Scientist Emil O. Deere
  - providing glimpses of everyday life at Bethany College, in Lindsborg, and beyond, through his service - *
Deere's Service
1901 - 1966
- A Partial Listing -
Bethany College Service
  • 1903 Teddy Roosevelt Bethany College Republican Club President of nearly 160 members
  • Head of the Biology Department from 1904 to 1955 (51 years)
  • Last College Museum Curator from 1908 to 1966 (58 years)
  • First College Dean of Liberal Arts and Sciences from 1917 to 1948 (31 years)
  • College Vice President from 1918 to 1921 (3 years)
  • Kansas Association of College Deans President from 1937 to 1944 (7 years)
  • Honored on his retirement as “Dean Emeritus” by the Kansas Association of College Deans
  • Bethany College Swedish American work for the 1938 Founding of New Sweden's 300th Anniversary (1638)
  • College Registrar from 1939 to 1948 (9 years)
  • Kansas Association of Registrars president for 2 terms, life membership
  • College Civic League President
  • Organized the move of the College Museum to the McPherson County Old Mill Museum location for 1967

Bethany College Athletic and Sports Service
  • College Athletic Association member since 1901
  • Created college cheer of "Rokar Stokar" with others in 1902 (Still used today!)
  • College athletic committee member 1913 and Tennis Association secretary in 1913
  • College Athletic Advisor and Manager of Athletics representing Bethany at the Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conferences
  • Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conferences president for nine (9) years, traveling to meetings of the National Collegiate Athletic Conferences in New Orleans in 1929, in Chicago in 1933 and in Los Angles in 1940

Science Service
  • Kansas Academy of Science (K AS) president from 1940 to 1941, life member since 1925, joined 1905
        Deere's Presidential Address, Crowding and Its Effects on Organisms, to the Kansas Academy of Science in 1941 can be viewed HERE.
  • Kansas Academy of Science (KAS) representative to national meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) of which he was associated since 1906
  • Sigma Xi Research Society (est. 1886) early member and granted an honorary alumni membership in 1942

College and Community Military Service
  • World War I Lindsborg Home Guard organizer, serving as captain of the unit
  • College Student Army Training Corps (S.A.T.C.) educational director 
  • College World War II Army and Navy programs involvements
  • College Civil Aeronautical Authority coordinator in 1941, reporting to the Civil Aeronautical Administration during 1942-1943
  • College Military Advisory Committee chairman in 1942 and college representative in the Naval V-1 and V-7 programs
  •  Part of college civilian pilot course in 1942, and, in 1943, appointed as the War Training Service Program Coordinator
  • One of two college faculty members in 1945 who visited the inducting and separation center at Fort Leavenworth, both representing Bethany College at Veteran Council meetings in McPherson
  • Worked as, after war, one of the college’s representatives in procuring surplus military equipment that could be used by Bethany College, contracting for the procurement were the Federal Works Agency and the War Assets Administration
Lindsborg and McPherson Hospital Service
  • Organizer in the development of the Lindsborg Community Hospital beginning in 1943, conducting financial drives for its construction, discussing the hospital plan for support in surrounding communities for its construction beginning in 1948, and dedication in 1949 with 1,500 people present
  • President of the Lindsborg Community Hospital Board of Directors for 19 years   
  • Board member of the McPherson County Hospital Board of Directors for 10 years beginning in 1948

Bethany Evangelical Lutheran Church Service
  • Bethany Lutheran Church member from 1902 to 1966 (64 years)
  • Bethany Church Council secretary for 10 years
  • Kansas Conference of the Augustana Synod delegate
  • Bethany College representative at annual Association of Lutheran College Faculties Conferences, and North Central Lutheran Education Conferences

Local Lindsborg History Preservation Service
  • Charter founding member of Lindsborg Historical Society and served as its president in the 1920s
  • Key witness in the naming of “Coronado Heights” from one of the hills of the Smoky Valley Bluffs northwest of Lindsborg. 
  •  Only living charter member at the time the Lindsborg Historical Society became  known as the Smoky Valley Historical Association in 1963, honored with a life membership
  • Drew map entitled "Karta OFVER SMOKY HILL RIVER DALEN, McPherson—Saline Counties" for Swedish Ruth Billdt’s, 1965 Pioneer Swedish-American Culture in Central Kansas
  • Became member of the McPherson County Historical Society in 1933 serving on its board
  • Reactivated the McPherson County Historical Society in 1962 with Jim Cassler and Anton Peterson as incorporators
Sources:  Deere's Resume and Leon Lungstrom’s 1990 book, History of Natural Science and Mathematics at Bethany College, Lindsborg, Kansas, chapter on E. O. Deere, beginning on page 147.
- DEERE'S MAP OF McPHERSON and SALINE COUNTIES -
inside front cover and on next page of 
Ruth Billdt's 1965 Pioneer Swedish-American Culture in Central Kansas 
On May 30, 1955
Dr. Emil O. Deere was made Professor Emeritus of Biology
by
Bethany College
Picture
Source: Bethany College Archives for Emil O. Deere
For Deere's Education go HERE
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