Agricultural Education Club – The Black ISC Student Experience to 1950

August 24, 2022February 8, 2023

Romm, Harry J. (B.S., Zoology, 1930; M.S., Entomology, 1934; Ph.D. Plant Morphology, 1946)

Harry J. Romm was born 4 Sept 1899 in Navasota, TX, to Benno Romm, born in Schwarzenau, Germany, and a mother from Tennessee.

Romm was still enrolled in public school at age 19 when he registered for the WWI draft in 1918, later graduating from Galveston Central High School, Galveston, Texas. In 1920, according to the Federal Census, Romm was employed as a porter in a dry goods store in Galveston. He married Fannie B. Dunlap in Dallas, Texas, on 11 June 1927 and was listed in 1928 Dallas City Directory as a teacher.

Moving to Ames in 1923, Romm earned his B.S. in Zoology in 1930, M.S. in Entomology in 1934. In 1935, Romm was an attendee at the banquet held by the Iowa State Alumni Association for Frederick D. Patterson’s inauguration as President of Tuskegee where he was listed as the Head of Department of Biology at Tuskegee Institute. While at Tuskegee, he served as a Volunteer Weather Collector for NOAA, a position that was held prior by George Washington Carver. During WWII, he served as a Principal Correspondent for the Army Specialist Corps.

Romm went on to earn his Ph.D. in Plant Morphology in 1946 and was later listed as teaching Biology at Southern University, Louisiana, in 1952. He died on 15 November 1955 and is buried in Lakeview Cemetery, Galveston, Texas. His headstone suggests he was a Catholic.

Iowa State College Dissertation Title: The development and structure of the vegetative and reproductive organs of kudzu, Pueraria thunbergiana (Sieb and Zucc) Benth; The insect depredators of purslane (Portulaca oleracea L.), 1946

Iowa State University Catalog Record:https://quicksearch.lib.iastate.edu/permalink/01IASU_INST/q0r84t/cdi_proquest_journals_301851928

August 24, 2022February 1, 2023

Small, John Baggett, Sr. (B.S., Agricultural Education, 1928)

John Baggett Small was born 24 Jun 1895 in Bertie, North Carolina, the son of Fred Small and Luvenia Williams Small. A WWI vet, Small earned a B.S. Degree in Agriculture from A&T College in Greensboro, North Carolina, and served as a Vocational Teacher at Berry O’Kelly School in Method, North Carolina, before earning a second degree in Agriculture from Iowa State College in 1928. He also attended Hampton University in Hampton, Virginia. Small taught horticulture and held many positions throughout his life, including: superintendent of The Greenhouse at A&T; Principal of Gibson High School in Gibsonville, North Carolina; County Agricultural Agent of Chowan and Perquiman’s Counties, headquarters in Edenton; and County Agent for Chowan County. He was a Freemason, Shriner 32nd Degree and president of Small Enterprises, Inc., in Greensboro. He died on 29 April 1986 in Chowan, North Carolina, and was buried in the Bond Family Cemetery in Windsor, North Carolina.

August 24, 2022February 8, 2023

Smith, Holloway (B.S., Agricultural Education, 1928)

Holloway Smith in full body shot in a crouched position with one hand in front

Holloway Smith was born in Kentucky in 1896. The second black ISC football player, three years after Jack Trice, Smith came to ISC from Michigan State to play football and earn his B.S. in Agriculture Education. He had a successful football career despite being barred from playing in the Missouri Valley Conference, as they had an agreement with Southern schools to not allow African American students to play. This same unfair treatment would bar him from playing against Oklahoma State as well, a detriment to ISC.

After graduating from ISC, Smith moved to Marianna, Arkansas, where he worked for 20 years, serving as a teacher, then master teacher, and then as principal. Later, he served as the state supervisor for the National Youth Association in Arkansas, a New Deal program that provided education, work, and housing for youth ages 16-24 during the Great Depression. Using that experience, Smith became a National Director for the U.S.O.

Later In life, Smith moved to Monterey, California, where he operated a restaurant, before moving to Reno, Nevada in the early 1960s. He died in Reno in 1970 at the age of 73 and was buried in the Mountain View Cemetery there.

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Photo Credit: The Bomb