Robert Bontrager was the only professor at Kansas State University to teach the course "The Black Press in America."  He sought to open the minds of students concerning the "struggles and achievements of the Black minority."
Bontrager received his Ph.D. in Mass Communications in 1969 from Syracuse University with a dissertation titled An Investigation of the Black Press and White Press Use Patterns in the Black Inner City of Syracuse, New York: A Field Survey.  He then became a professor in the journalism department at K-State until 1989.  Other departmental duties included being the Journalism and Mass Communications acting department head in 1972-1973 and 1979-1980, chairing the journalism school's graduate studies program from 1971 to 1989, and serving as the associate director of the journalism school from 1986 to 1989.  He was the Cruise Palmer professor of Journalism and Mass Communications for the 1984-1985 academic year.
Other duties outside the university included serving on the board of directors of Laubach Literacy International, being a judge in the national Unity Media Awards, and serving in various capacities with the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communications.
In the 1970 fall term, Bontrager began teaching the first Black press course at K-State.  While teaching this course, he primarily focused on Black press materials from the Kansas City Call, particularly the editorials, and two titles from the Johnson Publishing Company, Ebony and Jet.
Bontrager retired in May 1989 and later moved to Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, in 1992.
He was born in 1922 and was a 1945 graduate of Taylor University in Upland, Indiana, where he met Mable Busch, whom he married the following year.  Between 1948 and 1965, the Bontragers were missionaries in the Congo, after which they adopted two boys, Thomas and Timothy.  Mable died in Lewisburg in January 2011.

Andrew B. Erhart was born on November 14, 1910. He graduated from Kansas State University in 1933 and was appointed Superintendent of the Garden City Branch Experiment Station in 1948. Erhart died on January 5, 2004.

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.

Construction of Southeast Hall was completed in 1952 and in 1961 it was named in honor of Irene Putnam who endowed the Putnam Scholarship program at K-State as a memorial to her late husband, Harry J. Putnam. The building was the third residence hall added to the dormitory complex in the northeast section of campus. Van Zile Hall (1926) and Boyd Hall (1951) are the other two halls.

William H. Avery was a Kansas politician who served in the U.S. Congress and as Governor of Kansas in the 1960s. Avery received an AB degree in Political Science from the University of Kansas in 1934, after which he worked as a farmer and stockman near his hometown of Wakefield, Kansas for 20 years. In 1950, Avery successfully campaigned to serve in the Kansas House of Representatives, where he served for four years. From 1955 to 1965, he was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, representing Kansas’s First Congressional District. Avery was elected Governor of Kansas in 1964 but lost his re-election bid in 1966; he left the Governor’s office in 1967. In 1968, Avery unsuccessfully ran as a candidate to represent Kansas in the U.S. Senate. After his defeat, Avery left politics and worked in various capacities in the private sector for many years. This includes working for the Clinton Oil Company from 1967 to 1971, as Congressional liaison to the Department of the Interior from 1973 to 1977, and as director of the Farmers and Merchants Bank in Wakefield from 1977 to 1980. Avery died in 2009, having lived to the age of 98.

James C. Carey was professor of history at multiple universities, including Kansas State. Carey earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from Nebraska State College in 1937 and his Masters from the University of Colorado in 1940. From 1941 to 1945, he was director at Colegio America del Callao in Peru. Carey worked as an instructor at the University of Colorado from 1946 to 1947, while also earning his PhD from Colorado in 1948. From 1948 to 1981, Carey was a faculty member of the Department of History at Kansas State, specializing in Latin American history and U.S.-Latin American relations. Throughout this time, Carey also served in various other positions, including as professor from 1954 to 1955 at Colegio Pan-Americano in Monterrey, Mexico, as President of the Riley Co. Historical Society from 1964-1965, as President of the KSU Faculty Senate in 1966, and as a professor from 1968 to 1969 at the University of Oklahoma. In 1969, he became President of the Kansas Association of Teachers of History and Social Science. He was designated University Historian of KSU in 1973, as well. Carey received the Fulbright-Hays award in the fall of 1979, which allowed him to teach at the National University of Tucuman in Argentina. Carey retired from teaching on July 31, 1981.

Donald Christy was a leader in Kansas soil and water conservation for nearly three decades. Christy earned his B.S. in Agricultural Engineering from Kansas State College in 1933 and his M.S. from Texas A&M in 1934. After his graduation, Christy worked for one year with the Soil Conservation Service at the U.S. Department of Agriculture after which he was a professor of Agricultural Engineering at Texas A&M until 1942. In 1951, he became a member of the Kansas State Board of Agriculture, which he would serve on until 1962. Christy was also chairman of the Kansas Soil Conservation Committee from 1952 to 1954 and the Governor’s Watershed Review Committee of Kansas from 1955 to 1956. He served on various other committees and managed multiple large estates throughout the 1960s. In 1980, Christy received the Distinguished Service Award from the KSU College of Engineering, and in 1989, he was inducted into the Engineers Hall of Fame. Christy died on March 15, 1990.

