Mary Theresa Harman was born to Joseph Slingluff and Kezia (Allen) Harman on August 21, 1877 in Odon, Indiana. She graduated from Indiana University in 1907 with a bachelor's degree in botany, 1909 with a master's degree in biology, and in 1912 with a doctorate in zoology. She taught zoology at Pennsylvania State College from 1907 to 1909 and at Indiana University from 1909 to 1912. She began teaching at Kansas State Agricultural College in 1912 specializing in embryology and cytology classes. Besides teaching Mary was involved in the beginnings of both the KSU Social Club and the Kappa Alpha chapter of the Chi Omega sorority, both are still active here at K-State. During the summer she worked at the Woods Hole Marine Biological Station and in 1925 and 1927 at the University of Washington Biological Station at Puget Sound. In 1928 she went to Europe to visit different educational institutions and do research. While in Europe she began to write an embryology textbook that was published in 1932 and used here in the U.S. as well as in China, India, and some South American countries. During her years at K-State she published many scientific papers both alone and with others that furthered knowledge in her scientific fields. Other organizations she was involved in were Phi Beta Kappa, Sigma Xi, Phi Kappa Phi, Gamma Sigma Delta, American Society of Zoologists, Genetics Society of America, and American Association for the Advancement of Science. In 1948 Mary officially stopped teaching at K-State although she continued to teach a cytology course for seven years afterwards. In 1955 she moved to Camden, North Carolina. She passed away on July 15, 1961.
1877                Born in Odon, Indiana on August 21
1906                Summer spent as a Pioneer Maiden with 7 other women
1907                Graduated from Indiana University with a Bachelor of Arts in Botany
1907 - 1909    Taught zoology at Pennsylvania State College
1909                Graduated from Indiana University with a Master of Arts in Biology
1909-1912      Taught zoology at Indiana University
1912                Graduated from Indiana University with a Doctor of Philosophy in Zoology
1912-1948      Professor at K-State, taught embryology and cytology
1925                Spent summer at University of Washington Biological station
1926                Served as President of the Kansas Academy of Science
1927                Spent summer at University of Washington Biological station
1928-1929              Spent abroad visiting biological institutions in Europe
1948                Officially retired from teaching at K-State
1955                Moved to Camden, North Carolina
1961                Passed away July 15

Charles Richard "Dick" McDonald was born on January 30, 1933, in Fort Scott, Kansas.
He attendend the University of Kansas from 1951 to 1953 until he joined the United States Navy. McDonald served as a pilot from 1953 to 1957, reaching the rank of Lieutenant. He then attended Kansas State University from 1958 to 1960, recieving his B.S. in Agricultural Engineering in 1960. McDonald also recieved his Master of Architecture from Kansas State University in 1979.
He taught at Kansas State University from 1969 to 1990. He was an instructor of applied mechanics from 1969 to 1974, an instructor of architectural engineering and construction science from 1974 to 1975, an instructor of pre-design professions from 1975 to 1980, an assistant professor of pre-design professions from 1980 to 1984, and an associate professor of environmental design from 1985 until his death in 1997.
McDonald was married to Beatrice N. Heffermann in 1958 until her death in 1973. He then married Ann L. Gudgel Johnson in 1974. He had four children: a son, daughter, and two step-daughters.
Dick McDonald died on December 23, 1997.

Harvey Honnold (born Ohio, 1858, died Olathe, Kansas 1906) was a house and sign painter in Olathe, Johnson County, Kansas. The Honnold family were active in the American Civil War, serving in the Ohio Infantry Regiment.

Ruth Ann Von Elling was born 23 July 1941 at Fort Riley, Kansas, the daughter of Robert Leroy and Margaret Doretta (Have) Stillwagon.
Following her divorce from William Howard Von Elling, Ruth worked at a number of different businesses around Manhattan, Kansas, as either a cook or bookkeeper. She spent 4 years as the cook for the Beta Theta Pi fraternity.
She died 15 June 2016 at Manhattan, Kansas.

