Willard Chester LATHAM

LATHAM, JOHANSEN

Posted By: Sarah Thorson Little (email)
Date: 9/20/2008 at 11:57:26

April 5, 2001

Willard Chester Latham, 89, died on Sunday, April 1, 2001, at the Hampton Care Center after a lengthy illness. Services were held on Wednesday, April 4, at 1:30 p.m., at the Nazareth Lutheran Church in Coulter with Pastor Mary Peterson officiating. Burial was in the Coulter Cemetery near Coulter. Willard Latham was born on February 18, 1912, at Alexander. He graduated from the Alexander High School in 1929 and from Iowa State College in 1936 with a B.S. degree in dairy husbandry. After college, Willard joined his father in dairy farming near Alexander, then a seed business in 1947, producing seed oats for retail which developed from a local business to the six-state regional company known as Latham Seed Company.

On June 30, 1938, Willard was married to Evelyn Johansen of Latimer. Sons, Bill, Don and Tom followed in Willard's footsteps by joining the family seed business, which Tom left in 1994 when elected as Iowa's 5th District Congressman. Bob is President of Latham and Associates, an energy consulting firm and Jim operates a vending machine business. Willard was a county 4-H president and state 4-H secretary, president of his church and finance chairman during the church's building project, served on the Alexander School Board for 13 years, as president most of the time and was a former Franklin County Farm Bureau president and secretary. He was director of the Iowa Crops and Soils Research Council, the North Central Research Association, the Iowa Committee for Agricultural Development, the Iowa Crop Improvement Association, the Iowa State University Alumni Association, the Iowa Seed Association, the Iowa State Agronomy Department, and the College of Agriculture, the Iowa and American Soybean Association as president and secretary. He received the Iowa Soybean Association's State Achievement Award, and in 1987 was named as Honorary Lifetime Member of the American Soybean Association. Willard was a member of the Order of the Knoll of Iowa State and is an honorary member of both the Iowa Crop Improvement Association and Iowa Seed Association.
He also spent many years on the Board of Regents of Waldorf College at Forest City. In the 1950's, Willard served as one of four members of the USDA Advisory Committee on Soybeans and Flax. He also served as a member of the USDA Plant Variety Protection Board. The Iowa State Alumni Merit Award was awarded to Willard, a life membership of the ISU Alumni Association, and the Distinguished Service Award of the Franklin Co. ISU Alumni Association. He also received the Distinguished Service Award of Alpha Gamma Rho, and "Order of the Crescent" from its Educational Foundation.

Willard was preceded in death by his parents, Jesse and Mamie Meyer Latham; a twin brother, Wilbur; and an infant daughter, Carol Jean. Survivors are his wife, Evelyn; five sons and daughters-in-law, Willard J. (Bill) and Linda Latham of Alexander, Robert and Sue Latham of Cedar Rapids, James and Marcia Latham of Clear Lake, Donald and Marilyn Latham of Alexander and Thomas and Kathy Latham of Alexander; 12 grandchildren, John, Christopher, Jesse, Anne, Paige, Jed, Jeremy, Angela, Sarah, Justin, Jennifer and Jill; one great-granddaughter, Emerson Ann; and many nieces and nephews.

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