A leader of students and future farmers: Remembering the longest-serving dean in UK’s history
Editor’s Note: As Lexington celebrates the 250th anniversary of its founding, the Herald-Leader and kentucky.com each day throughout 2025 will share interesting facts about our hometown. Compiled by Liz Carey, all are notable moments in the city’s history - some funny, some sad, others heartbreaking or celebratory, and some just downright strange.
Feb. 19, 1958: Thomas Poe Cooper, the acting president at University of Kentucky and dean of UK’s College of Agriculture, dies.
Cooper was born in Pekin, Ill., in 1881. In 1908, he received a bachelor’s degree in agriculture from the University of Minnesota.
Three years later, he left Minnesota to direct North Dakota’s Better Farm Association, and later, the North Dakota Agriculture Experiment Station and Extension Service.
By 1918, he was appointed dean of UK’s College of Agriculture, a position he held until 1951. In 1925, he was given leave by the university to take on a leadership role at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Bureau of Agriculture Economics.
After returning to UK, he served as the Acting President of the University from 1940-1941.
Before Cooper started as Dean of Agriculture, the school had 125 students. Thanks to his work, within a few years, twice as many students graduated from the College of Agriculture and Home Economics, according to UK.
Eventually, the school had more than 1,000 students while the campus Experiment Station Farm had grown to twice its original size and added two sub stations.
After 33 years of service to students, the school and farmers across the state, he received the Sullivan Medallion at the 1951 June commencement for his service to commonwealth residents. At the age of 70, he stepped down as dean because of school policy and became dean emeritus.
He was the longest-serving dean in the school’s history.
.Have a question or story idea related to Lexington’s 250-year history? Let us know at 250LexKy@gmail.com
