Befitting its mission as a land grant institution, the College of Agriculture is the oldest continually operating academic unit at Kansas State University. The second full academic year saw the start of the first agricultural course, agricultural science, which was a three-year course. In 1868 J.S. Hougham was named the first professor in agriculture as the Professor of Agricultural Science. The first building on the present campus of K-State was a large stone barn built in 1873, and much of the early K-State campus was devoted to experimental fields and pasture for livestock.

The 1873 reorganization of K-State by President Anderson created new departments related to agriculture: practical agriculture, practical horticulture, and botany. Also, the course was renamed as the farmer’s course and was expanded to last six years. The agriculture program continued to expand, and at the reorganization of 1909, the newly formed Division of Agriculture contained five four-year courses with classes in seven departments including the department of veterinary medicine. In 1919 veterinary medicine was removed from the Division of Agriculture and formed into its own division. The Division of Agriculture was spread through four large campus buildings, including what are now Holton Hall, Dickens Hall, and Leasure Hall.

In 1942 the division was renamed the School of Agriculture and in the reorganization of 1963 became the College of Agriculture. At that time, the College was spread throughout as many as 8 buildings on campus.

As of 2021, the College is housed in several buildings across campus including Call, Schellenberger, Throckmorton/Merrill, Waters, and Weber Halls.

Division heads and deans of the College (interim included) –
1908 – 1913: Edwin H. Webster
1913 – 1918: William M. Jardine, became University’s 7th President
1918 – 1925: Francis D. Farrell, became University’s 8th President
1925 – 1946: Leland E. Call
1946 – 1952: Ray I. Throckmorton
1952 – 1961: Arthur D. Weber
1962 – 1966: Glenn H. Beck
1966 – 1981: Carroll V. Hess
1981 – 1985: John O. Dunbar
1985 – 1992: Walter Woods
1992 – 2003: Marc A. Johnson
2003 – 2004: George E. Ham
2004 – 2010: Fred A. Cholick
2010 – 2012: Gary M. Pierzynski
2012 – 2018: John D. Floros
2018 - present: J. Ernest Minton

Kansas State University’s College of Architecture, Planning, and Design was established in 1963 by bringing together into one administrative unit the Departments of Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Architectural Engineering, Construction Science, Interior Architecture, and Regional and Community Planning. However, the origins of the College date to the 1876 arrival and election of Prof. J.D. Walters to the chair of industrial arts. In 1894 the first true course in architecture was given and by 1897 the Department of Drawing, Descriptive Geometry, and Architecture was formed. The architecture curriculum was reorganized in 1903 to allow a formally organized four-year curriculum in architecture to be initiated. The architecture course began as part of the Department of Architecture and Drawing for the 1904-05 academic year.

The College saw many changes to the name and structure through the years. In 1909 K-State reorganized its structure and the Department of Architecture and Drawing was placed in the Division of Mechanic Arts. This division became the Division of Engineering in 1917, and then transformed into the School of Engineering in 1942, finally becoming the School of Engineering and Architecture in 1945. In 1963 K-State reorganized again, and the College of Architecture and Design was formed. The College also saw many changes and additions to the course offerings. For example, in 1941 a formal landscape architecture curriculum was established, to replace the landscape gardening series, begun in 1878 in the Department of Horticulture.

After several decades of growth, additions, and consolidation of programs into the College, a change in the name of the College was needed, therefore in 1993 the College of Architecture and Design became the College of Architecture, Planning and Design, the current designation for the college.

Deans of the College –
1963 – 1971: Emil Fischer
1971 – 1984: Bernd Foerster
1984 – 1989: Mark Lapping
1989 – 1995: Lane Marshall
1995 – 2009: Dennis Law
2009 – Present: Tim de Noble

The Kansas State University College of Business Administration is an accredited institution with a graduate school that offers an MBA, an MAcc, an executive MBA program, and three different graduate certificate programs in leadership, business administration, and animal health management.  The college was founded in 1962 as the College of Commerce.  Previously, it had been operated as a department within the College of Arts and Sciences since 1954.  The name was changed to the College of Business Administration in 1966.  The college operated as one department, with all faculty reporting directly to the dean until 1979.  At that point, the departments of accounting, finance, management, and marketing were created.  The deans of the college include C. Clyde Jones (1962-1967), Robert A. Lynn (1968-1984), Randolph A. Phlman (1984-1990), Daniel G. Short (1992-1995), Yar M. Ebadi (1995-2011), Ali R. Malekzadeh (2011-2015), and Kevin Gwinner (2016-Present).