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.

Marjorie L. Honstead Feldhausen was a native Kansan and U.S. Army nurse during World War 2. Feldhausen graduated from Christ Hospital School of Nursing in Topeka, Kansas in 1942, followed by an appointment to the U.S. Army Nurse Corps Reserve as a 2nd Lieutenant in 1943. In September 1943, Feldhausen was deployed to 316th Station Hospital at Camp Stover in Newton Abbot, England, before being moved to the 316th Holding Hospital in Glasgow, Scotland in 1944. In June 1945, Feldhausen served in Marseille, France for two months, after which she returned to the United States. She was honorably discharged from the U.S. Army in January 1946. Feldhausen also received a degree in Home Economics in 1950 from Kansas State College.

William B. Hanger was a U.S. Marines servicemember and a veteran of World War 2. Hanger first joined the Marines in 1929 and was first promoted to corporal in 1937, then sergeant in 1938. By 1941, he was promoted to platoon sergeant and was awarded a Character Excellence and Good Conduct Medal Bar. While serving in World War 2, he was given temporary ranks of 1st Lieutenant and Captain, but after the war returned to the rank of Master Sergeant. Hanger was honorably discharged from the Marines in 1948 but continued to serve as the sergeant in charge of a Marine Corps recruiting station until 1951. Hanger worked as a sales representative for the Spe-De-Way Company in Springfield, Missouri from 1951 until his death in 1955.

Arthur W. Hershberger was a lawyer and former chairman of the Kansas Board of Regents. Having grown up in Greensburg, Kansas, Hershberger earned his LL.B. from the University of Kansas in 1918, after which he was admitted to the Kansas Bar. From 1919 to 1924, he was a practicing attorney in Kiowa County, Kansas, while from 1924 to 1937, he practiced law in Wichita with the firm Slick, Pryor and Lockhart. Hershberger first joined the Kansas Board of Regents in 1951, and he became chairman in 1954 and again in 1957. Hershberger died on May 3, 1976.

The Kansas Music Teachers Association (KMTA) is a statewide organization for professional music teachers. It includes music instructors affiliated with primary, secondary, and post-secondary educational institutions as well as independent teachers. In 1869, the predecessor organization to KMTA, the Topeka Musical Union, was founded. The first organizational meeting of the Kansas State Music Teachers Association was held in 1886, where William MacDonald, the Dean of Music at the University of Kansas, was elected the first president. In 1921, KSMTA officially became a member of the Music Teachers National Association (MTNA), though a cooperative relationship had existed between the two since 1891. The word “state” was dropped from the name in 1941, making the association simply known as KMTA. By 1952, KMTA had become fully affiliated with the MTNA. In 1969, the association began sponsoring student composition contests, and in 1971, began sponsoring a musicianship program.

Nels A. Tornquist served as a U.S. Cavalry soldier, seeing action in several conflicts, and was known for his rapid promotion to command a black company during World War 1. Tornquist’s family moved to Kansas from Sweden when he was eight years old and homesteaded south of Salina, Kansas. Tornquist first joined the U.S. military in 1896 and from 1899 to 1902, he was part of the 22nd Field Artillery Battery as a corporal, serving in the Philippines during the Spanish-American War. After the war, he served with various regiments before serving with the 1st Squadron 13th Cavalry as a sergeant from 1916 to 1917 in the campaign against Pancho Villa. In 1918, Tornquist was made Captain QMC of a black company, 344th Labor Battalion Company B, which saw action in France during World War I. After the war, Tornquist was assigned to the ROTC in 1921 at the University of Washington in Seattle with a rank of sergeant before retiring from active duty in 1922. In 1932, an act of Congress promoted him to the retired rank of captain. Tornquist died in Pasadena, California, in 1950 at the age of 77.

The Robertson Corporation is a family-owned company specializing in grain, feed, and flour milling. The Robertson Corporation was founded in 1881 in Brownstown, Indiana, by the Robertson family, and over the first few decades of its existence, the Corporation specialized in flour production, including wheat flour and refined white flour, using steel-roller mills. In 1900, the Corporation was the first to sell wheat bran as feed, and they continued to develop new flours and feeds into the 1930s. This included inventing self-rising flour in 1931. In 1938, the Corporation developed “glue-extender” flour, the forerunner to Glu-X, which is commonly used today in the plywood furniture industry. The Robertson Corporation expanded to new mills across Indiana throughout the 1940s, and in 1948, the balanced dog food product “Triple-R” was invented. Glu-X was patented by the Corporation in 1957, as was Triple-R in 1966. The Corporation partnered with Kansas State University in 1971 on a research project regarding new cereal starches. In 1980, the Corporation first donated antique mill equipment to the Smithsonian Institute, and this partnership has continued in the years since. Since its founding, the Corporation has continued to be owned and managed by the Robertson family.

