Birth:  Oct. 10, 1936
Dibble, McClain County, Oklahoma

Death:  Jan. 3, 2005
Memphis, Shelby County, Tennessee

Willard Sparks was born in Dibble, Oklahoma  on October 10, 1936 and died in Memphis, Tennessee on January 30, 2005 at his home of cancer. 

A memorial service for the OSU graduate and benefactor was held at the Free Will Baptist Church, Dibble, Okla. on Saturday, February 5, 2005, at 1:00 p.m.

Originally from Dibble, Oklahoma, much of his boyhood was spent working on the family’s grain and livestock farm as well as raising and showing livestock at area fairs. He received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Oklahoma State University and his doctorate from Michigan State University, all in agricultural economics.

In 1963, the family moved to Memphis from New Jersey where he joined Memphis-based Cook Industries as director of economic research. He later became senior executive vice president and director of Cook’s worldwide Agriproducts Group. The highlight of his 14-year career at Cook was the dominant role he played in orchestrating the first big sale of U.S. grain to Russia.

In 1977, Sparks founded Sparks Commodities, later named Sparks Companies, Inc., where research analysts and consulting specialists served hundreds of the world’s leading agribusinesses.  The firm was sold to a publicly owned British company in 2003.
He received the 1987 Distinguished Alumnus Award from the OSU Alumni Association, the 1996 Distinguished Agriculture Alumnus Award from the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources, and the 1997 Distinguished Service Award from the Department of Animal Science. In 1998, Sparks received an honorary doctorate in social science at OSU, the ninth person since 1927 to receive such an honorary degree. The OSU Alumni Association also has named him to its 2005 Alumni Hall of Fame.

He is survived by his wife Rita, his parents, Jess and Agnes Sparks of Dibble, Okla., a daughter, Sherry Wallace of Houston, Texas, two sons, Robert Sparks of Eads and Brian Sparks of Germantown, Tenn., and a stepson, Jim McFarland of Jackson, Tenn. He also leaves two brothers, Roy Sparks of Chickasha and Glen Sparks of Dibble; two sisters, Francis Fuller of Kennedale, Texas, and Bertha Matthews of Cushing, Okla.; and nine grandchildren, Justin, Tara, Taylor, Ashley, and Sydney Sparks; Honor Wallace; Mitchell, Ally and Stanton McFarland.