The College of Education began as the Department of Education in the Division of General Science in 1913. There was no degree program created at the time, but students could take the education classes as electives in their junior and senior years to receive Kansas teacher certification. The first curriculum in education was created in 1921 for public school music. Physical education curricula were added in 1925, elementary education in 1952, and secondary education in 1955.

The Department of Education stayed in the Division of General Science when it became the School of Arts and Sciences in 1942. At the University reorganization of 1963 the School of Education was initially formed within the College of Arts and Sciences, but in 1966, it was split and reformed as the College of Education. The College of Education resided in Holton Hall until 1981 when Bluemont Hall was built and became the College’s new home.

Deans of the College –
1964 – 1967: William H. Coffield
1967 – 1970: James D. McComas
1970 – 1977: Samuel R. Keys
1977 – 1984: Jordan B. Utsey
1984 – 1990: David R. Byrne
1990 – 2011: Michael C. Holen
2012 – present: Debbie K. Mercer

The beginning of Kansas State University’s College of Engineering dates to 1866 when a four-year course in Mechanic Arts was initiated, and by 1875 the Shop Building (now Seaton Court) was built to house the growing program. The Department of Mechanics and Engineering was organized in 1877 and the department stayed in that configuration until 1898 when it was separated into the Department of Electrical Engineering and the Department of Mechanical Engineering.

In 1909 the first wing of the Engineering Building (now Seaton Hall) was built to house the newly organized Division of Mechanic Arts. This division became the Division of Engineering in 1917 and in 1942 the division was transformed into the School of Engineering and Architecture. In 1963 K-State reorganized again, and the College of Engineering was formed with architecture in a separate college.

Currently the College of Engineering occupies the Durland-Rathbone-Fiedler Engineering Complex, having moved in 1976 when Phase 1 of Durland Hall was complete. In 2018, the College became the first named college at K-State, becoming the Carl R. Ice College of Engineering, in honor of Carl and Mary Ice.

Deans of the College –
1908 – 1913: E.B. McCormick, as Dean of Mechanic Arts
1913 – 1920: Andrey A. Porter, as Dean of Mechanic Arts then Engineering in 1917
1920 – 1949: Roy A. Seaton
1949 – 1961: Merrill A. Durland
1961 – 1963: John W. Shupe, as acting Dean
1963 – 1967: Paul E. Russell, first Dean of the College of Engineering
1967 – 1973: Ralph G. Nevins
1973 – 1997: Donald E. Rathbone
1997 – 2006: Terry S. King
2006 – 2007: Richard R. Gallagher, as interim Dean
2007 – 2013: John R. English
2013 – 2014: Gary Clark, as interim Dean
2014 – 2019: Darren Dawson
2019 – 2020: Gary Clark, as interim Dean
2020 – present: Matt O’Keefe

The College of Health and Human Sciences can trace its roots to the early years of Kansas State University when President John Anderson established the "woman’s" course in 1873. The program turned into the Household Economics Course in 1897 and then Domestic Science in 1898 when the program also occupied the newly built Kedzie Hall.

In 1908 the program moved to the newly built, and larger, Calvin Hall, and in 1909 it was reorganized as the Division of Home Economics. Expansion in the programs offered through the division led to the building of Thompson Hall in 1922 and then the Campus Creek Complex in the late 1940s. In 1942 the division was renamed the School of Home Economics and at the 1963 reorganization was renamed the College of Home Economics. In 1960 the College occupied newly built Justin Hall.

The College of Home Economics became the College of Human Ecology in 1986. In 2019, it was renamed as the College of Health and Human Sciences.

Deans of the Division/School/College:
1908–1918: Mary P. Van Zile, became Dean of Women until 1940
1918–1923: Helen B. Thompson
1923–1954: Margaret M. Justin
1954–1974: Doretta S. Hoffman
1975–1983: Ruth Hoeflin
1983–1998: Barbara S. Stowe
1998–2006: Carol E. Kellett
2006–2013: Virginia M. Moxley
2013–2021: John Buckwalter
2021–2023: Craig Harms (Interim)
2023–present: Brad Behnke (Interim)

The College of Veterinary Medicine grew out of the College of Agriculture with the increased number and value of livestock in Kansas creating a demand for veterinarians. By 1886 Kansas State University had begun offering courses in veterinary science for those in the agriculture program, but these courses were just supplements and not a degree program. But Bby 1905 the demand became enough that the Board of Regents authorized the beginning of the four-year veterinary science course and the Department of Veterinary Medicine was formed. From the beginning, the veterinary science course included students operating a daily veterinary clinic for sick or injured animals in the area. In 1908 Veterinary Hall, later Leasure Hall, was built and became the first building to house the College. When K-State was reorganized in 1909, the department was put in the Division of Agriculture.

