Ernest L. Luther was born near Hart, Michigan in 1868 and attended Olivet College in that state. After serving as a town, city, and county superintendent of schools in both Michigan and Wisconsin, he received a B.S. degree from the University of Wisconsin in 1912.
In 1912 also, while on the staff as agriculture instuctor at the Oneida County Teachers' Training School, he was appointed to head the Oneida County agricultural extension work for the extension division of the University of Wisconsin. He is reported to have been the first county agricultural agent in the United States to be paid from public funds. The following year he became state supervisor of county agricultural representatives, and in 1915 was appointed superintendent of farmers' institutes in Wisconsin.
From the time he was made superintendent of the institutes, this department was operated practically as a division of the department of agricultural extension in order to avoid duplication and to enjoy the assistance of extension specialists and county agents. When the institutes were discontinued in 1933, Luther remained as professor of agriculture in the University of Wisconsin Extension Service until he retired in 1938.
From the time of his retirement until his death in 1953 he continued to be interested in Wisconsin agriculture. It was during this period that he worked on histories of the farmers' institutes and the agricultural extension service in Wisconsin. Professor Luther was a respected leader in the development of the state's agriculture, and particularly in cooperative marketing in Wisconsin.
