In memoriam: H. Allen Tucker, PhD

Abstract

It is with great sadness that I share news of the passing of Herbert Allen Tucker (“Tuck”; Figure 1), professor emeritus of animal science and physiology at Michigan State University (MSU). Tucker was a leading expert on mammary biology and lactation in dairy cattle who had served on the Michigan State faculty for 38 years. He died Wednesday, July 15, 2009, at Sparrow Hospital. The following remembrance is an attempt to capture in words the remarkable impact Tuck had on his colleagues and field of research. H. Allen Tucker (“Tuck”) was born in 1936 in Milford, Massachusetts. Throughout his adult life Tuck thoroughly enjoyed gardening, fishing, deer hunting, scouting, camping, antiquing, and going to his cabin. At work, he was the consummate old-style professor who believed the purpose of his research program was to train others. He labored tirelessly to train graduate students, fellows, visiting scientists and colleagues like me how to write about, evaluate and conduct research. Tuck often used the word “pithy,” although few of us ever knew what the word meant. He also strongly believed, even preached, that everyone’s research design, lectures, and scientific writings, including his own, could be improved by constructive criticism. Many of us owe much of the success in our scientific careers to Tuck’s pithy, sometimes stinging, yet always welldeserved criticisms. Tucker obtained his BS degree in animal husbandry from the University of Massachusetts in 1958 and his MS and PhD in animal physiology at Rutgers University in 1960 and 1963 under the guidance of Ralph Reece. Tucker joined the Michigan State University Dairy Science Department in 1962 where he rose to the rank of professor in the Departments of Animal Science and Physiology and remained until his retirement in 2000. During his highly productive career, he and his colleagues were responsible for development of radioimmunoassays for prolactin, growth hormone, insulin, glucocorticoids, and thyroid hormones in cattle. His descriptions of variations in these hormones during mammary growth, lactation, and the different seasons were among the first published. He also concentrated his efforts on understanding how temperature and photoperiod might be used to control hormone secretion and, as a consequence, rate of growth and lactation in cattle. Results of these efforts demonstrated clearly that 16 h of light increased growth and lactational performance in cattle. This novel research was highlighted by a publication in Science. Tucker was internationally recognized as a leader in the field of endocrine control of lactation. He authored 355 scientific publications and co-authored the most widely used textbook for college courses in dairy science, Dairy Cattle: Principles, Practices, Problems, Profits. He was the first editor of the Michigan Dairy Review at MSU. Tuck was recipiIn memoriam: H. Allen Tucker, PhD