Rural Matters

Many of America's leaders, people who have--or are--shaping the arts, academics, business, government, human rights, science, technology, and other public fields got their start in rural communities and schools.

We term these people "World Changers" and we're celebrating them and publicizing their accomplishments here on Rural Matters.

Help us add to this ongoing catalog of rural Americans who have made or are making significant contributions to our public lives. Send us the name, rural community or school, and accomplishments of rural "World Changers" of the 20th and 21st centuries.

We'll feature new nominations on the front page of Rural Matters and then we'll catalog them here on the Rural World Changers Resource page.

You can also add to, change, or comment on "World Changers" nominations already posted. If you'd like, we'll credit you for your nomination.

Nominate a rural "World Changer."

RURAL AMERICA'S WORLD CHANGERS

DOUG BURGUM is chairman of Microsoft Business Solutions, one of Microsfot Corporations seven core business centers. Burgum is a native of Arthur, North Dakota, population 400. He attended North Dakota State University and earned his MBA from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business. At Microsoft, Burgum reports to Jeff Raikes, president of the Microsoft Business Division.

DICK CAVETT, Gibbon, Nebraska. Cavett hosted a number of television and occasionally radio talk programs called "The Dick Cavett Show" on several networks. The shows began in the 1960s and continue to the present.

JAMES FERGASUN inventor, Wakenda, Missouri. Fergason is recognized throughout the world as a pioneer of modern liquid crystal technology. Starting in November of 1957 when he saw his first liquid crystal, he has continued to conduct research leading to many applications as well as a better understanding of this state of matter.

Throughout his distinguished career, Dr. Fergason developed over 150 patents on liquid crystal technology, leading to scientific advancements that improved the lives of millions of individuals. His research resulted in the introduction of many new products that leveraged liquid crystal technology including optical medical and safety devices, quartz watches, LCD displays, and much more.

JAY W. FORRESTER is a pioneer American computer engineer and systems theorist. He was born 14 July 1918, on a cattle ranch in Climax, Nebraska, twenty miles from the nearest town of Anselmo. The ranch had been homesteaded by his parents, Duke and Ethel Forrester.

Forrester was educated at MIT in electrical engineering, where he spent his entire career. During the 1940s and early 50s, he did research in electrical and computer engineering, heading the Whirlwind project and developing the "Multi-coordinate digitally information storage device" (coincident-current system), the forerunner of today's RAM. He is believed to have created the first animation in the history of computer graphics, a "jumping ball" on an oscilloscope.

AUTHERINE LUCY FOSTER was the first African American student to attend the University of Alabama. She was born and went to school through junior high in Shiloh, Alabama. She was admitted to Graduate School at the University in 1952, but the University repealed her admissionwhen it discovered that she was African American. She approached the NAACP, which filed a lawsuit under the leadership of Thurgood Marshall. In 1955 the NAACP secured a court order restraining the University from rejecting applicant students on the basis of race. In February of 1956 (seven years before Governor George Wallace made his infamous "stand in the school house door" to block James Hood and Vivian Malone from entering), Autherine Lucy began attending classes at the University as angry white mobs became increasingly violent. After three days the University suspended her "for her own safety" and then expelled her. In 1980 the University overturned the expulsion and in1992, Autherine Lucy Foster earned a Masters in Elementary Education. She is widely recognized for her courage in pioneering the desegregation of public universities in the south in what is widely considered to be one of the first tests of the Brown decision.

LORENZO DOW FULLER, JR. starred in 1947 in a 15-minute variety program on NBC, becoming the first African American to host a national television show. He also shaped early television as a special material writer and musical director. Fuller grew up in Stockton, Kansas.

CORETTA SCOTT KING, civil and human rights activist, namesake of the Coretta Scott King Book Award of the American Library Association, and wife of Martin Luther King, Jr. She was born in Heiberger, Alabama in Perry County, where she attended school through junior high. She went to high school at Lincoln Academy in Marion, also in Perry County, and earned degrees from Antioch College and New England Conservatory of Music. Coretta Scott King established the King Center, promoted non-violence and worked for human and civil rights in South Africa and across the globe, and worked to establish Martin Luther King Day as a national holiday.

CLAUDE PEPPER represented Florida for 61 years in the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives, serving from 1936 to 1950 in the Senate and from 1962 to 1989 in the House. He chaired the House Select Committee on Aging and is most widely remembered for his advocacy work for the elderly. Claude Pepper was born in Dudleyville, Alabama in Tallapoosa County and attended school in Camp Hill, also in Tallapoosa County.

JEFF RAIKES, President, Microsoft Business Division. Raikes was born in Ashland, Nebraska. His brother, Ron Raikes, runs the family farm there and serves as Chair of the Nebraska legislature’s education committee.