The first alumnus to become president of the university, Milton Eisenhower ’24, ’63 was the younger brother of U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

 

While Eisenhower was president, the Kansas State College Endowment Association — known today as the Kansas State University Foundation — was established, and students elected their first female student body president, Ethelinda Parris Amos ’45.

 

Eisenhower is solely responsible for integrating the Big 7 conference in spite of conference rule. He was the first major university president to declare to segregated schools that K-State had the right to set their lineups as they saw fit, regardless of venue. Here is how the first African American basketball player in the conference Gene Wilson described Eisenhower’s efforts, “It was easy (breaking the color barrier) because the university president was really pushing integration, and that made it easier for all of us.”

 

Eisenhower Hall, home to the College of Arts and Sciences and several departments in the college, is named for the Abilene, Kansas, native.