Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station, University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture
Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences

A newsletter for faculty, staff and students

July-August 2004 • Vol. 30, No. 4

Obituary: Marshall C. Heck

FAYETTEVILLE --- Marshall C. Heck, 88, of Fayetteville died Wednesday, July 14, 2004, at Fayetteville. He was born July 27, 1915, in Holt County, Mo., the son of Earl and Sidney Nay Heck. He was preceded in death by his first wife, Audrey Heck; three brothers; and one sister.

He was a University of Arkansas professor in the College of Agriculture, retiring after 31 years as Emeritus Assistant Professor. Before the University of Arkansas, he was meats specialist at the Arkansas Extension Service in Little Rock. He organized and served as secretary of the Arkansas Meat Processors & Locker Association for 40 years. He was past president of the Fayetteville Lions Club and was a member of the Fayetteville First Baptist Church for 50 years, where he served as a deacon.

He is survived by his wife, Delle Heck of Fayetteville; two daughters and sons-in-law, Brenda and Courtney Crouch Jr. of Hot Springs, and Sharon and John Montgomery of Vienna, Va.; two stepsons, Wayne Ratcliff and his wife, Billie, of Little Rock, and Rodney Ratcliff of Tulsa, Okla.; seven grandchildren; seven great-grandchildren ; four brothers, Dean Heck, Earl Heck, Audrey Heck and Irvin Heck; a sister, Joyce Lyle.

Service: July 20, at Moore’s Chapel. Officiating: Jere D. Mitchell. Burial: Fairview Memorial Gardens. In lieu of flowers, memorial gifts to: Butterfield Trail Village, Trail Ahead Campaign (for Alzheimer’s and Dementia Care Center ), 1923 E. Joyce Blvd., Fayetteville, Ark., 72703.

******

According to an article in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Heck had been suffering from the effects of Parkinson’s disease and a stroke he had in 2002, according to his daughter, Brenda Crouch.

His interest in animal science began when he raised a grand champion hog as a teenager in Missouri, Crouch said. During World War II, he worked for a national meat association, traveling to military bases and teaching cooks how to properly cut meat.

He moved to Little Rock in 1940, formed the locker association and worked as a Cooperative Extension Service meat specialist until 1949, when he moved to Fayetteville for a university appointment. He taught animal husbandry and classes dealing with meat production until he retired in 1982. He convinced the administration to built a meats lab in the early 1950s, Crouch said.

Heck’s first wife, Audrey, died in 1981. His second wife, Delle, said her first husband, Lantis Ratcliff, died in 1980. She said she and Heck first met in the 1950s when Lantis and Marshall were both on the UA faculty. She and Marshall met again in the early 1980s when her son, Rodney Ratcliff, brought his mother from her home in Mississippi to a Razorback football game. They were married in 1985.