Harold Loden

Georgia Agricultural Hall of Fame

Dr. Loden's plant breeding efforts transformed the Anderson, Clayton Company from a small operation producing cotton seed for west Texas to a major supplier for greater Texas, New Mexico and Oklahoma. Working closely with the Texas Agricultural Experiment Stations in developing improved sorghum hybrids, he became a major supplier of sorghum seed throughout Europe and Japan, Mexico, South Africa and Argentina. He also helped develop sorghum hybrids adapted to Georgia and the Southeast. In 1986 he was the second, and only living, American to be named as an Honorary Life Member of the International Seed Trade Federation. He played a key role in enacting the U.S. Plant Variety Protection Act and helped develop similar laws in Japan and Australia and revise the New Zealand law. Dr. Loden is listed in Who's Who and American Men of Science and has served on the Food and Agriculture Committee of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. In 1983, friends from 31 states and 8 countries contributed $30,000 to establish the Harold and Celestia Loden Endowed Scholarship at UGA. Further funds from the Lodens and others have endowed this fund to provide the most prestigious scholarship for an undergraduate CAES student each year.

Occupation: Retired, Assistant and Associate Professor of Agronomy; Director, the College Experiment Station. Manager of Anderson, Clayton Co.'s world wide seed business; and executive Vice President of the American Seed Trade Association.