Dr. R. Douglas Hurt, Ph.D, will be the guest speaker for the newly organized Western Kansas Reading Room located at the Rooks County Historical Society and Museum in Stockton, Kansas, on Sunday, September 7th, 2025, at 2:00 p.m.

Professor Hurt received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Fort Hays State University and received his Ph.D. from Kansas State University. He came to Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, in 2003 as Department Head for the Department of History. Prior service includes Director of the Graduate Program in Agri- tural History and Rural Studies at Iowa State University for fourteen years and Associate Director for the State Historical Society of Missouri.

He has also served as editor of Agricultural History from 1994 to 2003 and as editor of Ohio History from 2006 to 2009. Professor Hurt received the Jon Gjerde Book Award for 2023, presented by the Midwestern History Association for Agriculture in the Midwest, 1815-1900.

(Look for the ad in this week’s issue on Page 8A.)