Editor's Column: Full Circle After 60 Years
On Oct. 8, “The Spartan” statue was rededicated, culminating the MSU Alumni Association’s drive to raise $575,000 for a bronze replica of our icon (see “The Sparty Project,” Winter 2003, p. 4).
Helping with the ceremony was Leo Cropsey, ’45, DVM ’45, of Denver, CO. Sixty years ago, he helped unveil the original ceramic masterpiece by Leonard Jungwirth.
In 1945, President John Hannah picked Leo and Susan Averill for the ceremony. “Both of us were very active in extra-curricular activities,” explains Leo. Cropsey brought big band groups like Woody Herman, Tommy Dorsey and Lawrence Welk to play at campus balls in the then-new Auditorium. “We did not lose any money,” notes Leo. “Hannah was very impressed.”
So much so, that he offered to groom Cropsey to become his vice president, but Leo had already accepted a job as chief veterinarian with the Curtiss Candy Co. of Chicago (famous for Baby Ruth and Butterfingers). Leo embarked on a very successful career managing some of the nation’s largest purebred farms, and his friend and classmate Jack Breslin was eventually tapped to become the vice president Hannah desired.
Cropsey is a testament to how MSU advances knowledge and transforms lives. Having studied two years with professor I. Forest Huddleston, “the nation’s top research expert on bruscellosis,” Leo a vaccine Huddleston had developed to help eventually eradicate the disease. Leo founded the first artificial insemination center for beef bulls in Denver, CO, a huge milestone in the industry. He teamed up with industrialist Armand Hammer, CEO of Occidental Petroleum, and managed the nation’s then largest herd of purebred Black Angus cattle.
Cropsey returned to MSU in 1995 and 1996 to participate in the Kedzie Reunion—for alumni who graduated 50 years ago—and is thrilled to find MSU “growing into such magnificent proportions.” His pulling on the cord on Oct. 8 was, you might say, his coming full Cropsey circle.