Colston Warne was an economics professor and consumer advocate, who served on multiple national consumer advisory boards that served to advise several U.S. presidential administrations. Warne earned his B.A. degree from Cornell University in 1920, his M.A. degree from Cornell in 1922, and his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1925. From 1925 to 1926, Warne was an Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of Denver, after which he was an Assistant Professor at the University of Pittsburgh from 1926 to 1930, while simultaneously serving as a member of the Board of Directors for Cooperative League for the USA until 1929. From 1930 to 1942, Warne was a professor of economics at Amherst College, though he often spent his summers working as a professor at Bryn Mawr College’s summer school for industrial workers. Warne’s work as a consumer advocate began in 1928 when he helped form the group Consumers Research and continued when he served from 1934 to 1936 as President of People’s Lobby in Washington, D.C. Warne was the president of the Consumers Union from 1936 to 1979, while continuing to work as a professor at Amherst College from 1942 to 1970. Warne’s other efforts in consumer advocacy included serving as a member of the Board of Directors for the National Association of Consumers from 1947 to 1956, serving as an advisor to the President of the United States from 1947 to 1951, and organizing the first Council of Consumer Information in 1953 (later became the American Council on Consumer Interests). Warne was also instrumental in having the Consumers Union removed from the House Un-American Activities Committee’s list of “subverse organizations” in 1954. Warne’s work in consumer advocacy continued into the 1960s when he helped form the International Organization of Consumers Union in 1960 and served as a member of the Consumer Advisory Council to the President from 1962 to 1965. Warne retired from teaching in 1970 and died in 1987.

Julius T. Willard was a Kansas State graduate and chemistry professor, as well as the longtime college historian and vice president. After receiving his B.S. from K-State in 1883, Willard worked as assistant chemist at K-State until he received his M.S. in 1886, after which he studied for two years at Johns Hopkins University. In 1888, Willard returned to Kansas as assistant chemist of the Kansas Experiment Station, a position he held until 1897, and in 1890, he became an assistant professor of chemistry at K-State. From 1900 to 1901, Willard was promoted to Professor of Chemistry and Director of the Kansas Experiment Station, eventually becoming the Dean of the Division of General Science at K-State in 1909, a position he held until 1930. Willard also twice served as the acting president of K-State, in 1914 and 1918, and served as vice president from 1918 to 1935. From 1936 to 1950, Willard was the college historian for K-State, a position which led to his publishing of “History of the Kansas State College of Agriculture and Applied Science” in 1940. Willard died in 1950.

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.

Donald von Ruysdael Drenner was a writer, musician, and radio operator who also spent many years working as a librarian and an engineer. Born in 1915, Drenner first began operating an amateur radio station in 1928, and he was licensed by the Department of Commerce as a radio operator in 1931. From 1934 to 1935, while attending the University of Kansas, he began working on his first novel and his first symphony. Then, from 1935 to 1938, Drenner completed his first opera, his second symphony, and a book of poetry. Drenner continued to work in radio from 1938 to 1941 as an engineer at radio station KGGF, while remaining a prolific poetry writer. During World War 2, Drenner served in multiple military radio operations including for the BBC in London and under General Charles de Gaulle at Radio Luxembourg in France. After the war, Drenner returned to radio station KGGF from 1946 to 1949, and he also published a book on radio engineering. From 1959 to 1977, Drenner was the head librarian at the Coffeyville Carnegie Public Library during which time he helped establish the Kansas “System Libraries.” He was also a biomedical engineer consultant from 1972 to 1981 at the Coffeyville Memorial Hospital where he established the Coronary Care Unit. Drenner retired from the Library in 1977 and the Hospital in 1981. He died on April 7, 1995.

Norman Fedder was a playwright and well-known professor of English and Theater. Fedder earned his B.A. in Speech and Theatre from Brooklyn College in 1955, his M.A. in Dramatic Literature in 1956 from Columbia University, and his Ph.D. in 1960 from New York University. He began teaching in 1956 and taught at multiple universities over the years, including Indiana State College from 1961 to 1964, Florida Atlantic University from 1964 to 1967, and the University of Arizona from 1967 to 1970. Fedder arrived at K-State in 1970, where he was a professor until his retirement in 1999. In 1988, he was awarded the William Stamey Outstanding Teacher Award, and in 1990 he was inducted into the Kansas Theater Hall of Fame. Fedder's specializations included play writing, creative drama, drama therapy, religion and theatre, Jewish theatre, drama in Jewish education, American ethnic theatre, staging of original plays, and dramatic literature. Fedder also wrote the original play “Never Let ‘em Catch You at It: An Evening with Milburn Stone.” The play was about actor Milburn Stone, who played the role of Doc Adams on the TV show “Gunsmoke.” It was performed in Dodge City, Kansas in 1989 and again in Hutchinson in 1995.

