Obituaries

C. Arthur Bratton, professor emeritus of agricultural economics with specific expertise in farm accounting and management, died Jan. 25 at his home in Ithaca. He was 85.

Bratton, a native of Delta, Ohio, where he grew up on a farm, earned a bachelor's degree in rural economics from Ohio State University in 1937. He earned his doctoral degree in agricultural economics from Cornell in 1942. In the next three years, he served in the U.S. Army during World War II as a field artillery captain.

After the war, Bratton returned to Cornell as an assistant professor in the College of Agriculture in the Department of Agricultural Economics. In 1954, he became a full professor and continued in that position until his retirement in 1979.

Bratton spent a year in the Philippines as a visiting professor, and he was a Fulbright lecturer for two years at Kyoto University in Japan, where he taught farm accounting and farm management. He also spent a summer teaching at Seoul University in Korea and a year at the University of Hawaii's East-West Center. Bratton hosted many agricultural economists from Asia, and he worked with many farm management graduate students from that region.

In addition to his teaching, he served as an extension leader for the agricultural economics department for more than two decades.

Bratton was a member of the American Agricultural Economists Association, the International Association of Agricultural Economists and the American Society of Farm Managers and Rural Appraisers. He was elected to membership in Phi Kappa Phi, Gamma Sigma Delta, Alpha Zeta, Phi Eta Sigma and Epsilon Sigma Phi, which honored him with the Superior Performance Award in 1977.

He is survived by his wife, Esther; brothers James and Carl; daughters Judith Van Pelt and June Townley; two grandchildren; and several nieces and nephews.

A memorial service is scheduled for Friday, Feb. 11, at 3 p.m. at Kendal at Ithaca, 2230 N. Triphammer Road. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to the First Presbyterian Church of Ithaca, 315 N. Cayuga St., or to the Senior Citizens Council, 121 W. Court St., Ithaca.

Victor R. Stephen, professor emeritus of communication, died at Cayuga Medical Center Feb. 1. He was 76.

He was born in Philadelphia, grew up in Providence, R.I., and studied illustration at Pratt Institute. He then served in the U.S. Air Force as a bombardier, navigator instructor and second lieutenant. After his military service, he returned to Pratt Institute and graduated in 1947.

In 1948, he came to Cornell as the first publications production manager for the College of Agriculture. He then attended Pennsylvania State University, where he earned his B.S. and M.S. degrees in art. Prior to returning to Cornell, he was a staff artist at Penn State and the head of the Division of Visual Services at the University of Illinois' College of Agriculture.

In 1968, he was appointed associate professor of communication arts at Cornell in the colleges of Agriculture and Life Sciences and Human Ecology. He received numerous accommodations for his university work. He also held advisory positions with the Inter-American Institute of Agricultural Sciences in Costa Rica and with the Ministry of Agriculture in Jordan. He was named emeritus professor in 1983.

The winner of several prizes for his paintings, Stephen showed his work in exhibitions around the Ithaca area.

He is survived by his wife of 53 years, Virginia; his sons, Craig Russell and Scott David; and two grandchildren.

A memorial service will be held at the First Presbyterian Church of Ithaca, 315 N. Cayuga St., Wednesday, Feb. 16, at 1:30 p.m. with the Rev. Anita Cummings officiating. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the American Parkinson's Disease Association Inc., 1250 Hylan Blvd., Suite 4B, Staten Island, N.Y. 10305.