Alice C. Nichols was a K-State graduate, journalist, and writer. Nichols graduated from K-State in 1927 after which she moved to New York and worked for Farm and Fireside. In 1934, she became the assistant editor of Country Home, later becoming Country Home’s farm programs editor in 1937. In 1940, Nichols became the editor of Men’s Wear, working there until 1953. Nichols’ most famous work, Bleeding Kansas, was released in 1954. Nichols died in 1969.

The North American Alfalfa Improvement Conference is now headed by the Natioanl Alfalfa & Forage Alliance. Formed in 2006, the alliance is dedicated to education, research, promotion and advocacy.

Patricia J. O’Brien was born on April 1, 1935, in Chicago, Illinois to John P. O’Brien and Edna M. Massow. She attended Nicholas Senn High School, graduating in 1953, and then worked at the Illinois Bell Telephone Company as a plant engineering clerk from 1953 to 1960. Concurrently, Pat attended Wright Junior College and graduated in 1960 with an associate’s degree in art. She then attended the University of Illinois, graduating with a bachelor’s of art in anthropology in 1962 and a Ph.D. in the same subject in 1969. Her dissertation was, “A Formal Analysis of Cahokia Ceramics: Powell Tract”. O’Brien was an interim anthropology instructor at Florida Atlantic University in 1966-1967, and became an assistant professor of archeology and sociology at Kansas State University (KSU) in September 1967.
O’Brien worked at KSU for 31 years, retiring as a professor emerita in 1998. She has published seven books and over forty articles, and has presented regularly while at KSU. She has been involved professionally, including in the American Anthropological Association, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and Sigma Xi. In 1989-1990, O’Brien was an Honor Lecturer at the Mid-American State Universities Association, and the following year she received the Conoco Distinguished Graduate Faculty Award and Sigma Xi deemed her a Distinguished Research Lecturer. She was a Fulbright Senior Lecturer in 1994-1995 at Würzburg, Germany, and was a guest professor in 1996 at Munich, Germany. In 2009, the Plains Anthropological Society recognized her lifetime achievement of Plains-related research, teaching, scholarship, and service by awarding O'Brien with the Distinguished Service Award.

The Office of Student Activities and Services at Kansas State University has existed in its current form since 1980 to complement the academic programs of study at K-State and to enhance the overall educational experience of students through exposure to and participation in social, cultural, recreational, and governance programs. Prior to 1980, the office had various names as its role expanding in campus life. Currently, the office oversees campus organizations and services that include Student Governing Association, Student Legal Services, Consumer and Tenant Affairs, and SafeRide.

The office of Provost was established by President Acker and was first filled in 1980 by Owen Koeppe.

The provost and senior vice president is Kansas State University's Chief Academic Officer, whose most important duties are to oversee the academic affairs of the university and ensure its academic standards. In cooperation with the president, vice presidents, and the Deans Council, the provost provides leadership in the development, review, and implementation of policies and goals related to teaching and learning, research, and engagement.

The deans of the nine academic colleges, the libraries, Graduate School, and the Division of Continuing Education report to the provost. Other reporting units and programs include the Olathe Innovation Campus; the Centers for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning, Entrepreneurship, and Engagement and Community; and the School for Leadership Studies as well as Academic Personnel, Assessment, Diversity and Dual Career Development, Fort Leavenworth graduate degree programming, the Honors and Integrity System, Information Technology Services, International Programs, Planning and Analysis, Summer School, Sustainability, and the University Honors Program.

Recently the Provost has taken on the job of mediating for students. Complaints can be filed by students as to the performance of their professors and the Provost addresses any problems on a university wide scale.