The Friends of the Konza Prairie is a non-profit organization dedicated to the support of the Konza Prairie environmental education program. The origins of the Konza Prairie can be traced to 1872 when C.P. Dewey purchased 175 acres of land in what is now the northwest corner of the Konza. Dewey sold the land and his ranch in 1930, after which the land had multiple owners. Lloyd Hulbert had first proposed the idea for a prairie field station for ecological research at Kansas State University in 1956, but it wasn’t until 1971 that the Natural Conservancy was able to obtain the original Konza Prairie land for K-State. This original purchase did not include the Dewey Ranch land, as this was acquired in 1977 after several years of negotiations with the McKnight family, the last private owners of the property. Hulbert served as the first director of the Konza Prairie until his death in 1986, overseeing the addition of prairie land to the U.S. Geological Survey’s network of benchmark watersheds and the dedication of the Konza Prairie Research Natural Area Network dedicated to long-term ecological research. Bison and cattle grazing were introduced to the Konza in 1987, while from 1987 to 1989, NASA Satellite Land Surface Climatology Projects were conducted at the prairie. In 1993, the Friends of the Konza Prairie was established. Over the past few decades, the Konza’s research and maintenance facilities have continued to be improved and expanded.

Konza Prairie Directors:
Lloyd Hulbert: 1971-1986
Donald W. Kaufman (acting director): 1986-1987
Ted Barkley: 1987-1990
Donald W. Kaufman: 1990-1991
Ted Barkley: 1992-1993
Jim Reichman: 1993-1995
David Hartnett: 1995-2006
Eva Horne (interim director): 2006-2008
John Briggs: 2008-2018
John Blair: 2018-present

Friends of Konza Prairie Coordinators:
Ginny Arthur: 1994-1997
Ann Feyerharm: 1998-1999
Clint Riley: 2000-2001
Jim Guikema: 2002-2003
Charlie Given: 2004
Loren Alexander: 2005
Dan Franke: 2006
Larry Loomis: 2007-2008
Patrick Gormerly: 2009
Vickie Clegg: 2010
Mike Haddock: 2011
Greg Zolnerowich: 2012
Karen Hummel: 2013-2014
Diane Barker: 2015
Joe Gelroth: 2016
Donna McCullum: 2017
John Harrington: 2018
Cydney Alexis: 2019
Ken Stafford: 2020
Kelly Yarbrough: 2020
Jim Koelliker: 2021

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.

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.

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.

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.

Jimmy Rogers was a famous blues musician, known for his work with Muddy Waters as well as his R&B solo songs. In 1947, Rogers first began playing with Muddy Waters and Little Walter in Chicago, and in 1950, the trio began recording with Chess Records. Rogers first charted as a solo artist on the Billboard R&B charts in 1957 with the single “Walking by Myself.” After the rise of rock and roll, Chess Records placed less emphasis on blues music and Rodgers’s career, so Rodgers briefly left the music business in the early 60s. He returned to the blues scene in the late 60s and toured Europe, where blues music had become particularly popular. A new song, “Gold Tailed Bird,” was released in 1972, and Rogers continued to tour across the U.S. and around the world throughout the 1980s. In 1991, Rogers was awarded the W. C. Handy Award from the Blues Foundation for his song “Ludella.” He was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1995, and he received the W. C. Handy Award for Best Male Traditional Blues Artist in 1996. Rogers died in 1997, but his last album, Blues Blues Blues, was released posthumously in 1998 and featured contributions from Mick Jagger, Eric Clapton, Keith Richards, and others.

Currin V. Shields was a political scientist and leading consumer advocate. Shields received his A.B. degree from the University of Nebraska in 1941, followed by his Ph.M. from the University of Wisconsin in 1943. From 1944 to 1946, he served in the U.S. Army as a 2nd Lieutenant. After his time in the military, Shields was an instructor at Yale University until he earned his Ph.D. from Yale in 1950. From 1950 to 1960, Shields was a professor of Political Science at UCLA. He also served on the 22nd Congressional District, Democratic Council of California and host of a radio program entitled “What’s the issue?” at station KFWB in Hollywood. Shields was co-chairman of the California Democratic Council Political Action Committee from 1955 to 1957, and in 1958, he published his book “Democracy and Catholicism in America.” From 1960 to 1984, Shields was a professor in the Department of Government at the University of Arizona. Shields was a failed candidate for Governor of Arizona in the 1968 Democratic primary. Shields’s work as a consumer advocate began in 1969 when he became a board member of the Consumer Federation of America, as well as president of the Arizona Consumers Council, a position he would hold until 1980. Throughout the 1970s and 80s, Shields was a member and director of several consumer groups, including the Consumer Advisory Committee, the National Conference of Consumer Organizations, the President’s Consumer Advertising Council, the National Consumer Affairs Internship Program, and the National Consumer Symposium, Inc. Shields died in 1984 at the age of 66.

