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Leona Velen 1916-2001

Doris Velen 1919-2003

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.

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.

He was born February 6, 1924, on a farm near Osceola, Iowa, the son of Howard Oak and Nancy Elizabeth (Fugett) Wassom. When he was three weeks old, the family moved to Laurens, Iowa, where Clyde grew up and graduated from high school in 1941. Clyde attended Iowa State University for two years prior to being drafted into the United States Army in 1944. He served in several stateside camps and was a prisoner of war guard at several installations. He was discharged in June of 1946 and returned to Iowa State where he earned his bachelors in 1949 with a Genetics major and minors in mathematics and physics. He immediately started on an M.S. in Crop Breeding, completing the degree in 1951 working with brome-grass. His Ph.D. also was in Crop Breeding working with orchard-grass. Upon completing his Ph.D. in 1953, Clyde and family moved to Hiawatha, KS, where he became the first Superintendent of the Cornbelt Experiment Field at Powhattan.
In 1955 the family moved to Manhattan and Clyde became a professor in the Agronomy Department at Kansas State University. During his 38-year tenure at Kansas State University he exhibited conscientious dedication in his comprehensive field research programs in corn breeding and genetics. His research efforts led to the release of several inbred lines of corn, including ones with special characteristics, and white corn germplasms. Dr. Wassom was widely known for his corn breeding efforts and served as a consultant to several countries. He also supervised several graduate students who are serving in university and industry positions in the United States and in their native countries. While on sabbatical in Mexico City during 1967, he worked with CIMMYT, an international research organization supported by the Rockefeller and Ford Foundations. He was the faculty leader for three intersession courses to South America to compare agriculture practices.
Dr. Wassom was a member of the First Christian Church and was a life Elder. He was also a member of the Manhattan Kiwanis Club, Konza Kampers, Gideon's International, and American Legion Post # 17. Clyde held a private pilot’s license and was a former member of the K-State Flying Club and the Civil Air Patrol. Clyde was also an excellent trombonist and enjoyed playing at church and for family in recent years. On December 24, 1945, while on active duty he was married to Jane Lavonne Williams at Camp Grant in Rockford, IL.
Mrs. Wassom survives of the home in Manhattan. Additional survivors include three children: Jane Luanne Nelson and her husband Gary of Cottonwood, AZ, Steven Clyde Wassom and his wife Becky of Wamego, KS, and Karen S. Stewart and her husband Christopher of Manhattan; three siblings: Glenn Wassom of Johnston, IA, Scott Wassom of Alexander, AR, and Phyllis Stefani of Cedar Rapids, IA; nine grandchildren: Christopher P. Henton, Tracy A. McCabe, Richard T. Henton, Mark S. Wassom, Matthew C. Wassom, Laura L. Sylvester, Derek J. Wassom, Brandon C. Hagedorn and Brian S. Hagedorn; seven step-grandchildren; 30 great-grandchildren and step great-grandchildren; four great-great-grandchildren and many nieces and nephews.

Dorothy Anne "Dottie" Wellington was born May 4, 1924, in Kansas City, Missouri. She was the daughter of Lancie L. and Julia Rouggly Watts. Dottie grew up in Kansas City and attended Hale H. Cook Elementary and Southwest High Schools. She graduated from Randolph-Macon Woman's College. On September 14, 1946, she married Robert B. Wellington at the Country Club Christian Church in Kansas City, Missouri. They were married more than fifty-four years before Robert's death in 2000.
Dottie was a homemaker and author of the syndicated "Let's Cook" cooking column that appeared in the Ottawa Herald and other newspapers for many years, as well as two "Let's Cook" cookbooks. She taught cooking classes, was a frequent volunteer in her community and welcomed international exchange students to her home. Dottie enjoyed genealogy research and creating photo slideshows of her family. She loved keeping in touch with a wide circle of family members and friends. She and Robert were devoted members of the Grace episcopal Church in Ottawa, where she baked the alter bread for many years. Dorothy Anne Wellington died on July 16, 2016 at the Olathe Hospice House, Oltahe, Kansas.

George Dudley Wheatley was born April 10, 1892, in Abington, Massachusetts, son of Frank G. and Nellie Holbrook Wheatley; he had three brothers, Frank E., Russell, and John R. Wheatley. He graduated from Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. From 1914 to 1917, he was employed by Bay State Nursery in Abington and United Shoe Machinery Company in Boston. In May of 1917 he entered the National Army’s Officer Candidate School at Plattsburg, New York, where he was a member of the second class of 1917 (Company 3, 17th Provisional Training Regiment composed of men from New England). He was commissioned second lieutenant in the U.S. Army’s Officers Reserve Corps in November, promoted to first lieutenant on November 27, and inducted into military service.

