C. Anthon Ernstrom (1922-1998) Nutrition and Food Sciences Building
In 1965, Carl Anthon Ernstrom was made head of the newly formed Department of Nutrition, Food Sciences and Industries at Utah State University. Almost immediately, he began promoting the idea of constructing a new building to house the department’s faculty and laboratories.
The building he dreamed of was completed on the east edge of USU’s campus in the mid-1970s, and was later named in Ernstrom’s honor in 1992. At the naming recognition event, Ernstrom was praised by then USU President George Emert, former USU President Stanford Cazier and Ernstrom’s former students as an outstanding administrator, teacher and scientist.
Although Ernstrom’s research focused on cheese production, most people know the C. Anthon Ernstrom Nutrition and Food Sciences Building as the place where locals, students, alumni and visitors flock to purchase famous Aggie Ice Cream. The building is also home to numerous laboratories and offices where students and faculty work to expand the world’s knowledge about nutrition and the production of food.
Ernstrom was commended at USU for the fact that, although administrative duties demanded his attention, he consistently taught and advised more graduate students than any other faculty member in his department.
Gary H. Richardson Dairy Products Laboratory
Gary H. Richardson graduated from Utah State University in 1953 and joined the university’s faculty in 1967. Utah State’s current lab was christened the Gary Haight Richardson Dairy Products Laboratory in 1994 as a result of a gift to the university from USU alum Niranjan R. Gandhi and his wife, Josephine N. Gandhi. Gandhi was a graduate student of Richardson.
Richardson initially planned to study music at USU, but pursued dairy science instead. Just one day into their marriage, Fran Richardson, Gary’s wife of more than 50 years, realized her husband’s passion when he stopped for a tour of a Star Valley, Wyoming, cheese plant on their honeymoon.
Richardson, who earned a doctorate from the University of Wisconsin and served on USU’s Department of Nutrition and Food Sciences faculty for 28 years, made many contributions to the dairy industry during his career. He helped to develop proteinase-negative lactic cultures that are now used in about 36 percent of all cheeses manufactured in the United States.
The first Utahn to serve as president of the American Dairy Science Association, Richardson was honored with the organization’s Fellow Award in 2002 for 20 or more years of distinguished service to the dairy industry.
*Note: All bios are current and up-to-date as of Summer 2022.