Title: Fredrick J. Stare Papers
Inclusive Dates: 1906-1935 (bulk 1930-1935)

Creator:

• Stare, Fredrick J. (Fredrick John), 1910-2002

Call Number: Mss 594; PH 1262; PH 3838; PH 6982

Quantity: 1.6 cubic feet (4 archives boxes) and 0.3 cubic feet of photographs (2 folders and 1 oversize folder)

Repository:

Wisconsin Historical Society, Division of Library, Archives, and Museum Collections

Archival Locations:

Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)

COLLECTION MAY BE STORED OFF-SITE: see catalog entry to request materials and for additional information.

Abstract:

Papers, mainly 1930-1935, of Fredrick J. Stare, a biochemist and physician originally from Columbus, Wisconsin, entirely concerning his undergraduate and graduate education at the University of Wisconsin and his National Research Council fellowship at Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri. Includes personal correspondence, records concerning the Kappa Sigma social fraternity, and research and professional material.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-mss00594

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Fredrick J. Stare, biochemist and physician, was born in Columbus, Wisconsin, on April 11, 1910. The second child of Fredrick A. and Susan Seidell Stare, he had an older sister, Mary, and four younger siblings: Susan, Raechel, Philip, and Robert. The elder Stare was president and general manager of the Columbus Food Corporation from 1929 until 1946 when the corporation was acquired by Stokely-VanCamp. Beginning in 1944, Fredrick A. Stare also served as president and director of the Farmers' and Merchants' Union Bank and, from 1963 until his death in 1966, as chairman of the board.

Fredrick J. Stare attended the University of Wisconsin where he received a B.A. in chemistry in 1931, an M.A. in 1932, and a Ph.D. in biochemistry in 1934. While at Wisconsin, Stare joined the Kappa Sigma social fraternity. As a graduate student he served as advisor and preceptor for the chapter during the academic year 1932-1933. In this capacity Stare participated in the 1932 Regional Convention of Kappa Sigma and was general chairman of the 13th Biennial Grand Conclave held in Madison in 1933. He also worked to refinance the chapter's house and to increase membership. Stare remained active in Kappa Sigma even after receiving his doctoral degree.

After graduating in 1934 Stare received fellowships at Washington University in St. Louis and at Cambridge University in England. Much of his research dealt with agricultural chemistry and with the application of biochemistry to medicine and human nutrition. Two additional fellowships in 1938 and 1939 gave him the opportunity to study in Hungary and Switzerland. Stare then returned to Wisconsin where he worked from 1938 to 1939 at the Bowman Cancer Foundation. He went on to study for his M.D. at the University of Chicago.

After completing his internship at Barnes Hospital, Washington University, in 1942 Stare was hired by Harvard for a position in their new Department of Nutrition. During the next thirty-five years Stare worked to educate the American public about nutrition. He published in scholarly as well as popular journals and wrote several books (Eating for Good Health; Living Nutrition; Scope Manual on Nutrition; Nutrition for Good Health; Eat OK, Feel OK; and Panic in the Pantry) as well as a nationally-syndicated column (“Food and Your Health”). By his retirement from Harvard in 1976 the Department of Nutrition was a leader in nutrition research.

Stare married Joyce Love Allen, the daughter of Governor Oscar K. Allen of Louisiana, in 1935, and they had four children (Fredrick, Allen, David, and Mary). Two years after Joyce's death in 1957, Stare remarried. His second wife, Helen Haxton Foreman, died in 1974. Stare married his third wife, Mary Bartlet Engle, in 1976. Stare died in Wellesley, Massachusetts, on April 4, 2002.

This collection documents the life of Fredrick J. Stare from 1927 to 1935, during which time he attended the University of Wisconsin and worked on post-doctoral research at Washington University. There is very little professional or research material in the collection, perhaps because the collection consists of files Stare apparently stored at his parents' home in Columbus before his departure for Cambridge. This material was eventually donated to the Society in 1979 by his sister, Susan Stare, when the family home was sold. Additional material held by the Society which was donated by Fredrick A. Stare entirely concerns the Columbus Food Company rather than the family. (See Mss 824.)

About half of the Fredrick J. Stare Papers focuses on his participation in the Wisconsin chapter of the Kappa Sigma social fraternity. Because the national conclave met in Madison during the year that Stare was preceptor, the collection contains some rare glimpses of fraternity life during the Depression, ranging from the daily life and academic problems of pledges to social networking among alumni and national organizational concerns. Through the fraternity, Stare also became acquainted with Dean Scott Goodnight, a fellow member of Kappa Sigma, and the collection contains correspondence and frequent references to this notable figure in University of Wisconsin history.

The papers are grouped into four categories: general correspondence, Kappa Sigma files, research and professional files, and visual materials. The general correspondence is arranged chronologically; the Kappa Sigma files and research and professional files are arranged alphabetically by subject.

The GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE consists primarily of letters to and from friends and family during the period from 1930 through 1935, together with some correspondence of a more professional nature. The earliest correspondence is primarily incoming, handwritten letters from Stare's friends during vacations and other times when they were apart. Later periods are more fully documented by carbon copies of Stare's outgoing letters as well. Frequent correspondents included his parents and sisters, his fiancée Joyce Allen (whose letters are filed separately), and numerous Kappa Sigma brothers and other friends. There are also letters from C.A. Elvehjem (Stare was his first doctoral student), Goodnight, and numerous other members of the University community. Topics in the personal correspondence include family matters, university and fraternity life, and Stare's academic progress.

