Godfrey R. Hoerner earned his degree from Oregon Agricultural College in 1916 and was a faculty member at Oregon State College from 1931 to 1959.
Godfrey Richard Hoerner was born in San Antonio, Texas in 1893. He later lived in the Northeast and Seattle, moving to Corvallis to attend Oregon Agricultural College in 1912. While at OAC Hoerner was extraordinarily involved with the campus, during his senior year he served as President of the student body, a Chancellor of Gamma Sigma Delta, on the Student Body Budget Committee, and the Director in Cooperative Association. In other years he was on Student Council, in Intercollegiate Debate and the Osolito Club (all four years), on the Barometer staff, Editor in Chief of the 1916 Orange yearbook, in the Cosmopolitan Club, on the Junior Play Cast committee, in the Easterners Club and Agricultural Club, in the Honor Legion, and a Lieutenant Colonel. He graduated from OSC in 1916 with a degree in Plant Pathology.
Hoerner moved to Minnesota after graduation, completing an MS on crown rust in oats at University of Minnesota in 1918. By 1921 he had returned to OSC as a Botany instructor, but left soon after to work for company that manufactured spraying and dusting machinery and materials. In 1931 he returned to Corvallis to work as a plant pathologist for the USDA with an emphasis on controlling downy mildew in hops, but also returned to his engagement with the university community, serving as the Secretary of the Alumni Association, on the board of Intercollegiate Athletics, on the OSC Co-op Board, and as a faculty advisor for Phi Kappa Phi.
In January 1948, Hoerner was appointed the Extension Specialist for Hop Production in a half-time appointment with the Extension Service, continuing his work for the USDA in the remainder. His hops specialist position was established at the request of Oregon hop growers and was initially funded by the Agricultural Research Foundation. Hoerner left his positions at Oregon State and the USDA in April 1955 to become Chief of the Oregon State College Technical Assistance Team at Kasetsart University in Thailand. He completed two 2-year contracts at Kasetsart in 1955-1959 and died in October 1959.
These materials were donated to the Special Collections & Archives Research Center by Joy Hoerner Rich, Hoerner's daughter, and Lisa Schessler, Hoerner's granddaughter, in several accessions from 1991 through 2015.
Collection is open for research.
Godfrey R. Hoerner Papers (MSS Hoerner), Oregon State University Special Collections & Archives Research Center, Corvallis, Oregon.
In addition to offering a view of student life at OAC in the teens, this collection supports research in the Oregon Hops and Brewing Archives. Hops Research Reports prepared by Hoerner and other USDA and Oregon State researchers, Experiment Station publications by Hoerner on the control of downy mildew in hops, and The Hop Press are available in
The Godfrey R. Hoerner Papers are arranged into three series: Series 1: Oregon Agricultural College, 1912-1940; Series 2: Hops & Brewing, 1895-1956; and Series 3: Kasetsart University, Thailand, 1904-1959.
The Godfrey R. Hoerner Papers includes materials from Hoerner's years as a student at Oregon Agricultural College (OAC), as a hops specialist with the OSC Extension Service, and as Chief of the Oregon State College Technical Assistance Team at Kasetsart University in Thailand. Included are photographs of OAC in the mid-teens; of USDA displays and brewers’ conventions in the 1930s through 1950s; and photographs, memorabilia, publications, and correspondence documenting the work of Godfrey and Ruby Hoerner in Thailand. Of special note are the scrapbooks from Hoerner’s time at OAC and his trip to Thailand; panoramic and group pictures from the American Brewers Association and Master Brewers Association of America; and publications such as the Brewers Digest: 20 Years of Brewing Progress issue commemorating the 20th anniversary of repeal, 1953, Siam Weekly Review, 1955-1959, and numerous tourism and travel books for Asian countries.
Series 1 contains loose photos and two photograph albums from Hoerner's time as a student at Oregon Agricultural College (OAC). Included in the first are student events and activities such as the May Pageant (with dances from different countries in costume); naval activities on the USS Cheyenne trip en route from Seattle to the Straits of Juan de Fuca, the USS Pennsylvania from Seattle to San Francisco, the USS Concord; from South of France in 1919; and in the outdoors of the Pacific Northwest. There are also pictures of Hoerner in the experimental greenhouses at the University of Minnesota; trips to Washington, New York, and Pennsylvania; and parties in Corvallis. Included in the second are student portraits; family photographs; group pictures from Oregon, Washington, Minnesota, and California; OAC baseball games; pictures from the Junior Hike, Junior Flunk Day, and the Cosmopolitan and Osolito clubs. Pictures. Series 1 also contains a 1912 OAC handbook, as well as manuals and a songbook from Delta Upsilon.
Photographs showing Hoerner as a speaker at brewing conventions and in hop fields; USDA displays in Oregon, New York, and Illinois; and group portraits from brewing conventions in Oregon. Also included are news clippings and other publications such as the 1952 Yakima Golding Hop Farms (illustrated presentation of hop farming) and 1955 Hop Reporter by John Haas, and the 1953 The Brewers Digest: 20 Years of Brewing Progress 1933-1953 (issue commemorating the 20th anniversary of repeal). Clippings include hop prices from 1920 and the 1956 Oregonian Blitz-Weinhard 100th Anniversary Edition: A Century of Brewing in Oregon.
Pictures related to brewing, especially brewers dinners and events.
Pictures related to brewing, espcially brewers dinners and events.
Hat given to Hoerner by OSU employees.
3 photos from brewing dinners/conventions, 1937, 1940, undated. Photographs were framed and are now fused to the glass.
Reflecting his time in Thailand at Kasetsart University as a technical assistant in plant pathology for the agriculture education program the materials in this series document his work and other related travel documents from Asian countries such as Japan and the Philippines. Hoerner's wife, Ruby, accompanied him on the trip, which was originally set for two years; it was extended to 4. Included are loose photographs, a photo album, and 4 scrapbooks with event invitations, news clippings, maps, watercolors, memorabilia, and souvenirs. There are many assorted publication in this series, likely collected by Hoerner before and during his travels. Included are two volumes of the Siam Society Commemorative Publication, Thai Digest, The American Publication of the American Women's Club of Thailand, and The Siam Weekly Review.
Titles include Orient Review, Thai-American Economic Cooperation 1951-1956, and an issue in Thai.
Titles include Abstracts of Papers from Ninth Pacific Science Congress in Thailand 1957, Thailand Past and Present, and the Yahk.
The Journal of the Siam Society.
Features articles and pictures from Thailand.
Features articles and pictures from Thailand.
Features articles and pictures from Thailand.