University to dedicate greenhouse to memory of Cape businessman

Southeast Missouri State University will name its new greenhouse after the late Cape Girardeau businessman Charles Hutson.

Friends and relatives of Hutson contributed some of the private money that helped fund construction of the new 11,660-square-foot greenhouse on a six-acre site near Bertling and Old Sprigg Street Road, west of the university's softball fields.

The greenhouse will be named the Charles L. Hutson Agricultural Greenhouse and will be dedicated at a grand opening ceremony scheduled for 1 p.m. Oct. 31 as part of homecoming weekend festivities.

Parking will be available at the university's tennis courts near the corner of Bertling and Sprigg streets, and shuttle service will be provided. Refreshments and tours will be available after the ceremony.

The $800,000 project was financed with a $200,000 grant from the federal Delta Regional Authority, private donations and funds from the university.

Hutson, owner and operator of Hutson's Fine Furniture in downtown Cape Girardeau and president of Hutson Enterprises, died last December. He graduated from Southeast with a bachelor of science degree in industrial technology and business.

During his years at Southeast, he was a member of the Benton Society and the Marketing Club. He was a recipient of the school's Alumni Merit Award and served as president and an emeritus member of the Southeast Missouri University Foundation board of directors. He was instrumental in the revitalization of downtown Cape Girardeau.

The new greenhouse is double the size of the current one off New Madrid street west of the Student Recreation Center, school officials said.

An expanded greenhouse has been in the plans for a couple of years in response to a surge in interest in plant life science and bio-engineering, according to university officials.

Dr. Wesley Mueller, who chairs the university's agriculture department, said part of the new greenhouse will be dedicated to plant life-science research efforts.

Southeast students will get hands-on experience with research and genetic engineering and, perhaps, with tests on plants in an attempt to harvest novel proteins for such things as drugs to cure cancer, he said. Students also will be able to work on growing pest-resistant crops and get involved with the university's rice breeding efforts on a year-round basis.

The new greenhouse is just the first phase of a project to develop a plant science complex.

The second phase of the project, which could begin in two to three years and cost $1.5 million, calls for building a classroom-laboratory building featuring a biotech lab, Mueller said. In the future, there will be an arboretum, walkways and turf management facilities.