Mondy

Nell I. Mondy, 83, professor emerita of nutritional sciences at Cornell University, died Aug. 25 at Cayuga Medical Center. A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 17, at the First Baptist Church in Ithaca.

Mondy was on the Cornell faculty for more than 50 years. Her expertise in biochemistry not only reaped a fruitful teaching and research career but also took her to some four dozen countries where she presented papers, worked as a consultant or conducted research. She was considered an international expert on the potato.

Mondy grew up in the small town of Pocohontas, Ark., as the only child of a young widow. Getting her first degree at Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia, Ark., in 1943 during World War II, Mondy went on to receive her M.A. from the University of Texas at Austin (1945) and Ph.D. (1953) from Cornell. For many years she was the only woman in chemistry wherever she went.

Her early research dealt with vitamin B6, folic acid, vitamin B12 and enzymes in choline metabolism, but the majority of her time was spent studying various aspects of the potato, which she considered to be a "food for the world."

Mondy's 1987 proposal on potato marketing resulted in the formation of the Agriculture Research Service -- National Potato Council National Potato Research Program, which has netted millions of dollars in research funds for the study of the quality and use of potatoes. Her work on behalf of the potato industry reaped Mondy an honorary life membership in the Potato Association of America, the organization's highest honor. Her many other awards include the first E.F. Steir Award from the Institute of Food Technologists, the outstanding alumni award from Cornell's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and the Centennial Achievement Award from Ouachita Baptist University.

In 2001 Mondy published her autobiography, "You Never Fail Until You Stop Trying: The Story of a Pioneer Woman Chemist" (Dorrance Publishing). In addition to chronicling her challenges as a woman in science, the book recounts her efforts to improve food and nutrition worldwide, from India and Nigeria to Peru and Poland. She describes food processing behind the Iron Curtain in Warsaw in 1966; her work at the R.T. French Co. developing new products and improving the flavor of Sloppy Joes and Hamburger Helper; and visiting lepers and malnourished children and living through a military coup in Nigeria.

The author or co-author of more than 100 scientific publications, including the textbook "Experimental Food Chemistry," Mondy is in the National Women's Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls, N.Y., and is listed in more than two dozen reference books, such as "Who's Who in America," "Foremost Women in the Twentieth Century" and the "2000 Outstanding Intellectuals of the 21st Century." She is the namesake of the Nell I. Mondy Laboratory of Human Performance in Martha Van Rensselaer Hall at Cornell and of the Nell I. Mondy Organic Chemistry Laboratory at Ouachita Baptist University, which also sponsors a lecture series in her name.

Mondy's professional memberships, accomplishments and goals include being an elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Institute of Food Technologists, the Institute of Chemists and an honorary life member of Graduate Women in Science. She served as a consultant to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and food companies and agencies in the United States and abroad, including the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture in Nigeria.