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Occupation: Legislators; Lawyers
Associated Groups: Democratic Party (U.S.); American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee; United States. Congress. House, 19710103-19730103; United States. Congress. Senate, 19730103-19790103

J. M. (John Merton) Aldrich was born on January 28, 1866, in Olmstead County, Minnesota, to Levi O. and Mary Moore Aldrich. He was educated in the county and high schools of Rochester, Minnesota. In 1885, he enrolled at Dakota Agricultural College in Brookings, South Dakota, and became the first student to specialize in zoological sciences. He graduated in 1888, receiving his B.S. degree during the institution’s first formal commencement ceremony.

Following his graduation, Aldrich remained at Dakota Agricultural College as an Assistant in Entomology (1889–1890), then as an Assistant in Zoology (1890–1892), and also assisted the Agricultural Experiment Station Entomologist during this period. He pursued further academic credentials, earning additional B.S. and M.S. degrees from the University of Kansas, and later, in 1906, a Ph.D. from Stanford University. His doctoral dissertation was his influential Catalog of North American Diptera, which he began while serving as Professor of Zoology at the University of Idaho (1893–1913).

After leaving the University of Idaho in 1913, Aldrich joined the U.S. Department of Agriculture Bureau of Entomology in West Lafayette, Indiana as an Entomological Assistant. In 1918, he was transferred to the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C., where he served as Custodian of Diptera and Associate Curator in the Division of Insects. He was the first Dipterist hired at the Smithsonian who had previously served in the USDA.

Aldrich was internationally recognized for his ability to collect rare insect specimens across the western United States, Alaska, and Guatemala. Many of his finds were previously unknown to science. His expertise in North American Diptera positioned the National Museum as a leading research center for New World Diptera. In 1923, he donated his personal collection of over 45,000 insect specimens, representing more than 4,000 taxa, along with a detailed card catalog of North American Diptera literature. This resource became one of the most valuable general Diptera collections in the museum.

He published extensively on entomological subjects and served as President of the Entomological Society of America in 1921. He received numerous accolades during his lifetime. Aldrich passed away in 1934. His legacy endures, notably through the Aldrich Entomology Club, founded in 1961 at the University of Idaho, which continues to promote engagement in insect biology among students, faculty, and the public.

Jane Alexander was born in Brookings, South Dakota, to Ruth Ann and William Alexander. She began her journey of community engagement during her high school years while volunteering at the Brookings Retirement Center. Here she formed a lasting friendship with Neva Harding. This connection inspired her to delve into Neva's life, eventually leading to the expansion of Neva's autobiography.

Jane graduated from Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts, where she majored in history. Alongside her studies, she dedicated her time to volunteering as a tutor and aide to children in the Holyoke Schools.

After graduating in 1980, Jane embarked on a career dedicated to helping others. She worked at the Parker Street shelter with unhoused adults in Boston, and later at the Pine Street Inn women’s clinic. It was during her time at the women’s clinic that she, along with her colleague Eileen Reilly, conceptualized the idea of a daytime shelter for women. In 1982, they brought this vision to life, establishing the Women’s Lunch Place in the basement of the Church of the Covenant, with Jane serving as the Executive Director for the next two decades.

Throughout her career, Jane received numerous accolades for her work, including the Mount Holyoke College Mary Lyon Award and the Boston Celtic’s “Heroes Among Us” award. In 2002, she transitioned to roles at Renewal House and East Boston Ecumenical Community, while also volunteering for disaster relief efforts with the Red Cross and providing medical aid in Haiti.

In 2004, Jane married Mark Johnson of Jamaica Plain, and they relocated to New Orleans in 2007. There, she pursued her passion for social work, earning her master’s degree from Tulane School of Social Work. She then served as the Executive Director of Churches United in Moorhead, Minnesota, until 2016, where she pioneered initiatives for permanent housing and winter expansion at the shelter.

Jane returned to Massachusetts, settling in Dracut with her sister Sarah Alexander. There, she devoted herself to caregiving, providing assistance to elderly individuals and their families.

Jane passed away on July 26, 2022, in Lowell, Massachusetts.

