Showing 404 results

James “Jimmy” Jay Ley was born in Algona, Iowa in 1922. He grew up in Lakota, Iowa and participated in Boy Scouts and basketball. After graduating from Lakota High School in 1940, Ley attended Grinnell College for two years. Ley did not complete his studies at Grinnell because he enlisted in the Army Air Force in 1942. Ley completed basic training at Sheppard Field, Texas. He was additionally stationed and trained at bomber-engineer school in Baltimore, Maryland; gunnery school in Buckingham Field, Fort Myers, Florida; and combat service and flight engineer school in Barksdale Filed, Shreveport, Louisiana. Ley was sent to England in 1943. He completed twenty-one missions over Europe as an engineer gunner on a bomber in the 451st Bombardment Squadron. In 1944, Ley was reported missing in action over Abbeville, France. His death was confirmed in 1945. In 1949, his body was found in an unmarked civilian grave in France and returned to his family in Lakota for burial. Ley was awarded the air medal, two oak leaf clusters, and the Purple Heart.

Leggett was a retired president of Grinnell College and former professor of English. He received his B.A. degree from Middlebury College in Vermont and his master’s and doctoral degrees from the Ohio State University. Before assuming the presidency at Grinnell, he taught English at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Ohio State University, and the University of Washington where he moved into administrative work.

Mr. Leggett was a noted author in the field of English literature and writing; his publications include Handbook for Writers and Theme and Form. After his retirement he delighted family, friends, and colleagues with occasional letters and essays that he had bound and given as gifts.

Duane Krohnke came to Grinnell from Perry, Iowa and graduated from Grinnell College in the spring of 1961.

John Kleinschmidt was professor of French at Grinnell College from 1948 until his retirement in 1977. Following his retirement, he devoted his energies to studying the history of the Grinnell community and became widely known for his knowledge of town architecture, culture, and people. Following his death in 2000, many of the photographs and historical documentation he collected were donated to the Department of Special Collections and Archives.

Conney M. Kimbo served as the Dean of Student Affairs from 1970-1973. The Conney M. Kimbo Black Cultural Center, originally built in 1970, was later renamed in his honor.

Margaret Matlack Kiesel (1908-1987) was a writer, educator, feminist, and civil rights activist. She received her B.A. from Grinnell College in 1930 and her M.A. at Oberlin in 1932. She and her husband, Paul F., lived in Minnesota and Marshalltown, Iowa before returning to Grinnell in 1970. The bulk of the materials in this collection are from her work after her return to Grinnell and most of her published work is from this period. At the time of her death she was compiling a sociological and educational history of women in Grinnell.