Career
A native of Hastings, New York, Fellers worked in research for the United States Department of Agriculture, the National Canners Association (Food Products Association since 2005), and the University of Washington before joining the University of Massachusetts Amherst (known in 1925 as Massachusetts Agricultural College) department of horticulture manufacturing on December 1, 1925. From 1925 to 1941, Fellers, current department head Walter Chenoweth, and two other professors worked to develop the research and teaching areas of the department. Fellers" research during that time involved canning of blue crab, an article that was featured in a 1939 Time magazine article which greatly increased the quality and quantity of crab produced in the United States for consumption.
Following Chenoweth"s retirement in 1941, Fellers became department chair in 1941 and would serve in that position until his retirement in July 1957.
During his tenure as department chair, the department would change its name to food technology, a name it would keep until 1962. lieutenant is now the department of food science, a name it has had since 1988.
75 of the 140 students who would earn Doctor of Philosophy.s at the University of Massachusetts (known as Massachusetts State College from 1931 to 1947) would come from the food technology department. Fellers as department chair also gave the go ahead to faculty member Gideon East. (Guy) Livingston to form an honor society for food science and technology which would be called Phi Tau Sigma (ΦΤΣ).
Additionally, he also created a fisheries school and laboratory at the University of Massachusetts as well.
Even during the 1950s, the food technology department did testing for Consumer Reports magazine, thanks to Fellers" negotiating with the Consumers Union, mainly focusing on their research to the nutritive values of frozen food and canned foods. Fellers served as Institute of Food Technologists President from 1949 to 1950. Fellers served as chairman of the American Chemical Society"s Agricultural and Food Chemistry Division during the late 1930s and early 1940s.
He also was a very competitive badminton player as noted by Roy East. Morse, a graduate student at the University of Massachusetts Amherst would later be elected to Institute of Food Technologists President in 1987 - 1988.
Fellers died in 1960. The award changed to it current name, the Fellers Award by 1987.
