Burk A. Dehority
Department of Animal Sciences
Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center
The Ohio State University
Wooster, OH 44691
Alvin Lloyd Moxon (Mox) was born July 25,1909 in Flandreau, South Dakota, the first of six sons in the family of Ada and George H. Moxon. His father ran a stock farm, breeding purebred Hampshire sheep, Duroc Jersey hogs, and Aberdeen Angus cattle, but then changed to dairy cattle. Crops consisted of corn, primarily made into silage, oats and alfalfa, all of which were used as feed. Mox completed grade school in 1924, and shortly thereafter his family moved to a farm near Brookings, South Dakota, and established the Moxon Dairy. Originally, their milk was sold to the South Dakota State College creamery; however, a milk processing unit was eventually built, and the business expanded to deliver dairy products to stores, restaurants and private residences. Mox did not go to high school, but rather attended the School of Agriculture at South Dakota State College, graduating in the spring of 1929. Classes were in session from November 1 through March 31, which left the students time to help out on the farm during planting and harvesting. Many of the courses were taught by college professors, and Mox became very interested in chemistry from one of these teachers. When he entered South Dakota State College in the fall of 1929, he informed the Dean of Agriculture that he would like to graduate in Agriculture with a major in chemistry. The Dean responded that he had not heard of such a degree, but would keep him in mind. In January of 1930, the Dean called Mox into his office and told him they were starting a new department to be called Experiment Station Chemistry. They had hired a new faculty member to head this department, Dr. K. W. Franke, who would need some help in the lab, and would Mox like the job?
His first tasks in the lab that last half year were analyzing water for chlorides, sulphate, calcium and magnesium and measuring breaking strength of chicken egg shells. Dr. Franke also took over the alkali disease project, which had been in existence for a number of years, but not much progress had been made. The name "alkali disease" originated with the early settlers, who believed that the high salt content of the water in semi-arid areas caused the disease. Studies at South Dakota in 1912 and 1913 proved that this was not the causative agent; however, the name has persisted. A report submitted by Dr. Franke in 1930, suggesting that a less common element such as thallium or arsenic might be the causative agent, prompted several agencies in Washington to investigate this possibility. In 1931, Mox's second year in the lab, the Bureau of Chemistry and Soils in Washington reported the presence of selenium in several soil samples from South Dakota. The Bureau of Home Economics of the USDA also reported that adding Se to grain gave symptoms similar to those observed by Dr. Franke from feeding toxic grain. In July 1932, Dr. Franke and several USDA labs entered into a cooperative field study to do Se analyses on the plants causing alkali disease and the soils in which they were grown. Subsequent studies in the lab at South Dakota, various bureaus of the USDA in Washington and at the University of Wyoming established a definite relationship between plants containing Se and alkali disease.
At the end of his third year, Dr. Franke suggested to Mox that he could start working half-time in the lab if he wanted and get his bachelor's degree in five years. During the next two years, their work became more and more focused on selenium and alkali disease. Dr. Franke's technician left, and upon his graduation in June 1934 with a B.S. degree in Agricultural Chemistry, Mox was offered the position of Chemist-Analyst, with the opportunity of taking course work towards his Masters degree. Two undergraduate students, Van Potter and Ed Painter, worked with Mox in the lab during that period and made sustantial contributions to the alkali disease project. In the summer of 1936, Mox took two courses at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, and at the end of the summer, Dr. Gus Bohstedt offered him an Assistantship to do research on AIV silage. However, Dr. Franke had become ill, and before he could accept the Assistantship, he wanted to go back to South Dakota and check on the lab. Dr. Franke died of undulant fever on September 15, 1936, and Mox was appointed Acting Department Head of Experiment Station Chemistry. Part of the appointment was that he could take one semester off per year, without pay, to work on his Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin.
