The first endowment for a department chair at Iowa State University will be established with a $2 million bequest from alumnus G. Richard “Dick” Johnson of Urbana, Ill. Johnson’s commitment will create the Wilbert A. Russell Endowed Department Chair in Agronomy in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, the university announced today in a news release.

Johnson received a bachelor’s degree from in agronomy from Iowa State in 1960 and a doctorate in plant breeding in 1965. Now retired after a long career with the DeKalb and Monsanto companies, he is an adjunct professor in the crop sciences department at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Johnson chose to honor Wilbert Russell, a former Iowa State agronomy professor, by naming the endowed chair after him.

Russell, an authority on corn breeding for nearly four decades, joined Iowa State’s agronomy faculty in 1952. He was named a Charles F. Curtiss Distinguished Professor in Agriculture in 1984. He retired in 1989 and currently lives in Ames with his wife, Dorothy.

Russell was instrumental in developing the corn inbred line known as B73. Released by ISU in the early 1970s, B73 was used by seed companies to create new commercial hybrids that dramatically boosted corn yields for farmers. The lineage of most of the world’s valuable, high-performing corn varieties can be traced back to Russell’s work in developing B73. It also is the variety being used in groundbreaking research into corn genetics.

Funds from Johnson’s deferred gift will eventually be used to launch academic and research initiatives, support assistantships and fellowships, supplement recruitment and retention packages, and enable faculty development. Endowed leadership positions enable administrators to leverage human and financial resources to intensify the impact of their unit and its programs. This endowment will grant future chair holders the unique ability to capitalize on new opportunities and emerging priorities.