Pragmatism, Mission-Oriented Goals Underscore Extension Scientist’s Career


Auburn, Dec. 11, 2003 --- Reflecting on his Extension career, Dr. Michael Eckman, who will 
retire in December, considers it his great fortune to have encountered two professors early in his 
life who put him on the right track both intellectually and professionally.

One of them was Dr. Gerald Smith, a professor at Colorado State College (now University of 
Northern Colorado) where Eckman earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees.

“He said, ‘I’m not going to give you a vocation or an avocation; I’m going to give you an 
education. What you do with it is your problem,’” Eckman recalled.

If Smith taught Eckman the value of acquiring a topflight education, the late Dr. Allen Edgar 
instilled him with an understanding of the importance of achieving tangible results.  Edgar, a world 
renowned poultry pathologist, directed Eckman’s doctoral work while he was a student at Auburn.  

“Dr. Edgar took it for granted that you knew all the basics.  What he wanted you to do at the end 
of the day was to produce something.  It could be a principle, a solution or a product, but it had to 
represent progress.”

Eckman, who will retire in December, ending a 26-year career as an Alabama Cooperative 
Extension System poultry scientist and Auburn University poultry science professor, admired this 
about Edgar --- he not only admired it but strove to incorporate these values into his own work.

“Edgar was very pragmatic, very technically competent and very mission-oriented.  Any individual 
in my profession or this industry has to be,” he said.  “The more technology you have to work with 
the better, but you had also must be mission-oriented.”

“Everything you do has to be cost effective from the standpoint of the poultry industry,” he added.  
“Technological transfer is a real challenge because the key players in the poultry industry aren’t 
researchers --- they’re running a business.  They have to turn a dollar, and they’re responsible for 
a lot of people.  Quality requirements have to be brutally precise.  You can’t afford to make 
mistakes.”

From the very beginning, Eckman has striven to do the job right every time.  He hopes the 
astonishing strides in poultry production within the last few decades are a reflection of the high 
professional standards he acquired from Edgar decades ago as an Auburn student.

 “There’s no question about it, if you want to feed the world, you’d better pick broiler chickens.  
We’re not only producing more birds but bigger birds.  No other industry compares to broiler 
chickens when you consider the speed with which these chickens are raised to go to market and 
their acceptability to consumers.”  

A native of Englewood, Colo., Eckman had never been close to a chicken “other than to eat it,” he 
recalled jokingly, until he completed college.

After receiving his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in biological sciences and parasitology, 
respectively, he moved to Norwich, N.Y., to work for Norwich Pharmacal.   Several years later, in 
1968, his employers approached him with an offer he couldn’t refuse --- to return to school to 
earn a doctorate in avian diseases

“They gave me a choice of three schools --- the University of Georgia, Cornell and Auburn,” he 
said.  “I visited all of them, and I loved Auburn.” 

What attracted him most was Edgar, the first world-class scientist ever to devote his entire career 
to improving the poultry science industry.

After earning his doctorate, Eckman returned to Norwich Pharmacal, only to learn that the 
company had decided to phase out its animal health operations.  In 1977, several years after 
relocating to Texas to work with Dow Chemical, he returned to Auburn University as a poultry 
scientist working with poultry growers and integrators to improve animal health and production 
practices.

In the course of his Auburn career, Eckman has shared his expertise with growers and industrial 
leaders in more than 30 countries and 25 states.

[Writer: Jim Langcuster, Extension Communications Specialist, News and Public Affairs, 
334-844-5686.]