Clyde W. Toland

Clyde W. Toland’s interest in history dates to when he was a wee lad. At age eleven, he wrote, using a metal-tip pen dipped in ink, My Book of History. At age fifteen, he became a Life Member of his local Allen County Historical Society, Inc. and of the Kansas State Historical Society. He holds the record for longevity of membership—sixty-three years—in the former group, and if he does not hold the comparable record in the latter organization, he is close to it. Aging is on his side.

Mr. Toland earned both a BA and MA in history plus a Juris Doctorate. He practiced law for forty-eight years in his hometown, Iola, Kansas. After twenty-four years of research and writing (available time was the controlling factor), in 2022 he published his 850-page Becoming Frederick Funston Trilogy. Its volume one, American Hero, Kansas Heritage: Frederick Funston’s Early Years, 1865-1890, received the 2023 Spur Award from the Western Writers of America as the Best First Nonfiction Book of 2022. He was honored to receive blurbs for various volumes from fifteen notable persons, including General David Petraeus, U.S. Army (Ret.), documentary producer Bill Kurtis, and Tom Averill, Kansas award-winning author and founder of Thomas Fox Averill Kansas Studies Collection, Mabee Library, Washburn University, Topeka, Kansas.

Researching and writing about historical subjects are not Mr. Toland’s sole contributions to preserving our historical knowledge. He also has helped preserve physical remnants of our collective past, notably by leading the effort to move the historic boyhood home of Funston from its rural location to the Iola town square and then by overseeing its restoration. Since 1995, it has been a house museum and sits next to the subsequently constructed Funston Museum and Visitors’ Center.

Mr. Toland founded the internationally known Buster Keaton Celebration in Iola. From 1993 through 2017, this annual humanities event provided scholarly, yet accessible-to-the-lay-person, programs illustrated by the films of Keaton and other film greats. Mr. Toland served as co-chair for the first five celebrations and continued as a committee member through 2005.

He is a member of Phi Beta Kappa and the Order of the Coif. In 1996, Mr. Toland and then-United States Senator Nancy Kassebaum Baker received the first Alumni Distinguished Achievement Award from the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences of the University of Kansas.