Jackman was born in Stillwater, Minnesota, February 14, 1894. He lived on his father's 185-acre potato, grain and livestock farm in Flathead County, Montana, until 1917, when he entered the U.S. Army. Jackman served as 1st Lieutenant in the Field Artillery, and was stationed at Ft. Sill, Oklahoma. Prior to this time, he attended Montana State College in Bozeman in 1913-1914 and 1916-1917. During the summer of 1917 he served as County Agent in Blaine County, Montana. Following World War I, he attended Oregon Agricultural College in 1919-1920 and received his B.S. in Agronomy. He was appointed County Agent for Wasco County, Oregon, and except for a short period (1926-1929, when he resigned to enter commercial business) he worked for Oregon State College and the Federal Cooperative Extension Service until his retirement in 1959. In 1929 Jackman was appointed Extension Specialist in Farm Crops; in 1953 he was appointed Range Crops Management Specialist.
Jackman helped organize the Oregon Seed Growers' League and served as secretary for this organization for many years. He was also instrumental in starting the Oregon Wheat League, an organization that has been widely copied throughout the country. As president of the Pacific Northwest Section of the American Society of Range Management, Jackman instituted the society's "Youth Range Camp" in 1950. Since that year, the camp has been held annually. He was a member of Epsilon Sigma Phi, the national extension honorary fraternity, and in 1949 was awarded the fraternity's Western States Certificate of Recognition. In 1956 he received the United States Department of Agriculture's Superior Service Award "for outstanding success in promoting Oregon's widespread adoption of grassland agriculture and for leadership in developing the state's multimillion dollar seed industry." Jackman died on May 12, 1967 in Portland, Oregon, following a long illness. The E. R. Jackman Foundation, an affiliate of the Oregon State University Foundation located within the university's College of Agricultural Sciences, was formed in his memory.
From the guide to the Edwin Russell Jackman Papers, 1917-1968, (Oregon State University University Archives)
