FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 26, 2017, 2:00 p.m. CDT
Jason Hogue, Director of Marketing and Communications
Peru State College, (402) 872-2429
Peru, Nebraska - As part of Peru State College’s sesquicentennial celebration, the College is seeking
to honor some of its prestigious alumni and their achievements on important dates
in their lives. This monthly series cannot recognize every distinguished graduate,
but it may highlight some of the continuing contributions of Peru State alums.
The first alumnus recognized is Robert Dinsmore Harrison, who graduated from Peru
State College in 1926. The 120th anniversary of his birthday is January 26, 2017.
Harrison was born in Panama, Nebraska in 1897. According to the Omaha World-Herald,
Harrison served in the U.S. Army during World War I before attending Peru State, when
the school was named Nebraska State Teachers College at Peru.
While Harrison attended Peru, he was a member of multiple organizations, including
Y.M.C.A., Everett Literary Society, the Debate Squad, Track, Men’s Club and Delta
Alpha Pi. In his final year at Peru State, Harrison was named the Most Collegiate
Man by the entire student body, and his wife, Mary, was named the Most Collegiate
Woman.
The Men’s Club at Peru State was created “to promote the best interest and good fellowship
among the men of the college,” according to the 1926 Peruvian Yearbook.
Harrison was not only president of the Men’s Club, but he was also the president of
Delta Alpha Pi, a professional fraternity in Peru that was organized during the 1924
– 1925 school year.
The Harrisons graduated in 1926 with only 40 other graduates. Harrison’s senior quote
was noted in the 1926 Peruvian Yearbook as, “Some men are born for great things.
Page dedicated to Robert Harrison as Most Collegiate Man in the "Peruvian" yearbook from 1926.
Page dedicated to Mary Harrison as Most Collegiate Woman in the "Peruvian" yearbook from 1926.
Harrison became the superintendent of schools in Bradshaw, Nebraska from 1926 to 1929
and in DeWitt, Nebraska from 1929 to 1937. Harrison served as president of the Norfolk
Chamber of Commerce, chairman of the Madison County Civil Defense Board, on the Governor’s
Highway Advisory Committee and the Norfolk, Nebraska School Board. He also owned and
operated an oil business in Norfolk and a farm in Cedar County.
In 1951, Harrison was elected as a Republican to the U.S. House of Representatives.
For three consecutive terms, Harrison represented Nebraska’s third district. In 1959,
Harrison left congress to serve as the Nebraska State Director of the Federal Crop
Insurance Corporation
Harrison retired to Norfolk, Nebraska in 1962. On June 11, 1977, at age 80, Harrison
passed away and was buried in the Panama (Nebraska) Cemetery.
###