By 1919 the program was large enough that it was separated from the Division of Agriculture and was formed into the Division of Veterinary Medicine. The Veterinary Hospital, Burt Hall, was completed in 1923. In 1932, a five-year curriculum was instated, with this being extended to a six-year curriculum in 1948. The division was renamed the School of Veterinary Medicine in 1942, and in 1963 the College of Veterinary Medicine was created after University reorganization. At that time the College occupied three large buildings, Leasure, Burt, and Dykstra Halls, spread across campus.

The College is currently housed in its own complex, which contains Coles, Trotter, and Mosier Halls. Of the present colleges of veterinary medicine nationwide, Kansas State University is one of the oldest in the United States to grant the degree of Doctor of Veterinary of Medicine.

Deans of the College –

1919 – 1948: Ralph R. Dykstra
1948 – 1964: Eldon E. Leasure
1964 – 1965: Ralph L. Kitchell
1966 – 1971: Charles E. Cornelius
1971 – 1984: Donald M. Trotter
1984 – 1987: James R. Coffman
1988 – 1994: Michael D. Lorenz
1994 – 1997: Ron J. Marler
1998 – 2015: Ralph C. Richardson
2015 – 2017: Tammy Beckham
2017 – present: Bonnie Rush

The Consumer Federation of America (CFA) is an association of non-profit consumer organizations that was established in 1968 to advance the consumer interest through research, advocacy, and education. Today, nearly 300 of these groups participate in the federation and govern it through their representatives on the organization’s Board of Directors.

Donald Cornelius was born January 25, 1914, and died December 21, 1994.

M. Lester Cox was a 1930 graduate of Kansas State Agricultural College with a degree in agriculture. He farmed until after World War II and then worked as an agriculture extension agent in Chautauqua, Chase, Riley, and Gove counties.

M. Lester Cox was a 1930 graduate of Kansas State Agricultural College with a degree in agriculture. He farmed until after World War II and then worked as an agriculture extension agent in Chautauqua, Chase, Riley, and Gove counties.

James V. Craig was born 7 February 1924 in Bonner Springs, Kansas. He received his B.S. from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, in 1948 and his M.S from the same institution in 1949. In 1952, he received his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and he was an Assistant Professor at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, from 1952 to 1955. He then became Associate Professor of genetics in the Poultry Department at Kansas State University from 1955 to 1960, at which time he was promoted to Professor.
In 1961, he received the Poultry Science research award from the Poultry Science Association, and in 1961-1962 he held a post-doctoral National Institute of Health Special Fellowship at the Poultry Research Centre, Edinburgh, Scotland. He received a Poultry Science travel award to attend the XIV World's Poultry Congress in Madrid, Spain, in 1970. In 1981, Prentice-Hall published Craig's book, <emph render='italic'>Domestic Animal Behavior</emph>, and the following year he spent with the Animal Behavior Unit at the University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia, while on sabbatical. The Poultry Science Association elected him a Fellow in 1988, and in 1992 he received the Merck Award for Achievement in Poultry Science and Poultry Welfare Research Award from the Poultry Science Association. That same year, he retired from Kansas State University. He died 30 March 2003 in Topeka, Kansas.

William F. Danenbarger was a leader in Kansas education policy, as well as being active in multiple business pursuits over the course of his life. Danenbarger received his A.B. degree from the University of Kansas in 1933, after which he worked for two years as editor of the Concordia News and Press in Concordia, Kansas. This was followed by work for United Press, first in Denver, then in El Paso as a manager, and finally in Atlanta as a business manager. In 1947, Danenbarger returned to Concordia to manage Danenbarger’s Hardware from 1947 until 1952. In 1954, he founded the radio station KNCK in Concordia, which he would manage until 1972. Kansas Governor George Docking appointed Danenbarger to the Kansas Board of Regents in 1961 and he would serve until 1965. Danenbarger also served on the Board of Regents for Washburn University in Topeka at this time. From 1962 to 1975, Danenbarger was a member of the Kansas Council on Economic Education. Danenbarger’s work in education continued in the 1970s, as he was reappointed to the Kansas Board of Regents from 1970 to 1974 and from 1972 to 1974, he was commissioner of the Education Commission of the States. He also served as a member of the Kansas State University Research Foundation. From 1973 to 1979, he was a member of the Kansas Economic Development Commission and a member of the Kansas Industrial Roundtable. Danenbarger died in 1990.

