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Obituary

Lonnie Lee Jones

Lonnie Lee Jones, 75, of Bryan, Texas, died August 2, 2015. Lonnie was born on April 29, 1940 to Stiles and Janet (Peek) Jones in Annona, Texas. He graduated from Stephen F. Austin State College with a BS degree in 1961.  He received his MS degree at Louisiana State University. Then after he received his PhD from The Ohio State University in 1967, he was appointed to the faculty of the Department of Agricultural Economics at Texas A&M University where he taught and provided research and extension education for 38 years.

Lonnie specialized in resource economics, conducting research to estimate the economic impacts of tax, environmental, and other public policies. Rural communities were the particular focus of his work examining the economic impacts of changing farm structure, national farm and macroeconomic policies, retiree immigration, recreational activities, and a proposed spaceport in Pecos County, Texas.

During the mid-1980s, Lonnie chaired the State Tax Assessment Practices Board Review Panel in Austin. Under his leadership, the procedures were developed for assessing the value of agricultural land for property tax purposes based on productivity values.

Lonnie led the development of an innovative regionally-recognized Master’s degree in agribusiness management in Guatemala beginning in 1995.  He served as director of this program conducted in cooperation with the Universidad del Valle de Guatemala and the Universidad Francisco Marroquin, Guatemala.  The program now has more than 200 graduates and has become the Executive Masters in Applied Economics and Business Administration.

Lonnie presented lectures on Agribusiness Management and Regional Economic Development in the Russian cities of Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Kazan from 1993 to 1995. This was part of a project focused on economic education and transformation of agribusiness funded by US Freedom Support Act.

Over his career, Lonnie taught graduate and undergraduate students in the areas of quantitative methods, economic development, land resource economics, and input-output analysis, and supervised 20 PhD dissertations and MS theses.  He served on the editorial council of the Southern Journal of Agricultural Economics and as a member of the Resident Instruction Committee and faculty advisor to the Student Section of the Agricultural & Applied Economics Association.

His retirement in 2005 allowed more time for ranching, chatting with friends, as well as teaching once a year in Guatemala, and enjoying life with his wife and their family. Memorial contributions may be sent to Reliance Baptist Church building fund, Hospice Brazos Valley, or the American Cancer Society. Please share memories and tributes to Lonnie at www.hillierfuneral-home.com.