Artist: Robert Wadsworth Grafton (1876–1936); original portrait by Arvid Nyholm
John Henry Shepperd
SHEPPERD, JOHN HENRY (1869–1939), inducted 1921
Raised on a general farm in Chariton, Iowa, John Henry Shepperd took particular interest in his father’s Shorthorn herd. An early student at Iowa State Agricultural College, he graduated with honors in 1891 and completed his master’s degree at University of Wisconsin two years later. In 1893, Shepperd embarked upon a forty-five-year career at North Dakota Agricultural College and Experiment Station. He studied improved varieties of grain and championed durum wheat for the harsh North Dakota climate, earning a gold medal for his plant breeding work at the 1900 Paris World Exposition. He was an early proponent of crop rotation, soil conservation, and feed storage.
Influenced by Stephen Babcock while at Wisconsin, however, Shepperd took greater interest in the dairy herd he established at the school. In 1918, Professor Shepperd was made chairman of the animal husbandry department. In 1928, Iowa State awarded him an honorary doctorate, and that same year, he was named acting president of North Dakota Agricultural College, becoming president two years later. President Shepperd led the school through the difficult financial period of the Great Depression. He retired as president emeritus in 1937. In addition to his academic career, J. H. Shepperd was superintendent in charge of judging contests at the International Live Stock Exposition from 1905 to 1938.
Source: Saddle & Sirloin Guidebook 2026, p. 177