Arthur Louis Danforth junior, known to most as “Art,” was born to Arthur Louis Danforth senior and Grace Landers (Ward) Danforth in New York in 1912. Art began what became a lifelong commitment to cooperatives with the successful organization of a student dining co-op while a student at Cornell Law School. After graduating with his law degree in 1938, he managed small and medium co-op stores and subsequently provided central accounting services for consumer co-ops in both New England and New York. He then worked for the relief agency CARE (the Cooperative for American Remittances to Europe, now renamed the Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere) in New York and Hawaii, before relocating to California in 1950 with his wife, Ruth Evelyn (Henley) Danforth, and their two daughters.
During the next 17 years, Danforth worked with co-ops in Berkeley and Palo Alto, serving on various committees as well as on the Berkeley Board. He was a member of Berkeley’s management team for two years, and served as Palo Alto’s Education Director. Offered a position with the Cooperative League of the United States as its Secretary-Treasurer in 1967, he and Ruth moved to the Chicago area where they lived for five years in New York Center Community Cooperative.
Danforth became the League’s specialist in working with consumer cooperatives and provided counsel and assistance to the scores of new emerging food co-ops. He also became one of the country’s most prolific writers on consumer cooperative topics, producing scores of books, booklets and pamphlets on accounting, organizing, legal problems, incorporation, board responsibilities, history and philosophy.
After retiring in 1967 to Falls Church, Virginia, Danforth continued to write and consult with cooperatives. He co-authored a new history on the American consumer cooperative movement, wrote an annotated comprehensive model consumer cooperative act and a study of cause of specific consumer goods cooperative failures. He also helped draft the National Consumer Cooperative Bank Act and lobbied successfully for its enactment. He was also active with the Group Health Association, Greenbelt Cooperative Inc., and Consumer Alliance.
Art Danforth died May 10, 1987, at the age of 74. His last book, in tribute to his late wife, Ruth, was directed at helping the families of those suffering from Alzheimer's disease.

Walter T. Dartland was born January 17, 1935. He is widely known for his expertise on consumer protection, investment and insurance fraud, and public interest issues. He earned a national reputation for diligence and effectiveness in exposing frauds and deceptive practices perpetrated against citizens and businesses alike. He gained national recognition as a consumer advocate from 1975 until 1986 while he was serving as the Miami-Dade County Consumer Advocate. Through his association with consumer groups, senior citizen organizations, and Florida business leaders, he exposed schemes directed at Florida’s elderly and low-income populations. In 1987, he was named Deputy Attorney General under Attorney General Bob Butterworth. For two years Dartland oversaw litigation in environmental protection, land use, consumer protection, antitrust enforcement, and execution of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO). At the request of the Attorney General, Dartland rejoined the office to serve as Special Counsel on critical issues from 1996 to 2000. While serving as Special Counsel, he earned the admiration of industry leaders for his unique ability to work with businesses to effectuate solutions to complex business transactions. Dartland has been involved with numerous professional, civic and charitable boards. Notable positions include past vice-president of the National Association of Consumer Agency Administrators, past Chairman of the Florida Bar Consumer Protection Committee, past president of the Consumer Credit Counseling Service of South Florida, past president of the Florida Association of Accountants in the Public Interest, board member of the Consumer Federation of America, founding member and co-chair of the National Coalition Against Insurance Fraud, member of the National Board of Common Cause, and chair of Florida Common Cause. Dartland’s education began at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institutes, where he earned a B.S. Degree in Engineering. He went on to earn a law degree from the University of Michigan. At some point in his career, he returned to Michigan when elected District Attorney.