After taking over as Department Head, one of his first assignments in the spring of 1937 was a request from the Dean to write a bulletin summarizing all of the work done at South Dakota on alkali disease. The resulting publication, South Dakota Agricultural Experiment Station Bulletin 311, is an historical benchmark in the field of alkali disease or selenium poisoning. Mox also finished writing his M.S. Thesis, and the M.S. degree in Chemistry and Toxicology was awarded in June 1937. He subsequently hired Oscar Olson, who was just finishing his M.S. degree in soils, to fill the Chemist-Analyst position he had vacated. The main focus of work at this point was primarily analysis of soils and geological formations for Se to determine just where the Se was located in the state.
In 1937, Experiment Station Chemistry began a collaborative study with Home Economics concerning cooking time and temperature of pork. They wanted analyses for fat, moisture and protein. Not having anyone else to send, Mox went over to Home Economics himself to pick up the samples and became acquainted with a technician named Nannette Harker. Nan had just graduated and was temporarily working over the summer before starting a teaching job the next fall in Hudson, SD. Things progressed rapidly and they decided to get married after she completed her year of teaching. They were married June 11,1938. That fall they returned to the University of Wisconsin for his first semester of class work towards his Ph.D. in Agricultural Biochemistry, which was granted in June 1941. Research for his dissertation, entitled, "Factors affecting the toxicity of selenium", was planned in conjunction with his major professor, C. A. Elvehjem, but carried out in his lab at South Dakota. The work included studies showing that linseed oil meals or low levels of arsenic would both prevent Se poisoning. After completion of his Ph.D., he was named Head of the Agricultural Experiment Station Chemistry Department. Mox's work on selenium was recognized by his being named the Outstanding Young Man of South Dakota by the State Junior Chamber of Commerce in 1941, at which time he was president of the South Dakota Academy of Science. Shortly thereafter, a son, James, was born to Nan and Mox. Mox was also named professor of Chemistry at South Dakota State College in 1946.
In the period from 1937 through 1951, Mox continued research studies on the toxic role of selenium, its availability, metabolism, geological and geographical distribution. Specifically, he was responsible for plotting the areas where selenosis was a problem in South Dakota, as well as refining the analytical procedures for Se analysis. He also carried out research studies on nitrate poisoning, vitamin A nutrition and the metabolism of calcium, magnesium and phosphorus. Much of the laboratory work during this period was accomplished by employing a total of 30 undergraduate students, 22 of whom continued on for Ph.D. degrees at other institutions. One of the unique aspects of this arrangement was that many of these students became coauthors on scientific journal articles resulting from their work. Although space does not permit listing all of these students, several of them continued on and became well-known in their own fields -- to list just a few, R. Burris, M. Rhian, H. D. Anderson, H. A. Lardy, K. P. DuBois, A. E. Schaefer and O.G. Bentley. Mox also served as the major adviser for three M.S. students, A. E. Schaefer, R. Wilcox and R. R. Johnson. During this period results of his research studies were reported in over 80 scientific journal publications.
In 1951, Mox accepted the the position of Professor and Associate Chairman of the Animal Science Department of the Ohio Agricultural Experiment Station in Wooster, Ohio. He also was appointed as Professor of both Animal Science and Agricultural Biochemistry at Ohio State University. Besides his administrative duties, he was responsible for guiding the research program of the total Department as well as his own work in the area of evaluating forage quality. Mox advised only four Ph.D. students in his career, R.R. Johnson and L.D. Kamstra who followed him to Ohio from South Dakota, T.V. Hershberger and B.A. Dehority. All of them graduated from Ohio State University between 1954 and 1957 with degrees in Agricultural Biochemistry.
Mox became involved in international animal agriculture in 1960 when he accepted an assignment as animal nutrition adviser to the Ohio State University team at the Agricultural College of Ludhiana in Punjab, India. During his six month stay he investigated the apparent superiority of water buffalo over cattle in digesting native forages and helped train the local faculty and students in the methodology to continue these studies after he left. In 1964, a cooperative agreement funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), was signed between Ohio State University and Sao Paulo University in Brazil. Mox became Assistant Chief of Party and Professor of Animal Nutrition at the College of Agriculture in Piracicaba, Brazil. One of his principal duties was to make arrangements for Brazilian students to come to the United States for graduate studies. He also collaborated with the Animal Science Department, arranging seminars, setting up laboratories, teaching Animal Physiology in Portuguese and establishing a research program. Primarily, he set up studies on the utilization of forages, emphasizing their preservation as silage or storage as hay for use in the dry season. He returned to the Department in 1966, but only briefly, going back to Brazil in 1967 for four more years. During this period he served both as Chief of Party and Professor of Animal Nutrition.
