Stuart Younkin, 103, researcher

Stuart G. Younkin was an Iowa farm boy whose skills in milking cows helped put him through college.

While studying for bachelor's and master's degrees at Iowa State University in the late 1930s, "he was living on a farm" near campus, his daughter, Rebecca Kotrba said.

"He was milking cows in the morning and at night" for the farm family, and tending to his studies the rest of the time.

"Pretty incredible," she said.

It was during the Depression, and his family's crop farm didn't produce enough to pay for his education.

On Saturday, April 11, Mr. Younkin, 103, who retired in 1977 as president of the Campbell Institute for Agricultural Research in Camden, died at the Evergreens, a continuing care retirement community in Moorestown.

Mr. Younkin grew up in the Mississippi River town of Montrose, graduated from high school there, and earned a bachelor's in horticulture in 1936 and a master's in plant pathology in 1939.

Besides his off-campus milking, his daughter said, to pay his college bills for a time, "he was involved with the agriculture department and doing research in the labs."

Mr. Younkin earned a doctorate in plant pathology at Cornell University in 1943, where, to cover his education costs, he worked as a lab researcher.

Mr. Younkin began his career as a plant pathologist and geneticist with Campbell Soup Co. in Camden, working in that role from 1943 to 1952.

"He went there on a kind of temporary basis," his daughter said. "He didn't have any intention to stay there.

"But he got there, and it sort of clicked."

He had expected a career in college agricultural research, she said, "but he flourished there."

At Campbell, Mr. Younkin was assistant to the director of research in 1952, agricultural research manager in 1953, and agricultural research director until 1961.

In 1959 he went to Massachusetts Institute of Technology for senior executive training. From 1961 to 1977, he was Campbell vice president for agricultural research, and for much of that time, from 1966 to 1977, also president of the Campbell Institute.

After retiring, Mr. Younkin was president of the Philadelphia Society for Promoting Agriculture in 1987-88, its publications editor from 1985 to 1996, and its website editor from 1998 to 2001.

For the National Academy of Sciences, he was a member of its agricultural board from 1962 to 1968, its subcommittee on genetic vulnerability of crops in 1973, and its ad hoc work group on U.S. and world food needs in 1976.

In 1980, he was a member of the academy's board on science and technology for international development, studying "postharvest losses" in Sri Lanka.

Jack Osborn, who retired from Campbell in 1985 as a senior research scientist, met Mr. Younkin in 1940 at Cornell.

"For a long time," Osborn said, "we shared an interest in surf fishing at the Jersey Shore."

And, Osborn said, "we both shared an interest in woodworking." In retirement, "he became a very skilled woodworker, making beautiful furniture."

Besides his daughter, Mr. Younkin is survived by sons Steven, Bruce, Donald, and Clyde, nine grandchildren, and eight great-grandchildren. His wife, Bettiebel, died in 2008.

A memorial service was set for 11 a.m. Saturday, April 18, at the chapel of the Evergreens, 309 Bridgeboro Rd., Moorestown, N.J., with private interment.

Donations may be sent to First Presbyterian Church, 101 Bridgeboro Rd., Moorestown, N.J. 08057, or http://fpcmoorestown.org.

Condolences may be offered to the family at www.lewisfuneralhomemoorestown.com.