- Photo courtesy of Nebraska State Historical Society
William Kirk Fowler, Sr.
Superintendent of Public Instruction
b. 1865,
d. Mar 1938
W. K. Fowler was born in Tenafly, NJ. He was educated in New York, Monmouth, IL and Edinburgh, Scotland before coming to Nebraska in 1883. He taught school in Dodge County and was superintendent of schools in Scribner and Blair. He served on the Educational Council of Nebraska as a member of the Superintendent and Principals' section in 1898. He was also on the Executive Committee of the State Teachers' Association.
He became superintendent of public instruction, State of Nebraska, Lincoln in 1901. He served as a member of the Nebraska Public Library Commission board of commissioners at that time by virtue of his position. He was elected secretary pro tem of the board until an executive secretary could be hired. He was one of the committee of three that was appointed to find a location for the newly formed Nebraska Public Library Commission. "He reported on behalf of the committee that it was impossible to secure a room in the capitol building for headquarters and office below the third floor." (Minutes, July 15, 1901, p 2-3).
He died in Lincoln after a two-year illness in 1938. He was 73 years old. He had been a book representative with the University Publishing Company and the John C. Winston Company shortly before his death.
Obituary, Lincoln Star, March 28, 1938
Nebraska Blue Book, 1898-1900