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John Howard Kramer was born on November 12, 1902, in Canning, South Dakota. He was raised in Pierre and graduated from Pierre High School in 1920. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of South Dakota in 1924, followed by a master's degree from the University of Iowa in 1930 and a doctorate from Colorado State University in 1943. On July 17, 1926, he married Lenette Dunlap in Vermillion, South Dakota. The couple had two children, John and Miriam.

Kramer dedicated over 50 years to education in South Dakota. He began his career as a debate coach and teacher at Madison High School from 1924 to 1927, later serving as superintendent of public schools in various South Dakota communities for 18 years. In 1945, he transitioned to higher education, becoming president of Southern State College in Springfield, a position he held until 1954. From 1954 to 1956, he was professor and head of the Education Department as well as Director of Summer School at South Dakota State University. He then served as president of Northern State College from 1956 to 1968 before returning to SDSU as a professor of education. He was later named president emeritus of Northern State College and professor emeritus at South Dakota State University.

Frank Charles William Kuehn was born on September 4, 1884, in LeMars, Iowa. His family moved to Dakota Territory when he was just seven months old, settling on a claim in Jackson Township, Sanborn County, on March 1, 1885. The family lived in a sod shanty, surrounded by Kuehn's extended family, including his grandfather and the siblings of his parents, Elizabeth and Frank Theodore Kuehn. In March 1903, the family relocated to Huron, South Dakota, where Kuehn would live for the next 67 years. On June 3, 1914, Kuehn married Amelia Johanna Wagner, and together they had three daughters: Jeannette, Lois, and Margaret. Amelia passed away in October 1950 due to a heart attack, and Kuehn remarried Florence Dokken Hanson on August 15, 1954.

From a young age, Kuehn was determined to become an architect. He enrolled in the International Correspondence Schools in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and in 1907 began working for Huron architect George Issenhuth. He continued working for Issenhuth through 1909 while furthering his studies. On September 9, 1909, Kuehn opened his own architectural office in Huron, SD, and quickly established himself as a school architect with a design for a two-story brick school in Frankfort, SD. This building, a notable example of Prairie-School Style architecture, marked the beginning of his 41-year relationship with the South Dakota Department of Public Instruction.

In 1918, to supplement his income during a decline in building projects due to World War I, Kuehn began selling insurance. He continued this work alongside his architecture throughout his life. In the early 1920s, Kuehn designed homes and notable downtown Huron buildings, and began producing county maps for South Dakota, North Dakota, and Minnesota. In the 1930s, he founded the Huron Blueprint Co., which provided services during the Great Depression. He also worked for the Home Owners Loan Corporation, inspecting homes for financing. During the 1940s, Kuehn’s Standard Rural School Plans gained recognition beyond South Dakota.

In the 1950s, Kuehn shifted his focus almost exclusively to his expanding county map business. By the 1960s, he had broadened his maps to include highway maps for Minnesota counties and compiled books combining maps from South Dakota, North Dakota, and Minnesota, which sold well. Kuehn passed away in 1970 following an illness. Over the course of his career, he designed numerous projects, many of which are detailed in the 1984 publication F.C.W. Kuehn Prairie Architect, written by his daughters, which documents his life and architectural contributions.

David J. Law grew up in Gary, South Dakota, and graduated from South Dakota State University in Brookings in 1966. He began his studies as a geography major, later became a high school basketball coach, and eventually switched to a speech major, which evolved into a focus on journalism and broadcasting. Law later served as news director at KWAT in Watertown, South Dakota.

Harold E. Lee (1919–2012) was a lifelong resident of Moody County, South Dakota. Born on October 26, 1919, in Flandreau, he was raised in the nearby communities of Colman and Egan. He graduated from Flandreau High School in 1938 and enlisted in the Flandreau National Guard shortly thereafter. Lee maintained strong ties to his community throughout his life, participating in local organizations and preserving personal and family history. He was married to Mary Lee, and the couple were active in civic and social life in South Dakota

Dr. Lee earned a B.S. in Journalism from the University of Maryland in 1975, followed by an M.A. in Journalism from South Dakota State University in 1976. She later completed a Ph.D. in Sociology, with a minor in Asian Studies, at South Dakota State University in 1998.

Before beginning her academic career, Dr. Lee worked for five years as a newspaper reporter in the Washington, D.C. area, covering issues ranging from urban hunger to teen pregnancy. Over the course of 25 years at SDSU, she has held a variety of teaching and administrative positions, most recently serving as diversity coordinator for the College of Engineering. She is also the co-founder and coordinator of the SDSU–Flandreau Indian School Success Academy, an intensive college preparatory program for American Indian high school students.

Dr. Lee has engaged in international scholarship as an exchange professor and visiting scholar at Yunnan Normal University in the People’s Republic of China. She is the author of Ethnicity, Education and Empowerment: How Minority Students in Southwest China Construct Identities and Ethnicity Matters: Rethinking How Black, Hispanic and Indian Students Prepare for and Succeed in College.

James K. ""Tex"" Lewis was born on October 24, 1924, in Waco, Texas. He earned a B.S. in Animal Science from Colorado State University in 1948 and an M.S. in Animal Science from Montana State College in 1951, later pursuing graduate studies in range management at Texas A&M University.

