By STEVE BINDER
Illinois Correspondent

CARBONDALE, Ill. — The man who founded what is now Southern Illinois University Carbondale’s College of Agricultural Sciences, described as “the right man in the right place” to help launch a higher education track for students passionate about farming, died late last month.

Wendell E. Keepper, who turned 100 earlier this year, served as the first dean of SIUC’s ag school from 1955 until 1974, when he retired. He lived in Carbondale.

“Dean Keepper was passionate about the role of our university in advancing agriculture,” said SIUC Chancellor Rita Cheng. “Our students, faculty and staff and our many industry partners continue to benefit from his wisdom and leadership.”

The college’s current dean, Todd Winters, explained past and present students owe a debt to Keepper.

“(He) was a very important part of our college’s history,” he said. “His vision has resulted in arguably the most successful non-land grant college of agriculture in the country. His legacy continues.”

A native of the south-central Illinois town of Hillsboro, Keepper earned his bachelor’s degree at the University of Illinois in 1933 and his master’s and Ph.D from Cornell University. He returned to his home state, and SIUC, in 1950.
“He was the right person at the right time,” said Gilbert H. Kroening, a member of Keepper’s first graduating class in 1959. When Keepper retired, Kroening was named dean.

“The University was going through a post-World War II expansion and Kepp was brought in with the opportunity to build an ag program. He was a man of determination and vision,” Kroening explained. “He was a strong leader but he also was humble. He never craved recognition for himself. He always did what was in the best interest of the program.”

When he arrived at SIUC, the school offered a limited number of ag studies; there were no ag buildings on campus, and just five professors taught ag courses. The budget for the department was $70,000.

Within a few years, Keepper helped build what became the School of Agriculture, and in 1955 he watched as then-Gov. William G. Stratton laid the cornerstone for the college’s new agriculture building. It opened in 1957 and continues serving students today.

When he retired in 1974, SIUC had about 850 ag students, nearly 60 faculty and staff and an operating budget of about $1.5 million.

“We felt it was our job to train young people of southern Illinois and others from different parts of the state interested in the profession of agriculture so that they could help solve the problems facing our agricultural society,” Keepper said in 2005.

“Our intent was to train them well in an up-to-date fashion so that they could compete with graduates of other universities for jobs in teaching, research, production and other fields.”

Today, the college has about 1,000 students, four departments, eight majors and approximately two dozen specialty areas for students. Faculty use a 2,000-acre farm for research and have more than $20 million in active research grants.

Keepper’s survivors include two brothers, Howard Keepper of Hillsboro and Melvin Keepper of Decatur, Ill., and his daughter, Holly Immel of Makanda, Ill. Memorial donations may be sent to the Keepper Heritage Scholarship Endowed Fund in care of the SIU Foundation, 1235 Douglas Dr., Carbondale, IL 62901.