After working for Michigan Crop Improvement/Michigan Foundation Seed for 40 years, we give our heartfelt farewell to the beloved lab/field director, Chris Tiedje. Chris retired on May 1, and was celebrated by his coworkers at a private luncheon, as per his wishes. Chris has been a vital part of this company, and his absence will be felt in ways we can’t comprehend yet. His seed knowledge is incomparable, as is his work ethic. His ability to identify the most obscure weed in the field and in the lab is legendary.
Chris started out his career here as a warehouse employee at Michigan Foundation Seed in 1985, moving over to the Michigan Crop Improvement side of the company three years later. Whatever his task was, he tackled it with enthusiasm and optimism.
Chris’s sunshiny personality brightened all our days and made the longest weeks fly by. His “just for giggles” mantra made us roll our eyes, then laugh, as we all pitched in to help with Chris’s latest experimental hypothesis. We will all miss him terribly, MCIA will not be the same without him. Cheers to your future endeavors!