Ruth Ann Alexander was born in Lansing, Michigan, on February 13, 1924, to Harry and Anne (Green) Musselman, and died in Brookings, South Dakota, on February 1, 2010. She graduated from East Lansing High School and Michigan State University, earning a B.A. in English in 1945. She later completed a master’s degree in American studies at the University of Minnesota and a Ph.D. in American intellectual history at Michigan State University. In 1955, she married William Alexander, with whom she had three children.

Alexander taught English at South Dakota State University for 34 years, rising to the rank of full professor and becoming the first woman to chair the English Department (1981–1989). She introduced the university’s first courses on women writers, as well as African American and Native American literature. She also chaired the committee that established the Women’s Studies major. She received numerous grants and fellowships, including a Bunting Fellowship at Harvard University in 1987, and was recognized three times with SDSU’s Outstanding Educator Award (1971, 1972, 1974). Upon her retirement in 1989, she was named Professor Emeritus and continued to research South Dakota women writers and women in the Episcopal Church.

From 1994 to 2002, Alexander wrote a column for the South Dakota Church News titled All Sorts and Conditions of Women, which was later collected and published in 2003 as Patches in a History Quilt: Episcopal Women in the Diocese of South Dakota, 1868–2000. She also published scholarly articles on South Dakota writers such as Elaine Goodale Eastman and Kate Boyles Bingham. Beyond her scholarship, she participated in the Great Plains Chautauqua series, portraying Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1989–1991) and later serving as series moderator (1998–2001).

An advocate for women and girls, Alexander was the first woman elected to the Brookings School Board (1970–1975), where she promoted equal funding for girls’ and boys’ activities and raised academic standards. In 1972, Governor Richard Kneip appointed her to the first South Dakota Commission on the Status of Women, where she served until 1979. She also served on the Board of Directors of the South Dakota Historical Association (1988–2000), the Episcopal Church History Association (1992–1997), and the Episcopal Women’s Church History Project (1991–1997). She helped establish the Brookings Food Pantry and chaired the Emergency Services Commission from 1983 to 1999.

Einar Jentoft Anderson was born on June 17, 1897 to J. Martin and Nicoline A. Anderson. In 1918 Einar was in the U.S. Army and was stationed at Ft. Sheidan, Illinois. He attended South Dakota State College after the war. Einar married Ethel Lucille Olson, who was born August 27, 1908. On September 5, 1988, Einar J. Anderson died in Catawba County, North Carolina.

Sigurd Anderson, the 19th governor of South Dakota, was born on January 22, 1904, on an island near Arendal, Norway. His parents, Karl and Bertha Anderson, immigrated to the United States in 1908, settling on a farm southwest of Canton in Lincoln County. Anderson attended Pleasant Ridge School and graduated high school in 1925, the year his family moved near Bancroft in Kingsbury County.

He enrolled at South Dakota State College in 1925, engaging in public speaking, literary, and journalistic activities. After contracting scarlet fever, he took a year off to work as a farmhand and teach in rural schools. In 1928, he transferred to the University of South Dakota, graduating cum laude in 1931. He taught high school history in Rapid City and Webster before returning to USD for law school, earning his degree in 1937. During this time, he married Vivian Walz of Vermillion; they had one daughter, Kristin.

Anderson established a law practice in Webster in 1937 and was twice elected Day County state’s attorney. In 1950, he won the Republican nomination for governor and was elected, setting a record in 1952 as the only South Dakota gubernatorial candidate to receive over 200,000 votes. His administration established the Legislative Research Council and achieved debt-free status for the state for the first time in 40 years.

After two terms, Anderson was appointed to the Federal Trade Commission by President Eisenhower and reappointed in 1958. He resigned in 1964 to return to Webster and run again for governor but lost the Republican primary to Nils Boe, who later appointed him circuit judge, a position he held until 1975.

Anderson received numerous professional and political honors and was active in various organizations. He died on December 21, 1990.

Professor Emerita Mary Peterson Arnold was born in December 1947. While a student at Dakota Wesleyan University in Mitchell, she worked as a city desk reporter and women’s editor for the Mitchell Daily Republic. After earning a master’s degree in English from the University of South Dakota, she spent four years from 1973 to 1977 as a reporter for the Vermillion Plain Talk.