The Society for Military History is an organization dedicated to the scholarship and study of military history amongst scholars, soldiers, and citizens. The Society was first established in 1933 in Washington, D.C. as the American Military History Foundation (AMHF), and in April 1937 the AMHF first published the Journal of the American Military History Foundation. The organization’s name was changed to the American Military Institute (AMI) in 1939, while the Journal was renamed as Military Affairs in 1941. In 1948, the AMI merged with the Order of the Indian Wars. For one year, from 1948 to 1949, paid editors from the Office of the Chief of Military History were in charge of the Military Affairs publication, but this was suspended by U.S. Secretary of Defense Louis Johnson. Beginning in 1968, Kansas State University was in charge of the publication of Military Affairs. This continued until 1988, when the Virginia Military Institute assumed publication. In 1989, Military Affairs was renamed as the Journal of Military History, and in 1990, the AMI was renamed as the Society for Military History.

Russell I. Thackrey was a journalist, university professor, and educational administrator. Thackrey earned his B.S. in journalism from Kansas State in 1927 and his M.S. in 1932. Simultaneously, Thackrey worked as an instructor at K-State from 1928 to 1935, while he also revived and edited Kansas Magazine from 1933 to 1935. After working as a reporter for the Associated Press for one year from 1935 to 1936, Thackrey taught at the University of Minnesota from 1937 to 1940, but he returned to K-State as Head of the Journalism Department from 1940 to 1944. This was followed by his work as Dean of Administration at K-State from 1944 to 1947. Thackrey’s work in education continued as he served as Director of the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges from 1947 to 1970. He also served on the John F. Kennedy Task Force on Education in 1960, and in 1969, he was awarded the Presidential award of American College Public Relations Association. After leaving education, Thackrey spent his time writing, and in 1971, he published “The Future of the State University” through the Illinois Press. Thackrey died in Manhattan, Kansas on March 11, 1990.

Edna Worthley Underwood was a writer and author who published original works of poetry, prose, plays, and short stories, as well as translated the works of other authors into English, as she was fluent in 6 languages. After graduating from Arkansas City High School in Arkansas City, Kansas in 1888, Underwood attended Garfield University in Wichita for two years. She then attended the University of Michigan and graduated in 1892. Underwood spent time teaching in Arkansas City schools before moving to Kansas City prior to 1904 and living there until approximately 1910-1912. From 1911 to 1938, Underwood wrote much of her works of poetry and prose and translating various works into English while living in New York City. After moving back to Arkansas City in 1938, Underwood spent her time traveling between Maine, Boston, and Arkansas City until 1953 but did not publish any more writings. Underwood died in 1961.

Dorothy Willner was a Sociology and Anthropology professor who was a leading international consumer advocate with the United Nations. Willner received a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1947 and then a Master of Arts in 1953, after which she spent time working as an anthropologist overseas, first in Israel from 1955 to 1958, then in Mexico until 1959. She first began working for the United Nations in 1960 when she published “Community Leadership” on their behalf. After having spent several years teaching sociology and anthropology at the University of Chicago, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and at the University of New York, Willner arrived at the University of Kansas in 1966 as a professor of anthropology and continued to teach there until 1990. From 1974 to 1983, Willner served as the International Organization of Consumer Unions’ (which was first formed in 1960) official representative to the United Nations, and throughout this time, she was heavily involved in many of the IOCU’s activities. This included her managing the IOCU “A World in Crisis” conference in 1978 and the IOCU Tenth World Congress on “The Food Crisis” in 1981. Her work with the IOCU culminated in the adoption by the UN of IOCU protocols as the United Nations Guidelines on Consumer Protection in 1985. Willner died in 1993.

Louis Zukofsky was an American writer and poet. Born in New York City in 1904, Zukofsky’s poems first appeared in print in 1920 and he earned his M.A. degree from Columbia University in 1924. His friendship with contemporary poets Ezra Pound and William Carlos Williams began in 1927, the same year when Zukofsky began work on his piece “A.” From 1930 to 1931, he taught at the University of Wisconsin. In 1934, “Le Style Apollinaire,” a work in conjunction with his close friend Rene Taupin, was published. From 1947 to 1966, Zukofsky taught at the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn, New York, and he was the Poet in residence for San Francisco State College in 1958. In 1959, his work “A” 1-12 was published, while his first complete American edition of poetry was published in 1965. Zukofsky retired from teaching in 1966, after which he spent time translating the works “Catallus Fragmenta” in 1968 and “Catallus” in 1969. Zukofsky died in 1978.