The KAPPA SIGMA FILES, which are the heart of the collection, pertain to Stare's participation in Kappa Sigma, especially at the time of the 13th Biennial Grand Conclave in Madison in 1933. Plans for that meeting are extensively documented through committee reports and correspondence. Aside from the conclave, the files on Kappa Sigma contain information on Stare's tenure as preceptor (1932-1933), house organization, “rushing,” and various other aspects of fraternity life. Some of the most notable files concern Stare's contacts with the parents of members who were experiencing academic or social problems. Because Kappa Sigma formed such an important part of Stare's life, researchers are advised to examine the general correspondence for numerous additional references to the fraternity and its alumni.

The third category, RESEARCH AND PROFESSIONAL PAPERS, contains a variety of material. The main focus of this portion of the collection is on Stare's work as a recipient of fellowships from the National Research Council (1933-1935) and the General Education Board (1935). Here correspondence, research reports, reprints, and notes document Stare's work in the application of biochemistry to animal and human nutrition. The correspondence in these files is almost entirely professional in nature, although there are a few letters to and from family and friends. The remainder of documents in this category deal with some of Stare's graduate research work, his inquiries about a research fellowship and permanent position in the research laboratories of the American Can Company, his personal expenses as an undergraduate, and projects in which he was involved while at Madison and St. Louis.

The VISUAL MATERIALS contain mostly Stare family related photographs. Includes a group of photographs of the Badger Motor Car Company of Columbus, Wisconsin (circa 1906), Stare family photographs including a trip to the Wisconsin Dells, and a photograph with charcoal crayon, of a young female family member (circa 1910-1920).

Acquisition Information

Presented by Susan Stare, Columbus, Wisconsin, November 16, 1979. Accession Number: M79-561, M79-563

Processing Information

Processed by Scott Markham (Archives student, 1982) and by Sandra Wenner and Carolyn J. Mattern, 1981.

Mss 594	Series: General Correspondence
	Chronological
Box   1 Folder   1	1930 June-December
Box   1 Folder   2-3	1931 June-December
Box   1 Folder   4-6	1932
Box   1 Folder   7-8	1933 January-June
Box   2 Folder   1-2	1933 July-December
Box   2 Folder   3-6	1934
Box   2 Folder   7-9	1935 January-August
Box   2 Folder   10	Joyce Allen, 1934-1935
	Series: Kappa Sigma Files	⇧
	Conclaves, 1932-1933
Box   2 Folder   11	Regional Conclave, 1932
	Grand Conclave (Madison), 1933
Box   2 Folder   12	L.G. Balfour Company
	Committees
Box   3 Folder   1	Awards
Box   3 Folder   2	Budget
Box   3 Folder   3	Chicago Attendance
Box   3 Folder   4	Dance
Box   3 Folder   5	General
Box   3 Folder   6	Ladies Entertainment
Box   3 Folder   7	Milwaukee Attendance
Box   3 Folder   8	Reception
Box   3 Folder   9	Registration
Box   3 Folder   10	Smoker and Entertainment
Box   3 Folder   11	Transportation
Box   3 Folder   12-14	Correspondence regarding Grand Conclave, 1932-1933
Box   3 Folder   15	Financial
Box   3 Folder   16	Program
Box   3 Folder   17	Publicity
Box   3 Folder   18	Railway tickets
Box   3 Folder   19	Robes
Box   3 Folder   20	Room reservations
Box   3 Folder   21	Songs
Box   3 Folder   22	Sports activities
	Correspondence
Box   3 Folder   23	Bob Davis, 1932
	Kappa Sigma
Box   3 Folder   24-26	1933-1934
Box   3 Folder   27	1935 January-June
Box   4 Folder   1	1935 July-December
Box   4 Folder   2	Financial papers, 1932-1933
Box   4 Folder   3	Grade point averages at University of Wisconsin, 1931-1933
Box   4 Folder   4	Michigan raid, circa 1931
Box   4 Folder   5	Miscellaneous papers, 1912-1934, undated
Box   4 Folder   6-7	Preceptorship, 1932-1933
Box   4 Folder   8-9	Reports about fraternity brothers, 1931-1932
	Series: Research and Professional Files	⇧
Box   4 Folder   10	American Can Company, 1927-1934
Box   4 Folder   11	“America's Young Men” citation, 1934
Box   4 Folder   12	CBS photography, 1934
Box   4 Folder   13	Dog ordinance, 1934-1935
Box   4 Folder   14	Experiments, 1929-1930
Box   4 Folder   15	General Education Board fellowship, 1935
Box   4 Folder   16	Medical reprints, 1932-1935
Box   4 Folder   17	Minerals experiment, 1933-1934
Box   4 Folder   18-20	National Research Fellowship, 1933-1935
Box   4 Folder   21	Personal accounts, 1929-1930
	Series: Visual Materials	⇧
PH 1262	Badger Motor Car Company photographs, circa 1906
PH 3838	Stare family photographs
PH 6982	Photograph of a young girl, circa 1910-1920