Tag: College of Agriculture and Life Sciences

Modern college associated with these majors.

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

Headshot of Harry J Romm

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 

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

John Baggett Small Sr.

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.

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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.

Sources

Photo Credit: The Bomb

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Williams, James Estel  (M.S., Animal Production, 1948)

Headshot of James Estel Williams ca. 1971.

James Estel Williams was the fourth child of seven born to Lizzie Smith a cook at a local hotel, in Maysville, Kentucky, on 15 September 1921. He graduated from Wilberforce University in Ohio with an undergraduate degree. Following graduation, he was drafted into the Army, serving as a Technician Fifth Grade overseas during World War II (“James Estel Williams”).

After returning from overseas, Williams attended Iowa State College and acquired his Master’s of Science in Animal Production in 1948. During his time at ISC, Williams lived at 218 Lincoln Way, the home of Archie and Nancy Martin. In 1949, he married Lillian Harrison Croom, whom he had met at Wilberforce University. The couple eventually had five children together. Williams put his degree to use teaching agricultural courses for the Veterans Administration in Owensboro, Kentucky, a job he held through 1950. He also taught science classes at the Lincoln Institute in Lincoln Ridge, Kentucky, early in his career (“James E. Williams, Sr.”).

Following a lifelong dream, Williams graduated with his juris doctor from Saint Louis University School of Law in 1962, becoming a member of the American Bar Association, Illinois Bar Association and American Trial Layers Association and helped to found the Metro-East Bar Association (“James E. Williams, Sr.”; Williams, 2017). He put his services to work for the good of the community by founding the first Legal Aid Society of St. Clair County and then acting as its Executive Director (Williams, 2017). For years, Williams also had a private law practice and, from 1951 to 1968, he worked as a civil servant at the Granite City Army Depot, eventually becoming the Federal Compliance Officer and also a member of the Commanding Office Staff (Williams, 2017; “James E. Williams, Sr.”).

Williams served East St. Louis, IL, as its first black mayor from 1971 to 1975. He ran on a platform of improving the economy, making East St. Louis safer, providing more recreation opportunities for the community’s kids, and creating more harmony among the races in order to improve the overall climate of the community (“James E. Williams, Sr.”). His efforts to bring more business investment to East St. Louis and turn around a community in crisis, which had lost almost 70% of its businesses between 1960 and 1970 (“East St. Louis”), earned Williams the moniker of “optimist.” While in office, he brought in federal and state grant funding, supported urban renewal and addressed unemployment among Black workers, expanded the police force Following his time in office, from 1976-1978, he took up the role of East St. Louis School Board president (“James E. Williams, Sr.”).

He died 12 February 1983 and is buried in the Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery in Lemay, Missouri (“James Estel Williams”).

Iowa State College Dissertation Title: Corn from high and low productive lands for growing and fattening pigs, 1948 

Iowa State University Catalog Record:https://iowa-primo.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/f/12tutg/01IASU_ALMA21180001910002756

Sources

Photo credit: Williams, Lillian. (2017, 2 Jul.). African-American political turning point recalled on 100th anniversary of the ESTL Race Riot. Medium, https://medium.com/@lillianwilliams/african-american-political-turning-point-recalled-on-this-100th-anniversary-of-the-estl-race-riot-36e40dc5328f

East St. Louis: One city’s story. (2002, 31 Dec.). Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. https://www.stlouisfed.org/publications/bridges/winter-20022003/east-st-louis-one-citys-story

James E. Williams, Sr.; E. St. Louis ex-mayor. (1983, 14 Feb.). St. Louis Post-Dispatch, p. 14.

James Estel Williams. (2019, 22 Oct.). Find-a-Grave. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/204056318/james-estel-williams

Williams, Lillian. (2017, 2 Jul.). African-American political turning point recalled on 100th anniversary of the ESTL Race Riot. Medium, https://medium.com/@lillianwilliams/african-american-political-turning-point-recalled-on-this-100th-anniversary-of-the-estl-race-riot-36e40dc5328f

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