Frost and Robert Burns. Angus never met a stranger and he was always the life of the party. Angus is survived by his wife, Helen, three children (Bruce Alexander Hanson, Brian Ernest Hanson, Ph.D., and Col. Margot Ruth Hanson Krauss, M.D.) and seven grandchildren (Nicholas Fisher Hanson, Andrew Alexander Hanson, Erin Eileen Hanson, Alexander Angus Hanson, Jeremy Loren Krauss, Brian Gregory Hanson, and Anna Catherine Krauss.)  He was a loving father and grandfather who will be greatly missed.

A memorial service will be held at Colesville Presbyterian Church, 12800 New Hampshire Ave. , Silver Spring , MD 20904 , Phone: 301-622-4555 on Saturday, May 7, 2005 at 5:00 pm.   Memorial contributions may be made to Colesville Presbyterian Church.