LAS CRUCES – After 10 years of arduous work, New Mexico State University’s Chile Pepper Institute funded its $1 million endowment chair earlier this year.
The endowed chair ensures that funds will always be available for chile pepper research at NMSU. That will help in the search for a new Chile Pepper Breeding and Genetics faculty position in the near future.
The chair was named The Paul W. Bosland Chile Pepper Breeding and Genetics Endowed Chair. It not only honors the 33-year career of Bosland, the CPI director, and his contributions to the chile pepper industry, but also provides the university with a chair to recognize the 131 years of continuous chile pepper breeding at New Mexico State University.
“I am very, very honored to have the chair named after me. I didn’t expect it,” Bosland said. “I always tell people when I first came to NMSU that the media would ask me if chile peppers were a fad or a trend, and now no one asks me that question anymore. We’ve really established chile peppers as part of our institution at NMSU and hopefully it will continue.”
The CPI received a lot of help from donors such as John and Sue Hard, founding owners of CaJohns Fiery Food Company in Columbus, Ohio, and Doug Renfro of the company Mrs. Renfros.
CaJohns’ relationship with the CPI began in 2008 when John and Sue decided, over dinner during a trip to Las Cruces, to help the CPI. They offered to provide the ingredients and supplies to make a hot sauce with the proceeds of CPI sales going to the institute and the endowed chair fundraising effort.
“We came in the next day to the Chile Pepper Institute and talked to them. We said you guys name the hot sauce and design the label and we will provide the products. We did and several chile products were developed and sold. There was amazing product growth,” John said. “It also didn’t hurt that the product line story was featured in USA Today when they released the basketball tournament brackets, which made it the number one USA Today issue sold for that year and it just kind of exploded. The institute kept 100 percent of the profit.”
When the Hards learned that just under $5,500 was needed to fund the Chair, they called a friend to see what they could do together to complete the endowment.
“It feels really good, when you start with zero and look at it again when it’s at a million, a huge number. We’ve watched it grow and Doug Renfro was very much involved in donating. I got a hold of Doug and challenged him and he said I’ll help you finish off that final amount, so we split the difference,” John said.
Bosland called that a great accomplishment and achievement and hopefully the search can begin for a new chile pepper faculty member.
NMSU’s Chile Pepper Institute reaches endowment goal; secures funding for chile pepper research
From left, Doug Renfro, with Renfro’s Foods Inc, Chile Pepper Institute Director Paul Bosland and John and Sue Hard of CaJohns Fiery Foods, hold a $5,470 check, the final contribution to the Chile Pepper Institute Endowed Chair position. The check will secure funding for chile pepper research.
