Zillinsky, Francis J, 1917-2001 : Francis John (Frank) Zillinsky was born on 16 July 1917 in Medicine Hat AB, but his family moved to Waterous SK in 1920. He was educated in local schools and then worked as a wheat farmer. He enlisted in the RCAF in 1940 and served in Canada, Britain and Europe. In 1944 he married Hilda Barker in England. After the war he studied agriculture at the University of Saskatchewan, getting his BSc in 1949 and his MSc in 1950. He received his PhD in crop breeding and genetics from the University of Iowa in 1954.
Zillinsky moved to Ottawa in 1950 to work as an oat breeder at the Canada Department of Agriculture. He became the oat and barley specialist at the Experimental Farm in Ottawa and rose to become head of the Cereal Crop Section in 1965. In 1967 he was persuaded to join the CIMMYT (International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre) research project in Mexico where he was head of the triticale program. Triticale, a cross between wheat and rye, was an important component of the "green revolution" to help feed the world's growing population. Zillinsky successfully worked on a number of triticale's genetic problems including sterility, adaptation to different soils and environments and diseases. Zillinsky helped to spread the cultivation of triticale throughout much of the world except North America. He visited and wrote reports on many of the places where triticale was introduced. The Fifth International Triticale Symposium held in Poland in 2002 was dedicated to him.
Zillinsky had an interest in plant diseases even while working on oat research in Ottawa. While observing triticale developments around the world, Zillinsky also collected information on various triticale and other cereal diseases. This eventually led to the publication by CIMMYT of "Common Diseases of Small Cereal Grains: A Guide to Identification" (1983). This practical publication was widely translated. He retired from CIMMYT in 1982 and returned to Canada. Besides having his own triticale seed farm outside of Ottawa, Zillinsky worked on various international agricultural projects under contract for the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and the World Bank. He received hororary degrees from Saskatchewan universities. Frank Zillinsky died on 6 June 2001.
