1883-1959
With the passing of George Hart, animal husbandry lost one of its pioneers who truly laid the foundation of modern animal science. George combined the qualities of a scientific investigator, an outstanding administrator, a born leader, and a vigorous and kindly human being. He had the ability to inspire his colleagues.
George Hart, a native of Pennsylvania, was awarded the degree Doctor of Veterinary Medicine in 1903 from the University of Pennsylvania, and Doctor of Medicine from George Washington University in 1908.
As a Bacteriologist and Pathologist he served the Bureau of Animal Industry, US Department of Agriculture for five years. He was City Veterinarian for Los Angeles from 1910 to 1917 before joining the faculty of the College of Agriculture of the University of California at Davis, where he spent the rest of his life. Here he organized the Department of Animal Husbandry which he headed for twenty-two years, during which period he made outstanding contributions in animal nutrition and endocrinology, particularly in the fields of vitamin A and gonadotropic hormones. He was also instrumental in building the faculty of this department with a number of outstanding scientists whose names are familiar to members of the livestock industry.
Dr. Hart was president of the American Society of Animal Production in 1939, and his portrait was hung in the Saddle and Sirloin Club at the Union Stock Yards in Chicago in 1947. At the normal retirement age of sixty-five he became Dean of the newly-organized School of Veterinary Medicine. He retired officially in 1954 as Dean Emeritus. In 1986 the old Animal Science Building was named George Hart Hall in his honor.