Donald Wayne Otis Sr., born on September 12th, 1930, the son of Walter S. and Mildred J. (Nordling) Otis, in Osage City, KS, had a long career in civil engineering based in Kansas.
While an engineering student at Utah State University, he worked intermittently in grain elevator construction for the engineering and contracting firm of Chalmers and Borton in Hutchinson, KS from 1947-1953.  Upon graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering in 1953, he served for three years as an Engineering Officer in the U.S. Air Force.  In 1955, he returned to Chalmers & Borton as a structural engineer, and became Chief Engineer for the firm (now Borton, Inc.) in 1961.  In 1967, he was brought on as Director of Engineering for the Jarvis Construction Company in Salina, KS.  He founded his own private consulting engineering company, Otis & Associates, in Salina, KS in 1984, specializing in the inspection of grain terminals, elevators, storage, mills, feed operations, processing plants, and bulk handling facilities, as well as the investigations of fires, explosions, failures, and collapses of the same.  He closed his company and retired around 1995.  He died on April 7th, 2005 in Wichita, KS at the age of 74.  He was preceded in death by his wife, Winona on April 29<emph render='super'>th</emph>, 1995, and survived by his children, Donna Jo (Otis) Wilson and Donnie Wayne Otis, Jr.
He was registered as a professional engineer in eleven states (Kansas, Alabama, Delaware, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, & Wisconsin), and was a member of a number of professional organizations, incuding the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), the American Society of Agricultural Engineers (ASAE, now ASABE), the American Society of Testing Materials (ASTM), the American Society of Non-Destructive Testing (ASNT), the National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE), the Kansas Engineering Society, the American Concrete Institute (ACI), and the American Society of Metals (ASM).
His professional honors and distinctions included: selection as the Outstanding Young Engineer of 1965 by the Kansas Engineering Society; selection by the American Society of Agricultural Engineers (ASAE) for the “People to People” Agricultural Alternate Energy Source Delegation to Europe, Africa, and Brazil in 1981; and selection by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) for the Materials Handling Delegation to China in 1985.

George Washington Owens was the first Black man to graduate from Kansas State. The son of former slaves who had migrated to Kansas, Owens attended K-State from 1896 until his graduation in 1899. In 1900, Owens accepted a position as head of the dairy herd and creamery at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, administered by Booker T. Washington. In 1908, Owens was hired by Virginia Normal and Industrial School (later named Virginia State College) in Petersburg, Virginia to establish the school’s agricultural program. Owens also spent time from 1918 to 1919 establishing the first five black departments of vocational agriculture at county vocational training schools in Virginia. He was officially designated as a teacher-trainer for Virginia State in 1925, and in recognition of 25 years of service to the school, the agricultural building was named Owens Hall in 1932. Owens also wrote the constitution and by-laws for an organization called New Farmers of Virginia, part of a national organization called New Farmers of America, which would eventually become part of Future Farmers of America in 1965. Owens retired from his role as chairman of the Department of Agriculture at Virginia State in 1945, and he died in 1950 at the age of 75.

