Robert Dunker: ‘Guardian of Morrow Plots’

URBANA, Ill. — The 150th anniversary celebration of the Morrow Plots included honoring a longtime curator of the historic site and highlighting an aesthetic upgrade.

Robert Dunker, 74, who died in April 2025, worked at the University of Illinois for over 40 years, serving as Crop Sciences Research and Education Center superintendent for over 40 years.

During his tenure, he managed the 1,600 acres of research fields south of campus as well as the Morrow Plots.

Early in his tenure as superintendent, Dunker had the innovative idea to preserve archival data from the Morrow Plots and the rest of the CSREC, paving the way for scientists and historians to access records that had been handwritten and stored in individual labs, boxes, sheds and barns across campus.

His efforts inspired the formation of the Morrow Plots Data Curation Working Group, which made 130-plus years of data from the plots publicly available in 2023.

“I want to recognize one of those people who meant a great deal to this place, to many faculty, to me personally and to the plots. I’m referring to Bob Dunker, one of the guardians of the plots,” said U of I College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences Dean Germán Bollero during the celebration at Morrow Plots.

“Bob devoted more than four decades of his life to the University of Illinois, including more than 20 years as superintendent of the Crop Sciences Research and Education Center.

“I had the privilege of working with Bob in several roles throughout my career: as a student, grad student, department head and dean. I learned a lot from him. He was someone I could always count on for good advice and honest perspective.

“Bob understood the importance of the Morrow Plots and took great pride in caring for them, and he did. Out of 150 years, Bob took care of the Morrow Plots for 40 years. He knew that maintaining this experiment meant preserving its history and protecting the value of the research for future scientists and farmers.

“More than anything, I remember Bob as a good person, a big heart, a great mind in agriculture. He cared about our students, our faculty and this university. He was always willing to help, and he made us all better.”

The Dunker family donated a memorial bench that is located adjacent to the Morrow Plots.

“For me, this bench will be a special remembrance of a colleague, a friend, and every time I walk by, I think Bob will be very pleased to see us gather here to honor this historic experiment and know that the legacy he was part of will continue in perpetuity,” Bollero said.

“The plots have changed hands many times. My sense is that their management lapsed a little bit in the 1980s, and Bob took them up and rescued them,” noted soil science professor Andrew Margenot, director of the Morrow Plots and new Alma Mater Plots.

“They became a National Historic Landmark in 1968, but at that point, I think the insights of the Morrow Plots had really slowed down. It was no longer cutting-edge (because it did its job). It was becoming a valuable long-term academic experiment. Bob helped preserve it, keeping the practices the same to maintain the integrity of the data.

“Bob was instrumental for these plots. He took me under his wing in 2020 during COVID. I would go to his office on First Street. We would have coffee and donuts, and he would bring me up to speed on the Morrow Plots.

“He would imbue me with 40 years of knowledge of everything from how to harvest corn by hand, which we still do for a good yield, to the hard-to-pin-down reality of data curation for an experiment of this kind of a duration.

“I’m indebted to Bob. I feel like an imposter here. I’ve only been in charge of these plots for five, six years — Bob was 40 years — and so I’ll do my best to keep Bob’s legacy going.”

Industry Support

As part of the site’s sesquicentennial celebration, Bollero also noted the new fence and gate around the plots.

A gift from Bayer’s Crop Science division supported the revitalization of the Morrow Plots.

The sesquicentennial gate was designed by Taylor Studios and made possible through income from the John N. Chester Estate Endowment and Bayer.

A plaque on the gate states: “This decorative gate celebrates 150 years of continuous crop research, the longest-running experiment of its kind in North America. The gate’s materiality, shape, and color evokes the soil types and crops of the agricultural landscape in which the experiment was born, as well as its far-reaching impact.

“Together, these elements reflect the combination of basic and applied scientific discovery embodied by the Morrow Plots and the University of Illinois’ enduring land-grant promise.”

Overgrown shrubs that had surrounded and obscured views of the plots were removed and replaced by the new landscape design by Cliff Garten Studio in collaboration with Site Design Group.

“Through Bayer’s generous support, we have been able to install this new fence and gate to help preserve and recognize this historic site for future generations,” Bollero said.

“We used to have a green hedge all around the plots, and there were a lot of squirrels and birds that go in there and affected the plots. So, we decided to install a fence so people can see the plots better. You’ll see squirrels anyway, but students, faculty and others can now see the plots better.”

Bollero also recognized current and former members of the ACES Alumni Association Board and Round Barn Society for their support.

“Our alumni board recently helped establish a very successful mentorship program, connecting our students with alumni who want to invest in the next generation,” he said.

“I think that is very much in the spirit of what we’re doing here celebrating today — one generation investing in the next.”