Harrell Lee Sellers, obit

[John W Blehm]

I never knew the man, but many of us have benefitted from his Poultry Genetics for the Nonprofessional site.  It is often referred to here and there is a link to it in our Links to Chicken Genetics sites under our Breeding subforum.  As I was surfing the internet I found that he died in 2015 and thought I'd share his obituary with you.

Dr. Harrell Lee Sellers passed away Wednesday September 9, 2015 at Northeastern Health Systems in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, after a short illness.

He was born May 10, 1952 in Hillcrest Hospital in Tulsa, Oklahoma to Joel Harrell and Dava Lee White Sellers. Dr. Sellers was a chemistry professor and a computational scientist. He served in the U.S. Navy and was a Viet Nam veteran.

He grew up in Westville and Hominy, Oklahoma, and also spent a lot of his childhood in Georgia and Miami, Florida. He was a graduate of Northeastern State University and received his doctorate in 1979 from the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. After post doctoral work in Texas and Louisiana, he became head of University of Illinois computational science department. While there he met and married Terry Simmonitch and from this union came two sons he was extremely proud of, Alex and Evan. They later moved to Brookings, South Dakota, where was a chemistry professor with South Dakota State University.

Lee was a well established in the world of science and throughout his career was a noted guest speaker and lecturer across the world. He had published many articles and several text books in computational science and chemistry. While employed with IBM, one of his final projects was carbon sequestration. He loved chickens and genetics, and enjoyed combining these two hobbies by building a popular poultry genetics website. He had amazing skill with rebuilding old motors, and especially loved collecting and restoring old trucks and Allis Chalmers tractors. He also loved gardening, and was in the process of writing a book with is wife on creative gardening. In 2009, he moved back to Oklahoma to retire, spending his days tending to his chickens and his plants, and running his tractors.

Lee was preceded in death by his parents and a brother, Flynn. He leaves behind to mourn him his wife, Billy Holt, of the home; two sons, Alex Sellers and Evan Sellers, both of Volga, South Dakota; two sisters Genna Sellers of Knoxville, Tennessee and Louise Sellers of Brookings, South Dakota.

[Mike Gilbert]

Looks like he was a real "down home" type of guy.   How many university professors (in something besides agricultural fields) do you see in overalls?  He provided a real service to the poultry fancy.   Thanks for sharing this.