Wesley Buchele, professor emeritus of ISU’s department of agricultural and biosystems engineering, served in the U.S. Army and worked as a tractor engineer at the Deere & Company Waterloo Works before embarking on a career in academia.
He began as an assistant professor at the University of Arkansas in 1948 and then joined Iowa State as a graduate assistant and became an assistant professor in 1954. He later became associate professor at Michigan State University before returning to Iowa State in 1963 as a professor. He retired in 1989.
Buchele was active in many organizations, including the American Society of Agricultural Engineers (ASAE), the International Society on Terrain-Vehicle Systems, and the National Institute of Agricultural Engineers. He is a Fellow and life member of ASAE, and in 1988 the organization awarded him the Cyrus Hall McCormick Jerome Case Gold Medal.
He made many contributions to the agricultural industry, including the invention of the rotary threshing and separating cylinder/cone that uses an enlarged centrifugal force for separating the grain and chaff from the straw. Additionally, a graduate student and he invented the large round hay baler, and he conceived and developed the four-wheel-drive tandem tractor.
Buchele, who received a B.S. in agricultural engineering (1943) at Kansas State University and a master’s degree (1951) from the University of Arkansas, is a member of the Order of the Knoll and a lifetime member of the ISU Alumni Association.
For the original ISU Alumni Association post, click here.