Leon F. Hesser

Leon Hesser went from being an Indiana farm boy during the Great Depression -- he actually operated his own farm business until he was 30 -- to the world stage where he helped alleviate global hunger. Then, in his retirement years, he started writing books.

From 1966 to 1973, Leon was Foreign Service Officer in Pakistan, where he directed U.S. programs to help increase food production in that hungry nation; he collaborated with Nobel Laureate Norman Borlaug to help start the Green Revolution in South Asia. From Pakistan, he went to State Department in Washington DC where he directed worldwide programs to increase food production in developing countries. Following early retirement from State Department, he consulted in twenty countries of Asia, Africa and the former Soviet Union.

Leon, who earned a Ph.D. from Purdue University in 1962, retired in 2000 to sunny Naples, Florida, where he has written three books (see bibliography) and is currently writing ZigZag Pass: Memoir of a Teenage Soldier in World War II. He and his wife Florence celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary in August 2006. They have a son, daughter, and four granddaughters.