Leon Hesser

Leon Hesser's service as a teenage soldier in the Philippines during World War II, and later with the Army of Occupation in Japan, exposed him to cultures and farming systems that differed from those he had grown up with in the Midwest of the United States. The differences fascinated him. After the war, Hesser married Florence Ellen Life, they had two children, and they farmed in Indiana until he was 30, when his city-bred wife encouraged him to sell the farm business and center Purdue...See more

Leon Hesser's service as a teenage soldier in the Philippines during World War II, and later with the Army of Occupation in Japan, exposed him to cultures and farming systems that differed from those he had grown up with in the Midwest of the United States. The differences fascinated him. After the war, Hesser married Florence Ellen Life, they had two children, and they farmed in Indiana until he was 30, when his city-bred wife encouraged him to sell the farm business and center Purdue University as a freshman. He earned bachelor's, master's, and Ph.D. degrees in agricultural economics at Purdue, with emphasis on international agriculture. See less