Dr. David Ray Mackey was a prominent educator and radio broadcaster.  He was born in Pensacola, Florida, on December 16, 1917, the son of Henry Jerome and Alta Theodora (Haynes) Mackey.  He did some undergraduate coursework and worked in broadcasting from 1935 to 1941, starting in Hutchinson, Kansas. While waiting to enter the U.S. Navy Air Corps during the Second World War, he met Eleanor Ely, the daughter of Mahlon Long Ely and Mary Wilson (Wolcott) Ely at a USO dance in Hutchinson.  Eleanor was a graduate of the College of William and Mary, soon to begin work for the War Department Signal Corps office in Washington, D.C.  They dated seriously and after she started working in D.C., he found work at a radio station in New Bern, North Carolina and regularly visited her in D.C.  They were married on July 3, 1943, and had four children together: Douglas Alan, Marilyn, Martha, & Robert Jerome.
After the war, he resumed his education at Northwestern University under the Montgomery G.I. Bill, receiving a Bachelor of Science with distinction in Speech in 1946, and a Master of Arts in Speech in 1947.  His degrees in speech were pursued with an emphasis on broadcasting and drama.  He then taught as an Instructor of Drama for the University of Texas from 1947-1949, where he was also production manager of their Radio House.  He returned to Northwestern University for doctoral work in speech and broadcasting in 1949, and taught in the School of Speech as a graduate assistant until completing his coursework.  His acclaimed book, <emph render='italic'>Drama on the Air</emph>, a professional text on radio dramatizations, was published in 1951.  He taught as an Assistant Professor of Speech at Pennsylvania State University from 1951 to 1956 while completing his dissertation, an extensive two-volume history of National Association of Radio and Television Broadcasters.  While at Pennsylvania State, he served as faculty adviser for WDFM 91.1, the college radio station, and was elected Burgess (Mayor) of the borough of State College, Pennsylvania, a position he held for three years.  He received his Ph.D. in Speech from Northwestern in 1956.  Subsequently, Dr. Mackey assumed the Chairmanship of the Division of Communication Arts at Boston University in 1957, where he taught as Professor of Communications until 1961 and inaugurated their doctoral program in communication arts.  During this time, he also served as an editor for the Journal of Broadcasting from 1956-1958.
In 1961, he left the faculty of Boston University and moved to Hutchinson, Kansas, where he bought a partnership in KWHK Broadcasting Company, Inc., and served as president of the company and general manager of the radio station.  In time, he purchased two other radio stations, KTRC in Sante Fe, New Mexico and KBHS in Hot Springs, Arkansas.  He also worked with KHCC, a local NPR station sponsored by Hutchinson Community College.  He served a term as Mayor of Hutchinson from 1971-1972, and also served on the City Commission.  He was a prominent member of the community, and founded the Hutchinson Theatre Guild and Hutchinson Symphony.  He was diagnosed with a form of brain cancer, and died on September 26th, 1975 at the age of 60.

Wendell Eugene Lady was a prominent Kansas state legislator.  Born the son of Samuel Jefferson and Mary Olive (Frey) Lady in Abilene, Kansas on December 12, 1930, he graduated from Abilene High School in 1948 and subsequently earned a Bachelor of Science degree in architectural engineering from Kansas State University in 1952.  After graduation, he moved to Overland Park, Kansas to work as a consulting engineer and project manager for Black & Veatch, and married Mary Jean Robbins, with whom he had three children.
Lady was elected to the Overland Park City Council, which he served on from 1965-1969.  In 1967, he advocated and passed the first bond issue providing for a city parks system, and served as chairman of the council's first Parks and Recreation Committee.  He served as President of the council for one term before being elected as a State Representative for Kansas' 19th District, a seat he held for seven consecutive terms from 1968 to 1982.  He emerged as one of the leaders of a moderate faction of state Republican Party, and served as chairman of the Ways and Means Committee from 1975 to 1976, House minority leader from 1977 to 1978, and Speaker of the House from 1978 to 1982.
During Lady's time in the legislature, he was known as a strong supporter of state aid for secondary schools and universities, and supported a severance tax on oil and gas with the revenue directed to the state education system.  This put him at odds with many rural Republican representatives more oriented to oil and gas industry concerns.
Lady lost a bitterly-contested primary election bid for the Republican gubernatorial nomination to Sam Hardage in 1982, and declined to return to the legislature.  He was named to the Kansas Board of Regents by Democratic Governor John Carlin, and served from 1983 to 1986 as chairman.
Lady continued to work as an architectural engineer for Black & Veatch, but retired sometime in the early 2000s.  In 2014, he emerged as one of many elder statesman of the Kansas Republican Party who spoke out against the tax policies of Governor Sam Brownback.  He joined the steering committee of the group Republicans for Kansas Values, comprised of current and former Republican officials, and criticized the tax legislation, citing its unsound fiscal policy and the impact on education funding.  He joined more than a hundred GOP politicians in supporting Democrat Paul Davis' candidacy for governor.

