by Linda McCandless
Geneva, NY - Dr. James C. Moyer, Professor Emeritus of Chemistry in Cornell University's Department of Food Science & Technology, at Geneva, died on Thursday, Dec. 12. He was 82.
Dr. Moyer had a distinguished career in food science at Cornell that spanned 44 years. He was retired from the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station in Geneva where he worked from 1938 until 1982. Although his formal training was largely in biochemistry, Dr. Moyer's expertise was in the engineering aspects of food processing. During his long and productive career, he studied a wide variety of problems in fruit and vegetable processing, including dehydration by various techniques including freeze and spray drying, electronic blanching of vegetables, improved methods for the pressing and clarification of fruit juices, maintaining the quality of mechanically harvested grapes, concentration of fruit juices and essence recovery, wine fermentations, and improved procedures for the analysis of important grape constituents such as methyl anthranilate. Well over 100 publications resulted from his research.
Dr. Moyer worked very closely with New York fruit and vegetable processors and spent many hours consulting with the food industry on engineering problems. He also consulted with the fabricators of food processing machinery regarding equipment modifications to improve the quality of New York's fruit and vegetables.
In the early '60s, Dr. Moyer worked very closely with E. S. Shepardson, Nelson Shaulis and others in the development of the system for the mechanical harvesting of grapes. Today, most grapes in New York are harvested and handled by the procedures developed by this team.
Dr. Moyer was born on Feb. 24, 1914, in Guelph, Canada. He received his B.S. in Agriculture from the University of Guelph in 1936, his M.S. in Agronomy from the University of Toronto in 1938, and his Ph.D in biochemistry from Cornell University in 1942. He was appointed an instructor at the Agricultural Experiment Station in Geneva in 1942, and became a full professor in 1954. At the Experiment Station, he was instrumental in the development of the Food Research Laboratory and the Raw Products Building.
Dr. Moyer chaired the Committee on Fruit and Vegetable Products of the Advisory Board on Military Personnel Supplies, National Research Council. He received a Certificate of Appreciation from the Quartermaster Subsistence Research and Development Laboratory. In 1962, he was selected to the be the leader of a National Academy of Science project concerned with the documentation of literature in food science. He was a member of the Institute of Food Technologists, the American Chemical Association, Sigma Xi, and St. Stephen's Church.
He his survived by his wife of 54 years, Mary Mann Kirk.
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