Dr. Henry August Fribourg

1929 - 2020

Dr. Henry August Fribourg

Knoxville - Dr. Henry August Fribourg, age 91, of Knoxville, TN, died Friday afternoon, September 25, 2020. Henry was Professor Emeritus of Crop Ecology at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Dr. Fribourg was a scientist, educator and professional leader who was widely recognized in the State of Tennessee, the United States and world-wide as an authority on forage crops, tall fescue ecology and pasture and beef cattle management. Henry was a frequent speaker in East Tennessee on the causes and effects of Germany's conduct of the Holocaust throughout Europe before and during World War II. Dr. Fribourg was born March 10, 1929 in Paris, France to the late Jean and Yvonne Fribourg. His family was deeply rooted in Lorraine since the 10th Century, and in Spain to the 6th Century. Henry lived in France and Algeria until 1942, when his immediate family was able to escape, one week before it was no longer feasible to flee from World War II German occupation of France and the ensuing Holocaust. The family resided in Havana, Cuba, where he attended high school, learning English and Spanish along the way. The family then immigrated to the United States in April 1945 and he became a citizen in 1951. In 1949, he earned his B.S. Degree from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, his M.S. in 1951 from Cornell University, and his Ph.D. from Iowa State. Dr. Fribourg ten worked his way throughout his college career, first at minimum wage jobs, but later as Instructor of French at the University of Wisconsin. Besides his graduate stipends, he worked as a French/Spanish/English interpreter/translator in 1952-1954 for the Department of State and for the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Following graduation from Iowa State, he served two years in the United States Army Chemical Corps at Fort Detrick and later was recognized as a disabled Korean War Veteran by the Veterans Administration. Dr. Fribourg married Claudia Brunschwig on August 12, 1956, and joined the University of Tennessee, Knoxville faculty on September 15, to be the first research forage and pasture ecologist in the Agronomy Department. During his forty-five year career at UT, Dr. Fribourg taught many courses, mostly at the graduate level, in Forage crops and their management, crop ecology, Statistics in agriculture, Crop climatology, and Design and analysis of biological research. Henry guided over 90 students in their M.S. or Ph.D. studies. Although a fair but demanding mentor, Dr. Fribourg was appreciated by his students for the thorough education and training on which he insisted. He shared his knowledge not only with students, but also with the general public and internationally: he carried out many teaching and program evaluations in Turkey, France, Latin America, Yugoslavia, and Sahelian Africa. Dr. Fribourg was one of the first investigators to study the management required for summer annual grasses, such as forage sorghums and pearlmillet, used extensively for supplemental pastures and feed for dairy cows to maintain high levels of milk production during the dry and hot summer months. He was the author of the chapter on these plants in three successive editions of the Forages college textbook. He pioneered ways of using the weed bermudagrass as a useful and economical summer pasture for beef production, thereby doubling the usual grazing season of five to ten months per year. Much of his research involving cattle was conducted in collaboration with animal scientist and professional colleagues in allied fields. Dr. Fribourg often was the senior scientist coordinating such team research. He recognized that the life and performance of crop plants depends upon many interrelationships, thus he carried out much macro-and micro-climate work; he verified the validity of a precipitation model for theoretical soundness and practical use in the Mid-South; his publications in probability occurrences of climatic parameters for Tennessee have been useful not only to agriculturalist, but also to engineers, industrialists, architects and planners, and real estate and tourism industries. He characterized the potential value of different soils on the Tennessee landscape as these affect forage crops and trees for use on soils marginal for crop production, such as reclaimed coal strip mines. He pioneered the use of factor analysis in agronomic research and showed its usefulness for developing models describing crop plant and beef cattle responses. Henry was a collaborator on the international multi-language publication of terminology definitions for pasture, range and livestock management. Dr. Fribourg was the recipient of numerous professional awards and recognition: Fellow of the American Society of Agronomy and the Crop Science Society of America, distinguished Grasslander of the American Forage and Grassland Council, member of the Board of Directors of the Crop Science Society of the America and of the American Society of Agronomy, Associate Editor for the Journals Crop Science, the Journal of Production Agriculture and the electronic journal Forage and Grazinglands, and member of the International Grassland Congress Grazing Terminology Committee. Henry was the 1974-75 UT Macebearer, UT Annual Phi Kappa Phi Lecturer twice; he received the UT Chancellor's Research Scholar Merit Award and the Chancellor's Citation for Extraordinary Service to the University; in 2013, he received the Outstanding Alumni Award of the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences at the University of Wisconsin. Dr. Fribourg took an active interest in many of the Knoxville Civic, educational and religious activities; speaker on professional matters, foreign travel experiences and the role of agriculture in a quality environment; high school visiting Scientist for the Tennessee Academy of Sciences; longtime judge, Director, and President of the Southern Appalachian Science and Engineering Fair, and the Chair of Judging for the International Science and Engineering Fair held in Knoxville. He participated as a Director of the Lonas Drive Community Association of Directors for 40 years. Henry was active in Temple Beth El Board of Directors and Committees, and was elected twice President of the Congregation and later as a Lifetime Honorary Vice President. He was preceded in death by his parents and brother, Sylvain. Dr. Henry Fribourg is survived by his loving wife, Claudia; son Daniel and grandson, Bryan; daughter Renee'; sister, Rosette Fribourg Bessman; nephews and nieces, David, Naomi, Amiee, Marc, Pascal, Lauren, Nastasia and Oliver; sister in law, Monique and her children. A private service will be held 2:00 PM Tuesday, September 29, 2020 at New Jewish Cemetery with Rabbi Erin Boxt officiating. The service can be viewed by going to the Rose Mortuary Mann Heritage Chapel Facebook page. (link to follow) The family requests that in lieu of flowers, please make a memorial donation to Temple Beth El Holocaust Memorial Bookshelf or the Jewish Community Center's Holocaust Memorial Educational Fund. Online condolences may be sent to www.rosemortuary.com. Friends may call at their convenience Monday at Rose Mortuary Mann Heritage Chapel.