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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.

Stewart Lee Richardson, Jr., was born to Margaret (Strachan) and Stewart L. Richardson in Arlington, Virginia, on July 8, 1940. He graduated from Washington-Lee High School in Arlington and received his B.S. degree from the University of Richmond in 1962. He earned an M.B.A. degree from Emory University and then a doctorate in business administration from University of Colorado in 1966. That same year, he started as an assistant professor at the Louisiana State University (LSU) School of Business and was later promoted to associate professor. He also was an adjunct professor of marketing at Southern University in Baton Rouge. In 1978, he moved to the University of Maryland at College Park and taught there until moving to the University of Baltimore in 1981.

A consumer advocate for decades, Richardson started the Louisiana Consumers League in 1968 and was its first president. He served as Consumer Education Director in the U.S. Office of Consumer Affairs, was a member of the White House Consumer Advisory Council, and was the Director of the Federal Energy Administration’s Office of Consumer Affairs. He was active with the Consumer Federation of America (CFA), including a term as president, and was the American Council on Consumer Interests representative to CFA at one time. He also was a member of the National Advertising Review Board and involved in the Maryland Citizens Consumer Council, including as the latter’s executive director for a time. Richardson wrote and lectured extensively on consumer issues.

He married Doralee Forsythe while both were students at the University of Richmond, and they were the parents of three children. They later divorced. He died in Westminster, Maryland, on October 27, 2020, after a long battle with Alzheimer’s.

Ada Rice was born in Breckenridge, Missouri, on 21 December 1869.  Her family moved to Clifton, Kansas, in 1878.  She attended Baker University for one year and taught school near Washington, Kansas, for two years. She entered Kansas State Agricultural College (KSAC) in 1889, then left in 1890 to teach high school in her father's place at Clifton.  She then was the assistant principal there in 1891.  Rice returned to KSAC in 1893 and graduated in 1895.  She taught in the grade school at Randolph, Kansas, from 1896 to 1899, and then was an assistant in the Preparatory Department of KSAC from 1899 to 1903.  She received her Life Teacher's Certificate from Kansas in 1900, and became a founding member of the local chapter of the American College Quill Club that same year.  Rice became an assistant in English at KSAC in 1902, earning the title of instructor in English the following year.  She attended the University of Chicago during the summer of 1902 and Harvard University during the summer of 1905.  She spent the summer of 1909 touring Europe.  Rice received her Master's degree from KSAC in 1912.  She was Assistant Principal of the School of Agriculture from 1913 to 1918, and alumni editor of the Industrialist from 1918 to 1920. She spent a sabbatical at Kings College of London University in 1926-1927, and was granted professorship at KSAC in 1927.  Rice was elected president of the KSAC chapter of Phi Kappa Phi in 1932, toured Asia during the summer of 1937, and retired in 1946.  She died on 9 March 1953.

Clearance O. Price was Post Commander at Pearce-Keller American Legion Post 17, Manhattan, Kansas, and later assistant to the president of Kansas State University from 1929 to 1950.

