John Claar

Hall of Fame Class of 1996

John Claar, Professor Emeritus, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, is an international authority in the field of Agricultural Economics and Farm Management. As Director of the Cooperative Extension System in Illinois (1965-1979), he developed a multi-county approach and led in the establishment of a statewide telephone network to allow long-distance teaching and training in over one hundred locations simultaneously.

As Associate Vice President for Public Service at the University of Illinois (1974-1982), he redirected the continuing education off-campus staff from a campus-based to a system-based unit that worked with all campuses and the Cooperative Extension staff.

As Director of INTERPAKS (International Program for Agricultural Knowledge System) at the University of Illinois (1982-1985), he led in the Program's universal application by working in over 20 developing countries to improve their Extension effectiveness.

In 1976, he received the Distinguished Service Award from the 200,000-member Illinois agricultural Association. He is a past Chairman of the Extension Committee on Organization and Policy and of the Extension section of the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges and is listed in Who's Who in America and Who's Who in the World.