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Volume 2/Number 2 |
2000
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Volume 2/Number 2 |
2000
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Ed Kee earned a bachelor of science degree from the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources in 1973 and a master of science degree two years later, and he has enjoyed a successful career as a crop specialist in UD's Cooperative Extension office in Georgetown. Deborah Kee is a 1974 graduate of the University with a degree in education, and she now operates Music Garten, a private dance and music studio for children ages 7 or younger, at the family farm in Lincoln. The couple's daughter Karey is a 1997 graduate in education, and their daughter Jessi is a junior, studying fashion merchandising.
"The campaign really focused our thinking about how grateful we have been for the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources and for the University," Kee says. After some discussion, they decided their participation should come in the form of a scholarship endowment. "We thought, if we can help somebody go to college, that's a good thing."
The Kees pledged $5,000 per year for five years to establish the Ed Kee Endowed Scholarship Fund to support a student from a Delaware high school who enrolls in the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, with first preference to an athlete. ?
As the idea came to fruition, Kee sought financial support for the scholarship endowment from J.G. Townsend Inc., a Sussex County company with which he has had a strong relationship since his days as a University graduate student. Kee discussed the project with the company's chair, Sue Birchard, and "asked them to match what I was doing."
He later got a call from J.G. Townsend's vice president, Roger Townsend, who said, "We can give you $20,000."
Kee says he responded, "That is a little less than I'd hoped, but it's nice."
"No, we're giving $20,000 a year for five years," Townsend said.
Stunned by the company's generosity, Kee says, "I was sort of speechless for a while."
"We've worked with you for years, and we've enjoyed that association," Townsend explained. "But also, the company has worked with University folks for three generations now, and it was an opportunity to thank the University."
Kee was moved, saying, "That continuing relationship with the University is something special."
And, Kee is grateful because the Townsend gift gives "real credibility" to the endowed scholarship fund.
Kee, who grew up in New Castle, says his first connection to UD was as a young sports fan. He attended many football and basketball games with his father. "It was a very special, personal thing."
The college and athletics have a special relationship, Kee says, because they "share the same real estate" on the south campus.
While the two organizations "have worked very well together," Kee notes that there have not been many athletes who have shown an interest in agriculture. "I wanted to bring diversity and raise interest in agriculture to a group that is not traditionally interested," he says.
Just as Kee's father provided his first connection to the University, he also sparked the young man's interest in a career in the food industry. A food purchaser for the Hotel DuPont and the DuPont Co., he would take Kee to the markets to purchase meat, fruit and vegetables.
That bustling world of trucks and forklifts and boxes of apples from distant Washington state "intrigued me," Kee says.
The interest blossomed during summers spent in Lewes, where, as a teenager, Kee worked for Halsey Knapp at Nassau Orchards. Knowing Kee's ties to the food industry, Knapp would send him on excursions to the Philadelphia regional produce market. Kee also met Deborah while he was working at Nassau Orchards and the two dated all through college.
Kee entered the University as a food business major, and later switched to plant and soil science. There, a professor, Dr. Vernon Fisher, now retired, encouraged him to enter graduate school. That advice "made a huge difference for me professionally," says Kee.
Ed and Deborah married when he entered graduate school, although she needed one more semester to complete her degree in education. While conducting graduate research on lima beans, Kee first dealt with J.G. Townsend, working with Joe Crowley, father of Sue Birchard.
Following graduate school, Kee worked three years at Nassau Orchards before joining Cooperative Extension. He was named a vegetable specialist in 1982 and assigned to the Georgetown, Del., office.
"All of that," Kee says of his life and career, "has the thread of the University running through it."
And that, Kee says, is appropriate, given the advice of his father. "My father would always say, 'I don't know why somebody would have to go away to college, because the University of Delaware is the greatest.'" *
–Neil Thomas, AS '76
