Former North Dakota State University hard red spring wheat plant breeder Richard Frohberg has been inducted into the North Dakota Agriculture Hall of Fame. The induction ceremony was held at the North Dakota Winter Show. Frohberg was the hard red spring wheat breeder at NDSU from January 1966 through March 2002.

"Richard Frohberg dedicated his life to NDSU and North Dakota wheat producers," says Al Schneiter, NDSU Department of Plant Sciences chair. "I appreciated his value as a role model, especially to the younger faculty."

"He is very modest and would be the first to say that he was not a role model, just a plant breeder doing his job searching for that one plant among his thousands of crosses that had the potential to become another success in a series of new varieties for the benefit of North Dakota and regional hard red spring wheat producers," says Ken Grafton, North Dakota Agricultural Experiment Station director and NDSU College of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Natural Resources dean.

Frohberg is only the third public wheat breeder in the history of North Dakota. During his tenure as the NDSU hard red spring wheat breeder, he worked on or was involved in the development of 27 spring wheat varieties.

"Frohberg's level of success is matched by very few plant breeders in the U.S. or the world," Schneiter says. "In an average year during his professional career, 8 million to 9 million acres of North Dakota farmland were planted to spring wheat. Through most of his career, 80 percent to 90 percent of those acres were planted using varieties released from his program, which generated millions of dollars in income."

Frohberg developed Alsen, the first scab-resistant, high-quality hard red spring wheat. Alsen is the leading hard red spring wheat variety grown in the state. Alsen generates an estimated $100 million annually, based on increased yield because of its resistance to scab. This estimate does not include the increased value received by producers because of increased grain quality.

Frohberg also was actively involved in teaching plant breeding graduate students throughout his career.

"He instilled in students the same interest, love and dedication to plant breeding that he possesses," Schneiter says. "Many of his students have gone on to highly successful careers."

Frohberg decided to become a plant breeder after the stem rust epidemic of the 1950s devastated his father's crop. After graduating from high school, his first job was on an extra gang for the Santa Fe Railroad, which allowed him to earn money to attend college. He earned his bachelor's degree from Kansas State University and his master's and doctorate degrees from Iowa State University. Frohberg and his wife, Norma, have three grown children.