Two individuals with outstanding lifetime contributions to the meat business are set to be inducted into the Wisconsin Meat Industry Hall of Fame at a May 1 recognition ceremony. They include Bernard J. Peck, a Milwaukee philanthropist who headed one of the nation’s larger privately held meat processing companies, and Marion L. Greaser, a UW-Madison professor who taught and did pathfinding research on meat and muscle proteins.
For over forty years Bernard (“Bernie”) Peck, the fourth generation of the Peck Meat Packing Corporation, led their growth in Milwaukee’s Menomonee River Valley as one of America’s larger privately owned meat processors. He developed a pioneering technology that resulted in the renowned Emmber’s “Lean N’ Tender” product line for retail and foodservice channels in the U.S. Peck Meat Packing Corporation was sold in to Sara Lee in 1985 where Bernie continued as Executive Vice President and COO before retiring in 1987. Bernie has shared his success, as one of Milwaukee’s great philanthropists in providing leadership and numerous wonderful gifts and programs to civic and community organizations across religious, cultural, and geographic borders. The Wisconsin Meat Industry Hall of Fame is proud to induct Bernard J. Peck into its membership.
Dr. Marion Lewis Greaser not only completed an impressive 42 year tenure at the University of Wisconsin-Madison as a preeminent muscle biologist and meat scientist, but he also earned both his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees at UW. His work resulted in 169 refereed publications, 44 symposium and invited presentations, 14 book chapters, and a textbook. His early efforts led to the characterization and naming of the subunits of the regulatory protein troponin. Later in his career he made major contributions to understanding the structure and function of the giant protein titin, including a discovery of a mutation in rats that mimics human dilated cardiomyopathy. Dr. Greaser was an outstanding instructor and also served as a dedicated Director of the Meat Science and Muscle Biology Laboratory.
The Wisconsin Meat Industry Hall of Fame induction ceremony will take place during the annual meeting of the Wisconsin Livestock and Meat Council on May 1, 2014. The induction luncheon will begin at noon at the Sheraton Madison Hotel, 706 John Nolen Drive, Madison. Reservations can be made through Jeff Swenson, Division of Agricultural Development, Wisconsin DATCP, P.O. Box 8911, Madison, WI 53708-8911, for $35 per person.
The Wisconsin Meat Industry Hall of Fame was created in 1993 to recognize individuals who have made significant contributions to the meat industry in Wisconsin. The Hall of Fame program is coordinated by and housed in the University of Wisconsin-Madison Meat Science and Muscle Biology Laboratory. To learn more, visit http://www.ansci.wisc.edu/Meat_HOF/.
Wisconsin Meat Industry Hall of Fame
