Spring 2010 (PDF) - Virginia Tech

GRADUATE ALUMNI
ACHIEVEMENT AWARD RECIPIENT
The Honorable Richard T. Crowder
Dr. Richard T. Crowder has had an outstanding career as a corporate leader and public servant
to agricultural industries globally. In 2008 he joined the faculty of Virginia Tech as a professor of
international trade in the Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics.
Dr. Crowder’s executive career has spanned more than 40 years with significant contributions to
major U.S. corporations, the U.S. government, and non-governmental organizations. He served in the
office of the U. S. Trade Representative, Executive Office of the President as Chief Agricultural Negotiator,
with the rank of ambassador. In this position, he was responsible for directing all U.S. agricultural
negotiations worldwide. For this service, he was presented with the Distinguished Service Award by
the United States Trade Representative, Executive Office of the President.
He began his professional career as a staff economist for Exxon, and then held a number of
high-level executive positions with Wilson & Company, The Pillsbury Company, Armour Swift-Eckrich,
and DEKALB Genetics. In 1989, he became Under Secretary of International Affairs and Commodity
Programs for the U.S. Department of Agriculture. In this position he headed two presidential missions
to the former Soviet Union to address food needs and policies of the former Soviet republics. He also
received two other Presidential appointments: serving on the boards of directors of the Commodity
Credit Corporation and the Rural Telephone Bank. In 2002, he was named the CEO of the American
Seed Trade Association.
Dr. Crowder worked with other Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics alumni to create
a scholarship to honor his mentor, Professor W. L. “Hoot” Gibson, Jr., which now provides five student
scholarships a year. He also endowed the George T. and Estelle M. Crowder Scholarship in memory
of his parents.
Dr. Crowder earned his bachelor’s degree from Virginia Tech in 1960 and his master’s degree in
1962 in Agricultural Economics. He received his Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics from Oklahoma State
University in 1966 and has received its Distinguished Alumnus Award. He was named to the Virginia
Tech Agriculture Alumni Hall of Fame in 2007 and is one of 100 alumni selected as a Virginia Tech
Alumnus of the Millennium 2000.
6