Biographical Memoirs: Volume 62 (1993)
Chapter: MAJOR ACHIEVEMENTS IN CHANGING PUBLIC AWARENESS OF NUTRITIONAL ISSUES AND IN PROMOTING THE TEACHING...
sented with an honorary degree of doctor of science. In 1960 he became a Fellow of the American Institute of Nutrition.
THE HOME AS AN ENVIRONMENT FOR DISCUSSION OF NUTRITION-RELATED INITIATIVES
Maynard's wife and life companion was Helen Hunt Jackson Maynard. She ensured that their home was always open to her husband's students and to his colleagues, who, even when junior, know that they would feel at ease there. It was in this setting that new research, teaching, and public service endeavors could be planned. Later, when Maynard was retired, it was in his home that he felt comfortable in giving advice to the newer nutrition faculty of his old department. He took the wise approach that it was better to impart the gems of his own experience in this informal setting rather than at faculty meetings.
MAJOR ACHIEVEMENTS IN CHANGING PUBLIC AWARENESS OF NUTRITIONAL ISSUES AND IN PROMOTING THE TEACHING OF NUTRITION
In retrospect, Maynard's major achievements were in advancing the teaching of nutrition and in making nutritional issues relevant to those who plan programs at the international, national, and local levels. He also increased linkages between the fields of biochemistry, animal husbandry, home economics, and human nutrition. Indeed, through his encouragement of women trained in schools of home economics to become distinguished nutritional scientists, and his acknowledged respect for contributions of people working in the area of extension, he brought about a great change in the public image of women as nutritionists and in the attitude of farmers toward extension teaching. He also improved the linkages between in-
dustry and academe in that he brought to the attention of the food industry the fact that advances in product development could best be made with advice from those in nutrition who were knowledgeable about nutrient requirements and how these requirements could best be met to avoid not only deficiencies but also nutrient excesses and imbalances.
However, to those who knew Leonard Maynard well, he will best be remembered (as he was described in the citation when he was given honorary membership in The American Dietetic Association) as "a tireless public servant concerned with utilization of scientific knowledge of food and nutrition for the promotion of human welfare."
