The first woman dean in the UW-Madison College of Agricultural and Life Sciences’ century-plus history remembers very well a meeting with a Wisconsin farmer as she was about to take the reins of the college last year.
At a ribbon-cutting ceremony for a building at the Hancock Agricultural Research Station, the middle-aged potato grower came up and gave her a hearty handshake, Molly Jahn recalled.
“He said, ‘Thank you!’ and I said, “I haven’t done anything yet.” He said, ‘I am the proud father of two incredibly capable young women. And I have to thank you for the example you’ve set for what is possible for them.'”