Bern Sweeney, who succeeded Dr. Patrick as Stroud Water Research Center director, said: "During the last 39 years, the center has made profound contributions to the world's understanding of streams, rivers and their watersheds. The center has championed the restoration of forests along stream banks and on steep slopes to prevent pollution from runoff and to enhance water quality in streams."
"Since 1990," Sweeney said, "Mr. Stroud has spearheaded that effort by putting under easement hundreds of acres of land in the Stroud Center's experimental watershed and supporting the planting of more than 40,000 trees."
Mr. Stroud, who purchased his dairy farm, called Landhope, in the 1950s, was an innovator in land management and had implemented contour farming, crop rotations, and erosion-prevention devices such as terraces and waterways.
A native of Villanova, Mr. Stroud earned a bachelor's degree from Princeton University. During World War II, he served as a Navy officer. After surviving the sinking of a destroyer he was aboard in the Mediterranean, he was later rescued from a sinking destroyer in the Pacific that was hit by enemy fire during the Battle of Okinawa.
Following his discharge, he worked for a textile manufacturer in South Carolina. In the 1950s, he was president of International Basic Economy Corp., which had been founded by Nelson Rockefeller to create businesses and agriculture in developing countries. Among the projects Mr. Stroud established was a cattle operation in Colombia, where he and his wife also started a school and cottage industries.
In the late 1960s, he retired to devote time to his farm, his business and environmental interests. He opened up a Landhope Farm convenience store in Kennett Square that featured dairy products. He later turned that business over to his son W. B. Dixon Jr., and there are now four Landhope Farms stores.
His daughter Anne Hannum said her father shared his love of nature with her and her six siblings while they were growing up on the farm. She said he enjoyed squash, tennis, fishing, boating, and spending time with his family at his summer home in Maine. He was an accomplished pianist and served on the committee for modern and contemporary art of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Joan Milliken Stroud, to whom he had been married for 42 years, died in 1985. In 1989, he married Ann Percy, curator of drawings at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
In addition to his wife, son and daughter, Mr. Stroud is survived by daughters Joan Blaine, Agnes Peelle and Cynthia; sons Morris and Stephen; two sisters; 16 grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.
A funeral service will be held at 3 p.m. today at Unionville Presbyterian Church, 815 Wollaston Road, Unionville.
Contact staff writer Sally A. Downey at 215-854-2913 or sdowney@phillynews.com.
