Interview with Paul P. Appel, January 23, 1985

Interview Summary

Paul Appel was born in Evansville, Indiana on Thanksgiving Day, November 26, 1925. He says he has three younger brothers, one older sister, and was raised on a grain and livestock farm. He was drafted into the service during World War II and spent three years in the U. S. Navy in the South Pacific. He took advantage of the G. I. Bill and attended Purdue University, where he earned a B. S. degree in Agriculture, with a major in Animal Science and a minor in Agricultural Economics, specializing in Farm Management.

After college, Appel obtained work through Purdue's Extension Service and served two years as Assistant County Agent in Terre Haute, Indiana. In 1952, he became a farm manger for Pfizer, where he helped to establish the world's largest animal nutrition and health research facility. After ten years at Pfizer, he conducted plant research for Dow Chemical Company, where he was contacted by Dean Charles E. Barnhart regarding the position of Superintendent at the Western Kentucky Substation near Princeton, Kentucky. Appel was appointed to this position in 1963. He recalls the history of the Substation and Mr. S. J. Lowry, the first Superintendent at Princeton for thirty nine years, who retired in 1963. He talks about the changes in the focus of the Substation with the purchase of Coldstream and Mainchance Farms in Lexington, Kentucky and mentions the work accomplished on various research projects with limited finances.

In 1973, Appel became Assistant to the Dean of the Personnel Records and College Alumni Records and Activities for at the University of Kentucky's main campus. He was in charge of employment compliance regulations and the organization of personnel records for UK, Extension Services, the U. S. Department of Agriculture, and the Civil Service Commission. This was in response to Affirmative Action rules and regulations implemented nation-wide during this time. He describes his work with the Alumni Association and talks about his family.

Interview Keyword

Kentucky's Cooperative Extension Service

Interview LC Subject

Agriculture. Appel, Paul P., 1925- Appel, Paul P., 1925- --Interviews University of Kentucky University of Kentucky--History University of Kentucky. Cooperative Extension Service

Interview Rights

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Interview Usage

Interviews may be reproduced with permission from Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, Special Collections, University of Kentucky Libraries.