Duane Calvin Acker

Duane Acker, of Atlantic, former president of Kansas State University, and the University of Nebraska’s first vice chancellor for Agriculture and Natural Resources, died December 13, 2024, in his hometown of Atlantic, IA.

Born on the family farm near Atlantic on March 13, 1931, he learned early the satisfaction of physical work and that both animals and people respond to personal attention and care. Graduating in a class of eighteen from the Consolidated High School in Wiota, Iowa, he won first place in a county-wide scholarship examination to study at Iowa State University.

Acker met his future wife, Shirley, at the Cass County fair. They married in March 1952 and moved into a Quonset on the edge of the Iowa State campus. He received his Master’s degree in animal nutrition. The couple and their daughter then moved to Stillwater, Oklahoma. At Oklahoma State University, he taught full-time while working on a Ph.D. The couple’s second daughter was born.

After receiving his Ph.D., he accepted a teaching position at Iowa State. While there, he wrote the textbook, Animal Science and Industry, at the dining room table at night and on weekends, with Shirley doing the drawings and helping select illustrations. This textbook was translated into several languages and has served students for fifty years through seven editions.

In 1973, he was recruited to head the University of Nebraska’s new Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources. In addition to the College of Agriculture, experiment station, and extension, the institute included the School for Technical Agriculture at Curtis, Nebraska, the university’s Water Research Institute, and Nebraska’s statewide geological survey.

While at Nebraska, he and his wife opened their home to faculty, students, townspeople, and university supporters, sometimes hosting two groups in an afternoon or evening.

He was chosen to be President of Kansas State University in 1975, serving until 1986, when President Reagan appointed him to serve as head of Food and Agriculture for the U.S. Agency for International Development. President H.W. Bush appointed him to lead the Foreign Agricultural Service. He was then appointed and confirmed as Assistant Secretary of Agriculture for Science and Education.

At the end of the Bush administration, the Ackers returned to their farm in Atlantic, Iowa.

He loved dancing with Shirley, working on and driving his Model A, and researching his family history. He was very proud of his students’ achievements, had continuing relationships with many, and continued to encourage the young people around him.

Dr. Acker is survived by his daughters, Diane and husband Terry Nygaard and their son, Eric, Overland Park, KS; and LuAnn Acker and husband Bill Tout, Ft. Myers, FL; brother-in-law John Rasmussen, Temecula, CA; and many cousins, nieces, and nephews. Preceding him in death were his parents William Clayton and Ruth Acker, wife Shirley, sister Virginia Lorraine Rasmussen, and grandson Clayton Nygaard, sister-in-law Jeannie Hansen Jones, of Shell Knob, MO.

The memorial service will be held at 2:00 p.m. on Wednesday, December 18, 2024, at the Schmidt Family Funeral Home in Atlantic, IA. A light luncheon will follow the service in the reception room of the Schmidt Family Funeral Home.

In honor of Duane, memorials may be directed to the Heritage House, First Presbyterian Church of Atlantic, or the YMCA Atlantic. Memorials may also be mailed to the Schmidt Family Funeral Home, P.O. Box 523, Atlantic, IA 50022.

The staff of Schmidt Family Funeral Home in Atlantic is handling the services for the Acker Family.