Volume 24 · Number 3 · Spring 2007
In Memoriam
Professor and avian nutritionist F. Howard Kratzer died Oct. 8, 2006, in his Davis home from pancreatic cancer.
Born in Baldwinsville, N.Y., he earned a bachelor’s degree in animal science from Cornell University in 1940 and a doctoral degree in poultry nutrition from UC Berkeley in 1944. He taught for a year at Colorado State University before joining the faculty of what was then the Division of Poultry Husbandry at UC Davis.
Professor Kratzer taught classes in avian and general animal nutrition, and conducted research on avian nutrition. His work focused on the growth and reproduction of turkeys and chickens, analysis of amino acid interactions on the growth of young fowl and chicks, and on mineral metabolism in turkeys and chickens. His goal was to develop a better understanding of the basic physiological and biochemical phenomena involved in animal nutrition.
He served as chair of the Department of Avian Sciences in 1976-1981. His many scholarly honors included being named a Fellow in the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1952, the Poultry Science Association in 1983 and the American Society for Nutrition in 1987. He was associate editor of the Journal of Nutrition in 1969-1979 and served on a National Research Council subcommittee on poultry nutrition.
He is survived by his wife of 60 years, Georgina Kratzer, and by three sons and eight grandchildren.