Gerry L. Posler was born 24 July, 1942 and raised on a farm near Cainsville, MO. He received his B.S. (cum laude) (1964) and M.S. degree (1966) from the University of Missouri, and his Ph.D. degree (1969) from Iowa State University. He served on the Agronomy faculty in the Department of Agriculture at Western Illinois University, Macomb, from 1969 to 1974. Since 1974, he was at at Kansas State University, primarily doing undergraduate Crops teaching and retiring in 2008. He served as Assistant head for Teaching from 1982-1989 and Head of the Department of Agronomy from 1990 - 1998. He co-coordinated the Department of Agronomy Centennial celebration and co-authored the Agronomy Department History in 2006.
Before serving as Head, Dr. Posler's primary activities were teaching and advising, but he also had an active research program in forage management and utilization. At Western Illinois and Kansas State Universities, he taught courses in Crop Science, Plant Science, Forage Management and Utilization, Crop Diseases, World Crops, Crop Breeding, Crop Growth and Development, Internship in Agronomy, Plant and Seed Identification, Grain Grading, and Crops Team. He actively participated as member or chair of many departmental, college and university committees, including extended terms on the Faculty Senate at both WIU and KSU.
His research activities at Kansas State University included management and quality of cool-season grasses, legumes, summer annual and small grain forages, and planning forage systems for beef cattle. He also received USDA-DOE grants to evaluate sweet sorghum as a potential alcohol fuel feedstock. His research and teaching publications include 44 abstracts of papers presented at national meetings, 31 refereed journal articles, more than 30 other technical and popular publications, and 26 book reviews.
Dr. Posler has been advisor to many student groups, including Wheat State Agronomy Club, Plant Science Club, Alpha Zeta, Agriculture Council, and the Student Activities Subdivision of ASA. He coordinated two Comparative Agriculture study tours to Central and South America and two tours to Australia and New Zealand. He initiated a Collegiate Crops Team at WIU and coaches the KSU Collegiate Crops and NACTA Crops Teams. Fourteen of his Collegiate and NACTA Crops Teams were National Champions during 1999-2007.
Dr. Posler is a life member of the National Association of Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture (NACTA), chairing the NACTA Journal book review board, serving as Central Region Director, Vice President, and President in 1991. He was program chairman for the 29th NACTA Conference at KSU in 1983 and served on the NACTA Foundation Board. He was the first President of the Kansas Association of Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture (KACTA) and served as NACTA coordinator for Kansas.
Dr. Posler has been an active participant in the American Society of Agronomy (ASA) and Crop Science Society of America (CSSA). He served on numerous committees and was Chair, Division A-la, Student Activities Subdivision; Chair, Division C-3, Crop Ecology, Production, and Management; Associate Editor, Crop Science Journal, Board Representative, Member, ASA Budget and Finance committee; and Chair, Crop Science Research Award, Student Achievement Award, and Collegiate Crops Contest Committees. He was a co-organizer of the KFGC and was Member and Chair of the KFGC Awards Committee.
Dr. Posler holds membership in many honorary and professional societies, including Phi Eta Sigma, Sigma Rho Sigma, Alpha Zeta, Gamma Sigma Delta, Omicron Delta Kappa, Phi Kappa Phi, and Sigma Xi. In addition to NACTA, he is also a member of American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America, the American Forage and Grassland Council, the Council of Agricultural Science and Technology (Cornerstone Club), and the Kansas Forage and Grassland Council.
Dr. Posler has received numerous awards, including the Kansas State University College of Agriculture Outstanding Faculty of the Semester (1978,1981,1986,1999, and 2006), the NACTA Teacher Fellow and Outstanding Central Region Fellow awards (1978), the Gamma Sigma Delta Teaching Award of Merit (1982), the Kansas State University Outstanding Teaching Award (1983), the ASA Agronomic Resident Education Award (1986), the NACTA Ensminger-Interstate Distinguished Teaching Award (1987), the Gamma Sigma Delta Distinguished Faculty Award (1991), the Kansas Forage and Grassland Council Award of Excellence (1992), the KSU NACTA Teaching Award of Merit (1992), the NACTA Distinguished Educator Award (1997), the KSU College of Agriculture Alumni Distinguished Ag Faculty Award (l999), the KSU College of Agriculture Outstanding Advisor Award (2000), the Crop Science Society of America Teaching Award (2002), Gamma Sigma Delta Outstanding Advising Award of Merit (2003), Honorary Membership in the Kansas Crop Improvement Association (2004), and the Collegiate Crops Contest Coaches Committee Appreciation Award (2005).
He was elected Fellow of the American Society of Agronomy in 1988 and the Crop Science Society of America in 1991.

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.

In 2009, Photographic Services became part of the Division of Communications and Marketing at Kansas State University. Previously, it had been part of the News and Editorial Services Department for many years. When Photographic Services started in 1919, it was under the Office of the President. In 1961, the department was first listed as Photographic Services. For many years, the offices for the unit were in the power plant. In 2010, Photographic Services moved to Dole Hall.
F.E. Colburn, who was also a professor of Illustration, was the first College Photographer in 1919. In 1930, Floyd J. Hanna assumed this role until 1966. From 1966 to 1985 David von Reiesen led Photographic Services, and Paul Maginnes led it from 1986 to 1994. Dan Donnert was the head of Photographic Services from 1994 to 2008, and David Mayes has led the unit since 2008 as the Manager of Communications and Marketing Photographic Services.

The Kansas State University chapter of the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi was established in 1915 and was the fourteenth Phi Kappa Phi chapter organized. Phi Kappa Phi promotes academic excellence in all fields of higher education and recognizes outstanding scholastic achievements by students, faculty, staff, and alumni.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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