In 1918, after induction into the U.S. Army he sailed with other officers from New York to Europe on the SS Mongolia. In 5 weeks of February and March he attended the Allied Expeditionary Forces school in Chatillon-sur-Seine, France. Further activities in 1918 include the following:

• March 13: Reported to Company A, 165th Infantry at Senneville, France.
• March 31: Additional three weeks of training in Baccarat.
• April 23: Returned to area near Montigny.
• May 9: Reported to Company B at St. Pole.
• May 30: Left Baccarat for the front.
• July 14–15: German offensive began.
• July 29: First wounded in battle; while recuperating at a nearby military hospital, he was also stricken with influenza (several accounts cite date of wounding as July 28).
• August 21: Reported wounded in action and transferred to an American Red Cross Convalescent Hospital in Biarritz, France, AEF; treated for multiple gunshot wounds in the buttocks and right thigh; reported back to his regiment at La Marche on Sep 26.
• September 26–November 11: Returned to the front when the 42nd Division moved to Verdun as part of the Meuse-Argonne offensive; took Hill 288, La Tiuderie farm and the Cote de Chatillon, and broke squarely across the powerful Kriemhhilde Stelling, clearing the way for the advance beyond Landres et St. Georges; moved through the advancing lines of the forward troops of the First Army and drove the enemy across the Meuse, capturing the heights dominating the river before Sedan and reached the enemy lines, the farthest point attended by any American troops.
• November 11: Learned of Armistice while passing through Buzaucy; stopped at Thenorgnes.
• November 14: Started for Germany as part of Army of Occupation, took command of Company L at Landres (relieved of command on Dec 1).
• December 3: Crossed Seine River into Germany.

Activities in 1919 included:

• January 13: Transferred to 27th Division.
• January 16: Reached Paris.
• February 28: Sailed for United States from Brest, France.
• March 9: Landed at Hoboken and went to Camp Merritt, New Jersey.
• March 25: Paraded in New York City.
• April 1: Discharged at Camp Devens, Massachusetts.
• October–November: Resided in Springfield, Vermont, for at least several months.

Wheatley entered the insurance business in Chicago, Illinois, in 1920, and married Margaret G. McMillan in Evanston, Illinois, in 1921. They had three children; Margaret A. (born 1923), Barbara H. (born 1925), and James H. ( born1929) Wheatley. In 1940, the family moved to Abington, Massachusetts, and George became successful in the insurance business and civic affairs. He died May 20, 1961, in Abington.

Warren Nichols White, Jr. was born in Fort Worth, Texas, on November 12, 1952. Finishing his secondary education at St. Paul’s High School in Covington, Louisiana, he pursued a Bachelor of Science Degree in Engineering with honors in Electrical Engineering at Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana. In the summer of 1974, he began working for General Electric in Schenectady, New York.

White later transferred to GE’s Power Transformer Division in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. While working in Pittsfield, White commuted to Troy, New York, to earn a Master of Engineering degree in Electric Power Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1977. While working on his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering at Tulane, he met his future wife, Georganne Wilcox and married on May 4, 1980.

In 1985 White and family traveled north to Manhattan, Kansas, where he began teaching at Kansas State University. Over the years he taught Digital Controls, Finite Elements, and Dynamics among other subjects and developed a course in circuits specialty for Mechanical Engineers. He served as advisor for Women in Engineering, the Wildcat Wind Power Team and Final Frontier Aerospace Systems and Technology (FFAERO). He was inducted into Tau Beta Pi, a national honorary society for Engineering.

Warren Nichols White, Jr., 68, died on Monday, May 24, 2021.

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.

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.

