Sherret S. Chase Papers, 1945+ | Northern Illinois University

Sherret S. Chase was born on June 30, 1918 in Toledo, Ohio. His family moved to Wayne, Pennsylvania in 1922 where he graduated from Radnor High School in 1935. He began his higher education studies at the University of Arizona in the fall of 1935 but soon transferred to Yale University the following year. The summer of 1936 was spent backpacking in the Klinaklini glacier area of British Columbia where Chase was part of the Munday/Hall Mountaineering Party who were the first to ascended Silverthrone Mountain. Chase earned his B.S. (major in botany) in 1939 from Yale.

Chase then attended Graduate School at Cornell University in the fall and majored in plant cytology and genetics and minored in philosophy. On December 7, 1942, Chase was called for military service where he served as a second lieutenant and air navigator for the Army Air Force. He flew over fifty combat missions and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross during his service. During wartime, he married Catherine Ross Compton on November 27, 1943. Chase returned home on September 19, 1944 where he continued his service as a first lieutenant at the Navigation School at Ellington Field in Houston, Texas. Chase was released from service after the birth of his first daughter in August 1945. He returned to Cornell that fall and graduated with a Ph. D. in 1947.

Chase accepted an Assistant Professor position at Iowa State College where he continued his research on the plant genus Najas as well as parthenogenesis and monoploids of maize. Chase and his wife Catherine Ross (Compton) Chase had five children by 1953–three girls and two boys. At Iowa State, Chase developed the ‘monoploid method’ for producing homozygous diploid lines of maize and was awarded Associate Professor status. In 1953, Chase accepted a research geneticist position with DeKalb Agriculture Association, Inc. (later DeKalb AgReseach) in DeKalb, Illinois. Chase further developed his monoploid method and was successful in using it as a practical tool for plant breeding. DeKalb adopted the innovation, and thus expanded its corn breeding research and development program. Chase was appointed international maize breeder and then director of international seed operations for DeKalb where he worked with associated companies in Argentina, Australia, France, Italy, India, and Spain.

In July 1966, Chase resigned from his position at DeKalb in order to return to university and public service, but he remained a consultant with the company. He was awarded Fellowships at Harvard University where he continued his studies of tree breeding, genetics, and reproductive forest tree biology.

Chase accepted a Professor position in the Biology Department at New York State University College (SUNY) at Oswego where he taught genetics, cytogenetics, and economic botany. He resigned from SUNY in 1981 after several more years of research in maize genetics and the plant genus Salix.

In the year of his retirement from SUNY, Chase was appointed Director of Plant Breeding for the International Plant Research Institute (IPRI) in San Carlos, California. In 1983, he became the Director of Plant Breeding for the DNA Plant Technology Corporation (DNAP) in Cinnaminson, New Jersey where he remained until September 1987.

Chase continued private corn breeding and research in Ulster County, New York and maintained his consultant status with multiple international companies, including those in Haiti, Indonesia, and Thailand. Chase continues his involvement in several professional societies, community groups, and public activities. His most recent achievement was as founder of the Catskills Center for Conservation and Development (New York) where he has served for over forty years in one capacity or another, including Director, Chairman, and Board Member.