Henry Herbert Head

H. Herbert Head passed away peacefully, June 18, 2021 in Tallahassee, FL following several years of progressively worsening dementia. He was 85 years old. Herbert was born in Jersey City, NJ to Henry Herbert Head Jr. and the former Helen Warwick. The second of six children (Barbara, William, Gail, Robert and Linda), all first-generation Americans, he was proud to be raised in a country of unlimited possibilities.

He attended the public schools of Kearny, NJ, received his B.S. and Master’s from Rutgers University, and his PhD in Dairy Science from the University of Maryland in 1963. He moved to Gainesville, FL following graduation to take a position as Asst. Professor of Dairy Science at the University of Florida. The following decades saw him rise to Associate, and later full Professor. In 1974 and again in 1984, he and the family took yearlong sabbaticals to do research at the French National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA) in Jouy-en-Josas, France. Herb also served as graduate student coordinator for his department. In this capacity, he helped a large number of grad students, both domestic and foreign, get settled into the Gainesville community. This service to his students introduced him to a wide ranging group of domestic and foreign nationals and ultimately, coordinated research with a number of South American research laboratories, most notably in Brazil.

During his time at Rutgers, he met and married Janet C. Barker in 1960 at Vincent United Methodist Church in Nutley, NJ. The couple had 4 children, Randy Head (Ryan Frost), Eric Head (Jennifer Heil), Lauren Glantz (Rod) and Aimee McMahon (Bob), plus 5 grandchildren (Meghan McMahon, Kyle McMahon, Tyler Glantz, Spencer Glantz and Sophia Head).

Herb was a long time member of Trinity United Methodist Church in Gainesville.