Robert E. Hodgson (1893-1968) was superintendent of the Southern Experiment Station from 1919 to 1960. He promoted modern agricultural methods in Waseca and throughout Minnesota. From 1948 to 1964, Hodgson wrote a column for The Farmer Magazine, and his column “Bob Hodgson Talks” appeared in more than one hundred rural Minnesota newspapers for over 20 years. Hodgson was a member of the Waseca County Historical Society, the Waseca County Horse Thief Detectives, The Boy Scouts and other organizations. Among his many interests were history, nature study and pipe collecting. During World War II, Hodgson wrote a once a month letter to members of Boy Scout Troop 85 who were serving in the armed forces all over the world. The letters were published in the Waseca Journal with separate copies printed and mailed to any Waseca serviceman who wished to receive them. Hodgson’s letters maintained the home contacts, helped men keep up on the locations of friends and provided morale-boosting communications for those far away from home. In August 1912, the University of Minnesota’s Board of Regents purchased 246 acres of land half a mile to the south and west of Waseca on the edge of the city limits. The Southeast Demonstration Farm and Experiment Station began operations in 1913. In 1925, the Southeast Demonstration and Experiment Station became the Southeast Experiment Station. In 1941, with an additional land purchase, the station totaled 598 acres. Land was set aside for the Southern School of Agriculture (SSA) which admitted its first students in 1953. In 1969, the Southern School of Agriculture evolved into the University of Minnesota Technical College-Waseca then it was renamed as the University of Minnesota-Waseca (UMW), sharing land with the newly named Southern Experiment Station (SES). In 1992, UMW graduated its final class and then the UMW campus buildings were sold to the Federal Bureau of Prisons. In 1999, the Southern Experiment Station became the Southern Research and Outreach Center (SROC).
