Joseph A. Stritzel, age 102 was born June 11, 1922, in Cleveland, Ohio, son of Andrew and Regina Stritzel. The latter were Austrian immigrants to the United State from what is now northern Yugoslavia but at that time was part of the Austro/Hungarian Empire.   Joseph spent the first ten years of his life in Cleveland, Ohio. In 1932, the family moved to a farm near Berea, Ohio, where they grew fruits and vegetables for local sale. Joseph entered Berea High in 1936. In 1938, the family moved again to begin dairy farming near North Eaton, Ohio. They were now full-time dairy farmers with Joseph attending N. Eaton High and graduating in 1940.

 After high school, he attended Elyria Business College, graduating in 1941. He began employment at the Harshaw Chemical Co. in Elyria, Ohio, working in the office of their shipping department until his entry into the U.S. Army Air Force in 1942.

On graduating from the Radio Mechanics School at Truax Air Force Base near Madison, Wisconsin, he taught courses in Aircraft Radio Receiver Repair at that Base until the end of WWII, receiving an honorable discharge as Staff Sergeant in 1946.

On discharge, he began undergraduate studies in Agronomy at Iowa State, earning his BS degree in 1949. Employment as an agronomist began in the ISU Soil Testing Laboratory in 1950. While working there, he began pursuing his Master's Degree, specializing in Soil Fertility. The MS degree was received in 1953.

 While working at the Soil Testing Lab and pursuing his Masters, he met his wife-to-be, Marcella Hill of Waterloo, Iowa. They met at St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Student Center in 1948, became engaged in 1949, and married July 1, 1950. It was also in that year that Marcella received her BS degree in Home Ec. Ed at Iowa State. Their marriage was blessed with nine wonderful children.

 Joseph's Soil Testing Laboratory work led to his becoming a regional Soil Fertility Agronomist in ISU

Extension, working out of Ames until joining the Agronomy Teaching Faculty on campus in 1963. In that capacity, he taught Beginning-Soils courses to underclassmen, and Advanced courses in Soil Fertility, Soil Management and Fertilizers to upperclassman.

 He pursued his PhD degree in two areas; Soil Fertility in Agronomy and the Economics of Fertilizer Use in Ag Economics, receiving the PhD degree in Agronomy in 1958. He continued teaching from 1963 to 1987. His combined extension and teaching career spanned 37 years.

 His farmer audiences in Extension, and the ISU students in the decades thereafter, remember him as a very interactive teacher, involving them orally, person to person, or in group settings, in the solution of real-life agronomic problems.

He was a member of the American Society of Agronomy, The Soil Science Society of America, The Knights of Columbus, and St. Thomas Aquinas Church, the latter from the time he came to Ames until his death.

As he neared retirement, he established two agronomy scholarships in perpetuity: one to be administered by the Agronomy Department at Iowa State University and the other by St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church of Ames. Both scholarships were to be used by students pursuing degrees in any agricultural discipline at ISU.

In his retirement years, he was active in private, off-campus student housing, culminating in the building of "The Stritz", a 27-unit, state-of-the-art complex near the University. He continued his love affair with Iowa State students by offering them quality housing at a reasonable price.

 He is survived by his 9 children, 25 grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren. He was preceded in death by Marcella, his wife of 57 years.

 In lieu of flowers, the family kindly requests that donations be made to the Stritzel Soil Fertility Scholarship (Fund #2700512) at the Iowa State University Foundation. Memorials can be made online at https://www.foundation.iastate.edu/ or mailed to the Iowa State University Foundation, 2505 University Blvd, Ames, IA 50010.