Born on September 27, 1898, at Stockdale, Kansas, to Solon and Jennie (Romick) Paddleford, Clementine Paddleford became one of the most widely ready and best-known food editors in the world, charming her readers with her fanciful prose.  By the age of 12, Paddleford had developed a curiosity of food.  At the age of 15, she began her writing career, writing personals for the <emph render='italic'>Daily Chronicle</emph> in Manhattan, Kansas.  She graduated from Manhattan High School in 1916, and from Kansas State Agriculture College in 1921, with a degree in Industrial Journalism.
After graduation, Paddleford enrolled at the Columbia School of Journalism and attended night classes at New York University.  In order to pay for her own expenses in New York, she did some special reviewing of business books for <emph render='italic'>Administration</emph>, a magazine of business, and for the <emph render='italic'>New York Sun</emph>.  She also wrote special short women’s features for the <emph render='italic'>New York Sun</emph> and the <emph render='italic'>New York Telegram</emph>.
In 1923, Paddleford accepted an invitation from a friend to summer in Chicago.  She stayed on in the fall, when she found employment writing advertising copy for Montgomery Ward and an agricultural fair on the banks of the Des Plaines River.  During this time, Paddleford married Lloyd Zimmerman, though they separated within a year and were divorced in 1932.
Paddleford worked as women’s editor of <emph render='italic'>Farm and Fireside</emph> in New York from 1924 to 1929.  In the 1930s, Paddleford wrote articles for <emph render='italic'>Christian Herald</emph> using the name Clementine Paddleford and C. P. Haskin when she wrote about the interior of the church.  Paddleford also wrote articles under the name of Mrs. Clement Haskin, Clemence Haskin, and Clementine Haskin.  In 1932, a malignant growth was removed from her larynx, along with her vocal cords, resulting in her breathing through a tube in her throat and relearning speech with a new set of muscles.  While she avoided public speaking, Paddleford adapted to her handicap, not allowing it to interfer with her life or work.
Paddleford became a food editor for the <emph render='italic'>New York Herald-Tribune</emph> from 1936 to 1966.  From 1940 to her death in 1967, she contributed a weekly column on food to <emph render='italic'>This Week</emph> magazine, a syndicated Sunday supplement available in many newspapers throughout the United States.  From 1941 to 1953, Paddleford contributed a monthly column to <emph render='italic'>Gourmet</emph> Magazine.  Paddleford also wrote freelance features in many national publications such as <emph render='italic'>The American Home</emph>, <emph render='italic'>Design for Living</emph>, and <emph render='italic'>House Beautiful</emph>.
In 1943, Paddleford opened her home to a deceased friend’s daughter, Claire Duffe, whom she raised as her own.  She learned to pilot a plane to speed up her research, zigzagging across the United States and the Atlantic.  Paddleford’s career gave her the opportunity to explore a wide range of experiences, from a mess hall for lumberjacks in the Northwest woods and chili parlors in Texas, to a hobo camp in Kansas and dinners of state with kings.
Paddleford turned her vast experience in food writing to good use, publishing several cook books.  In 1948, <emph render='italic'>Recipes from Anotine’s Kitch</emph>e<emph render='italic'>n</emph> was published.  Her homage to her mother, <emph render='italic'>A Flower for My Mother</emph>, was published in 1958.  Her most important work, <emph render='italic'>How America Eats</emph>, was published in 1960, and was the first book to really study the regional cuisine within the United States.  In 1966, <emph render='italic'>Clementine Paddleford’s Cook Young Cookbook </emph>was published, with recipes culled from over 35,000 letters.
Clementine Haskin Paddleford died November 13, 1967 in New York.  She is buried in the Grandview-Mill Creek-Stockdale Cemetery on Fairview Church Road, Riley, Kansas.

The collection is rich in medical history as one of the Page’s five children, William, graduated from Harvard Medical School in 1852 and practiced in Boston before becoming the resident physician at a resort hotel and hot springs in Las Vegas, New Mexico that was affiliated with the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad, and Fred Harvey (there are numerous letters from the Santa Fe headquarters in Topeka to Dr. Page).  There is significant information about his medical work, including his involvement with troops during the Civil War.  The experience of the twin daughters, Mary and Olive, of Benjamin and Huldah provide much insight into the lives of women, both personal and professional, during the mid to late 1800s.  The educational experiences of males and females are well documented because the five children attended Phillips Exeter Academy, Mount Holyoke, Wellesley College, Bowdoin College and Harvard.  For example, the twins received notes from classmates at Mount Holyoke encouraging them to become more Christian like in their beliefs!  Daniel Page migrated to Kansas where he became a prominent settler in the Lindsborg area, serving in the Kansas House of Representatives, and daughter, Mary, settled in Missouri.  Letters of both family members describe life in this region of the country.  Agriculture practices are documented through the lives of several members, and military history is an important segment of the collection because of family members’ involvement in the Civil War and War World I.  Cookery is represented by such items as a manuscript cookbook.  While the previous descriptions cover the years 1845-1899, the letters of Nina Page (daughter of William and Nancy Page) describe her travels and employment in several European countries.  She died in Nazi-occupied France in 1943.

Reginald Painter was born on September 12, 1901, at Brownwood, Texas, and he received a B.A. (1922) and M.A. (1924) from the University of Texas and a Ph. D. from Ohio State University (1926). He immediately joined the faculty at Kansas State University, where he remained for his entire career except for brief periods in Honduras and Guatemala. Painter became widely recognized as the leading authority of plant resistance to insects. He worked cooperatively with plant breeders in the production of sorghum, wheat, and alfalfa varieties resistant to insect pests. He also documented the existence of insect biotypes that could overcome host plant resistance. He is remembered for his authorship of <emph render='italic'>Insect Resistance in Crop Plants</emph>, which was the major synthesis and leading work on the sibject for decades.
Painter also had a strong interest in Bombyliidae, and he and his wife described several new genera and numerous new species from North and Central America, and redescribed many European species. Painter was a fellow of the Entomological Society of America and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and was awarded the Gamma Sigma Delta International Award for Distinguished Service to Agriculture, He died on December 23, 1968, in Mexico City, Mexico.

