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A South Dakotan whose work is credited with saving more than 25 million people from starvation will be honored at an upcoming art dedication.

Edgar McFadden, breeder of the aptly named wheat variety “Hope,” will be honored at a public ceremony and reception on Saturday, Aug. 29. The ceremony will celebrate the dedication of a new art sculpture, H.O.P.E. a Helix of Resilience: The Life, Journey & Legacy of Edgar S. McFadden.

“We honor Edgar McFadden and give our campus a lasting way to recognize an SDSU pioneer whose vision changed agriculture worldwide,” said Joe Cassady, SD Corn Endowed Dean of the SDSU College of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences. “The sculpture will invite students, faculty, staff and visitors to reflect on how one person’s perseverance and discovery can create an enduring legacy of hope.”

Event speakers will include South Dakota Gov. Larry Rhoden, SDSU President Barry Dunn, Jon Kleinjan of the South Dakota Wheat Commission, Jennifer Scharpe of the South Dakota Wheat Growers Association, sculptor Reinaldo Correa and Dean Cassady.

McFadden graduated from State College (now Ģ������Ƶ) and went on to become the school’s official plant breeder. When the U.S. Department of Agriculture cut funding to his position in 1920, he mortgaged his farm to continue his work to develop a rust-resistant wheat variety to help South Dakota farmers. In 1925 he developed a wheat variety that, while not the highest yielding, was resistant to both stem and leaf rust. McFadden named this new variety Hope.

In the decade that followed, other breeders made Hope hybrids that were higher yielding but kept the rust resistance McFadden had worked so hard to achieve. By the late 1930s, it was estimated that almost all of California’s wheat fields were planted with varieties containing Hope genetics. Many historians credit Hope with helping fuel the Allies victory in World War II, and Reader’s Digest estimated Hope prevented starvation for more than 25 million people and saved American farmers $400 million in lost yields.

“Edgar McFadden transformed a boyhood determination to defeat the wheat disease known as ‘rust’ into Hope — a rust-resistant wheat that changed the world,” said Cassady, chair of the McFadden Endowment Board. “His legacy reflects the power of persistence, scientific curiosity and an unwavering commitment to serving South Dakota’s farmers.”

Even today, many of the most widely planted wheat varieties contain genetic material from Hope, carrying on McFadden’s legacy for more than 100 years.

Artist Reinaldo Correa of Reinaldo Art Studio was commissioned to create an art piece honoring McFadden. Last spring, H.O.P.E. a Helix of Resilience: The Life, Journey & Legacy of Edgar S. McFadden was installed by Correa and university Facilities and Services, with informative placards added over the summer to share the humble wheat breeder’s story. The sculpture will be dedicated before the first home SDSU football game. The ceremony will begin at 3:30 p.m. between the Edgar S. McFadden Biostress Lab building and the Raven Precision Agriculture Center and will be followed by a reception in the SD Corn Gallery inside Raven. All are welcome to come. 

Learn more about McFadden:

• McFadden: South Dakota wheat breeder’s legacy lives on
• Wheat breeding success

Information in this article and the articles linked above was uncovered thanks to the hard work of Kevin Kephart, former vice president of research for SDSU.