Gail Kubik was an internationally recognized composer and winner of the Pulitzer Prize. After growing up in Coffeyville, Kansas, Kubik, at the age of 15, became the youngest person ever awarded a scholarship to the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York in 1929. His composition “"The Night Has a Thousand Eyes" won first prize in the Kansas Federation of Music Clubs annual contest in 1931. After graduating from the Eastman School in 1934 with degrees in composition and violin, Kubik became an instructor of violin and a conductor at Monmouth College in Monmouth, Illinois and at South Dakota Wesleyan University. In 1937, he became the youngest person ever admitted to Harvard’s doctoral music program. From 1938 to 1939, Kubik taught at Columbia University, while from 1940 to 1941, he worked as NBC’s staff composer. Throughout this time, his compositions continued to win awards and were performed nationwide.

During World War 2, Kubik served as a music consultant for the Bureau of Motion Pictures in the Office of War Information, then as composer for the Army Air Corp’s First Motion Picture Unit. In 1943, he received the National Association for American Composers and Conductors Citation for “Best Documentary Film Score of the Year” for “World at War.” In 1944, he was stationed in England to complete the score for “Memphis Belle,” which would go on to win a New York Film Critics’ Award. Kubik returned to the U.S. in 1945 and left the military in 1946.

Kubik briefly returned to work in Hollywood on film scores from 1949 to 1950, including for the Academy Award-winning “George McBoing-Boing,” after which he lived in Europe for several years conducting for multiple orchestras, including the Orchestra Sinfonica della Radio Italiana, the London Philharmonic, the BBC orchestra and the Orchestre Symphonique de Paris. In 1952, he won the Pulitzer Prize for his “Symphony Concertante.” After living in Europe from 1959 to 1967, Kubik was a visiting professor at Kansas State University in 1969. While at K-State, he was commissioned to compose a dedication piece for McCain Auditorium, which resulted in “A Record of Our Time.” Throughout the 1970s, Kubik continued to serve as a visiting professor at various universities. He died on July 20, 1984.

Joel Climenhaga was a writer and playwright, as well as a professor of theater at Kansas State University. After being born in Zimbabwe in 1922, Climenhaga’s family moved frequently throughout his childhood. Climenhaga began his writing career in 1937 by writing short stories and poems, many about his childhood in Africa. From 1939 to 1941, he attended Messiah College in Grantham, Pennsylvania, but he did not graduate. In 1942, Climenhaga moved to California to work at Upland Lemon Growers Association. He entered the U.S. Army in 1945 as a conscientious objector and was discharged in 1946. From 1948 to 1950, Climenhaga attended Chaffey College in Ontario, California, earning his A.A. in Theater Arts, Art, and English in 1949. Climenhaga then attended UCLA from 1950 to 1956, earning his B.A. in Theater Arts in 1953 and his M.A. in Theater Arts in 1958. While at UCLA, Climenhaga wrote the play “Marriage Wheel,” which won the Samuel Goldwyn Award, and in 1956, he published his play “Heathen Pioneer: a comedy in one act.”

After completing his studies, Climenhaga was a visiting professor at Wilmington College and the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. From 1963 to 1968, he was an Associate Professor of Speech, Drama, and English at Culver-Stockton College in Canton, Missouri, where he was also the chairman of the Department of Speech and Drama from 1964 to 1968. In 1968, Climenhaga became an Associate Professor of Theatre, as well as a member of the graduate faculty, at Kansas State University, a position he would hold until 1987. Climenhaga also served at K-State as the Director of Theatre from 1968 to 1987 and the coordinator of the New Play Program from 1972 to 1987.

Climenhaga continued to publish his plays and writings while at K-State. This included the works “Hawk and Chameleon” in 1972, and the “One Man’s Frontier” column in the “Flinthills Journal” based in Wamego, Kansas from 1979 to 1980. Other works of his published throughout the 1970s include “Awakening,” “The Back Shelf Dispatch,” “Below Ground Level,” “Counsel for the Offense,” and “Greenage.” From 1981 to 1987, some of his newspaper columns were broadcast over K-State’s radio station, KSAC, in a bi-monthly program entitled “One Man’s Journey.”

Climenhaga left K-State in 1987 to become a professor of Theatre Arts and English and the coordinator of the New Play Program at Tarkio College in Tarkio, Missouri. He worked at Tarkio until 1991. Throughout this time, he published multiple collections of poems, as well as the newspaper column “Dear Good People.” After briefly working for one year from 1991 to 1992 as professor of Theatre Arts and coordinator of the New Play Program at Teikyo Westmar University in LeMars, Iowa, Climenhaga retired in 1992 and moved to Bisbee, Arizona. In retirement, Climenhaga remained active in theater and writing, including serving on the Board of Directors of the Bisbee Repertory Theatre. Climenhaga died in 2000, and his work “Eighty Six Thousand Five Hundred and Fifty Three: a Sequence of Journey Poems” was published posthumously in 2001.