Arnold later taught high school journalism and served as a newspaper and yearbook adviser in Minnesota and Iowa. She joined the faculty of the University of Iowa in 1986, where she earned a doctorate in mass communications. At Iowa, she directed the Iowa High School Press Association and coordinated summer journalism workshops.

She subsequently served as a professor at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana, where she directed the American Society of Newspaper Editors High School Journalism Institute. From 1989 to 2004, Arnold served on the board of the Student Press Law Center, including a term as president.

From 1996 to 2001, Arnold worked in Washington, D.C., managing the Newspaper Association of America Foundation’s high school journalism and youth outreach programs. During this period, she helped establish a student newspaper and a youth editorial program. Afterward, she returned to Ball State University, where she taught journalism courses and directed a high school journalism workshop for two years.

Arnold also worked as a consultant and author for the Media Management Center at Northwestern University, where she wrote a series of four books focusing on women in senior management positions within news organizations.

In 2002, Arnold was hired by South Dakota State University as head of the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication. She retired from the university in 2017.

Edgar J. Banks was an antiquities enthusiast and itinerant archaeologist active during the final decades of the Ottoman Empire. He served as American consul in Baghdad beginning in 1898 and acquired large numbers of cuneiform tablets through the antiquities market, which he sold in small groups to museums, libraries, universities, and theological seminaries across the United States, including institutions in Utah and the American Southwest. Many tablets originated from local excavations at sites such as Telloh and other tells in central Mesopotamia, while others were obtained through dealers in Istanbul. During this period, the Ottoman government did not regulate the trade in minor antiquities. Although initially funded to excavate at Ur, Banks was denied permission to dig at major sites such as Babylon and Tell Ibrahim. In 1903, he was authorized to excavate at Bismya, the site of the ancient Sumerian city of Adab in present-day Iraq. His 1912 publication on the Bismya excavations documents both the archaeological work and administrative challenges encountered under Ottoman authority.

In 1909, Banks became a professor of Oriental languages and archaeology at the University of Toledo. After World War I, he traveled widely as a lecturer and continued to distribute cuneiform tablets to collectors and institutions. Tablets he sold to Charles W. Ames are now held by the Science Museum at the University of Minnesota, among other public and private collections in the United States. Banks is also associated with the sale of the cuneiform tablet known as Plimpton 322 to publisher George Arthur Plimpton; the tablet later entered Columbia University’s collections and is recognized for its importance to the study of Babylonian mathematics, frequently cited for its relevance to early understandings of relationships later formalized as the Pythagorean theorem. Banks was additionally involved in early motion picture ventures and undertook an expedition to Mount Ararat in search of Noah’s Ark, and he reportedly served as a consultant on biblical films in the early 1920s. He settled in Eustis, Florida, in 1921 and remained there until his death in 1945 at the age of 79. The Eustis Historical Museum maintains a permanent exhibit interpreting his life and work.

Allen Barnes was born on June 12, 1926, in Newport, Nebraska. He graduated from Hastings College in 1948, pursued further studies at the University of Idaho, and earned his Ph.D. from the University of Madrid in 1952. He held teaching and administrative positions at Chadron State College in Nebraska before serving as Executive Director of the Bi-national Institute in Tehran, Iran, followed by a similar role in Concepción, Chile.

In 1961, Barnes relocated to Brookings, South Dakota, to become head of the Department of Foreign Languages at South Dakota State University (SDSU). In 1967, he was appointed Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, succeeding Frank G. Schultz and serving in that role until 1985. He was followed by Rex Myers.

As Dean, Barnes advocated for the advancement of the College of Arts and Sciences within a university historically centered on agriculture and practical arts. He supported improvements to departmental facilities and led a campaign to establish a performing arts center on campus. He regularly promoted the work of faculty through biannual reports and “state of the college” addresses.

Barnes also emphasized international education, supporting the expansion of foreign language instruction and promoting study abroad opportunities. He assisted international students in their transition to SDSU and the Brookings community. After stepping down as Dean in 1985, he returned to teaching in the Department of Foreign Languages until his retirement in 1989. This collection was donated to the university archives at that time.