Thomas Cruise Palmer was born on April 9, 1917, to Thomas Potter Palmer and Margaret McFadden Palmer. He graduated from Kansas State University in 1938, with a degree in journalism. While at Kansas State University, Palmer was a member of Beta Theta Pi Fraternity.

After college Palmer went to work full-time for Kansas City Star. The only break in his long career at The Star was when he served in the U. S. Navy during World War II. Ensign Palmer trained in Arizona and California. As a Lieutenant, he joined Admiral Thomas Kinkaid’s Seventh Fleet staff in Hollandia, New Guinea, as a communications watch officer. Accompanying General Douglas MacArthur in his thrust toward Japan, the Seventh Fleet moved its headquarters to Leyte, Manila, and Shanghai in the Pacific theater. As soon as the Japanese surrendered, Lieutenant Palmer was flown to San Francisco to help set up Navy News Bureau, Pacific.

After World War II, Palmer returned to work for the Kansas City Star. On September 7, 1946, he married Dorraine Humphreys Strole. (Her family name was Humphreys.)

In 1959, Palmer was on the first jet plane flight across Europe. Air France had just acquired its first sleek Caravelle Passenger aircraft and scheduled a press trip from Paris to Rome, Athens, and Istanbul. There were one-day stops in each city to demonstrate to future vacation travelers how they might take in some of the world’s top historic sights in less than a week.

Palmer took over the Kansas City Star News Room during the turbulent 1960s: a decade of revolts, riots, and tragic assassinations. He hired the first African-American writers at The Star. Later those reporters served with distinction in the riots that followed the death of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Because the two top officers on this nation’s first atomic carrier, the USS Enterprise, were from Kansas City and Ava, Missouri, the Secretary of the Navy asked him to go aboard for the maiden voyage to the Mediterranean in 1964. Eight fighter planes, circling high above, made consecutive night landings that were the highlight of the spectacular exercise that he described for Star readers.

Palmer became editor of the Kansas City Star in 1967 and served in that capacity until 1978. In February 1978, he established the Cruise Palmer Distinguished Professorship in Journalism at Kansas State. In the next two decades, Palmer and his wife of 55 years, Dorraine, continued to live in Johnson County and traveled extensively. He and Dorraine had two children, Thomas Cruise Palmer, Jr., born in 1947, and Martha Dorraine Palmer, born in 1949. Both attended Kansas State University.

He was an avid following of sports, including the Kansas State Wildcats teams, the Kansas City Royals, and the Kansas City Chiefs. He volunteered for the Red Cross, City Mission in Kansas City, Missouri, and other organizations.

An ardent amateur golfer, Palmer was a longtime member of Milburn Golf and Country Club, and he played in the Hawaiian Open Pro-Am 22 years and several other Pro-Am events.

In 2002, Palmer wrote a book titled The Kansas City Star Bosses of the News Room. Earlier in his career, he wrote the stylebook for the Kansas City Times and Star. He died on March 18, 2011.

Harriet Parkerson was the adopted daughter of Isaac Goodnow, one of the founders of both Manhattan and K-State, and his wife Ellen. The Goodnows adopted Parkerson in 1857 after her mother died and only two years after her birth. Parkerson lived in Manhattan with the Goodnows for many years of her life, and she was involved at K-State through the Domestic Science Club.

Gordon Parks was born on November 30, 1912 at Fort Scott, Kansas. He was a well-known African American photographer, jazz pianist, composer, writer of poetry and novels, painter, and filmmaker. Parks used his talents to tell the story of poverty, racism, and social injustice. He was the first African American to write and direct a major Hollywood film: The Learning Tree. Throughout his lifetime, Parks received honorary doctorates and awards for his work and in 2002 was inducted into the International Photography Hall of Fame and Museum. Gordon Parks died on March 7, 2006.