Dr. John William Uhrig's Obituary
Dr. J William “Bill” Uhrig of Miami Beach, Florida and formerly of West Lafayette, Indiana died peacefully on November 19, 2018 at the age of 88, surrounded by his loving family. Bill was born April 14, 1930 to John and Anna Uhrig, farmers and lifetime residents of Raymond, Illinois, and is survived by his wife Helen (Watts) to whom he was married for 59 years, their five children: Kathy (Rick) of San Francisco, Beth (Bart) of Glencoe, Illinois, Bill (Anastasia) of New York, Tom (Cindy) of Indianapolis, and Helen Ursula of San Francisco, and their eight grandchildren: Jaclyn and Ryan Kimball, Nicole and Stephen Schneider, and Luke, Caroline, Maria, and Matthew Uhrig. Bill is also survived by his sister, Marilyn Sale of Raymond, Illinois, his brother, Richard Uhrig of Divernon, Illinois, and many nieces and nephews. Bill was preceded in death by his brother, Dr. Robert Uhrig of Gainesville, Florida and his sister, Margaret Jordan of Farmersville, Illinois.
Bill proudly served in the US Air Force as a pilot. His tour of active duty took him to Malden, Missouri, Denver Colorado, and into the North East Air Command, assigned to the 64th Air Division and stationed in St Johns, Newfoundland. Bill served in the Korean War and received an honorable discharge in 1957 as First Lieutenant.
Bill spent his career as a student, teacher, farmer, farm manager, farmland owner, and consultant. He earned his Bachelor of Science and Doctorate degrees from Iowa State University and also completed studies at the Southwestern School of Banking in Dallas, Texas. He was a faculty member at Purdue University for thirty years with his studies
focused on agricultural economics. He had a three-way appointment in teaching, research, and extension and was often praised for his remarkable ability to reduce complex operations to a practical and understandable level. He was known for the groundbreaking ways in which he used technical analysis, expert systems, and neural networks in the study of agriculture. Bill was especially proud of his achievements to improve the quality of the extension programs at Purdue, which he designed to broaden and extend the reach of his research to farming communities, state and federal government agencies, and the business world. He worked with Will Candler, a fellow Purdue faculty member, to develop the Top Farmer Crop Workshop Program and was a pioneer in using closed circuit television to rapidly disseminate critical information to farmers. He worked with the Indiana Bankers Association and the Indiana division of the Internal Revenue Service to develop the Purdue Banking School. And he worked with the US Department of Agriculture on a variety of topics, ranging from a study of the Russian sunflower crop and its impact on US soybean meal prices to how to best respond to droughts, the latter of which he received a Silver Metal Award for meritorious service.
Beyond Purdue, Bill sought out opportunities to extend his research to the business community. Bill took sabbatical leaves to work as a member of the Wharton Economic Research group in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania, as Director of Research at the Farmers Grain Dealers Association of Iowa in Des Moines, Iowa, and with Cook Industries as a member of their research team in Memphis, Tennessee.
Bill was well known and loved to generations of Purdue students studying agricultural economics. He advised no fewer than fifteen graduate students during his time at Purdue and was on graduate examination committees for many others. Even after he retired, Bill stayed in touch with many former students, encouraging them as they pursued their careers and built their families. Many Purdue alums will remember how Bill turned his front yard on Northwestern Ave. into a parking lot during home football games, nominally to provide easy access to the stadium but really so he could reconnect with generations of students and alumni.
Bill received many awards in recognition of his lifetime work. He especially cherished the Outstanding Extension Teaching Award presented by the American Agricultural Association in 1982 and the Sagamore of the Wabash aware presented by Governor Evan Bayh in 1996 for his outstanding service to the people of Indiana. Bill’s passion was touching the lives of the people he came into contact with in a positive way. He was known to say, “you can’t repay people who helped you along the path life takes you, so you pay your gratitude forward by helping other people.” Bill lived those words every day of his 88 years and his family, friends, students, colleagues, and countless others are forever grateful.
Condolences may be sent to Bill’s wife, Helen at [email protected]. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the J. William and Helen Uhrig Education Fund at Purdue University's College of Agriculture (which provides scholarships at Purdue). Online
donations can be made at www.Giving.Purdue.edu/InMemoryofWilliamUhrig or make donations payable to Purdue Foundation and mail to Purdue Foundation, 403 W. Wood Street, West Lafayette, IN 47907.
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