Elizabeth Goldsmith, Ph. D. is a Professor and former History Chairperson of the American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences in  the College of Human Sciences at Florida State University in Tallahassee, Florida.

Vida Agnes Harris was born on 29 March 1893 in Harveyville, Kansas. She was the daughter of Samuel Murrell and Sarah Elizabeth (Thackrey) Harris. She was a home economics graduate of the Kansas State Agricultural College (B.S. '14). She began her career as a domestic science teacher at the American Missionary Society's Tillotson College in Austin, Texas. Short stints teaching at the University of Oklahoma and the Stout Institute were punctuated by returns to K.S.A.C. to participate in advanced summer courses. By the early 1920s, Harris had returned to Manhattan permanently. She taught art and design courses, developed illustrations for various faculty publications, and participated in the Cosmopolitan Club. She served on the Kansas State faculty from 1924 until her retirement as an associate professor in 1963.
Throughout her career, Harris sought educational advancement. She received a Master's degree from the University of Chicago in 1927 and subsequently studied at the Chicago Art Institute, the University of Mexico, and the University of Colorado. In 1930, she toured museums in Italy, France, and Spain under the tutelage of Michel Jacobs (1877-1958), the founding director of the Metropolitan School of Art. She was a Fulbright teacher in India for two years (1951-52) and worked as an interior designer for five.
During her time at Kansas State, she co-authored a Lippincott text, Costume Design, wrote a bulletin titled The Picture on Your Wall, and created an illustrated map of the Manhattan campus. Printed by the Greiner-Fifield Lithographic Company, Ye Campus Mappe. . . of ye. . . Kansas State College was commissioned by Home Economics Dean Margaret Justin.
Harris died on 25 May 1985 and is buried in Manhattan's Sunset Cemetery.

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.

Custom grain harvesters in the Great Plains own harvesting machinery and typically move their combines and other equipment to Texas or Oklahoma in May or early June to begin the wheat harvest season, and then move north as the wheat ripens, ending the wheat harvest season in North Dakota, Montana, or Canada. Custom harvesters are also known as custom combiners, and many now harvest fall crops as well. They own combines, trucks, tractors, grain carts, and bunkhouses (travel trailers), and move all the equipment from place to place to harvest for farmers that do not have their own harvesting equipment. Most live in their own bunkhouses, while some stay in motels along the harvest route. Custom harvesting began at a smaller scale with the pull-type combine before World War II, taking the machines out of state to harvest wheat. The invention of the self-propelled combine allowed owners to more easily move the machines long distance to harvest wheat and other crops in multiple states. In the United States most of this type of custom harvesting work is done in Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, Nebraska, Wyoming, South Dakota, North Dakota, and Montana. Custom harvesters also work in Canada in the Prairie Provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba.

The seeds of this project began in 2008, when Dr. Jason Holcomb, the project interviewer, recorded the oral histories of Geral and Margie Schmidt, owners of Schmidt Harvesting in Sterling, KS. Dr. Holcomb worked for Schmidt Harvesting for all or most part of the summers between 1988 and 2004 while he completed degrees in geography at the University of Kansas and Kansas State University and even after he started his work as a geography professor at Morehead State University in Morehead, KY. The Schmidt’s retirement from custom harvesting in 2006 provided the impetus to record their personal experiences, as both Geral and Margie were children of custom harvesters and thus spent much of their lives doing the work of harvesting crops and living this unique lifestyle. Mr. Schmidt suggested other custom harvesting families in the vicinity of Sterling to interview, and from there the project grew to include custom harvesters from multiple states. Dr. Holcomb recruited additional oral history participants by contacting members of the United States Custom Harvesters, Inc. Some interviews were recorded in 2008 or 2009 while the largest number were recorded when Dr. Holcomb was on sabbatical in 2010. Many of those interviewed were retired while others were still working in the harvesting business.

