NEWARK, Del. When Dr.
George Haenlem, professor of
animal science and extension
dairy specialist, immigrated to
America from Germany in 1953,
he never dreamed he would
work at the University of
Delaware (UD), let along stay
for 42 years.
The only thing he knew for
sure is that he wanted to marry
Lizzy, a farmer’s daughter whom
he’d met when he was a scholar
ship student from the
University of Stuttgart-
Hohenheim in 1951 and 1952.
He hoped to lead an ordinary
life with Lizzy, raising a family
and working on a farm. An ordi
nary life, however, is not all
what Haenlein has led, not from
the very beginning, in Germany,
during the war.
A tall man who towers above
any crowd, Haenlein wears a red
alpine sweater, looking as
though he has just skied down a
mountain somewhere. With a
trace of his homeland still lin
gering in his speech, he tells of
his youth on a highly diversified
small farm.
“Our extended family had 15
acres when we raised many
Haenlein - Retires From Faculty, Not From Teaching
kinds of animals and crops so we
had something to eat and sell 12
months of the year,” he said.
“The war years were filled with
hardship and rationing, but the
one thing that was not rationed
was the goats,” recalled
Haenlein, his strong voice seri
ous. Suddenly, his eyes sparkle
and his face crinkles into a wide
grin.
“I took care of the goats,” he
said.
“Goats are wonderful ani
mals,” said Haenlein. “They
saved our lives.”
It was Haenlein’s childhood
passion for goats that led to his
doctoral degree in animal nutri
tion at Hohenheim, and ulti
mately to his career in dairy sci
ence at UD. And, a quarter of a
century later, it was his doctoral
research on goat nutrition that
launched him into an interna
tional leadership role on the
importance of goats.
Between 1953 and 1957
Haenlein worked as a herdsman
and assistant manager at a local
dairy farm. UD College of
Agriculture Dean George
Worrilow, who often dropped in
to visit farmers throughout the
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state, recognized Haenlein from
his graduate work at UD.
“This one day he found me
under a cow and encouraged me
to apply for a position open at
the college.”
Haenlein got the job.
Appointed to do research full
time, he conducted research and
helped with the cows by day, and
analyzed data by night. A few
weeks after his arrival, the
supervisor of the UD dairy herd
retired.
“Let George do it,” Worrilow
said, warning Haenlein that the
herd would be sold if Haenlein
didn’t improve their production.
“Okay,” said Haenlein. “I’ll do
it!,” a phrase that would echo
throughout his career.
Haenlein assumed responsi
bility for about 80 cows, soon
transforming them into an
award-winning herd, a model in
the region and across the state.
“My girls - They are my pride
and joy” said Haenlein affection
ately, noting that the herd he
inherited in 1957 produced
8,000 pounds of milk per cow,
per year, while the current herd
of 100 produce close to 22,000
pounds per cow per year.
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Almost at the same time
Haenlein took over the herd, the
extension specialist for dairy sci
ence died, and Worrilow again
turned to Haenlein
“Okay,” said Haenlein “I’ll do
it!,” although his position pre
sented special challenges
because of the writing expecta
tions.
“When I came to America in
1951, I had a German-English
dictionary in one pocket and an
English-German dictionary in
the other,” said Haenlein, his
laughter filling the room. “But
Jack Murray, the college editor,
told me not to worry: ‘George you
write, and I’ll correct it.’ And so I
banged away at it.”
He’s been banging away
every since, churning out more
than 575 popular articles and
monthly research-extension
publications on current issues in
dairying, in addition to almost
200 scientific papers published
in technical journals of one sort
or another. His column on dairy
management, “Cow Tales,”
which is distributed widely
throughout the industry, has its
roots in his first months at the
university.
Haenlein’s pace picked up in
1978 when people “suddenly”
became interested in goats.
Because of his background,
Haenlein was asked to organize
symposiums and to write a book
on goat management
“Extension Goat Handbook,” a
thick book on 75 different dairy
goat topics, was published in
1981. Distributed by the U.S.
Department of Agriculture
(USDA), the book became the
bible for goat management
“Nutrient Requirements For
Goats” which he wrote the fol
lowing year for the National
Research Council (NRC),
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tries.
“I love my goats, but I love my
cows too. The goat industry was
about 50 years behind the cows,
though,” said Haenlein. “The
goat people needed my help, so I
helped them.”
Haenlein, a natural story
teller, weaves tales of everything
from bulls to blizzards to rams
“with horns so big they wouldn’t
fit in the stalls,” providing some
glimpse as to his effectiveness
and popularity as a classroom
teacher. And many of the stories
are punctuated with “and Lizzy
helped,” because usually she
was at his side helping with
everything from the statistical
analyses of his scientific data to
record keeping to taking care of
the university herd when
Haenlein was out of town.
Summing it up, Haenlein,
who officially retired in the sum
mer of 1999, says he’s loved
teaching and working at UD.
“It was 42 years of work that
was no work at all,” he said “It
was a joy “Now I want to spend
more time with my family, espe
cially my 14 grandchildren.”
He looks pleased at the
thought, then remembers' “Of
course I am continuing to write
my ‘Cow Tales’ column Oh, and
the USAID wants me to go to
Jordan next week, and the
USDA wants me to help update
“Extension Goat Handbook,”
and the NRC asked me to help
update the “Nutrient
Requirements For Goats,” and a
publisher in England invited me
to be on the editorial board for a
new dairy encyclopedia
“Okay, I told them,” He is exu
berant “I’ll do it l ”
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became the standard for goat
nutrition. Haenlein still travels
the world for the U.S Agency for
International Development
(USAID), helping Third World
countries develop dairy indus-