Lester Touby Kurtz 96 of Urbana died Friday morning, February 18, 2011 at the Clark-Lindsey Village, Urbana.

Memorial services will be held at 10:00 AM on Wednesday, February 23, 2011 at Clark-Lindsey Village, Huegy Lounge, 101 West Windsor Road, Urbana; Reverend Leah Robberts-Mosser will officiate.

A reception will be held after the services at Clark-Lindsey Village.

Dr. Kurtz was born on November 7, 1914 near Kokomo, Indiana, the son of John Harley and Alice Leora Touby Kurtz. He graduated from Howard Township High School near Kokomo and later from Purdue University. He and Frances Sinnamon were married in 1940 in Hillsdale Church in their home community, but made their home in Champaign-Urbana where he was a graduate assistant at the University of Illinois, Department of Agronomy; she died January 14, 2009.

Other survivors are a daughter, Mrs. Shirley Ann Kurtz Drew, and son-in-law, Stephen W. Drew, of Summit, New Jersey; a son, Donald Kurtz, and daughter-in-law, Ann Gutierrez, of Las Cruces, New Mexico; and grandchildren, Jessica Amber Drew of Champaign, and Touby Austin Drew, and his wife, Leigh-Ann Williams Drew and great grandson, Kyle Jackson Drew, of Golden Valley, Minnesota.

Additional survivors are a nephew, Mr. Michael Jackson, and a niece, Mrs. Carolyn Johnson, both in the Kokomo, Indiana area. His wife, Frances Sinnamon Kurtz and two sisters preceded him in death.

Dr. Kurtz was a member of the Agronomy Department at the University of Illinois for 44 years. He began as a part-time graduate assistant in 1938, completed his PhD in 1943, became full-time faculty, was made full professor in 1951, and retired in 1982. Most of his career was in research on soil-plant-fertilizer interactions, working on projects with over 40 graduate students.

Among his contemporary soil scientists, Kurtz was best known as co-originator, with Roger H. Bray, of the "P-1 test" which was described in 1945 in a paper about soil phosphorus. The P-1 test became the accepted rapid chemical procedure in soil testing laboratories of the North Central Region of the U.S. and is still widely used in many areas. In 1987, forty-two years after publication, the paper was designated a "Citation Classic" by the Current Citations journal for being among the most frequently cited references in the scientific literature of agriculture, biology, and environmental sciences.

Dr. Kurtz sought opportunities to become acquainted with researchers and institutions with outstanding programs in soil chemistry and soil fertility. In 1953-54 he worked at the USDA-ARS Soils Laboratory at Beltsville, Maryland under a Guggenheim Fellowship and in 1962-63 at the Waite Institute in Adelaide, Australia as a Senior Fulbright Fellow. He was at the National Fertilizer Development Center of the Tennessee Valley Authority in 1968-69 and was a Lady Davis Fellow at the Israeli Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel in 1976-77. He was a short term consultant on the University of Illinois USAID contract in Sierra Leone in 1968 and lecturer and research adviser in the People's Republic of China in 1982. He visited the Rothamsted Agriculture Experiment Station in England in 1976.

Dr. Kurtz was a Fellow of the Soil Science Society of America and of the American Society of Agronomy and served in the offices and committees of those organizations. He was an emeritus and 50 year member of the American Chemical Society and belonged to the International Society of Soil Science and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He was a recipient of the Paul A. Funk Award from the College of Agriculture in 1977.

He was a longtime, active member of the Community United Church of Christ of Champaign where, for over 60 years, he served on many committees and held many offices. He was a member, past president (1968), and Exchangeite of the Year (2002) of the Exchange Club of Urbana. He was also a member of the Ambassador's Club.

Memorials may be made to Community United Church: 805 South Sixth Street, Champaign, Illinois 61820.

Renner-Wikoff Chapel and Crematory is in charge of arrangements.

Condolences may be offered at www.renner-wikoffchapel.com.