Ruth M. Hoeflin was a longtime professor and Dean of Home Economics at Kansas State University. Hoeflin attended Iowa State College from 1935 to 1940 when she earned her B.S. in Child Development. From 1940 to 1942, Hoeflin was Director of the Nursery at Sherwood School in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, followed by serving as Director of the Nursery School at Lanham War Nursery in Highland Park, Michigan from 1943 to 1944. At this time, while attending the University of Michigan in the summer, she also helped start two different wartime nursery schools in Highland Park. She received her Master’s degree in Parent Education from the University of Michigan in 1945. Hoeflin then worked as an Instructor from 1947 to 1950 in Home Economics at Ohio State University, where she earned her Ph.D. in Family Life in 1950. She was then promoted to Assistant Professor and remained at OSU until 1954.

In 1957, Hoeflin was hired as a professor and head of the Department of Family and Child Development at Kansas State. By 1958, she was also serving on the Kansas Family Life Association Board, as well as the Kansas Home Economics Association Executive Board, which she would serve on until 1977. In 1960, she became professor and Associate Dean of the College of Home Economics at K-State. Hoeflin also served as Dean of the College of Home Economics from 1974 to 1983.

Hoeflin was active for many years in the Kansas Home Economics Association and in the American Home Economics Association. She spoke at numerous conventions and served in many executive roles, including as chairman of AHEA from 1972 to 1973, President of AHEA from 1980 to 1982, and President of KHEA in 1975. Hoeflin was also a well-published scholar, publishing many textbooks on home economics, including “A Prospectus of Home Economics” in 1968, and dozens of research articles in home economics journals.

In 1977, Hoeflin partnered with Dr. John Chalmers, the Vice President of Academic Affairs at K-State, in the opening of a childcare center on the K-State campus. The center utilized a remodeled 100-year-old stone house located off of Manhattan Avenue. The center was officially opened for daycare in August of 1977. In 1983, the center was named the “Hoeflin Stone House Childcare Center” in her honor.

After her retirement as Dean and from teaching in 1984, Hoeflin was the director of the Fenix office from 1984 to 1988. In 1985, she published her work “History of a College: from Woman’s Course to Home Economics to Human Ecology, 1873-1988 Kansas State University.” She received the Ohio State Home Economics Alumni Association: Distinguished Alumni Award from Ohio State University in 1991, and she was active as President of the Manhattan Area Retired Teachers Association from 1992 to 1993. Hoeflin died on August 30th, 2000.

Bruce A. Adams was a K-State graduate and veteran of the U.S. Army. Adams came from a family of K-State graduates and military veterans, including both his father, George Adams Jr., and grandfather, George Adams Sr. Bruce Adams earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from K-State in 1969, while also being commissioned to the Army as a Distinguished Military Graduate. In 1970, Adams received his Master’s degree in Business Administration from K-State. From 1970 to 1971, he attended the U.S. Army Adjutant General School at Fort Benjamin Harrison in Indiana. Adams was on active duty from 1970 to 1978. He was promoted to 1st Lieutenant in 1971 and to Captain in 1974, before being reassigned to the U.S. Army Reserve in 1978. He was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel of the U.S. Army Reserve in 1987, to Colonel in 1992, and to Brigadier General in 1998. Adams retired from the Army Reserve in 2003.

Mamie Alexander Boyd was born on December 13, 1876, near Humbolt, Allen County, to parents Joseph McDill and Hester Ann (Scott) Alexander. Boyd worked her way through college at Kansas State Agricultural College (now Kansas State University), selling her two-year-old heifer calf for $18 and working other jobs. She worked at the college printing press where she met Frank Boyd. They became engaged before graduation in 1902. After Boyd contracted tuberculosis, doctors recommended climate change and she moved to Colorado. Her fiancé visited on weekends. Her condition did not improve there and she eventually moved back to Kansas. She and Frank married on August 1, 1905.
The Boyds published the Phillips County Post in Phillipsburg and added several weekly newspapers from neighboring towns. Mamie became involved in many local, state, and national organizations. She was president of the Kansas Press Women, chairman of American Women’s Voluntary Services, Inc., a charter member of the National Federation of Press Women, a delegate to General Federations of Women’s Clubs, and was the first woman to lead the Kansas State Alumni Association. She was a featured speaker at the National Editorial Association and served as state president of the Woman’s Kansas Day Club and Native Daughters of Kansas. She is an honorary life president for both the Kansas Press Women and the Kansas Press Association.
Five Kansas governors appointed her to positions. Governor Alfred Landon appointed her to the Kansas State Park Board, Governor Payne Ratner to the State Textbook Commission, Governors Frank Carlson and Edward Arn to the State Advisory Commission on Institutional Management, and Governor William Avery to serve on the Committee on Status of Women.
She received many awards such as the Newspaper Woman of the Year in 1954, Distinguished Service Award from Kansas State University in 1957, Kansan of the Year from Native Sons and Daughters of Kansas in 1958, Kansas Mother of the Year in 1965, the gold medallion for 50 years in the journalism industry by Theta Sigma Phi, the McKinney Award from the National Newspaper Association in 1966, and she was the first woman to receive the William Allen White Award for Journalistic Merit.
Three annual scholarships are presented in her memory to women in journalism at Kansas State University, University of Kansas, or Wichita State University. A residence hall is named in her honor at her alma mater, Kansas State University. The Native Sons and Daughters of Kansas present an annual student essay award in her honor, “Kansas! Say It Above a Whisper.”
Her autobiography, A Heifer Calf through College, was published in 1972.
She loved knitting and was often spotted with yarn and needle in hand even at K-State basketball games.
She died on October 15, 1973.

