[2] After completing his World War II service as a captain in the U.S. Army field artillery, York returned to API to continue his education in soil science.

[2] During this time, he met and married Vermelle "Vam" Cardwell of Evergreen, Alabama, a business administration undergraduate and president of the API Women's Student Government Association.

[2] At Cornell, he studied under nationally renowned soil scientist Richard Bradfield, who imparted to York his passionate interest in how food shortages contributed to chronic hunger in much of the developing world.

[4] York's vision of the Alabama Extension was that of an organization committed to the economic betterment of the state as a whole, rather than only to the farming sector or to urban Alabamians with lawn and gardening problems.

[5] York also established a practice of replacing vacancies only with professionals with advanced degrees—a policy credited with greatly enhancing the quality of Alabama Extension programming.

[5] York is remembered for ending the long-standing public perception that the Alabama Extension was hopelessly entangled in local, state and even national politics.

[9] York retired from academia in 1980 to devote his full-time efforts to fighting global hunger, primarily by improving the agricultural infrastructure in developing countries.

[3] He served as an adviser on sustainable agricultural development and famine relief to U.S. Presidents John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Baines Johnson, Richard M. Nixon, Gerald R. Ford, Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan.

and Vam York Endowed Fund for Excellence in International Agriculture to support worldwide experiences for faculty and graduate students; and $150,000 to establish the E.T.

York Distinguished Lecturer Series, which draws national and international leaders in agriculture and related disciplines to deliver public addresses on the Auburn campus.