Street, Orman E.

Professor in the University of Maryland Department of Agronomy.

He graduated from South Dakota State University in 1924 with a Bachelor of Science degree in soils and chemistry and completed his Master of Science degree at Michigan State University in 1927. He received a Ph.D. from Michigan State University in botany, physics, and physical chemistry in 1933. From 1929 to 1939, he worked as a plant physiologist with the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station in Windsor, Connecticut. In 1939, he moved on to a position with the U. S. Department of Agriculture Tobacco Field Laboratory at Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where he conducted tobacco-related agronomic research on seed beds, fertilizer response, diseases, breeding, curing, and fermentation. In addition to those responsibilities, he began teaching agronomy as an associate professor at Pennsylvania State College in 1945. In 1949, Street left Lancaster to accept a position as an associate professor in the University of Maryland's Department of Agronomy. He conducted research at the University's Tobacco Experiment Station in Upper Marlboro and taught courses in tobacco production. He was largely responsible for the development of that program and its later success. During his time as director of the University's Tobacco Experiment Station, the number of researchers tripled and the station's research results encouraged southern Maryland tobacco farmers to adopt such practices as seedbed sterilization, irrigation, and improved fertilization. Street was also the author of more than 100 scientific publications and received the Research Award of the Cigar Manufacturers of America in 1963 and the Maryland Crop Improvement Association's Distinguished Agronomist Award in 1973. Street retired in 1969 but remained with the University as an acting climatologist from 1973 to the late 1970s. During his retirement, he also worked as a consultant on tobacco production with the Chun Cheng Foundation in Taiwan from 1969 to 1970.

Orman Elery Street was born January 5, 1903, in Revillo, South Dakota. He graduated from South Dakota State University in 1924 with a Bachelor of Science degree in soils and chemistry and completed his Master of Science degree at Michigan State University in 1927. He received a Ph.D. from Michigan State University in botany, physics, and physical chemistry in 1933.

From 1929 to 1939, he worked as a plant physiologist with the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station in Windsor, Connecticut. In 1939, he moved on to a position with the U. S. Department of Agriculture Tobacco Field Laboratory at Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where he conducted tobacco-related agronomic research on seed beds, fertilizer response, diseases, breeding, curing, and fermentation. In addition to those responsibilities, he began teaching agronomy as an associate professor at Pennsylvania State College in 1945.

In 1949, Street left Lancaster to accept a position as an associate professor in the University of Maryland's Department of Agronomy. He conducted research at the University's Tobacco Experiment Station in Upper Marlboro and taught courses in tobacco production. He was largely responsible for the development of that program and its later success. During his time as director of the University's Tobacco Experiment Station, the number of researchers tripled and the station's research results encouraged southern Maryland tobacco farmers to adopt such practices as seedbed sterilization, irrigation, and improved fertilization. Street was also the author of more than 100 scientific publications and received the Research Award of the Cigar Manufacturers of America in 1963 and the Maryland Crop Improvement Association's Distinguished Agronomist Award in 1973.

Street retired in 1969 but remained with the University as an acting climatologist from 1973 to the late 1970s. During his retirement, he also worked as a consultant on tobacco production with the Chun Cheng Foundation in Taiwan from 1969 to 1970. He died on October 26, 1988, in Adelphi, Maryland at the age of 85. He and his wife, Mary Fayette Kent, who died in 1947, had three daughters: Priscilla S. Tucker, Martha S. Eller, and Margaret S. (Emmy) Lear.