The primary goal of this project was to document the experiences of people with firsthand knowledge of the origins of custom harvesting in the first generation of custom harvesters after World War II, and how it developed in subsequent decades. As children of the first generation of custom harvesters, Geral and Margie Schmidt and other participants remember those early days. The project permanently preserves the memories of people who have taken part in this very important part of Great Plains agriculture. Another related resource completed by the Inman Museum Association is titled Sixty years of custom harvesting on the Great Plains: Oral histories, and is available at McPherson College’s Miller Library in McPherson, KS.

The project was funded through grants from Morehead State University in Morehead, Kentucky, and the Kansas Humanities Council.

Alice L. Paddleford Wood was born in Birmingham, Kansas on December 25, 1903 and graduated from Erie High School in 1921. She then attended college at Kansas State University, known as Kansas State Agricultural College and graduated in 1925 with a degree in journalism. After college, she worked with several different employers in advertising until 1931 when the great depression caused a shortage of jobs and she became unemployed. She married Leon Fenton Wood in 1934. She had four children who survived to adulthood. Alive died in Canandaigua, New York on August 15, 1995.

Martha Elizabeth Ludwig was born August 10, 1930, in Hutchinson, Kansas, the daughter of Sylvester and Clara Ludwig. She graduated from Paseo High School in Kansas City, Missouri in 1945, attended Olivet College in Kankakee, Illinois, 1946-1947, and earned a B.A. at the University of Missouri in 1951.

In 1949, She married Samuel Robert Keys, a university professor and later, Dean of the College of Education at Kansas State University. She was a Democratic campaigner in 1964 and 1968. She ran the McGovern presidential campaign in Kansas in 1972. When Bill Roy retired from the U. S. Congress she was persuaded to run for the seat by her brother-in-law, Senator Gary Hart, a Colorado Democrat.

She was elected a Democrat to the United States House of Representatives from Manhattan, Kansas in 1974 and served two terms before being defeated for reelection in 1978. While serving in the House of Representatives, Keys and her husband divorced, and she married fellow Congressman Andrew Jacobs, Jr. They separated in 1981 and eventually divorced.

She served as a special adviser to the Secretary of Heath, Education and Welfare from February 1979 to May 1980 and as an Assistant Secretary of Education from June 1980 to Jan 1981. In 1982, Keys was elected to the Common Cause National Governing Board. Afterwards, she worked as a consultant and as director of the Center for a New Democracy from 1985-1986.

