Chad E. Finn

Dedication: Chad E. Finn

Volume 43 of Horticultural Reviews celebrates the exceptionally productive career of Dr. Chad Elliott Finn. One of the five kids of D. Francis "Mickey" and Gabrielle "Gay", Chad grew up in Potomac, Maryland in the Washington, DC area. He spent much of his youth exploring the local creek, took over the family vegetable garden at age 10, and a couple of years later had a "eureka moment" when perusing the Burpee Seed Co. catalogue as he realized people could actually have a career developing new cultivars. He attained his B.S. degree in horticultural production at Purdue University (1983) where he was fortunate to be taken under the wings of Jules Janick, Frank Emerson, and Dick Hayden. During his summers away from Purdue, he received his first taste of berry research working under the guidance of renowned breeders Gene Galletta and Arlen Draper. He obtained M.S. (1986) and Ph.D. (1989) in horticulture with a minor in plant breeding from the University of Minnesota, where he was James Luby's first graduate student. His M.S. research focused on the inheritance of late bloom and early ripening in northern highbush, lowbush, and half-high blueberries. He was co-advised by soil scientist Carl Rosen for his Ph.D. thesis, and identified and characterized the response of Vaccinium species to varying pH levels and the interaction between pH level and nutrient uptake.

Chad's first career stop was at the University of Missouri where he served as State Fruit Extension Specialist from 1989 to 1993 working with home gardeners and commercial fruit growers. Growers Bob and Ronnie Hershey were introduced to Chad at a chilly blueberry field day and described him as the "redhead with an infectious smile" and recognized a young man enthusiastic about his job. They later visited the home of Chad and wife Barbara Fick and their sons Elliot and Ian, and marveled at the grapes, berries, fruit trees, and flowers reflecting their joint love affair with plants. Chad, sometimes referred to the "fruit geek," is in reality one of the greatest small fruit breeders in the United States.

After his stint in Missouri, Dr. Finn took over the leadership of the USDA-ARS small fruit breeding program in Corvallis. This was a "dream job" for Chad, and he has lived his dream, developing what is probably the most diverse berry breeding program in the world with significant efforts in the major small fruit crops. Initially, he developed very active programs in germplasm and cultivar development for strawberries, blackberries, and red raspberries. More recently, in response to grower input, he added blueberries and black raspberries to his portfolio of breeding programs. Dr. Finn's germplasm development program is the largest and most productive of its kind in the world, extending from collection and evaluation of traits in wild species to incorporation of desirable traits into new cultivars. He has developed cooperative research with other breeders, other scientists for trait evaluations, commodity groups, and growers in the Pacific Northwest and throughout the world.

Dr. Finn led or co-led collection trips for germplasm in the Pacific Northwest, Ecuador, China, and the eastern United States and for Rubus and Vaccinium materials and incorporated new valuable traits into his breeding materials. He has cooperated with colleagues at various universities to evaluate Fragaria germplasm leading to a greater characterization of wild species and the discovery of new traits for cultivar development. The research on R. occidentalis from eastern North America has identified multiple sources of aphid resistance, Verticillium tolerance, and novel anthocyanin profiles, which he is now incorporating into cultivar material. The goal is to minimize the impact of Verticillium wilt and aphid transmitted viruses, which have reduced the productive life of black raspberry plantings in the Pacific Northwest to 2-3 years.

Dr. Finn has developed a multipronged approach in many of his breeding programs through collaborations with other scientists, including molecular biologists, food/flavor chemists, plant pathologists, virologists, horticulturists, and other breeders. In this way, he has been able to evaluate a wide range of traits and develop molecular markers for traits of interest in the berry crops. These efforts have been funded through the Specialty Crops Research Initiative (SCRI) grants program, with major efforts on strawberry through RosBREED, and a blueberry and two Rubus grants. He led a black raspberry SCRI grant, which was funded based on the preliminary work he and his student did on germplasm evaluations.

