A memorial will be held Friday at Ridgetown, Ont. for University of Guelph professor Gary Ablett, whose school remembered him Monday as an “esteemed soybean researcher, engaging professor, and stellar administrator.”
Ablett, who had been battling brain cancer for the past six months, died Sunday at age 58, the University of Guelph said in a release.
Ablett, who earned his master’s degree and doctorate in plant breeding from Guelph, started his research and teaching career at the Ridgetown campus in 1979.
During his time at the university, he set up the public soybean breeding program that “remarkably” delivered over 50 new soybean varieties for Ontario farmers’ use, the university said.
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“Ablett was a big picture thinker when it came to the world’s demands for soybeans,” Dave Sippell, president of Syngenta Seeds Canada and the Canadian Seed Trade Association, said in the university’s release.
“His interest and commitment supported both public and private industry growth. That was demonstrated time and time again as he worked co-operatively and cohesively with breeders, processors, distributors, farmers and regulators to help advance the Canadian soybean seed sector at all levels,” Sippell said.
“The number of high yielding, agronomically sound soybean varieties registered over the last number of years are a strong indication of Gary’s skill as a breeder.”
Ablett’s recent research projects included breeding for aphid and soybean cyst nematode resistance, as well as development work on specialty soybean traits, high-oil varieties for the biofuel market and modified-oil varieties for food and industrial uses.
“Diplomacy and exuberance”
Ablett is also credited with leading the Ridgetown campus through its amalgamation into the University of Guelph in 1997. He then served as director of Ridgetown campus for the following 10 years, but for a two-year secondment to Guelph campus as chair of Guelph’s plant agriculture department (2004-06).
Ablett’s honours included recognition in his local community in 2007, when residents of Chatham-Kent named him “Agriculturalist of the Year,” an award generally given to farmers and agribusinesspeople.
More recently, he served as co-chair and speaker and as one of 30 Canadian delegates to the World Soybean Conference scientific meetings last August in Beijing.
“Best known for his diplomacy and exuberance, he was well known throughout the university community and admired by all who had the privilege to work with him,” Ontario Agriculture College dean Rob Gordon said in the university’s release.
Ablett’s family will host visitations at the Blenheim Community Funeral Home in Blenheim on Thursday (April 8) from 2 to 4 p.m. and 7 to 9 p.m. The memorial will follow on Friday (April 9) at 1:30 p.m. at the Don Pestell Auditorium at the Rudy H. Brown Rural Development Centre on the Ridgetown campus.
In lieu of flowers, gifts can be made in Ablett’s memory to the Ridgetown Campus Agri-Food Foundation or to Brain Tumour Foundation of Canada.