David Dary is a native of Manhattan, Kansas, where he was born in 1934. A great grandfather, Carl Engel, settled in Manhattan in 1865 and was an early merchant. David’s maternal grandfather was Archie W. Long, one-time mayor of Manhattan, who owned the Long Oil Company. David’s parents are the late Russell and Ruth Long Dary of Manhattan. His mother received her master’s degree from K-State in 1926. David is a graduate of Kansas State University (1956). He later earned a graduate degree from the University of Kansas in Lawrence.
After graduating from K-State he began a career in broadcast journalism at WIBW radio and television in Topeka and later worked in Texas before joining CBS News in Washington, D.C. where he covered the last months of the Eisenhower and then the Kennedy administrations. Dary introduced Kennedy on CBS for the president’s Cuban Missile Crisis speech and later overflew and observed Soviet ships carrying missiles out-bound from Cuba. In 1963 he was recruited by NBC News to be manager of local news in Washington, D.C. Although in management, he was frequently heard anchoring NBC’s Monitor weekend news programs.
In the late 1960s he was offered a promotion if he would move to NBC News in New York. He declined and decided to return to Kansas where he helped to build a new NBC television station in Topeka (channel 27) before joining the faculty of the William Allen White School of Journalism at KU where he earned his graduate degree. As a professor he began to write articles and books on Kansas history. After 20 years at KU, he was recruited to become head of what is now the Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Oklahoma in Norman. He rebuilt the program and obtained a $22 million gift from the Gaylord family of Oklahoma that elevated the school to college status and provided funds for construction of a new journalism and mass communications building. After eleven years at OU, he retired in 2000 and is now emeritus professor. 
He is the author of more than 20 books. Three deal with journalism and the rest focus on historical aspects of Kansas and the American West. They include <emph render='italic'>The Buffalo Book</emph> (1974) selected by the Book-of-the-Month Club, <emph render='italic'>Cowboy Culture</emph> (1981) covering 500 years of the cowboy which won a Wrangler Award from the National Cowboy Hall of Fame and Western Heritage Center and a Spur Award from the Western Writers of America. It also was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize by his publisher Alfred A. Knopf of New York City. Other popular books are <emph render='italic'>True Tales of Old-Time Kansas</emph> (1984), <emph render='italic'>Entrepreneurs of the Old West </emph>(1986), <emph render='italic'>Seeking Pleasure in the Old West </emph>(1995), and <emph render='italic'>Red Blood and Black Ink: Journalism in the Old West</emph> (1998).
Since his retirement in 2000, he has continued to research and write. His more recent books include <emph render='italic'>The Santa Fe Trail</emph> (2000) and <emph render='italic'>The Oregon Trail</emph> (2004) followed <emph render='italic'>by A Texas Cowboy’s Journal: Up the Trail to Kansas in 1868</emph> (2006), edited by Dary. His most recent books <emph render='italic'>are True Tales of the Prairies and Plains</emph> (2007) and <emph render='italic'>Frontier Medicine: From the Atlantic to the Pacific, 1492-1941</emph> (2008) which won the Dr. Walter Alvarez Award from the American Medical Writers Association.
In addition to receiving two Wrangler Awards from the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, he has received two Spur Awards and the Owen Wister Lifetime Achievement Award from the Western Writers of America. In 2008, the Oklahoma Center for the Book honored him with the Arrell Gibson Award for lifetime achievement. He also has been inducted into the Oklahoma Journalism Hall of Famer and the Oklahoma Higher Education Hall of Fame. In August 2010, he was inducted into the Kansas Cowboy Hall of Fame at Dodge City for his literary contributions to the history of the cowboy.
He is a former member of numerous academic and professional journalism organizations. He served on the board of directors of the Kansas State Historical Society for twenty years, is a past president of the Western Writers of America, a former council member of the Western History Association, and past president and board chairman of Westerners International.
A long-time collector of books, pamphlets and ephemera on Kansas and the West, he became an appraiser of such items in the early 1980s while continuing to add to his extensive library.
Dary and his wife Sue, an artist and former K-State student, live in Norman, Oklahoma. They celebrated their 54th wedding anniversary in June 2010. They have four daughters and seven grandchildren.

Kenneth S. Davis was a Kansas writer and journalist, whose works appeared in multiple national publications and was an instructor at multiple universities. Davis earned a degree in Agricultural Journalism from Kansas State College in 1934, while also working as editor of “The Mirror” and as a reporter for the Topeka Daily Capital, after which he then earned his Master of Science in Agricultural Journalism from the University of Wisconsin in 1935. In 1944, Davis began working as a war correspondent for SHAEF in London and Normandy in World War 2, while also writing a biography on General Dwight Eisenhower. This biography appeared in the 1945 July edition of American magazine. From 1945 to 1946, Davis was an instructor of journalism at New York University, followed by part-time work as a professor at Kansas State College in the Department of Industrial Journalism and Printing from 1946 to 1947. While at K-State, Davis was also part-time College Editor and an advisor to President Milton Eisenhower as the chairman of the U.S. national committee to UNESCO, a position he held until 1949. From 1955 to 1956, Davis was a member of the personal staff of Presidential candidate Adlai E. Stevenson as a speechwriter. In 1962, Davis became a member of the Century Club in New York, and in 1963, he received the Centennial Award for Distinguished Service to Kansas State University. In the 1970s, he published several books, including “FDR: The Beckoning of Destiny, 1882-1928” and “Kansas: A History,” while also teaching classes at Clark University and Kansas State University. He was acknowledged with a Certificate of Recognition from the state of Kansas in 1986. Davis continued to teach classes for K-State and Clark University through the 80s and 90s until his death in 1999.