Upon his return in 1971, several faculty approached Mox for help with the selenium analysis of feedstuffs, blood and body tissues. A result observed in some of Mox's early studies with chicks was that trace amounts of selenium improved animal growth; however, this had gone unnoticed for years. Now it was being recognized that Se was essential in very low amounts and that certain areas of the US were deficient in Se. He proceeded to set up facilities for selenium analyses and did most of the analytical work for collaborative studies with numerous faculty in the swine, dairy, beef and sheep nutrition areas, as well as with faculty in Home Economics and Veterinary Medicine. These studies helped to show that exogenous Se is required in many areas to establish the requirement in different animal species, and eventually to approval by FDA to add Se to livestock rations. His work over the eight-year period from 1971 until his retirement in 1979 resulted in 50 scientific publications on all aspects of Se nutrition in farm animals.
Although retired, Mox was not quite ready to quit. In 1982, he became a Visiting Professor in the College of Veterinary Medicine at the Pirassununga campus of the University of Sao Paulo in Brazil. He helped set up a program to evaluate the Se status of 80 dairy herds in Sao Paulo state during both the rainy and dry seasons. Feed and blood were analyzed for Se content. Six publications in Brazilian journals resulted from these studies.
One especially happy event for the Moxons occurred in 1990 when Nan was awarded the Frances J. Ockerman International Award for significant contributions to internationalizing the agricultural program at Ohio State University. Nan learned Portuguese and taught English to Brazilian students both in Brazil and to those who came to Wooster as part of their studies at Ohio State. She also was helpful in getting faculty families from OSU settled in Brazil and Brazilian families settled in Ohio. Roy M. Kottman, Emeritus Vice President of Agricultural Administration at OSU, wrote, "Without Nan's generous giving of her time and talents, our successful program of research and education on behalf of faculty and students at ESALQ would never have achieved the distinction which it has been accorded."
Beginning with his first appointment as Chemist-Analyst in 1934, Mox has authored or co-authored 195 scientific publications, two reviews and four book chapters. At least 75 of the scientific publications are on Se, and 53 deal with the composition of food and animal feeds. It is of interest that in his career, Mox has conducted experiments with dogs, turkeys, chickens, rats, beef cattle, dairy cattle, hogs, deer, water buffalo and sheep. His work has been published in 40 different peer- reviewed scientific journals, with the highest number in the Journal of Animal Science (34).
Mox and Nan have been active members of the St. James Episcopal Church since moving to Wooster in 1951. They have one son, two grandchildren and one great-grandson.
Other honors for Mox included his election as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1957; Service Award, College of Agriculture, University of Sao Paulo, Piracicaba, Brazil, 1966; Fellow of the American Society of Animal Science, 1975; Service Award, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Sao Paulo, Pirassununga, Brazil, 1982; Fellow of the American Institute of Nutrition, 1985; and American Society of Animal Science Award in International Animal Agriculture, 1991. He also has been very active in many professional Societies, which include the American Society of Animal Science, American Institute of Nutrition, American Society of Biological
Chemists, New York Academy of Science, American Chemical Society, American Society for the Advancement of Science, Sigma Xi and Gamma Sigma Delta. Mox also has made a large contribution to the education and development of numerous individuals, many of whom have had highly successful careers in both Agricultural Biochemistry and Animal Nutrition.
Without question, A. L.Moxon was a true pioneer in understanding both the toxicity and essentiality of Se in feedstuffs. Dr. Moxon, along with K.W. Franke and F.Challenger (from the University of Leeds), have been recognized in the recent book by Frankenberger and Engberg (published in February 1998), "Environmental Chemistry of Selenium", for their early work, which greatly stimulated and influenced the study of Se in biology.