Royse Peak Murphy, native of Norton, Kansas and survivor of the Dust Bowl experience, the Great Depression and World War II, joined the Cornell faculty in 1946 with a focus on plant breeding.
During his long career at Cornell, Murphy released many new crop varieties, supervised graduate studies for 21 Ph.D. students and 12 Master of Science students, and served as department chair and Dean of the Faculty.
Here, Murphy discusses the history the plant breeding department at Cornell with fellow plant breeder Donald Viands. He is the co-author of a book on the subject, "Evolution of Plant Breeding at Cornell University" (2007).