Lt. General Richard J. Seitz, age 95, completed a storied life on June 8, 2013 after suffering congestive heart failure. Born in Leavenworth, February 18, 1918, he grew up in that city and then attended Kansas State University where in 1939 as a junior he began dating his first wife, Bettie Jean Merrill, a freshman.
That same year Dick, foreseeing WWII looming on the horizon, accepted a commission as a 2nd Lieutenant in the US Army. Once in the Army he went through the sixth jump school class the Army ever had thus becoming one of its first paratroopers.
With the advent of the war, Dick rose rapidly until at the age of only 25 in March 1942, as a Major, he was given command of the 2nd Battalion of the 517th Parachute Infantry Regimental Combat Team. Thereafter, he was promoted to Lt. Colonel and, as the Army’s youngest battalion commander, led his battalion throughout its historic combat operations in Europe with the personal radio call sign of “Dangerous Dick.”
The 517th was flung into combat at Anzio at the time of the breakout from that beachhead followed by fighting up the Italian Peninsula. They then made the combat jump into the southern invasion of France at 4 a.m., August 15, 1944 as the airborne element of Operation Dragoon with its subsequent heavy combat in the French Maritime Alps. Finally, put in reserve in Northeastern France in December 1944, Dick was drawing up Paris leave rosters for his men when Hitler launched the Battle of the Bulge.
At that point, Dick’s 2nd Battalion was married with a Regiment of the 7th Armored Division to form what became known as Task Force Seitz.
It was pushed in to plug the gaps on the north slope of the Bulge every time the Germans tried to make a breakout. In doing so, his battalion went from 691 men to 380 through combat losses in some of the worst fighting of WWII. The battalion went on from the Bulge to see even further bloody combat in the subsequent battles of the Huertigen Forrest.
Before shipping out to Europe, Dick and Bettie continued to see each other whenever they had a chance to do so. In 1942, after graduating from Kansas State, Bettie joined the Red Cross and was subsequently sent to England in late 1943 to support the bomber groups of the Army Air Corp’s 8th Air Force.
In the fall of 1944, she was moved to Holland to run an Army rest and rehabilitation center. There in January 1945, she read in Stars and Stripes that Task Force Seitz was heavily engaged in the fighting around St. Vith. By herself, she drove from Holland to the front in Belgium and managed to find the Regimental HQ of the 517th.
But they would not allow her to go on to the very front lines where Dick was. However, this put them back in personal touch which led to their marriage in June 1945 in Joigny, France with one Red Cross bridesmaid and 1800 paratroopers in attendance in one of the greatest love stores of WWII.
Dick ended the war with the Silver Star, two Bronze Stars and the Purple Heart plus what he most treasured besides his Parachute Wings, the Combat Infantryman’s Badge.
Thereafter, during his lifelong Army career including nearly 37 years of active duty he also received numerous other decorations and awards including the Distinguished Service Medal, Legion of Merit, the French Croix de Guerre, and Legion of Honor.
Along with these awards, his commands included the 2nd Airborne Battle Group, 503rd Infantry Regiment and the 82nd Airborne Division, which he led into Detroit and Washington, DC in 1967 to quell those cities’ riots.
He also commanded the XVIII Airborne Corps and was Chief of Staff US Army Vietnam in 1965 through 1967 under General Westmoreland. As a Portuguese speaker he served two tours in Brazil, the last as Chief of the Joint US/Brazilian Military Commission and one year in Iran as a military advisor. He likewise served in Japan with the occupation forces immediately after World War II.
Dick and Bettie retired to Junction City in 1975. Unfortunately, Bettie died of a heart attack June 1, 1978. Thereafter, Dick was blessed to marry Virginia Crane, a widow, in 1980. She also predeceased him in 2006. In retirement, Dick remained extremely active with the Army through Fort Riley as well as in the Junction City Community and in Kansas generally.
During the Iraqi and Afghanistan Wars he would go out to Ft. Riley to see off and greet the deploying and redeploying units from those fights, no matter the hour day or night.
He was past Chairman of the Ft. Riley National Bank, very active with the Coronado Council of the Boy Scouts, a Trustee of St. John’s Military Academy, on the Board of the Eisenhower Presidential Library, President of the Fort Riley-Central Kansas Chapter of the Association of the U.S. Army, and Chaired Junction City’s Economic Redevelopment Study Commission among many other activities. He was also honored as an Outstanding Citizen of Kansas, received the prestigious AUSA Creighton Abrams Award, and most recently had the General Richard J. Seitz Elementary School named in his honor on the post at Fort Riley.
He felt a particular affection for the faculty and students of that school whom he visited as often as he could. The best way to describe Dick is that he lived his life “Airborne all the way!” to the very end.
Chronological Biographical Sketch
1918, Born, February 18, Leavenworth, Kansas
1937, Graduated from Leavenworth High School; Enrolled at Kansas State College of Agriculture and Applied Science
1939, May, completed the ROTC program, left Kansas State and commissioned as Second Lieutenant Infantry Reserve
1940, February, called to active duty, sent to Camp Bullis, Texas, and assigned to the 38th Infantry
1941, September 6, assigned to the 503rd Parachute Infantry Battalion as assistant platoon leader; November 1, promoted to First Lieutenant
1942, August 11, promoted to Captain
1943, Temporary 2nd Battalion Commander at Camp Toccoa, Georgia; April 12, promoted to Major; Placed in command of 2nd Battalion, 517th Parachute Infantry Regiment
1944, February 21 promoted to Lieutenant Colonel; May 31 deployed to Italy; Awarded the Purple Heart; August parachuted into France; Awarded the Silver Star and the French Croiz de Guerre with Palm; December 21 moved to Werbomont, Belgium joined the fight of the Battle of the Bulge; Awarded the Bronze Star
1945, June 23 married Bette Merrill in Joigny, France; August 22 arrived in the United States; November, assigned to the Special Training Section, Headquarters Army Ground Forces, Washington, D.C.
1946, September 2, Patricia Ann Seitz was born in Washington, D.C.
1947, January, moved to Hokkaido, Japan, and assigned to the 11th Airborne Division as Assistant G-3, later assigned Deputy Chief of Staff
1948, October 30, Catherine Seitze was born in Sapporo, Japan; December, appointed Chief of Staff of the 11th Division
1949, January, returned to the United Stated; July, attended the Command and General Staff School at Fort Leavenworth
1950, June 30, graduated and assigned Director of Airborne Training Department of the Infantry School at Fort Benning, Georgia
1953, August 24, entered the Armed Forces Staff College at Norfolk, Virginia
1954, January 21, competed in Joint Operations and Armed Forces Staff College, Norfolk, Virginia; September 13, departed for Rio de Janerio, Brazil, for assignment as the Chief of the Infantry and Airborne Sections; December 10, promoted to colonel
1956, August 7, Richard M. Seitz and Victoria Seitz were born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
1957, July 15, returned to the United States
1958, June 19, graduated Army War College; Assigned to command the 2nd Battle Group, 503rd Airborne Infantry of the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, North Carolina
1959, January 3, deployed to Alaska for three months of training and exercises; July, became Assistant Chief of Staff for Operations and Training, Headquarters XVIII Airborne Corps
1960, June, departed for Iran as training team chief in Mahabad
1961, June, arrived back in the United States
1962, January 27, graduated from the University of Omaha with a Bachelors in General Education and assigned as Executive Officer to Deputy Chief of Staff Personnel on the Army General Staff, Washington, D.C.
1963, December, promoted to Brigadier General and assigned as Director of Combat Arms Officers and later promoted to Acting Director of Officer Personnel
1965, June 12, assigned to Vietnam as Deputy Commander U. S. Support Command, served under General William Westmoreland; August, assigned Chief of Staff and Assistant Deputy Commander
1967, Promoted to Major General; March, left Vietnam to return to the United States (While in Vietnam he received the Legion of Merit, Air Medal, and Distinguished Service Medal); May 24, assigned to take command of the 82nd Airborne Division
1968, February 14, escorted President Lyndon B. Johnson around Fort Bragg to speak with troops deploying to Vietnam; September, received the Distinguished Service Medal upon completing his tour with the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg; Assigned Chairman of the U. S. delegation and Chief of the U. S. Military Assistant Group in Brazil
1970, April, assigned as the Assistant Chief of Army Personnel in the Pentagon
1973, June, promoted to Lieutenant General and took comman of the 18th Airborne, Fort Bragg
1975, June 30, retired from the U. S. Army; July, moved to Junction City, Kansas, where he became active in the community and with Fort Riley and Kansas State University/ The General Richard J. Seitz Elementary School was named in his honor on the post at Fort Riley. He was also honored as an Outstanding Citizen of Kansas and received the prestigious AUSA Creighton Abrams Award.
2013, Died June 8, at Junction City, Kansa

