Paul Douglas Doak was born January 5, 1929 on a farm south of Gallatin, Missouri. He was drafted into the U.S. Army during the Korean War and suffered a severe wound in the right leg during combat, which resulted in two and a half years of military hospitalization. Paul married Patricia Ann Austene in 1951.
He earned a BS in agriculture from the University of Missouri in 1957 and an MS in agricultural economics from the same institution in 1960. In the fall of 1960, he enrolled in the Ph.D. program in the Department of Economics at Iowa State University and was awarded a Ph.D. in agricultural economics in 1965. He was then appointed as an assistant professor of economics at Iowa State. He was promoted to associate professor with tenure in 1969.
As a faculty member, Paul’s duties primarily involved undergraduate education. He taught a number of courses over the years that comprised part of the agricultural business curriculum, the Economics Department’s undergraduate major in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. These courses included Marketing Farm Products, Agricultural Marketing Laboratory, Marketing Livestock and Meat, Agricultural Cooperation, Agricultural Marketing Analysis and Senior Career Seminar. He was widely regarded as an excellent teacher who did his upmost to make his courses interesting, relevant and useful to his students.
Paul was the academic adviser for a very large number of ag business students over the years. He usually had at least 50 advisees and in some years more than 100. For good reason, he was widely regarded as an outstanding academic adviser. He showed great respect for students. His door was always open to them and was always willing to spend time with those seeking his counsel.
Paul retired in 1992. He was an affable colleague with many friends among the department and college faculty.
Emeritus Associate Professor Doak, died at the age of 90 on May 12, 2019 in Columbia, Missouri and was buried in Columbia Cemetery. He is survived by his wife, Patricia, and their daughters, Sara and Laura.
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Excerpt from Memorial Resolution by Lehman B. Fletcher and Dennis R. Starleaf