Robert “Bob” Wilbur Bartling was a lifelong resident of Brookings, South Dakota, whose life was marked by dedication to athletics, business, education, and community service. Born on August 26, 1926, to Earl and Daisy Bartling, he graduated from Brookings High School in 1944, where he was Homecoming King and excelled in football, basketball, and track. His college education at South Dakota State University was interrupted by service in the U.S. Air Force during World War II. After the war, he earned a business degree from the University of Minnesota and completed training at the St. Louis College of Mortuary Science in 1952.

Bartling returned to Brookings and joined the family business, Bartling Furniture and Funeral Home, before later founding Bartling’s Shoes, South Dakota’s first Nike dealership. A devoted distance runner, he co-founded the Prairie Striders Running Club in 1970 and served as its first president and longtime treasurer. He ran the Jack 15 road race 38 times, held a U.S. Track & Field Masters record for the 30-kilometer distance, and remained active in athletics into his later years.

Bartling was deeply involved with South Dakota State University, where he established the Prairie Striders Running Library at the Hilton M. Briggs Library and began volunteering in the archives in 2015. He was honored by the South Dakota Library Association as “Friend of the Library” in 2019. Other recognitions included the Prairie Striders’ Friend of Running Award in 2007 and induction into the Brookings High School Sports Hall of Fame in 2009.

A longtime member of First Presbyterian Church in Brookings, Bartling served in various leadership roles and was named Outstanding Senior Presbyterian in 2016. He and his wife, Katherine Jean Taylor, were married in Brookings on June 11, 1949, and had two children, Jane and David. Bartling remained active into his 90s, including biking the Mickelson Trail at age 97. He passed away on February 24, 2024, at the age of 97.

Madge A. Kerlin was born February 9, 1901 in Iowa to Marvin P. and Anna R (Kisling) Kerlin. They moved to Chamberlain, South Dakota in 1903 and to Murdo, South Dakota in 1906. She attended South Dakota State College from 1920 to 1921.

Sometime between 1921 and 1923, Madge married World War I veteran Lloyd S. Bastian, who was born in Redfield, South Dakota on December 8, 1898. The 1930 United States Census shows Lloyd and Madge living in Beverly Hills, California with a one-year old son. Lloyd was listed as a dentist and Madge a homemaker. The 1940 US Census shows them living in Oxnard, California, with their two sons. Madge Kerlin Bastian died in Ventura, California on March 6, 1989. Lloyd Bastian died on September 20, 1989.

Lt. Ward B. Bates was born on February 17, 1895, in Yankton, South Dakota. His father, Charles Homer Bates, served as a U.S. Deputy Surveyor and conducted boundary surveys between South Dakota and North Dakota from 1891 to 1892. Bates attended the State University of Iowa in Iowa City.

He enlisted in the Army National Guard on December 1, 1912, and was honorably discharged on December 1, 1915. With the onset of World War I, Bates re-enlisted and was commissioned as a second lieutenant of field artillery on August 15, 1917. He served in the American Expeditionary Force (A.E.F.) in Europe and traveled across the United States with other newly commissioned officers during his training and assignments. He was honorably discharged on August 1, 1919.

Following the war, Bates moved to California, where he met and married Eunice Morey Wolcott. They had one daughter, Nancy Farley. Ward B. Bates died on October 21, 1946.

Professor Donald Berg earned a B.A. in History from North Dakota State University in 1964 and an M.A. in History in 1966. He completed a second M.A. at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1971 and received his Ph.D. in Geography from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1976.

Berg served in the U.S. Army from 1966 to 1969, including service in the Vietnam War from 1967 to 1968. During the summers of 1970, 1971, and 1972, he was employed as a seasonal ranger naturalist at Sequoia National Park in California.

He joined South Dakota State University as a professor of geography and history in 1990 and retired in May 2011. He also held earlier appointments at SDSU from 1983 to 1986. Berg taught courses primarily in physical geography, world regional geography, and environmental disasters and hazards, as well as seminars in regional geography, transportation, energy, and illegal drugs. His teaching also included courses in the history of the American West and American Indian history and culture. For more than fifteen years, he provided orientation sessions for students participating in the International Partnership for Service-Learning program.

