Kenneth B. Platt Land Reform papers, 1924-1970

Kenneth B. Platt was born on the Salmon River at Craig Mountain in 1907, where he lived until 1917, when he moved with his family to Genesee. In 1930, he completed a bachelor's degree in animal husbandry from the University of Idaho; a year later, he earned a master's degree in economics from the University of Minnesota. Throughout his career, Platt worked in various positions pertaining to land management, land reform, and agricultural economics. From 1932-1935, he wrote radio script for the Idaho agricultural extension service. Following that, he worked for the U.S. Bureau of Land Management until 1946, with two interims from 1944-1946 and 1952-1954 where he served in the U.S. Navy and worked for the U.S. State Department in Cairo, Egypt, respectively. In 1959, Platt transferred to the U.S. State Department's Agency for International Development and worked in Tehran, Iran until 1965, assisting with land reform efforts and natural disaster relief. From 1965 to his retirement in 1970, his work continued at the Agricultural Economics Research Institute in Suwon, Korea, where he assisted with land reform and food-to-market systems. After retiring in 1970, Platt moved to Moscow, Idaho, where he lived until January 13, 1990, when he passed away from Alzheimer's disease. In addition to his agricultural and land reform work, Platt was also a poet. He published two poetry collections, titled "Within These Walls" (1945) and "Underneath the Bough" (1976). In 1978, he also wrote and published, "Salmon River Saga", a book detailing his early life living on the Salmon River.