Obituary of Jordan Gray Lee, Jr., Dean of LSU College of Agriculture, native of Union Parish Louisiana Submitted for the Union Parish Louisiana USGenWeb Archives by Hank Johns, 8/2006 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ************************************************ ================================================================================= 1956 Obituary of Dean Jordan Gray Lee, native of Union Parish Louisiana State Times - Morning Advocate Newspaper Baton Rouge, Louisiana, 28 April 1956, page 1 ================================================================================== J.G. LEE JR. DIES; RITES SET SUNDAY Had Served as Dean of LSU College of Agriculture for Past 25 years; Would have Retired on June 30. Dean Jordan G. Lee, Jr, head of LSU's College of Agriculture for the past 25 years died about 3:30 a.m. today at Baton Rouge General Hospital. Dean Lee who was to retire from the LSU faculty June 30, was 70. He had been in ill health for several months. The body is at the Rabenhorst Funeral Home, where services will be held at 3:30 p.m. Sunday. The Rev. Philip Werlein will officiate. Interment will be in Greenoaks Memorial Park. Lee's retirement was approved by the LSU Board of Supervisors earlier this year. He would have retired with the title "Dean Emeritus." And he was to have been honored at a banquet announced for next Wednesday night here. Lee was born near Farmerville, in Union Parish, on Oct 29, 1885, a son of H. M. and Emma O. Lee. [inserted here from another article that ran the following day......"He was named for his uncle Major Jordan Gray Lee who for many years was head of the LSU Forestry Depart- ment. In addition for being named for his uncle, Dean Lee also received the nickname "Major"."] He received his bachlor's degree from LSU in 1906, took his master's at LSU and later did post-graduate work at Iowa State College and the University of Missouri. Came to LSU in 1919 His career as a college professor began at Southwestern Louisiana Institute at Lafayette in 1909. He organized the agriculture depart- ment there, and in 1919 returned to LSU, as professor of vocational agriculture. [ DEAN J.G.LEE JR photograph is shown here ] His work in the field was so outstanding that in 1931 he was appointed dean of the College of Agriculture--the post which he held until his death. Dean Lee made a great contribution to the state when he organized what is known as the Farm Council. He called together the presidents of the Agricultural Commodity Assns. and acting upon their advice, cemented these leaders into one state group to serve as an advisory committee to him and other agricultural leaders in planning Louisiana's agricultural programs. He further organized farmer advisory committees to serve each sub-experiment station in the state, with the exception of the sugar cane committee which had previously been organized. He received the Episilon Sigma Phi, a national agricultural fraternity, award in 1940 in recognition of his outstanding contribution to agriculture, and in 1941 was appointed by President Roosevelt to the advisory committee on Inter-American Cooperation in Agricultural Education. He was named the man of the year in Louisiana agriculture in 1943 by the Progressive Farmer Magazine, and he served as the first AAA Administrator in Louisiana. He was a member of the Federal Land Bank Board of Directors and was elected a life member of the Louisiana Farm Bureau Federation. Lee had also served as a member of LSU's Athletic Council from 1946 until it was reorganized last year. (Continued of Page 4-A, Col.7) J.G.LEE (Continued From Page 1) He is survived by his wife, the former Genevieve Barber, one daughter, Miss Genevieve Lee; one son, Jordan G. Lee III, who is an associate professor of agricultural chemistry and bio-chemistry at LSU; one brother, John Lloyd Lee, district agent for the Agricultural Extension Service; one sister, Mrs. Clara Norris of Farmerville, and four grandchildren. Dean Lee lived at 439 E. State St. ###################################