Dennis Ray Stipe

Dennis Ray Stipe, 87, of Baton Rouge, La., passed away peacefully on March 19, 2024.

He was born in Clairette, Texas in 1936 to William Ray Stipe and Emma Mae Mackey Stipe.  He grew up in Clairette and Hico, Texas.  Dennis graduated from Texas A&M University with Bachelors and Master’s degrees in Agricultural Engineering.  He met and married the love of his life, Mary Ann Yount, in Dallas Texas in 1959. 

After starting his career in Dallas and St. Louis, Missouri, he joined the Louisiana State University Agriculture Cooperative Extension Service and spent the remainder of his work life in the LSU system.  He and his family lived in Malaysia for almost 2 years in the late 1960s, where Dennis taught and helped establish an agricultural section in the country’s College of Agriculture, as a member of the LSU team engaged in an agricultural assistance program sponsored by the Ford Foundation.   Upon returning from Malaysia, he worked as a crop processing specialist and engineering project leader, then as chief agricultural engineer, for the LSU Rice Experiment Station in Crowley, Louisiana.  He returned to the main LSU Baton Rouge campus in 1976 as assistant to the director of the LSU AgCenter, with responsibilities for planning, development, and maintenance of LSU ag research labs and experiment stations around the state. He held the faculty rank of professor in agricultural engineering and retired in 1998.

Dennis loved fishing in the Louisiana marshes with family and long-time LSU friends, taking his 3 daughters on camping trips; spending many family weekends boating, water skiing, and jet-skiing at False River north of Baton Rouge with his kids and grandkids; and relaxing and socializing with Mary Ann and friends in Orange Beach, Alabama after retirement.  He loved woodworking, all LSU sports but especially LSU baseball, attending the countless baseball games of his grandsons, and playing with his 3 great granddaughters.

Dennis was preceded in death by his brother Charles Leon Stipe, his parents William Ray Stipe and Emma Mae Stipe, and his wife of nearly 65 years Mary Ann Yount Stipe.   He is survived by his daughters Cinda Stipe Voegtli of Denver, CO (Bill); Charlotte Stipe Maness (James) of Baton Rouge LA, and Cheryl Stipe Rudd (Terry) of Baton Rouge; 7 grandchildren - Andrew Maness (Ashley), Parker Maness, and Taylor Maness (Sarah); Ellen Voegtli; Thomas Rudd (Mary Catherine), Adam Rudd (Samantha), and Aaron Rudd; and 3 great grandchildren - Katie, Annie, and Vivian Maness.

The family will remember and celebrate him privately and lay Dennis and Mary Ann to rest together, alongside multiple generations of the Stipe family in the Clairette Cemetery in Clairette, Texas.