Leland Everett Call is professor of agronomy in the Kansas State Agricultural College at Manhattan. Though still a young man he has gone far in the science of agriculture, is already a recognized authority in several special lines, and since coming to Kansas ten years ago has done much to uphold the prestige of the splendid school at Manhattan.
He was born at Kent, Ohio, February 9, 1881, the oldest of the four children of Charles A. and Olive (Prior) Call. Both his parents are natives of Ohio, and are still living in that state. His father is a farmer and it was on a farm that Professor Call and his brothers and sisters were reared and received their early training. His paternal grandfather, Moses Call, went to Ohio about 1840, was born in New Hampshire and represented an old New England family. He married a Miss Starr, whose father, Josiah Starr, removed to Ohio as early as 1812. The Starr family was identified with New England practically from the beginning of colonization. Professor Call’s maternal grandfather was Samuel Prior, and that family went out of Connecticut into the Western Reserve of Ohio in the early days. Samuel Prior himself was born in Ohio and he married a Miss Everett, whose people also came from Connecticut.
Leland Everett Call as a boy attended the rural schools. He graduated from the high school at Hudson, Ohio, and in 1899 from the Western Reserve Academy of Hudson in 1902. He received every encouragement and advantage and wisely improved his opportunities not only to secure an education but make the best use of it. In 1906 he graduated from the Ohio State University with his bachelor’s degree in agriculture. Six years later he returned to the University and after post-graduate work was granted the degree of Master of Science.
When Mr. Call came to the Kansas State Agricultural College on January 1, 1907, he began his duties as assistant in agronomy. He became associate professor in 1911 and since 1913 has held the chair of agronomy.
He is a member of the American Society of Agronomy and the Association for the Advancement of Science. He is an associate editor of the Journal of the American Society of Agronomy, and is a joint author of two books, the Call and Schafter work entitled “A Laboratory Manual of Agriculture,” and the Call and Kent text book “Agriculture for the Kansas Common Schools.” He belongs to the honorary scientific fraternity Sigma Xi, to the Alpha Zeta and Phi Kappa Phi, and is a member of the Congregational Church. In 1910 Mr. Call married Miss Clara Willis of New Bedford, Massachusetts. They are the parents of one child, Marjorie.