Duane C. Acker (March 13, 1931–December 13, 2024) was born in Cass County. Acker spent most of his life—33 years—educating others about agriculture at five midwestern land-grant universities (in Iowa, Oklahoma, Kansas, South Dakota and Nebraska) as a professor, dean of agriculture, vice chancellor and concluding with an 11-year stint as president of Kansas State University.
Then came a half-dozen years in government. He served during the Reagan and Bush administration in Washington, D.C., where he headed food and agriculture programs of the U.S. Agency for International Development 1986–1990 and served as Director of Food and Agriculture from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 1986–1988. From 1990–93, he served as administrator of the International Cooperation and Development and Foreign Agricultural Service, and then as assistant secretary of USDA for Science and Education.
Two of his three degrees came from Iowa State University, where he once was in charge of the popular Farm Operations program designed for students who planned to farm after graduation. He won campus acclaim quickly, and was named “professor of the year” at Iowa State. Acker also authored World Book Encyclopedia sections pertaining to agriculture and livestock and a college text, Animal Science and Industry. His doctorate was awarded in 1957 for animal nutrition from Oklahoma State University.
After being a professor, dean, university president, leader of several foreign agricultural programs and an assistant secretary of agriculture, Dr. Acker bought a line of used equipment and operated his 1500-acre Iowa farm, Talycoed II near Atlantic, Iowa, several years. Now, utilizing anecdotes and illustrations from his several careers, he speaks to audiences and works with businesses and agencies that seek to be successful in the 21st century. He is Board Chair of a 275-owner egg production cooperative and of the Iowa Agricultural Finance Corporation, a private entity that invests, along with producers, in agricultural processing and in biotechnology.
Acker is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Society of Animal Science. He is also honored with Distinguished Service to Agriculture from the Iowa Farm Bureau in 1987.
In his memoir, Two at a Time, Acker wrote, “I think of a university’s leadership as a continuum: successive leaders advancing their university toward its purpose and goals in accord with the circumstances of the time.”
Editor's Note: Duane Acker passed away December 13, 2024 after a long struggle with cancer.
Republished with permission from Muhm, Don and Virginia Wadlsey, Iowans Who Made a Difference: 150 Years of Agricultural Progress, by Don Muhm and Virginia Wadsley, West Des Moines, IA: Iowa Farm Bureau Federation, 1996.
Selected Sources
Iowa State University Department of Animal Science. Duane C. Acker. https://www.ans.iastate.edu/about/history/people/duane-c-acker
Duane Acker, Institute of Agriulture and Natural Resources Vice-Chancellor Records. University of Nebraska–Lincoln Libraries, Archives & Special Collections. https://archives.nebraska.edu/repositories/8/resources/1328