Leander Burton Dietrick, son of Irving F. and Sarah Lee Dietrick, was born in Carbondale, Pennsylvania on September 13, 1897. Following military service during World War I, Dietrick earned a B.S. degree at Penn State University (horticulture, 1921). He joined Virginia Tech as an instructor in horticulture in 1923 and two years later became associate professor and specialist in vegetable gardening with the Agricultural Extension Service. He served in that position until 1944, meanwhile earning a master's degree in 1929. Dietrick married Mildred Engle (1900-1976) in Carbondale, ca. 1924; the couple had one child. In 1942, Dietrick became assistant to the director of the Extension Service and was promoted to acting director of the Extension Service in 1944. The following year, he was promoted to director. In 1952, Dietrick was named dean of agriculture at Virginia Tech, while continuing to serve as director of the Extension Service. He retired in 1962. Following the death of his first wife, Dietrick married Ruth Parks Jones on July 29, 1978. Leander Dietrick died August 27, 1988.