Spring 2008

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Kolmer took winding road to dean's office

By Karen Bolluyt

Every distinguished career probably includes an evening like the one experienced by retired dean Lee Kolmer in 1959 when he was an extension economist.

He was giving an early-evening talk in a hot church basement, the combination of a speaker’s platform and low ceiling not ideal for his 6’3” frame. Most of the people listening were dairy farmers, fresh from their barns, carrying the aroma of their workplace. In the front row, despite his best efforts, two men fell asleep.

Thirty-three years later, Lee Kolmer retired from a distinguished career in Iowa agriculture and higher education.

Towards the end of his 14-year tenure as dean, Kolmer described his view of his job: to provide support and remove obstacles so that people in the college and in agriculture can do excellent work.

His job did not include carrying a shovel behind the horses in the VEISHEA parade. That was something of a tradition for Iowa State deans when he arrived, but he declined to participate.

Today, his favorite memories reflect the job he described. They are stories of one faculty member or one farming couple who proceeded or succeeded partly because he provided a little path clearing.

He also mentions hiring some of the college’s first female faculty members in traditionally male disciplines who, he is quick to point out, went on to be very successful.

Kolmer, named dean in 1972, served the college during the farm crises of the 1980s. Despite the economic climate, it was his job to advocate for resources to conduct top-notch programs in teaching, research and extension.

Thamon Hazen, an agricultural engineer, joined Kolmer’s administrative team in 1974 as assistant director and assistant dean, a position he held for 13 years.

“He had great people skills. He knew when kid gloves were needed and when it was time for a firm hand. He was not timid about saying what needed to be said but he was great in difficult situations and people had confidence in him,” Hazen says. “He treated everyone the same. Social and economic status didn’t matter to him.”

In particular, he worked on research funding, noting—at countless meeting in countless communities—that Iowa ranked poorly compared with other agricultural states, in its public investment in agricultural research.

During Kolmer’s tenure, the university secured funding for a meats laboratory, a seed science laboratory, horticulture and agronomy buildings, the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture and a crops utilization center. ISU also was named the location of the National Soil Tilth Center while he was dean.

Also during his tenure, funding for scholarships increased significantly, especially in the emerging area of biotechnology, and the off-campus Master of Agriculture degree program was launched. He worked with farmers and other Iowans to establish a statewide friends group, the Friends of Agriculture. After Kolmer left the dean’s office, this group continued a major role in getting increased state funding for research.

As dean, Kolmer supported international activities for faculty and staff and kept active in international programs himself. After he retired, he was involved in agricultural development programs in Russia and Kenya.

Today, Kolmer lives in Des Moines with his wife Jean and two cats bequeathed on them by their younger son. A daughter and her husband live in Des Moines. One son lives in Minnesota and one lives in Illinois with his wife and two children.

Kolmer’s Winding Road to the Dean’s Office

The path to Lee Kolmer’s university career began on a farm in one of four southern Illinois counties settled largely by German immigrants. When Kolmer was stationed with the army in Italy in 1947 he realized that he might have been a Hitler youth, sacrificed to the Nazi cause, had his family not emigrated to the United States, Kolmer says he recognized part of what he became was due to good fortune. “I saw that my grandparents’ emigration was a great gift to me… It changed the way I saw the world,” he says. Learn more about Kolmer’s career path.