Meat+Poultry - November 2022 - 8

COMMENTARY
Aggie inspiration
It was about 20 years ago when I first
visited Texas A&M University's Animal
Science Department and met Jeff
Savell, PhD, whose title then did not
include the recent additions of " vice
chancellor " or " dean " (see this month's
cover story on Page 14 to learn about
his impressive career at A&M). As a
newcomer to the industry who knew
very little about food safety practices
in commercial meat and poultry plants,
I attended a two-day introduction to
HACCP course that was co-taught by
Savell and Kerri Gehring, PhD, whose
title at the time didn't reflect her
recent promotion to " associate vice
chancellor " or " associate dean. "
I have been back to College Station
several times since committing to
memory the seven principles of
HACCP, and each time I've returned
there is a stronger warm-blanket-like
allure of the people and the place that
is a culmination of hospitality, pride
and tradition that is contagious. I later
came to find out that the welcoming
appeal is more than incidental, and it
has a name: The Spirit of Aggieland.
Having met many of the faculty
members and students in the animal
science program over the years, it
is abundantly evident that there is
a family-like culture at A&M that
extends far beyond the borders of
the expansive campus. Traditions
like the Midnight Yell, the Aggie Ring,
Reveille (A&M's official mascot) and
the universally held belief that " once
an Aggie, always an Aggie " are sacred
to maroon-clad disciples across the
world. Savell waves the proverbial flag
each day in his words and in his work
and you quickly get a sense of that after
spending a little bit of time with him.
Now that I know what it is, I feel
like Savell personifies the Aggie spirit.
He claims the spirit was instilled in
him even earlier, by a high school ag
teacher in his hometown of Ferris,
Texas, who first took Savell's class on
a field trip to College Station when he
was just a freshman.
" I remember coming here when I
was 14 and driving up on the edge of
campus in a yellow dog school bus
with our teacher and he said, 'Boys,
there's Texas A&M right over there,' "
pointing toward the campus from the
intersection of Texas and University.
He was hooked, right then and there.
Savell received his bachelor's,
master's and doctoral degrees in animal
science at A&M and transitioned from
student to one of the school's most
decorated faculty members and most
respected researchers.
Throughout his career and to
this day, Savell demonstrates his
commitments to TAMU's six core
values, which I've also learned are
spelled out by the acronym, RELLIS:
Respect, Excellence, Leadership,
Loyalty, Integrity and Selfless service.
During his tenure at TAMU, Savell
has chaired or co-chaired more than
150 graduate students. Over the past
40 years, he has proudly taught more
than 12,000 students that have taken
the introduction to meat science
course (ANSC 307) that flipped his
switch when he took the course almost
exactly 50 years ago.
He would never boast about
it, but Savell's achievements,
accomplishments and awards are
many, including being recognized
in 2021 by Stanford University as
being among the top 2% of most-cited
researchers in the world. That same
year he received the American Meat
Science Association's Intercollegiate
Meat Judging Meritorious Service
Award. Earlier this year he was
honored with the 2022 American Meat
Science Association's R.C. Pollock
Award for his work in teaching. The list
of accolades for teaching, mentoring,
researching and moving the industry
forward goes on and on.
Congratulations to Jeff Savell
on his recent promotion and for his
many contributions to the industry for
the past five decades. Now, I'm just
waiting to find out what is required of
admiring outsiders like me to become
an honorary Aggie. Gig 'em!
JOEL CREWS, EDITOR | jc rews@sos land.com
I later came to find out that the
welcoming appeal is more than
incidental, and it has a name.
8 MEAT+POULTRY | 11.22 | www.meatpoultry.com
http://www.meatpoultry.com
Meat+Poultry - November 2022

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