Artist: Richard Stewart Halstead (born 1947)
Robert Totusek
TOTUSEK, ROBERT (1926–2014), inducted 1997
Raised on a Garber, Oklahoma, farm, Bob Totusek completed his bachelor’s degree from Oklahoma A&M College in 1949 and competed on the 1948 championship team at the International Intercollegiate Livestock Judging Contest. He then earned a master’s degree and Ph.D. in animal nutrition at Purdue University. In 1952, Totusek returned to Oklahoma to join the animal science faculty, and he coached the livestock judging team there from 1953 to 1961. Dr. Totusek served as department head at the school, renamed Oklahoma State University, from 1976 to 1990. He expanded the curriculum in the department, reestablished the horse program, and authored or co-authored more than 200 publications, particularly in the field of beef cattle range management. Dr. Totusek was an American Polled Hereford Association Hall of Merit recipient and an American Society of Animal Science Fellow. In 2005, the Livestock Publications Council honored Totusek with a Headliner Award, and two years later, Purdue named him to the Distinguished Animal Sciences Alumni. Many of his 5,000 former students helped to fund an endowed chair in his name at OSU in 2005. In 2015, Totusek Arena was renamed in his honor.
Source: Saddle & Sirloin Guidebook 2026, p. 191