E. T. York

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E.T. York, Jr.
University Professor
Extension Service Administrator

University Administrator
SpouseVermelle "Vam" Cardwell York

E. Travis York, Jr. (July 4, 1922 – April 15, 2011) was an American

president of the University of Florida, and the chancellor of the State University System of Florida.[1]

Early life and education

York was born and raised in the

Student Government Association.[2]

York graduated from API with a

land-grant educational system to alleviate world hunger.[2]

After finishing his

doctor of philosophy degree at Cornell, York was hired as an associate professor of agronomy at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, North Carolina, where he would later assume the chairmanship of the Department of Agronomy.[2] In 1956, he left North Carolina State to work as a regional director for the Potash Institute.[3]

Extension service

In 1959, York returned to his alma mater to succeed the retiring P. O. Davis as director of the Alabama Cooperative Extension Service in Auburn, Alabama.[4] York remains the youngest person to serve as Alabama Extension director.[4]

York's two-year tenure as extension director, though brief, was considered a watershed event in Alabama Extension history, reflected in the laudatory remarks in contemporary Alabama newspapers, including the Andalusia Star-News, which described his brief directorship as "a new and enlightened era" in Alabama farming.[4] York's vision of the Alabama Extension was that of an organization committed to the economic betterment of the state as a whole, rather than only to the farming sector or to urban Alabamians with lawn and gardening problems.[5]

E.T. embodied the ideas of service, loyalty and generosity. He built the Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences from the ground up, and he stepped up to serve the university and the state of Florida whenever and wherever he was needed. He was an absolute giant of a man in every sense[.]

— University of Florida President Bernie Machen,
on the 2011 death of E.T. York.[6]

He was a vocal supporter of cooperation with other groups, calling on extension educators to "make these other groups members of our own team rather than [to] compete with them by attempting to do the total job by ourselves."

degrees while earning full pay.[5] York also established a practice of replacing vacancies only with professionals with advanced degrees—a policy credited with greatly enhancing the quality of Alabama Extension programming.[5]

York is remembered for ending the long-standing public perception that the Alabama Extension was hopelessly entangled in local, state and even national politics.

partisan politics.[5] He invited the senior county extension agents to a dinner, all of whom had actively used their positions in state and local politics, and announced to his shocked audience that anyone who used his position for political gain or influence in the future would be summarily fired.[7]

In 1961, at the request of U.S.

Secretary of Agriculture Orville Freeman, York took a planned leave of absence as director of the Alabama Extension to serve as the administrator for the federal Extension Service (now the Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service) in Washington, D.C.,[2] and became the youngest person to ever hold the position.[8]

University administrator

Instead of returning to Auburn University as he originally planned, York accepted an offer to be the

executive vice president.[3]

During his tenure at Florida, he was credited with implementing far-reaching changes. He was remembered for merging the College of Agricultural Life Sciences, the Florida Cooperative Extension Service, and the Florida Agricultural Experiment Station under the Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (IFAS) in 1964.[3] He established the Center for Tropical Agriculture, which extended IFAS' international influence, and initiated DARE (Developing Agricultural Resources Effectively), a long-range agricultural planning program.[3] York also founded SHARE (Special Help for Agricultural Research and Education), a University of Florida Foundation program that raises private funds for agricultural research.[3] Since its inception, SHARE has raised more than $169 million through monetary and in-kind gifts from thousands of donors.[3]

Upon the resignation of university president Stephen C. O'Connell in 1973, York was named interim president of the University of Florida.[9] After Robert Q. Marston was chosen as his permanent successor in 1974, York was appointed chancellor of the State University System of Florida, serving from 1975 until 1980.[9]

Legacy

York retired from academia in 1980 to devote his full-time efforts to fighting global hunger, primarily by improving the agricultural infrastructure in developing countries.

Agency for International Development (AID)) by President Jimmy Carter, which works to strengthen and mobilize the resources of American land-grant universities to help Third World countries improve their agricultural industries through better educational and research institutions.[3] He served in this position for three years and was succeeded by William E. Lavery. York also served as the chairman of the Board of the International Fertilizer Development Center, with sponsored programs around the world.[3]

York authored more than 100 technical papers,

Gerald R. Ford, Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan.[3]

Among his many life-time honors, York received

honorary doctorates from Auburn, Florida, Ohio State and North Carolina State, and was a member of the Alabama Agricultural Hall of Honor and the Florida Agricultural Hall of Fame.[9] In 1997, the Museum of Florida History named York as a "Great Floridian," becoming one of the first twelve individuals honored for "shaping the state of Florida as we know it today."[2]

Although York achieved his greatest academic stature at the University of Florida, he and his wife Vam remained loyal Auburn University

graduate students; and $150,000 to establish the E.T. York Distinguished Lecturer Series, which draws national and international leaders in agriculture and related disciplines to deliver public addresses on the Auburn campus.[2]

York died on April 15, 2011, in Gainesville; he was 88 years old.[10] He was survived by Vam, his wife of 64 years, and their son Travis and daughter Lisa.[8]

See also

References

  1. ^ Auburn University, E.T. York, Jr. Hall of Honor Profile. Retrieved July 22, 2009.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Jamie Creamer, "A Lifetime of Achievement: AU Ag Alum Makes Mark on the World," Ag Illustrated, Alabama Agricultural Experiment Station (Winter 2006). Retrieved July 22, 2009.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l University of Florida, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, York Lecturer Series, Fall 1994 York Lecturer Biographical Sketch: Dr. E.T. York. Retrieved July 22, 2009.
  4. ^ a b c Joe Yeager & Gene Stevenson, Inside Ag Hill: The People and Events that Shaped Auburn's Agricultural History from 1872 through 1999, Sheridan Books, Chelsea, Michigan (1999), p. 364.
  5. ^ a b c d e f Yeager, Inside Age Hill, p. 365.
  6. ^ "E.T. York, founder of IFAS, dies Archived 2011-05-22 at the Wayback Machine," University of Florida News (April 15, 2011). Retrieved April 15, 2011.
  7. ^ Yeager, Inside Age Hill, pp. 365–366.
  8. ^ a b Nathan Crabbe & Anthony Clark, "E.T. York, ex-chancellor and IFAS founder, dies at age 88," The Gainesville Sun (April 15, 2011). Retrieved April 15, 2011.
  9. ^ a b c University of Florida, Past Presidents, E.T. York (Interim President 1973–1974) Archived 2014-02-27 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved October 24, 2012.
  10. ^ Associated Press, "Former Fla. university chancellor E.T. York dies," The Miami Herald (April 15, 2011). Retrieved April 16, 2011.

Bibliography

  • Pleasants, Julian M., Gator Tales: An Oral History of the University of Florida, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida (2006).
    ISBN 0-8130-3054-4
    .
  • Proctor, Samuel, & Wright Langley, Gator History: A Pictorial History of the University of Florida, South Star Publishing Company, Gainesville, Florida (1986).
    ISBN 0-938637-00-2
    .
  • Van Ness, Carl, & Kevin McCarthy, Honoring the Past, Shaping the Future: The University of Florida, 1853–2003, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida (2003).
  • Yeager, Joe, & Gene Stevenson, Inside Ag Hill: The People and Events that Shaped Auburn's Agricultural History from 1872 through 1999, Sheridan Books, Chelsea, Michigan (1999).

External links
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