Wayne D. Rasmussen, 1915-2004

Abstract

Wayne D. Rasmussen, 1915–2004 Dana G. Dalrymple (bio) Wayne Rasmussen, former chief historian for the United States Department of Agriculture, and long considered the dean of agricultural historians, died on 30 April 2004 after a full life and productive career.1 He often said that he couldn't have had a better job. Wayne was a cheerful optimist, a trait that served him well. Life did not start easily for him. He was raised on a small cattle ranch in central Montana that went bottom-up during the Great Depression. Following his father's early death he worked his way through the University of Montana, where he met and became a lifelong friend of Senator Mike Mansfield. His bachelor's degree in history only qualified him for a position as an "under clerk-typist" in the Department of Agriculture in 1937; he was promoted to "assistant clerk, historical" in 1940. But Wayne had another purpose for coming to Washington: to start graduate work and become a college teacher. He received his M.A. from George Washington University in 1939. In the course of his subsequent studies for the Ph.D., he took German to fulfill a language requirement; this proved sufficient to land him a position in army intelligence in London and Germany during World War II. After the war he returned to the USDA, finished up his Ph.D. in history in 1950, and was off and running. Wayne's military experience gave him an acute understanding of how historical research could have practical applications. Throughout his career as a government historian he emphasized research that could better inform [End Page 683] policy making. He felt that "the historical background we could supply could help administrators avoid some of the mistakes made in the past and develop programs more useful to farmers and consumers." Thus, as he wrote, "Any research that I did usually bore on current problems."2 Click for larger view View full resolution Figure 1. Wayne D. Rasmussen, 1915-2004. (Copyright 1983, the Washington Post. Photo by Fred Sweets. Reprinted with permission.) Technology was one of two or three areas to which Wayne paid particular attention.3 His principal focus in his studies of technology, as in his [End Page 684] other research, was to examine the determinants of agricultural development.4 Yet these made up only part of a much larger body of work that included early studies on Latin America and a vast array of writings in other areas of the history of American agriculture.5 This broad scope enabled him to draw from one area of history to inform his writing in another. In total, Wayne authored or coauthored more than two hundred articles and several books, and edited a definitive four-volume documentary history of agriculture in the United States.6 Wayne's accomplishments extended well beyond scholarly writing. Since the main function of his office within the USDA was to provide historical background for policy development, he lived in both the past and present—and the present, with its delicate political issues, could be quite demanding. Wayne worked with some eleven secretaries of agriculture and numerous other department administrators. He was often in the thick of things. Still, he found time to interact with historian-colleagues in the department (steering me to to Mel Kranzberg and SHOT, for example) and the academy, serve on many graduate student committees, and act as the longtime secretary of the Agricultural History Society. He was also one of the founders of the Association of Living Historical Farms and Agricultural Museums, and served as its president.7 Wayne faced two chronic challenges in his official duties, which may be shared to varying degrees by other government historians. Every change in administration brought a need to rejustify the existence of an agricultural history unit. Few administrations arrive with a strong interest in history, though they soon come to realize its value, and perhaps their place in it. There could also be problems, particularly with Congress, related to the interpretation of history. This became particularly evident in the case of A Century of Service, a history of the Department of Agriculture prepared by Wayne and several others...