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Kansas Historic Figures George Washington Carver 1861-1943: Agricultural chemist, educator, botanist; born near Diamond Grove, Mo. Born to slave parents, he began his education at age 14 and earned a B.S. and M.S. in agriculture (1894, 1896) from Iowa State College. He directed the agricultural research department at Tuskegee Institute, Alabama (1896--1943), teaching and pioneering an extension program of "movable schools" to train black farmers in agriculture and home economics. Aiming to revitalize and conserve depleted soil, Carver influenced the southern shift from single-crop to diversified agriculture by developing hundreds of products made from peanuts, sweet potatoes, and other crops, many of them commercially viable. He developed a hybrid cotton and was a noted collector of fungi. Working with severely limited resources outside the white scientific establishment, Carver published little more than his 44 Tuskegee Experiment Station bulletins (1898--1942) and, wishing his work to be widely available, obtained only three patents; nevertheless he became a researcher of international stature. He chose not to challenge the system of segregation that existed during his lifetime, but he became one of the chief models of what African-Americans could accomplish. [Return to top] Walter H. Beech 1891-1950: Aviation manufacturer, born in Pulaski, Tennessee, USA. In 1932, after serving as a pilot in the US Army, working as a test pilot, and organizing his first company, Travel Air, he founded the Beech Aircraft Company, which incorporated in 1936. During World War 2 the company produced over 7,000 planes, including Model 18 twin engines. [Return to top] Amelia Earhart 1897-1937: Aviator; born in Atchison, Kansas. Earhart became the first female pilot to complete a solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean -- the first to succeed since Charles Lindburgh's legendary flight in 1927. Four years later, Earhart attempted a flight around the world. She disappeared en route, and was never heard from again. [Return to top] Henry Bloch 1922- Present: Accountant, born in Kansas City, Missouri, USA. Sons of a lawyer whose own father came west as a scout for Kit Carson, the brothers founded the tax preparation firm H & R Block in Kansas City in 1955, opening a branch in New York City the following year. By the mid-1980s the firm, with 9,000 offices in North America, prepared 10 percent of all US and Canadian tax returns. [Return to top] Walter P. Chrysler 1875-1940: Manufacturer; born in Wamego, Kans. He left the American Locomotive Company in 1912 to become works manager of the Buick Motor Company; he was Buick's president from 1916 to 1921, when he became president of the Willys-Overland and Maxwell Motor Company; this became the Chrysler Corporation in 1925. In 1928 he bought Dodge Brothers, Inc., and introduced the Plymouth car which had the industry's first high compression engine. When he retired in 1935, Chrysler Corporation was the second largest auto manufacturer in the world. His autobiography, The Life of an American Workingman, was published in 1937 [Return to top] |
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