The Louisiana Cooperative Extension Service: a Descriptive History of Its Origin and Development
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Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses Graduate School 1987 The Louisiana Cooperative Extension Service: a Descriptive History of Its Origin and Development. (Volumes I and II). Edwin Clark Forrest Jr Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses Recommended Citation Forrest, Edwin Clark Jr, "The Louisiana Cooperative Extension Service: a Descriptive History of Its Origin and Development. (Volumes I and II)." (1987). LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses. 4354. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses/4354 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses by an authorized administrator of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. 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Dissertation contains pages with print at a slant, filmed as received ______ 16. Other___________________________________________________________________ University Microfilms International Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. THE LOUISIANA COOPERATIVE EXTENSION SERVICE: A DESCRIPTIVE HISTORY OF ITS ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT VOLUME I A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Education in The Department of Agricultural, Extension and International Education by Edwin Clark Forrest, Jr. B.A., Southeastern Louisiana College, 1968 M.A., Louisiana State University, 1976 May 1987 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Dedication: To the Past, Present and Future Employees of the LOUISIANA COOPERATIVE EXTENSION SERVICE and Their Clients— Almost All the People of Louisiana Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS At the risk of omitting someone, I must try to record the many people whose help made this work possible, while at the same time recognizing that any shortcomings are solely my responsibility. The person who introduced me to the area of applied social change, which has served me well in my many job responsibilities with the state of Louisiana, was my major professor for my master's degree at LSU, Boyd Professor Alvin L. Bertrand. Those professors in Extension Education who first stimulated my interest in this discipline include Dr. Edward L. Gassie and Dr. Bruce Flint. In fact, it was Dr. Gassie who encouraged me to pursue this subject for my dissertation. Those who sustained my interest in it include Dr. Lynn L. Pesson, who taught me the importance of advanced Extension Education concepts, Dr. Bobbie McFatter, who instilled in me the role played by women in Extension's history, and Dr. Satish Verma, who added an international perspective and also sought to impart the value of statistics to me. The members of my dissertation committee are, in addition to Dr. Gassie and Dr. Verma, Dr. Quentin A. L. Jenkins, Dr. Virginia S. Purtle, Dr. Robert R. Soileau, Dr. Robert J. Gale, and my major professor and committee iii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. chairman, Dr. J. H. Jones, Jr. My committee members who are sociologists have shown me the importance of systematic social analysis as a bridge from sociology to Extension Education. It has been Dr. Jones who has borne the brunt of having to exhibit the "patience of Job" in the face of what surely must have seemed like my perpetual procrastination. I can only extend to him and the other committee members my heartfelt thanks and a promise to remember them for their many courtesies. The assistance from the Louisiana Cooperative Extension Service in completing this work, without exception, has extended from the current administrators, Dr. Denver T. Loupe and his staff, particularly Dr. Bruce Flint, Ted Holmes and Gail Truxillo, to retired administrators such as Dr. H. C. Sanders and Mr. John A. Cox, both former directors, and to retired County Agents like Mr. Neal Dry— a former work colleague of mine who has offered unstinted encouragement and help. The many, many others who provided help are shown in the following text and notes. Having always been a part-time student, I want to publicly thank my present employer, the Louisiana Department of Commerce, Office of Commerce and Industry, whose capable administrators. Secretary Kay Jackson, Assistant Secretary William T. Hackett and my immediate supervisor, Harold Price, for not only considering my completion of this task in making my work assignments and other beneficial iv Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. arrangements, but for actually encouraging me to complete it. Such, unfortunately, cannot be said for my former employer. At a personal level, I regret that my parents, Clark Forrest, Sr., (1902-78) and Susie Forrest (1907-83), are not here to witness my graduation. However, the value of education which they instilled in me certainly contributed to my persistence; they said that education was one of the few things that a person could not lose or have taken from him. It is an interesting phenomenon that the older one becomes the smarter his parents were! And the final familial acknowledgment goes to my supportive wife, Barbara, without whose continuous encouragement this would not have been completed because she bore the responsibility for caring for our two young sons, Edwin Carroll "Jack" (1980) and Ethan Clark (1985) , as well as pursuing her teaching career at SLU and working to complete her dissertation at Tulane. I hope my completion of this dissertation offers some consolation for their sacrifice as well as that made by all our families--grandmas, grandpas, aunts, uncles and cousins— and friends. v Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. PREFACE LOUISIANA COOPERATIVE EXTENSION SERVICE 1914-1986 What conditions brought the Louisiana Cooperative Extension Service (LCES) into existence? What conditions have sustained it for over 70 years? And finally, what does the future hold for the LCES? It is apropos that these questions are asked during the septuagenarian