Harry A. Herman
Harry A Herman was born February 7, 1905. His parents moved from their native state of North Carolina to Hannibal, Missouri, when he was five years old and engaged in dairy farming. He started milking cows on the home farm before he was six years of age. He graduated from Hannibal High School in 1924. As a college student, for two years, he milked 3x and 4x-a day test cows, at the University of Missouri, to help defray expenses. He earned his B.S. in Agriculture, M.S. and Ph.D. degrees at the University of Missouri, where he was elected to Sigma XI. He also did graduate work at the University of Wisconsin. Upon graduation in 1929 he was hired as Instructor in Dairy Husbandry and began a teaching and research career at the University of Missouri which was terminated in 1953 when he resigned his professorship to become the first Executive Secretary of the National Association of Animal Breeders.
For nearly 25 years, at the University of Missouri, he served as a teacher, research worker and lecturer, on dairy cattle breeding, artificial insemination and herd management. He coached the University’s Dairy Cattle Judging Team for 21 years. For many years he supervised graduate training for M.S. and Ph.D. students and he supervised the University of Missouri dairy herd and farm for 23 years.
In July, 1953 he became the first Executive Secretary of the National Association of Animal Breeders. The NAAB was in its infancy. During his tenure the A.I. program expanded. There was one or more AI organizations, mostly cooperatives, in nearly every state. The NAAB membership grew from about 40 to 97 members. As frozen semen and semen sales programs and young sire proving programs came into the picture, beginning in 1953, the consolidation and mergers of organizations began. The National NAAB office was located in Columbia in 1953 and continues there. Practically 100 percent of the A.I. businesses in the United State became members and many organization in Canada and overseas became associates.
He retired September 1, 1972, having passed the established retirement age by over two years, and was given the title of Executive Secretary Emeritus.
In addition to dairy activities at the state and national level Dr. Herman has made many contributions to animals research, authoring more than fifty bulletins and over 150 scientific papers. He is author or co-author of three textbooks. He served for many years as Chairman of the Research Committee of the Purebred Dairy Cattle Association. Earlier he helped draw up the first set of regulations for registering purebred calves from artificial insemination; the Uniform Rules for Official Testing of Dairy Cattle, and the Uniform Score Card now used in dairy cattle judging. He helped organize, in June 1938, with cooperation of the Farm Security Administration, USDA the second cooperative artificial breeding association in the United States. He assisted in developing short courses for training technicians beginning in 1941. He also organized and taught one of the first college-level courses on artificial insemination of dairy cattle in America. Throughout the years Dr. Herman has received many honors and recognition including: Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in the World; Who’s Who in Education; American Men of Science; Borden Award in Dairy Production 1956; Delegate Third International. Congress on Reproduction, Cambridge, England, 1956; also Fourth Congress, Hague, Netherlands, 1960; Honored Guest Dairy Shrine 1974; Man of the Year Award, Dairy Expo, Madison, WI 1973; Hall of Honors Dairy Leadership Award, Missouri 1973; Director 1966-77 American Guernsey Cattle Club, President 1969-74; Distinguished Service Award, American Guernsey Cattle Club 1977; President, Dairy Shrine 1961; Distinguished Service Award Gamma Sigma Delta 1968; Honored by Italian Society of Animal Production 1972, and by the Government of Brazil1974; Recipient of “All Time Great Dairyman Award; Agriservices Foundation 1980; President, Purebred Dairy Cattle Association 1973; Honorary Doctor of Science, UMC, 1988.
He has judged dairy and dual purpose cattle at more than 30 state fairs and regional shows and was an approved judge for all milk breeds. He wrote the Artificial Breeding Column for Hoard’s Dairyman for over 25 years and is a contributor to other farm papers. For nearly twenty years he was part owner and President of Sunnymede Farms, Inc., Bismarck, Missouri, where a herd of 175 registered Guernsey and a producer-distributor milk business was operated.
In 1932 he was married to Lucille E. Land, Kansas City, Missouri. The have two sons—Dr. Harry A. Herman, Jr., orthodontist, Guam, and Dr. Donald L. Herman, Agricultural Consultant, McComb, Mississippi. He has eight grandchildren and five great grandchildren.
Dr. Herman is a senior Rotarian and a member of the First Baptist Church, Columbia. He is a member of Farm House Fraternity and also Gamma Alpha. His hobbies are fishing, hunting and beekeeping. He was a long time member of the Rotary Bowling Team and was City Singles Champion in 1960. Retirement finds him carrying on his activities with various dairy organizations, traveling and writing.