Sherman O. Kessler, 93 years old of New Ross, IN died Thursday, November 6, at his residence.
He was a member of the Board of Trustees of Purdue from July 1, 1973 to June 30, 1988. He was born December 21, 1914, in New Ross, son of the late Warner C. and Dessie Kessler. He married Flora Jane Jarrell Kessler on November 21, 1948. Kessler graduated with distinction from Purdue in 1936, majoring in animal husbandry, and after earning his master's degree in agricultural economics in 1938, joined the extension service as an economist and farm management specialist. He took a one-year leave of absence to become a University of Chicago Farm Foundation Fellow in 1940. Kessler returned to farming in 1943, working with his brother Warner, a 1939 Purdue graduate, and his son Mark, who holds both a bachelor's and master's degree from Purdue. The trio raised hogs, beef, and corn until selling the farm in 1995. Kessler served as director of the First National Bank and Trust Company of Crawfordsville from 1953 to 1985 and was a trustee for Indiana Vocational and Technical College (Ivy Tech) from 1968 to 1974. From 1971 to 1974, he served on the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture's Advisory Committee on Grains. He is a past president of the Indiana Farm Management Association. Kessler served on Purdue's Farm Policy Study Group and the School of Nursing Community Advisory Council. He was a member of the Purdue Alumni Association, the Agricultural Alumni Association, and a life member of the President's Council. He was a member of Alpha Gamma Rho. Kessler received the 1970 Indiana Pork Producers' Award for Meritorious Service to the swine industry, the Indiana Prairie Farmer 1972 Master Farmer Award, a 1978 Livestock Conservation Merit Award for his hog cholera eradication efforts, the 1989 Ag Alumni Certificate of Distinction, and a Sagamore of the Wabash from both Governor Bowen and Governor Orr.

Surviving are son, Mark (Brenda) Kessler of Iowa.

He was preceded in death by a brother Warner C. Kessler and his wife Flora Jane Jarrell Kessler.

Friends will be received at the Porter Funeral Home, Jamestown, Indiana, Saturday, November 15, 2008, from 12 - 2 p.m. with service at 2p.m. with Rev. Ann Smith-Williams officiating.

Interment will follow in the New Ross Cemetery, New Ross, Indiana.

In lieu of flowers a donation may be made to the Purdue Agricultural Alumni Foundation in memory of Sherman Kessler. Mail to: Purdue Agricultural Alumni Association, Pfendler Hall of Agriculture, Room 107, 715 W. State Street, West Lafayette, IN 47907-2061

Online condolences may be made at www.robertporterfuneralhome.com