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.