Al Haunold Oral History Interview #2

Dr. Alfred Haunold is a retired plant breeder and director from the USDA-OSU hop breeding program in Corvallis, Oregon. He holds a PhD in Agricultural Sciences and was the scientist who released and developed many important hops, including the Willamette and Cascade varieties. In this interview, Haunold talks about growing up in Retz, Austria, the economics of the area between the two world wars, his family’s ties to agriculture, the Austrian school system, living conditions during the Nazi occupation, life in wartime Vienna while he was going to college, coming to America on a Fulbright, meeting his wife Mary in New York, and the modern refugee situation in Austria. He also talks about his work in wheat genetics while in Austria, earning his doctorate degree in agricultural science at University of Nebraska, job hunting in America after earning his PhD, moving to Oregon and his work with hops, breeding the Willamette hops variety, the hops market in 60s America, hops growing in Austria, and troubles he ran into while crossing hops in America.