Alma Williams, O.B.E., is a long-standing contributor to the consumer movement in the United Kingdom and abroad, having worked in a myriad of capacities for a vast variety of organizations.  Born in 1928 to parents Alan and Edith Pratt at Wakefield in Yorkshire, she graduated university with double honors in French and Latin.  After two years of post-graduate research on a scholarship at Leeds University, she wed Michael Williams, with whom she had three children and remained happily married to until his death in 2010.  Following twelve years in language instruction and consumer education, Ms. Williams shifted entirely into the field of Consumer Affairs.
In 1962, she founded one of the first local consumer groups in her area, at Watford & District in Hertfordshire, and in time became chairman (and subsequent president) of the National Federation of Consumer Groups (now called the National Consumer Federation).  In 1964 she was elected as a member of the Council of the Consumers’ Association (now called Which?), on which she served for ten years, whereupon she became the Association’s consultant on consumer education and the editor of its school magazine, <emph render='italic'>Whichcraft</emph>, for five years.  As a consultant, she persuaded the Department of Prices & Consumer Protection to print the Council’s safety publication, “Dangers and Disasters,” and distribute it to all secondary schools in the United Kingdom.  This publication was the forerunner of the later European Union publication, “The Safety Pack.”
She served on the Independent Television’s Advertising Advisory Committee from 1966 to 1975 and the Independent Television’s Adult Education Advisory Committee 1968 to 1976.  She served as chairman of the Eastern Gas Consumer Council from 1975 to 1987, and on the Food Standards Agency’s Committee on Toxicity from 2000 to 2008.
Abroad, she served as chairman of the Education Committee International Organization of Consumers’ Unions (IOCU, now called Consumers International) for five years, and subsequently served as the IOCU’s permanent representative to UNESCO from 1975 to 1990.  She served on the consumer education committee for the Council of Europe from 1970 to 1978.  She worked as a consultant on consumer affairs to the United Nations and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in 1980, and advised start-up consumer organizations in India, Jamaica, Thailand, and Malaysia.
She served Her Majesty’s Government with distinction abroad in various capacities with the European Union, first as United Kingdom consumer representative to the European Economic & Social Committee (EESC) from 1982 to 1990 and 1994 to 1998, and later became vice president of the Association of Former Members of the committee.  During her time on the committee, she proposed and authored a publication entitled “The Safety Pack,” which was translated, published, and distributed to all secondary schools in the European Union.  She also introduced the antecedent of the Product Safety Directive, and suggested the institution of an annual Consumer Rights Day.  She was the European Union representative for the EESC, a member of the United Kingdom’s delegation, and featured speaker at the third United Nations Decade of Women conference in Kenya in 1985; and also served as a member of the European Union delegation to consider the accession of Malta into the Union in 1995.
Ms. Williams was awarded the M.B.E. for services to the consumer movement and consumer education in 1975, and the O.B.E. for services to the European Union in 2003.
She has been a prolific writer, especially in the field of consumer education.  Her publications include: <emph render='italic'>The Elderly Consumer</emph> (1965), <emph render='italic'>Educating the Consumer: A Practical Guide</emph> (1975), <emph render='italic'>Reading and the Consumer</emph> (1976), <emph render='italic'>Using and Abusing Literacy</emph> (1977), <emph render='italic'>Your Choice? </emph>(1980), <emph render='italic'>Getting Married</emph> (1984), and <emph render='italic'>Projects: Skills and Strategies in Consumer Education</emph> (1984).
As of this writing, Alma Williams remains active in the consumer movement as the vice president of Which? (formerly called the Consumers’ Association), and a vice president of the Charted Institute of Trading Standards, where she works specifically on projects related to reshaping consumer protection for the 21<emph render='super'>st</emph> century.
Locally, she serves as President of the Ripon Centre Women’s Institute, and continues to serve on the Council of Outwood Academy Ripon, on which she has served since 1990.  She was a founder member of the Harrogate Foundation Trust Hospital for eight years (the maximum allowed), and now serves as a lay member of its Research and Development Group.  She also served as a founder committee member of the Ripon & District University of the Third Age, and now is a member its editorial team for <emph render='italic'>News & Views</emph>.

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.

The Women's Resource Center was founded in 1973, in response to the need for women's programming at Kansas State University. In the early years, the Center was located in Fairchild Hall and staffed by volunteers who made weekly commitments to be in the Center to take calls, answer questions, and to keep it operational.
In 1975, the Center moved to Holtz Hall and became involved with raising campus awareness of the changing roles of men and women and the implications of these changes. Further, the Center taught rape prevention classes. The next year the Center moved to the Student Governing Services Offices in the K-State Student Union, which included a much-needed space for privacy. The Center continued expanding services and resources as women on campus sought assistance. It moved from a resource center to an advocacy and education office as it addressed issues such as sexual harassment, job discrimination, and sexual assault.
By 1983, the Center had moved to Holton Hall and had created more programs, classes, workshops, and one-on-one consultations on sexual violence, dating violence, domestic violence, stalking, sexual harassment, and self defense. These offerings were available to students, faculty, staff, and community members. Groups and campaigns associated with the Center included WAR (Wildcats Against Rape), PEERS (Proactive Educators for the Elimination of Sexual Violence), CNV (Campaigns for Nonviolence), SafeZone, and It's On Us, K-State.
In 2014, the Women's Center changed its named to CARE (Center for Advocacy, Response, and Education).

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.

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.