Ronald Bay Furry papers

Following 42 years of service at Cornell University, Ronald Bay Furry (b. October 22, 1931), Professor of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, retired August 30, 1995 and was granted Emeritus status. Furry received his BS (1953, with Distinction) and MS (1955) degrees from Cornell University, and his PhD (1965) from Iowa State University.

During his tenure at Cornell, Furry participated in all three mission functions of the Department: Teaching, Research and Extension, and served as its Chairman during 1990-94. His principal research interests centered on postharvest controlled atmosphere environments for agricultural materials, while his Extension efforts included responsibility for the dairy structures program for New York State, as well as the Extension Plan Service. He enjoyed teaching immensely, and taught undergraduate and graduate courses ranging from computer programming and computer graphics through similitude methodology. His publications include fifteen sole-author, eighteen principal-author, and seventeen contributing-author papers; sixty engineering bulletins, mostly sole-authored; four manuals and guides; one book chapter; one-hundred-seventy articles; thirty-two structural design plan sets; and seventy-eight serial newsletters. In addition, he developed several mainframe and microcomputer engineering design application packages which he utilized extensively in his teaching program. He also served the Department as Coordinator of Research and Graduate Faculty Representative, participated in a wide variety of College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, College of Engineering and University responsibilities, including the University Senate and the Faculty Council of Representatives, and established and conducted the Department’s undergraduate recruitment program from 1974 to his retirement. In 2007, he wrote A Pioneering Department: Evolution from Rural Engineering to Biological and Environmental Engineering at Cornell University, 1907-2007, that traces the evolution of the Department of Biological and Environmental Engineering (BEE) at Cornell over its first 100 years.

Furry received early recognition as a National Science Foundation Science Faculty Fellow, and a Ford Foundation Prospective Teacher in Engineering. In 1992, he was elected a Fellow of the American Society of Agricultural Engineers (ASAE, now ASABE). He was the recipient of several blue ribbon awards from ASAE. In 1993, the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) awarded him its Centennial Certificate for Exceptional Contributions to ASEE and the Profession of Engineering. He also served as Chairman of the Biological and Agricultural Engineering Division of ASEE.

Furry is a member of Phi Kappa Phi, Sigma Xi, a charter member of Gamma Sigma Delta at Cornell, and a member of Alpha Zeta (AZ), where he served on the Board of Directors for several decades; he was the AZ Board’s Facility Program Chairman during the construction of the fraternity‘s new house which was dedicated in 1993. He was a charter member (1962) of the Ithaca Sertoma Club, and an early member (1954) and active participant of the Cornell Federal Credit Union (CFCU), now CFCU Community Credit Union. He served on the Credit Union’s Board of Directors for eleven years, and was its Chairman for four years. He was a Distinguished Military Graduate of AFROTC at Cornell University and reached the rank of 1st Lt. in the USAFRes.

Ron is married to Lois Anne McClure (Ithaca College 1955). They have three children - Suzanne Lynne Furry-Irish, married to L. Paul Irish; Kenneth B. Furry; and Donna Wynne Furry Tongue, married to Donald V. Tongue. The Furrys have five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. His sister, Joanne Louise Furry, was married to his best friend and fellow Cornell classmate David P. Dirksen.