Ed Rister, Ph.D., has led the Dianne and M. Edward Rister '74 Agribusiness Entrepreneurship Program in the Texas A&M College of Agriculture and Life Sciences for four decades. Students in the program put numbers to their business ideas and defend them before real entrepreneurs. More than 600 students have completed the program, according to the university.
Rister stepped back from full-time work at the beginning of September. He will keep teaching half time and volunteering in the Department of Agricultural Economics until a replacement is found. He said the position is open and being recruited for.
Rister said that in the 1970s, roughly 90% of students came from farm or ranch backgrounds. Today, he said, fewer than 10% do. The Agribusiness Entrepreneurship minor launched in 2015. The AGEC 425 course produces 15 to 35 students each year.