Chad Finn Remembered

At the 2020 Oregon Blueberry Conference, Bob Martin, long-time plant pathologist and program leader with the USDA-ARS in Corvallis, paid tribute to Chad Finn, a research geneticist with the USDA, who died December 17 following an accident in Hawaii. Finn was 57.

“This is something that you never really want to do, but it is something we should do,” Martin said to conference participants.

Chad Finn at the 2018 OSU Extension Blueberry Field Day in Aurora.

Finn got his bachelor’s degree from Purdue University in 1983 and started at USDA-ARS in Corvallis ten years later. He stayed with the Northwest Center for Small Fruits Research until his death.

Finn started working on blueberry variety trials soon after he came to Corvallis, making crosses and analyzing several cultivars that came out of Michigan and New Jersey, Martin said.

“By 1999, they realized there were a lot of materials that didn’t survive in Michigan, simply because they weren’t cold hardy, but that did really well here,” Martin said.

Out of those programs, he noted, came three Michigan releases that are now widely grown in the Pacific Northwest: Draper, Aurora and Liberty.

In addition to his field work, Finn had a big hand in developing the next generation of small fruits researchers, Martin said. “He had well over 100 undergraduates that worked in his program over the years. And he had a number of graduate students and lots of visitors from around the world come and look at his program.

“He had a large impact on quite a few people starting their career in horticulture,” Martin said.

Finn also produced more than one hundred Commission reports and grower presentations, Martin said, and he often spoke to professional groups and gave presentations to colleagues at universities. He also was active in the American Society of Horticultural Science and in international horticultural societies, and received several honors over his career.

In the summer, Finn was all about his plants, Martin said.

“From June 1 to late August, he would be out in the field five days a week from sunup to pretty much sundown,” Martin said. “And then he’d be out there eight hours a day on the weekends.

“He was passionate about his plants,” Martin said.

Martin added that most breeding programs work on one crop, or maybe two.

“He was doing strawberry, raspberry, blackberry, black raspberry and blueberry,” Martin said.

He added that a line-item in the current ARS budget calls for launching a blueberry breeding program, giving rise to hopes the Northwest will have a full-time blueberry breeder on hand soon. Also, Martin said, between OSU Extension Berry Specialist Bernadine Strik and staff at USDA, the goal is to make sure materials Finn was working on – including several promising lines – continue to make their way through the cultivar development pipeline.

In closing, Martin said, “Chad was firing on all cylinders; professionally, family and as a personal friend.”

Finn is survived by his wife, Barb, sons Elliott and Ian, sister Beth and brothers Bart, Dan and Mark.