Charles D. McAtee
McAtee was raised two miles south of the Kansas-Nebraska border in Mahaska, a Washington County, Kansas town named by his grandfather.
His family was able to save the farm by raising turkeys and sheep, selling butter, cottage cheese and produce.
His parents helped him financially, but he earned cash by washing dishes in the school cafeteria and at the Kansas Beta Chapter of Phi Delta Theta, where he was a member.
McAtee, who had been in the Platoon Leaders program at Washburn, said he joined the Marine reserves because he wanted to fight the spread of communism.
After receiving intensive training to become a combat lieutenant, he found himself in the Pusan Perimeter in South Korea, a tiny pocket of allied troops holding out against the North Koreans.
He was also involved in the effort to clear the names and reinstate Admiral Husband Kimmel and General Walter Short who were demoted after the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor.
In a Topeka Capital-Journal story years later when he was running for Kansas Attorney General, McAtee said he wanted to join the FBI because he fought in Korea to stop communism, and that war ended in a stalemate.
During his time as director of penal institutions, McAtee came to know Perry E. Smith and Richard E. Hickock, killers of four members of the Clutter family in Holcomb, Kansas who were slain on November 15, 1959.
He entered private practice in 1970 and was a partner in Eidson, Lewis, Porter and Haynes, a Topeka law firm, until 1989 when it dissolved.
McAtee was one of two attorneys representing the Topeka school district when the Brown v. Board of Education case was reopened.
Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the decision and sent the case back to Rogers, who monitored it for another 13 or 14 years.
In the 1964 primary election, McAtee ran fourth among four Republican candidates seeking the party's nomination for the 2nd Congressional District.
In the August 1968 primary election for the attorney general's office, McAtee ran fourth in a field of six Republicans.