Mary Louise (Lou) Wilkins Herndon Was born February 26, 1924, to Loren and Ruth Wilkins in Liberal, Kansas. Her father was a jeweler, a watchmaker and later an optometrist. Her mother was a concert pianist. They moved to Wichita Kansas when Lou was in about sixth grade. Herndon attended Allison Junior High in Wichita and then graduated from Wichita High School North in 1941. On June 27, 1943, she married Billy Bob Herndon who was originally from Anson, Texas. They were married at West Side United Presbyterian Church, Wichita, Kansas. They had one daughter and three sons, all of whom have made their homes in Sedgwick County.

Herndon was very active in the Wichita and Goddard communities. She was a 4-H project leader and a community leader of the Rolling Hills 4-H Club for many years. She was a lifetime member of the Prairie Gem Home Extension Unit from the time the unit was started until it was disbanded (for lack of members). Herndon also served on the county extension council for several years and was a treasurer for Attica Township. At the same time, she was the caretaker of the Pleasant Ridge cemetery in Goddard, Kansas.

In about 1963, Herndon began china painting and was a member of the Sunflower China Painters in Sedgwick county. She was the state president of the Federated China Painters Association of Kansas for two years. Herndon was passionate about encouraging all the painters in Kansas to exhibit their work at the Kansas State Fair.

More than anything else, Herndon enjoyed her 15 grandchildren and 18 great-grandchildren. She passed away November 11, 2018, and a Memorial headstone is in Pleasant Ridge Cemetary, Goddard, Kansas.

Robin David Stewart Higham (June 20, 1925 – August 27, 2015) was a British-American historian, who specialized in aerospace and military history, and also served as a pilot with the Royal Canadian Air Force during World War II.

