Gene degruson biography

Gene DeGruson, Kansas author, Map of Kansas Literature.
Gene DeGruson was born 10 October 1932 in Girard, Kansas, to Henry DeGruson, a French coal miner, and his wife, Clemence Merciez.
Gene DeGruson, Southeast Kansas scholar, writer and editor and pioneering archivist and curator of Special Collections at Axe Library, who died on June 18th.

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The annual Gene DeGruson Memorial Lecture is an event sponsored by the Friends of the Leonard H. Axe Library to honor the memory of Mr. Gene DeGruson, Southeast Kansas scholar, writer and editor and pioneering archivist and curator of Special Collections at Axe Library, who died on June 18th, 1997. Gene founded the Special Collections department in 1968, and spent the next twenty-nine years building it into a rich treasure trove of knowledge on local history as well as an archive for Pittsburg State University. He also wrote and edited books and journals of poetry, history and biography.

Gene, who was frequently referred to as a living encyclopedia on Kansas history and culture, loved to share his knowledge with others in the form of lectures, speeches, readings and performances. The Friends of Axe continue to honor that tradition by sponsoring its annual lecture every year around the time of Gene's birthday on October 10th. Our lectures have covered famous Southeast Kansas personalities such as socialist publisher J.A. Wayland, famous Christian writer Charles Sheldon or PSU educ

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Kansas historians will gather to present a talk about the “Bloody Benders” on Oct. 27 at Axe Library at Pittsburg State University for this year’s Gene DeGruson Memorial Lecture.

The event, called “The Bender Family Crimes: 150 Years Later,” is open to the public and will begin at 7 p.m. in the basement of the library.

The annual memorial lecture is an event sponsored by the Friends of the Leonard H. Axe Library to honor the memory of DeGruson, a Southeast Kansas scholar, writer, editor, and pioneering archivist and curator of Special Collections at Axe Library, who died in 1997.

DeGruson founded Special Collections in 1968 and spent 29 years building it into a rich treasure trove of knowledge on local history as well as an archive for Pittsburg State University. He also wrote and edited books and journals of poetry, history and biography.

For this year’s memorial lecture, historians will discuss the horrific crimes committed by a strange family by the name of Bender that set up an inn in remote Labette County.

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Biography

Eugene H. DeGruson was born Oct. 10, 1932 in Girard, Kansas, The son of a coal miner, he lived with his parents in Camp 50, a community built by the Central Coal & Coke Company Mine. After graduating from Crawford County High School, he received both bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Pittsburg State University and did post-graduate study at Iowa State University.

He taught for several years at Highland Park High School in Topeka, before accepting a position in 1960 as an instructor in the English Department at Pittsburg State University. He moved to the Porter Library staff in 1968 and took responsibility for the library’s special collections.

Gene immersed himself in the literary, cultural and ethnic history of southeast Kansas, an area known as the Little Balkans, because of its diversity. The coal mines in this area attracted immigrants from all over Europe and many of the cultures have survived and thrived.

Gene Degruson died in 1997.