George Burgoyne (1834-1923) was the first professional photographer to operate a studio in Manhattan, Kansas. Born in England, Burgoyne established residence in Kansas Territory in 1857. Two years later he founded his photographic studio, specializing in Carte de visite portraits. His business flourished for 31 years, until his retirement in 1890.
The earliest extant views of Manhattan have been attributed to Burgoyne.
"Early Days in Riley County." Manhattan Nationalist 29 November 1923.
1890, he sold his studio to George F. Dewey and retired to a fruit farm that he owned in California. See "Reduction in Prices." Manhattan Mercury 5 June 1890 and "George Burgoyne has sold his photograph gallery." Manhattan Mercury 6 June 1890.

Thomas Elmer Will was born November 11, 1861 in Prairie Adams county Illinois. In 1880 he taught at a country school and in 1882 he entered the Illinois State Normal School, graduating in 1885. In the fall of 1888, he studied at the University of Michigan for one year. He then entered the senior class at Harvard College and graduated in 1890. On completing his university studies, he married Marie Van Velsor Rogers of Cambridge, Massachusetts and accepted the chair of history and political science at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin. He held the position at Lawrence University for two years after which he went to Boston where he delivered courses of lectures on economics and wrote a series of sociological articles for the “Arena” publication for one year. Will came to Kansas State in 1894 to become the chair of Political Economy, serving in this role for three years before becoming President in 1897. Notable during Will’s presidency was the establishment of the first on-campus bookstore and dining hall, but these services were closed after his removal as president in 1899. Kansas in the 1890s was the center of political upheaval between Populists and Republicans, and issues surrounding Populism and the free silver combination led to the removal of President Will together with several other faculty members after Republicans gained control of the Board of Regents. He devoted six years following the close of his work at Kansas State Agricultural College to emphasize the principles taught in his lectures, addresses, and papers while President, including time at Ruskin College in Trenton, Missouri, and as president of the New Socialist College in Wichita, Kansas. He became well-known in the 1930s as an advocate for the development of the Everglades in Florida, and he helped found the settlement Okeelanta in Palm Beach County, Florida. This led to the naming of the Thomas Will Memorial Highway in his honor in 1941, four years after his death.

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

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.

David E. Schafer was born in Buffalo Lake, Minnesota, on August 30, 1941.  He attended the University of Minnesota and earned a B.S. in Animal Husbandry in 1963.  In September of 1963, David Schafer married Jeanne in St. Paul, Minnesota.   He then went on to South Dakota State University and received his M.S. in Animal Science in 1968.  In 1968 Schafer worked for Kansas State University and spent two years in Andhra Pradesh, India as a meat technologist with the KSU-USAID program.  In October of 1968, his first child, Jason, was born.  In 1972, Schafer earned his Ph.D. in Food Science from Kansas State University and worked as an extension specialist in meats.   In December his second child, Derek, was born.  He joined the staff the same year when he became an associate professor at Kansas State University.  In 1975 Schafer’s third child, Mark was born.
In 1984 Schafer was promoted to full professor.  He served as Faculty Senate President from 1986-1987.  In 2003 he was awarded Emeritus status and retired on August 2, 2003.  Over the years David Schafer belonged to a variety of organizations.  He was a part of the American Meat Science Association, the American Society of Animal Science, and the Institute of Food Technologists.

Phillip F. Schlee was born on March 10, 1950, at Pittsburg, Kansas. He received a B. A. in History and a Minor in Music from Pittsburg State n December 1973. In May 1975, Schlee earned an M. M. in Music History from Pittsburg State and that same month he published The Isaac Standford Family history. Schlee earned a Master's of Library Science from Emporia State University in May 1978 and shortly afterward moved to Manhattan, Kansas. From 185 to 2006, Schlee was Guest Services Coordinator in Housing and Dining at Kansas State University. It was during this time (November 2002) he started collecting letters in extension to his genealogy research. The primary thing he looked for was genealogical information on the families mentioned in the letters. In some cases, letters are the only source of information, e.g., births and marriages in the 19th Century. Most of the letters were purchased on eBay. Schlee donated his collection to the Morse Department of Special Collections in 2006 when he left Kansas State University.