Higham was born in London, England to David Higham, a British veteran of the World War I and Margaret Anne Stewart, an American. He grew up in London but had met relatives in Texas and Oklahoma with his mother in 1929 and 1935. Following the outbreak of the Battle of Britain in 1940, Higham's parents sent him to the United States. He attended the Hotchkiss School in Connecticut. He married Barbara Jane Davies (1927-2017) on August 5, 1950. They had four children: Peter, Susan, Martha, and Carol; they had three grandchildren at the time of his death. Higham lived in Manhattan, Kansas for the majority of his life and became an American citizen in 1959. He died in Manhattan, Kansas and is buried there in Sunrise Cemetery with Barbara.

From 1943 to 1947, Higham served as a pilot and flight sergeant in the Royal Canadian Air Force in Europe and Asia (Burma Road). Higham studied at the University of New Hampshire and Harvard University, where he graduated with a bachelor's degree in 1950 cum laude. In 1953, he received his master's degree at Claremont Graduate University in California.

From 1954 to 1957, Higham was an instructor at the University of Massachusetts. He received a PhD in 1957 from Harvard with a dissertation on the development of aviation in Great Britain. For the next six years, until 1963, he was an assistant professor at the University of North Carolina, where he was co-founder of the National Security Seminar of Duke University and University of North Carolina. In 1963, Higham became a professor at Kansas State University. He was granted professor emeritus in 1999.

Though he described himself as a "historical generalist" in a 1998 interview, Higham's primary publications were on the subject of aeronautics, especially military-scientific aspects. He did, however, also write extensively on geopolitics in general.

He was editor of Military Affairs (re-titled later as The Journal of Military History) from 1968 to 1988 and of Aerospace Historian from 1970 to 1988. Higham was also the editor of the Journal of the West beginning in 1976.

In 1977, Higham founded Sunflower University Press, which existed until 2005 and published books on military science and military history.

Higham authored, co-authored, and edited over 38 books and many professional articles.

Higham was a member of many aviation and military history organizations. His honors from these groups included the Social Science Research Council National Security Policy Research Fellowship, 1960–1961. In 1985, he received the first Samuel Eliot Morison Prize for Lifetime Achievement from the Society for Military History. In 1986, Higham received the Victor Gondos Award (now The Edwin H. Simmons Award) for his outstanding service to the Society for Military History.

The Pillsbury family were early residents of Manhattan, Kansas, who settled in the area as part of the anti-slavery movement. Josiah Hobart Pillsbury was born in 1821 in Hebron, New Hampshire to Stephen and Lavinia (Hobart) Pillsbury. Josiah began teaching in public schools in 1840 at the age of 19 and continued to teach in Orange County, New York and Londonderry, New Hampshire in 1844. From 1844 to 1845, he studied engineering while also working for the National Anti-Slavery Standard. In 1847, Josiah met Horace Greeley and became active in the abolitionist movement. Josiah married Alnora Pervier on August 16, 1853. The couple’s first son, Arthur Judson, was born on January 31, 1854. That same year the family moved to Kansas as part of the New England Emigrant Aid Company, settling in Zeandale Township. In 1855, Josiah was chosen as a free-state delegate to the Topeka Constitutional Convention. Josiah and Alnora’s second child, a daughter named Annie, was born on January 25, 1858. Josiah was also active in the Zeandale Township community, first hosting the post office in the family cabin in 1856 and then serving as Justice of the Peace in 1860. The Pillsburys’ third child, a daughter named Ellen, was born on March 5, 1860. In 1863, the family moved to Manhattan, as Josiah served as the county surveyor from 1863 to 1872. Josiah also bought and owned the free-state newspaper The Independent. Alnora died on July 15, 1868. She bore eight children, with four surviving to adulthood: Arthur Judson, Annie M. (Annie Pillsbury Young), Nellie (Ellen Pillsbury Ellsworth Martin) and Mary A. (Mary Pillsbury Akerley). While Josiah worked as the postmaster for Manhattan from 1869 to 1879, he was remarried in 1870 to Mrs. Emma Steele. The couple divorced in 1874. Josiah died on November 12, 1879. He was honored on August 25, 1936, with the naming of Pillsbury Drive in Manhattan.

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.