Larry Kaiser

The Gene Pruitt Legacy Larry Kaiser

The Gene Pruitt Legacy is a paperback biography of Gene Pruitt, a 73 year-old Indiana farmer with a unique approach to farming. He grew up on a true tenant farm, where he learned to love draft horses and farm animals. After high school graduation, he worked for a number of years on the original Lilly Pharmaceutical Experimental Farm helping test new animal drugs. His years with Lilly were interrupted briefly for a tour of duty with the U. S. Army's Corporal Missile Unit in Italy. Later, on his own farm, Gene Pruitt ventured into a rare specialty hog operation--the Specific Pathogen Free (SPF) program, in which he raised purebred Yorkshire hogs guaranteed free of devastating diseases for the purpose of repopulating and enlarging other farmer's herds. The book details how the medical profession has come to rely on SPF pig parts for use as implants in humans. It also examines the Corporal Missile program that Mr. Pruitt was involved in, and it explores the Lilly Experimental Farm pursuits and the Elanco corporate history near Greenfield, Indiana. The book is 230 pages long, contains over 100 illustrations and is underwritten in part by corporate grants. The Gene Pruitt Legacy is the third book in the Legacy Tree Books Indiana Biography Project. The Cecil Westerhouse Legacy and The David and Connie Stevenson Legacy preceded it, and are sold out. Grantors and the publisher hope that more sponsors will participate so that additional books in the project can be distributed in high school libraries, Indiana rooms of public libraries and historical societies throughout Indiana.