Beer-Loving Asbestos Lawyer Funds Hops Breeding Program
A lawyer who established a successful mesothelioma practice in Texas has teamed up with a childhood friend to donate $1 million to Oregon State University, $807,000 of which is to fund a new aroma hop breeding program.
Lawyer Roger Worthington, 48, has partnered with another former Corvallis, Ore., resident Jim Solberg, 48, to launch Indie Hops to create awareness that the region is a premier hops growing area, the Corvallis Gazette-Times reports.
The craft beer enthusiasts dreamed up the idea to create Indie Hops after meeting for a drink in Portland two years ago.
On the Indie Hops website, Worthington is said to have leaned over the table to declare to Solberg, formerly of Nike, “I’ve amassed a small fortune with my law practice, but haven’t produced a tangible product my whole life. I’m enamored with hops and the beers that showcase them. I want to be in the hops business in the Willamette Valley. Hops and craft beer are something I can get passionate about again, and I need you on point.”
According to the Gazette-Times, the OSU donation, to be distributed over four or five years, is meant to fund a hops breeding program, plus four years of research into the fermentation process.
This isn’t the first time Worthington has donated significant sums of money for research. He has funded research efforts in the area of malignant mesotehlioma, his primary practice focus. And in 2000, he helped form the Mesothelioma Applied Research Foundation, to raise money for asbestos-related cancer research.
