Member for 16 years, Edgar A. Poe, Jr. dies

Edgar A. Poe, Jr., a veteran editor at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, died Oct. 24, 2016, after suffering a stroke. He was 80, had lived in Lancaster, Virginia, and had been a National Press Club member for 16 years.

"He was a wonderful man to work with," said Brenda Curtis-Heiken, a former broadcast journalist at USDA. "He put together the USDA Yearbook, a classic for years that covered everything from food stamps to the Forest Service, the Russian grain deal to sustainable gardening."

His father, Edgar A. Poe, Sr., was also a long-time Club member, a Washington reporter for The Times-Picayune of New Orleans and head of the White House Correspondents Association.

Edgar Poe, Jr., was born in New Orleans and grew up in Arlington, Virginia. He graduated from the Capitol Page School in 1954 and the University of Alabama in 1958. Before joining the USDA in 1969 he worked for Mississippi Power and Light Co. in Jackson, Mississippi. He retired from USDA in 2006 as chief of its publishing division. He is survived by his wife of 53 years, Judith E. Poe; a son, Michael Poe, of McLean, Virginia.; a daughter, Melissa Neighbors, of Centreville, Virginia; a brother, Thomas L. Poe, of McLean, Virginia, and three grandchildren.