The majestic Percheron stallion Jalop was exercised daily close to the Farmhouse. Dean Curtiss seated behind his imposing double oak desk flanked on either side by pictures of notable contemporaries and numerous livestock trophies left little doubt about who ran the place. During the Curtiss era, besides the building of the agronomy and animal husbandry departments into prominence, he developed the first agricultural engineering department by his support of Davidson, the first head, and the first agricultural journalism department. The Dean was a friend of Alvin H. Sanders, editor of The Breeder's Gazette , and maintained close connections with the agricultural press throughout his life. For a time he was also director of what was to become the Iowa Department of Transportation.
Club work, and introduced soybeans and alfalfa as major crops in Iowa.
Dean Curtiss was a stockbreeder himself on his 330-acre Rockwood farm southwest of Ames. He bred and exhibited Clydesdale horses, Shorthorn cattle, Southdown sheep, and Berkshire swine. He was active in each of the respective breed associations. He was a director and on the executive committee of the International Livestock Exposition most of the years he was dean. Twice in his early years as dean, he was a candidate for the ISC presidency.