Celebrations organiser

Press, 4 May 1978, Page 25

Celebrations organiser

The man who has been leading the committee, which has been organising the Lincoln College centennial celebrations. Professor I. E. Coop, has had a long and distinguished association with the college. He was first briefly on the staff at the beginning of 1941 after being appointed a lecturer in animal science. He had only been at the college for about three weeks when war service intervened and he was not back again until 1946. In May that year he became professor of animal husbandry and in the 1960 s professor of animal science, with the change in name of his department. In 1958 Professor Coop became vice-principal and in the last 20 years has on several occasions acted as principal of the college. He has also served on the College Council. Professor Coop’s early academic training was as a chemist but in the course of a year at Cambridge he made the transfer to agriculture, and in particular to animal nutrition. The success with which that transfer was made has since been amply demonstrated and is perhaps easy to understand because he had a strong farming background. One of his notable contributions, in association with college staff members like V. R. Clark, has been in demonstrating the

merits of a sheep based on a combination of the Border Leicester and the Romney, and his part in this has been recognised in the name of the high prolificacy breed of sheep, the Coopworth, which has won an important place in the New Zealand sheep industry. One of his other studies, which is widely recognised, is that showing the importance of the liveweight of ewes at mating in subsequent lambing performance. Professor Coop has been

a regular speaker at farm

ers’ field days at the college and one of his characteristics, which has been appreciated, has been his ability to describe his work in clear and logical terms. In spite of the passage

of the years he has retained a youthful enthusiasm and a cheerful disposition. His role as chairman of the centennial executive committee will be one of his last while on the staff of the college, because he will be retiring at about the end of June. The task has not weighed too heavily on his shoulders, as he has been lecturing until quite recently and expects to be doing so after the celebrations. One of the main problems as far as the celebrations are concerned, he says, has been getting a clear picture of how many would be coming to particular functions so that appropriate venues could be decided, and it has been possible to make these decisions only quite recently. During the celebrations Professor Coop will receive an honorary doctorate of science—a Atting climax to his career at the college.