Berg served as secretary treasurer of the Great Plains Rocky Mountain Division of the Association of American Geographers from 1994 to 2008 and was faculty sponsor for the Delta Zeta Chapter of Gamma Theta Upsilon beginning in 1994. He was the first instructor at South Dakota State University to offer live, real time interactive television courses on the Brookings campus and received two Governor’s Grants in 2000 and 2002 for the application of computer technology to online instruction in physical geography.

His research, professional presentations, and publications addressed topics including Native American casinos, the historical geography of railroads, federal defense and water development programs, and related book reviews and encyclopedia contributions. His later work focused on the historical geography of the Dust Bowl era in the northern Great Plains and the development and significance of the American Indian Reservation system in South Dakota.

Sherwood O. Berg was born and raised near Hendrum, Minnesota, where he actively participated in 4-H and took on responsibilities managing the family farm after the death of his father. He began his post-secondary education at the University of Minnesota's School of Agriculture before transferring to South Dakota State College (SDSC) in 1940, drawn by the strength of its agricultural program. His education was interrupted by military service in World War II, during which he served in the U.S. Army as a field infantryman and later as a Military Government Food and Agricultural Officer.

Following the war, Berg completed his B.S. degree at SDSC in 1947, earned an M.S. from Cornell University in 1948, and received his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota in 1951. He served internationally as Agricultural Attaché to Yugoslavia, Norway, and Denmark (1951–1957) before returning to academia as Professor and Head of Agricultural Economics at the University of Minnesota. In 1963, he was appointed Dean of the Institute of Agriculture at the same institution and served as chair of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s National Advisory Commission on Food and Fiber.

From 1973 to 1975, Berg directed The Indonesia Project of the Midwest Universities Consortium and later returned to SDSU as its President on August 1, 1975, becoming the first alumnus to hold the role. His presidency was marked by institutional growth, international partnerships in Syria, Botswana, Senegal, and Mauritania, and increasing numbers of international students. He also facilitated the creation of SDSU’s first endowed faculty position—the Ethel Austin Martin-Edward Moss Martin Chair in Human Nutrition. He retired in 1984 as President Emeritus.

Berg married Elizabeth Ann Hall in 1952. They had two children.

Willibald C. Bianchi was born on March 12, 1915, in New Ulm, Minnesota, to Joseph and Carrie Bianchi.

He enrolled at South Dakota State College in 1937 and joined the R.O.T.C. program. Upon graduating in 1940, he was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the U.S. Army and entered Infantry School at Fort Benning, Georgia, later earning promotion to First Lieutenant.

In April 1941, Bianchi was assigned to the 45th Infantry Regiment of the Philippine Scouts to assist in training Filipino soldiers. He remained in the Philippines after the U.S. entered World War II and was wounded during the Battle of Bataan on February 3, 1942. Despite multiple injuries, he continued fighting until he was incapacitated by an explosion. For his actions, General Douglas MacArthur awarded him the Medal of Honor, making Bianchi the third recipient of the medal during the war.

Promoted to Captain, Bianchi was captured on April 9, 1942, during the fall of Bataan. He endured the Bataan Death March and worked to aid fellow prisoners in the camps. After over two years in captivity, he died on January 9, 1945, when an unmarked prison ship was bombed by American forces.

Bianchi’s remains were never recovered. He is commemorated on the Wall of the Missing at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial in the Philippines, with a grave marker at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, Hawaii.

In 1998, South Dakota State University honored Captain Bianchi with a memorial plaque in the Student Union, a commemorative ceremony, and the establishment of a scholarship in his name.

The George Biggar Papers document the career of a South Dakota-born broadcaster whose work in agricultural communication and radio production spanned from the 1920s through the 1960s. The collection likely includes materials related to Biggar’s early education and student publications at South Dakota State University, his professional correspondence and scripts from WLS in Chicago and WLW in Cincinnati, and documentation of his contributions to rural broadcasting and wartime agricultural reporting. His involvement in creating the National Barn Dance program and his oversight of farm and entertainment programming illustrate his role in shaping early American radio.

George Biggar played a significant role in the development of rural and agricultural radio in the United States. His work bridged the fields of agriculture, mass communication, and entertainment during a formative period for radio broadcasting. His participation in international agricultural tours during World War II reflects the connection between media and agricultural policy. Biggar’s career demonstrates the influence of South Dakota State University alumni in national broadcasting history and agricultural outreach.