Dr. Finn has released or co-released (with USDA, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Washington State University, and University of Arkansas) 37 new cultivars including 11 trailing, 1 semi-erect, and 2 primocane-fruiting, erect blackberries, 8 red raspberries, 11 strawberries, and 4 blueberries, as well as 2 germplasm releases. Among the most important of his many cultivar releases are five thornless blackberries, and 'Black Diamond' has been the most widely planted blackberry in the Pacific Northwest in recent years. The latest, 'Columbia Star', is anticipated to be as good as or better than 'Marion', the processing industry standard. Fruit sales from cultivars that Dr. Finn has released were greater than $120 million over the past 5 years.

Dr. Finn has authored or co-authored 162 scientific papers, 6 patents/patent applications, 30 book chapters, 34 extension publications, 89 proceedings, and over 85 abstracts as well as given over 180 invited presentations. Dr. Finn has obtained, with teams, over $14 million in competitive grants with over $3.75 million going to his program. The innovativeness and impact of Dr. Finn's research program have been recognized by the scientific community and small fruit industries as demonstrated by his election as Fellow in the American Society for Horticultural Science; Distinguished Alumni Award from the Department of Horticulture, Purdue University; a USDA-ARS Technology Transfer award; Wilder Medal by the American Pomological Society; and numerous international and domestic requests received for information, invitations to discuss his research programs, successful grant proposals, and requests to assist in development and evaluation of plant materials from other breeding programs. He is a courtesy professor in the Department of Horticulture at Oregon State University and has supervised/mentored 6 M.S. and 2 Ph.D. students and has served on 15 graduate student committees.

Dr. Finn is recognized internationally as a leading authority on small fruit crops, especially in the areas of breeding, germplasm, and cultivar performance as well as in production and processing. He has hosted visiting scientists from Argentina, Australia, Canada, Chile, China, Ecuador, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Pakistan, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Serbia, Scotland, Serbia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, Ukraine, and United Kingdom, as well as U.S. scientists from more than 30 states. Dr. Finn is also active in the American Society for Horticultural Science (ASHS) and the International Society for Horticultural Science (ISHS), serving in Working Groups and on the Scientific Committees for the publication of the Acta Horticulturae for Rubus and Ribes, Vaccinium, and strawberry symposia since 2001. He has given invited keynote addresses at the Rubus and Ribes (2001, 2005) and Vaccinium (2012) Symposia of ISHS and was co-convener of the ISHS Vaccinium Symposium held in Corvallis in 2008 and the ISHS Berry Fruit Symposium held in Brisbane, Australia. He has been invited to present his research results in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Italy, Mexico, the Netherlands, Scotland, United Kingdom, Uruguay, and at multiple universities, grower's meetings, and ASHS meetings in the United States. Dr. Finn has been involved in the Small Fruit Crop Germplasm Committee for the USDA-ARS National Plant Germplasm System since 1993. He is a member of the American Pomological Society, having served on advisory committees from 1996 to 1998 and on the Executive Board since 2011. He served as co-editor for the American Pomological Society/ASHS Fruit and Nut Cultivar List for 2005-2012 and as registrar/contributor for the List for blackberry and hybrid berry (1999-2014) and strawberry (1999-2009). He also served as co-editor for the Journal of Berry Research.

One of the Chad's closest colleagues at Oregon State University, Dr. Bernadine Strik, offers the following tribute: "Chad is the kind of colleague you dream about-one who is very passionate about his job, hardworking, giving, fair, innovative, and productive. He does his job with a sense of humor and no matter what the circumstances, he makes people feel at ease; he is a great speaker-knowledgeable, humorous, and animated; he is extremely well respected by peers and industry nationally and internationally. I couldn't imagine a better collaborator and friend."

Fellow USDA-ARS researcher and Research Leader (Chad's boss) for the Horticultural Crops Research Laboratory at Corvallis, Dr. Robert Martin, comments: "Chad is a bright, optimistic, jovial, helpful, enthusiastic colleague and friend. We have worked together on many projects and he is a great...