Franklin Lee Arbuckle ’65
Franklin Lee Arbuckle ’65 died June 22 in Billings, Montana. Young Lee nourished his lifelong hunger for knowledge at a one-room school near the family ranch in Billings. For high school he boarded during the week with a family in Belle Fourche, South Dakota—becoming student body president and all-state in football. Lee treasured his not-common experience of being in Hanover for three two-year periods. He arrived in 1961 and joining Alpha Delta. After serving in the Peace Corps in Colombia he returned to complete his undergraduate degree in 1968. After serving as Peace Corps staff in Bolivia, he took over the family Arbuckle Ranch operations with his wife, Maggie. Multiple sclerosis caused him to leave that exhausting work and head to Tuck for his 1979 M.B.A. After Hanover Lee’s career included stints with the Farm Credit Bank, Arthur D. Little and 11 years with USAID in Honduras. All the while he oversaw consolidation and improvement of the Arbuckle Ranch. Retired in Montana, he and Maggie developed and produced a wild-grass-seed harvester, the Arbuckle Native Seedster, and took on various consulting assignments around the globe. Charlie Dolben ’65 says, “I was most interested in Lee’s stories; he led an exotic life out there.” “Lee is indeed one of the more thoughtful and interesting persons I have had the pleasure of knowing,” according to Don Boardman ’65. Bob Komives ’65 adds, “One of the best at robust appreciation for what life offers.” On July 1 Maggie—with sons Andrew and Anthony, family and friends—spread Lee’s ashes at the ranch.
