Retired Monsanto Executive Passes Away
March 22, 2011 Niswonger-Reynolds Funeral Home, Bend, OR, obituary:
Jerry Lee Neff of Jackson Creek Ranch passed away March 11 from heart complications and a urosepsis infection. He was 66 years old.
A memorial service was held March 18 at First United Methodist Church in Bend.
Neff was born Feb. 8, 1945 in Troy, OH, to Lester and Thelma Neff. Jerry was raised on a hard working cattle farm in Ohio. In college, at The Ohio State University, he was active in the Alpha Gamma Rho fraternity and was named the Outstanding Pledge on campus in 1965.
After college he went to work for Monsanto Agriculture Company, starting as a traveling salesman. He married Linda Cleaver on Oct. 23, 1970, in Las Vegas. From 1978 to 1995, Jerry ran several different global businesses for Monsanto, including Roundup herbicide.
Jerry considered his best achievement to be his effort to help rural people deal with their flood crisis in the Great Midwest Floods of 1993. This effort earned him the “American Red Cross’s Philanthropist of the Year”. That same year his kids voted him the “Best Dad in the Whole World”. In 2005, he accomplished his life long dream of purchasing a large cattle ranch.
Survivors include two sons, Ryan and Jason of Redmond; a daughter, Andrea Fetzer of Redmond; two sisters, Diane and Pam; his mother, Thelma; and two grandchildren.
He was preceded in death by his father and wife.
Memorial contributions may be made to the American Heart Association.
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