John F. Timmons was born in 1912 in Linn County, Missouri. Timmons was a Professor of Economics at Iowa State University (1947-1983), named Charles F. Curtiss Distinguished Professor of Agriculture at Iowa State University (1972) and was designated Professor Emeritus of Economics upon his retirement (1983).



He received a B.S. (1937), and a M.A. (1938) from the University of Missouri and a Ph.D. (1945) in Agricultural Economics with a minor in law from the University of Wisconsin.



Timmons came to Iowa State University in 1947 after beginning his career as an Economist with the United States Department of Agriculture, (USDA) (1939-1941; 1943-1947), and serving as an instructor at the University of Wisconsin (1941-1943).



As a pioneer environmental economist, Timmons earned a number of professional honors and was a member of Alpha Zeta, Gamma Sigma Delta, Phi Kappa Phi, Pi Kappa Delta, Sigma Xi and Cardinal Key honor societies. He also held positions in economics and agriculture on national and international committees including the World Food Institute, National Academy of Sciences, and numerous university committees. He authored over 100 papers about agriculture and economics and was involved with international aid to Peru through United States Aid In Development (USAID) (1960-1980) and was a consultant to the Ministry of Agriculture in Brazil (1983) and the Sudan (1980).



Timmons married Dorothy Langdon in 1939 and they had four sons and four daughters, John L., William, Senter, David, Theresa, Nancy, Josie and Dorothy. He passed away in 1999 in Story City, Iowa.