Longtime poultry professor finds work ... just plain fun

By MANDY SPIKES | Central Texas Edition

Dr. Willie Krueger has enjoyed his 50 years of teaching at Texas A&M University. He says his biggest joy comes from teaching his students each semester. -Staff photo by Spikes

October 30, 2003 -- Eighty-two year old Willie Krueger enjoys his career in poultry science. While most people his age have retired from their jobs and are spending their time taking it easy, Krueger spends his days teaching students at Texas A&M University (TAMU) . He even spends most of his evenings coaching the poultry judging team at TAMU. In his spare time, he also does research with the college as a consultant.

For a person who is so knowledgeable in the field of poultry science, it's hard to believe he wasn't going to go into poultry science at first. At fifteen years old, Krueger was the youngest student to graduate from the high school in his hometown of Riesel. At the time he wanted to be a mortician and undertaker. But his ag science teacher, George Roesnay, told him he needed to go to college. Sixty-seven years later, Krueger is one of the most well known and well respected poultry science teachers at TAMU.

"I am grateful to Roesnay for what he did for me. He told me I must go to college. He even took me to get enrolled at TAMU. I was told to be properly dressed and be ready at 6:00 a.m. one Saturday morning. By that afternoon, I was enrolled in college. He also helped me find a place to live and a couple of jobs. When I got back home, I told my parents I was going to college. They gave me $125 to help with my education. It was all the money they had."

As the years went on, Krueger and Roesnay remained good friends until his death a few years ago. "I still keep in contact with his wife, though. She is a very dear friend to both me and my wife."

Doc, as he is affectionately referred to by most of his students, has taught such classes as game birds and ornamental fowl, skills in poultry evaluation, directed studies, and judging. Becoming more than just another teacher, Krueger talks to his students and loves getting to know them. He even has an open invitation to his house. "I tell students that they are more than welcome to come over to the house to have coffee with me and my wife. They can even raid the fridge if they want," he joked.

His great fondness for his students and care of their education has gone a step beyond the classroom. He and his wife have put together an endowment to create a poultry science scholarship for TAMU. It's something that has become very important to them. "We wanted to give something back to the university and what better way than helping a student with their education."

For Krueger, he is most excited about working with the students and teaching them about poultry science. It's an excitement that has not faded throughout his fifty years. "I love to be around the students. It's such a joy for me to take a group of students each semester and see how far I can take them.

"I also love being the TAMU collegiate poultry judging coach. I have been doing it for the past 20 years. We have won 16 national championships and have eight second place awards. The students are trained to be champions. We don't always get first place, but we do a lot of the time. No matter what place we get, we always are trained to be champions."

He proudly states that he has graduated 45 graduate students who have received their masters and PhD's. "I think that's a pretty good number. Some of my students have already retired from their positions or have passed on. Many of them still keep in contact with me on what they are doing. I like hearing from them and know how things are going for them."

Besides all the work he does for TAMU, Krueger also works closely with ag science teachers from various high schools in Texas. "I help them set up the poultry judging contests and help the staff with technical information that's in their teaching materials.

"Other people might look at what I do and call it work. But I don't because work isn't supposed to be fun and I have fun. They say that retirement is when you start to have fun. I guess that means you could say that I have been retired for 50 years."