Appendix A. Historical Timeline
- 1928 — Joseph Valentine, T. L. Gustin, and James Bolton petition the president of Penn State, Ralph Hetzel, for help with turfgrass research and extension education.
- 1929 — H. Burton Musser takes a part-time appointment at Penn State for turfgrass research.
- 1929 — First annual fine turf conference is held at Penn State.
- 1930 — Valentine, Gustin, Marshall Farnham, and others representing the turfgrass industry form the Turfgrass Research Advisory Committee, which functioned until 1955, when the present-day Pennsylvania Turfgrass Council was established.
- 1930 — Earliest reference found of turfgrass research, entitled “Growth of Turf Grasses and Weeds in Relation to Soil Acidity,” conducted by J. W. White, F. J. Holben, and C. D. Jefferies; in Bulletin 258 — Annual Report of the Director in Agricultural Experiment Station Report.
- 1931 – 1940 — Greenkeepers Short Course held at Penn State.
- 1932 — Turfgrass Research Advisory Committee persuades state legislators Fred Peters and James Boyd to sponsor Bill 1297, appropriating $10,000 for turf research at Penn State.
- 1935 — Fred V. Grau becomes Penn State's first extension turf specialist.
- 1935–36 — First turfgrass class offered, entitled “Fine Turf Grasses,” in Announcement of Two-Year Course in Agriculture.
- 1950 — First Ph.D. in turfgrass awarded to James R. Watson, Jr. — “Irrigation and compaction on established fairway turf” (research funded by USGA).
- 1950 — H. Burton Musser contributes article for USGA Journal, entitled “The Turf Program at Penn State.”
- 1953 — H. Burton Musser and Fred V. Grau introduce, at annual USGA meeting, Merion Kentucky Bluegrass and U-3 (a Bermuda strain).
- 1953 — Musser and Grau release seed for Penngift crownvetch.
- 1955 — Joseph M. Duich joins the Penn State faculty.
- 1955 — Pennsylvania Turfgrass Council is established.
- 1957 — Penn State offers two-year certificate program in golf course turfgrass management.
- 1959 — Musser retires on July 1, after 37 years on the Penn State faculty.
- 1970 — Dedication of the Joseph Valentine Research Center.
- 1983 — Landscape Management Research Center (LMRC) is created to supplement research space at the Valentine Center.
- 1990 — Construction of Agricultural Sciences and Industries Building is completed.
- 1992 — Penn State's agronomy department institutes four-year baccalaureate turfgrass science major.
- 1994 — Mascaro/Steiniger Turfgrass Museum is dedicated as a testimony to two pioneers in turfgrass management: inventor Tom Mascaro and Eb Steiniger, former golf course superintendent at Pine Valley Country Club.
- 1995 — Senior lecturer George Hamilton patents PennMulch.
- 1998 — James Pawelczyk, Penn State's first faculty astronaut, takes selections of Kentucky bluegrass into space aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia.
- 1998 — Penn State launches World Campus Web site, with A.J. Turgeon's “Introduction to Turfgrass Management” as the first course.
- 2004 — Penn State's turfgrass program celebrates 75th anniversary.