As a professor of Animal Sciences at South Dakota State University, Lewis specialized in range management and range livestock nutrition. His research at the Cottonwood and Antelope Range Field Stations focused on grazing systems, supplementation trials, range improvements, and biometric analyses of grassland ecosystems. He was honored with several awards, including the Special Appreciation Award (1975), the Trail Boss Award (1980), and the Outstanding Achievement Award (1984) from the Society for Range Management.

Lewis retired from SDSU in 1985, leaving a lasting impact on the field of range science. His legacy continues through the long-term data he collected, which remains a valuable resource for contemporary research in sustainable rangeland and livestock management. Current studies analyzing stocking rates, forage productivity, and ecological sustainability continue to build on the foundational work Lewis conducted across South Dakota’s rangelands.

The Academic Women's Equity Coalition was established at South Dakota State University during the 1983–1984 academic year in response to informal conversations among faculty members concerned with workplace policies and professional opportunities. Open to all faculty and supporters of its mission, the coalition aimed to promote equity in hiring, salary, promotion, and tenure practices. It provided a forum for discussing faculty experiences, identifying institutional barriers, and fostering professional development.

The coalition advocated for clear, consistent communication in professional contexts and supported faculty interested in administrative advancement. Through these efforts, it contributed to institutional conversations about fairness, transparency, and career progression within the university setting.

Eugene “Gene” Henry Lothrop was born on August 16, 1920, in Redfield, South Dakota. He graduated from Huron High School in 1938 and earned a degree in electrical engineering from South Dakota State College in 1942. On December 20, 1942, he married Wilma “Jean” Walters. Gene worked as the foreman for Lothrop’s Electrical Service, owned by Elmer M. Lothrop. He passed away on April 15, 2014, in Prescott, Arizona.

Henry Langford Loucks was born on May 24, 1846, in Hull, Ontario, Canada, to William J. and Anna (York) Loucks. Educated in Canadian common schools, he married Florence Isabel McCraney on May 22, 1878, in Oakville, Ontario. They had seven children, four of whom—Perry, Anna, Elizabeth, and Daniel—survived to adulthood.

Loucks immigrated to the United States, operating mercantile businesses in Michigan and Missouri before settling on a government homestead near Clear Lake in Deuel County, Dakota Territory, in 1884. Arriving as the regional economic boom declined, he experienced firsthand the challenges facing farmers. In response, he organized a “farmer’s club,” which evolved into the Territorial Alliance and affiliated with the National Farmers’ Alliance in 1885. As its president, Loucks promoted cooperative ventures such as insurance and merchandising enterprises and founded The Dakota Ruralist, a newspaper that advanced his reform ideas for two decades.

Initially active in the Republican Party, Loucks and his associates sought to achieve reform from within. In 1890, he was nominated for governor at a joint convention of the Knights of Labor and the state Farmers’ Alliance. Although he lost the election, his efforts helped consolidate support for a new political movement—the Populist Party. He presided over its first national convention in 1892 and that same year became president of the National Farmers’ Alliance and Industrial Union. A strong proponent of direct democracy, Loucks was instrumental in securing adoption of the initiative and referendum process in South Dakota in 1898.

Loucks wrote extensively on political and economic reform. His publications include The New Monetary System (1893), Government Ownership of Railroads and Telegraphs (1894), and The Great Conspiracy of the House of Morgan and How to Defeat It (1916). Though he lived for many years in Watertown, South Dakota, he died in Clear Lake on December 29, 1928.

Charles A. Lundquist was born on March 26, 1928, in Webster, South Dakota. He graduated early from high school in 1945 intending to enlist in the military but instead enrolled at South Dakota State University, earning a Bachelor of Science in engineering physics. He later received a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Kansas in 1953, where he also met and married Patricia Richardson in 1951.

Lundquist began his career as an assistant professor of engineering at Pennsylvania State University, conducting research on homing torpedoes in the university’s Ordnance Research Laboratory. Drafted into the U.S. Army in 1954, he completed basic training at Fort Bliss and was assigned to Redstone Arsenal, working in the Guided Missile Development Division while also teaching at Athens College. After completing his service, he became Chief of Physics and Astrophysics at the Army Ballistic Missile Agency.

In 1960, he joined NASA’s newly formed Marshall Space Flight Center, contributing to early spaceflight projects including Explorer 1 under the leadership of Wernher von Braun. Two years later, Lundquist became assistant director of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory’s Scientific Research Project in Cambridge, Massachusetts, while also serving on NASA’s lunar exploration planning group—a position he attributed to the influence of astronomer Fred Lawrence Whipple.

Lundquist returned to the Marshall Space Flight Center in 1973 to serve as Director of the Space Sciences Laboratory following the death of Gerhard B. Heller. There, he played a key role in the Skylab and Space Shuttle programs until his retirement in 1981.

Following his NASA career, Lundquist joined the University of Alabama in Huntsville as Associate Vice President for Research and Director of the Interactive Projects Office. He conducted extensive oral history interviews with early American and German rocket scientists, culminating in the publication of his book Transplanted Rocket Pioneers. Although he officially retired in 2000, he continued his research and writing until his death in 2017.