Kress, Warren D.

Warren D. Kress was born in St. Paul, Minnesota. He served as a military government officer in Europe during World War II, and remained in the U.S. Army Reserve until 1964, attaining the rank of Major. Kress received his bachelor's degree in International Relations (1946) and Ph.D. in Geography (1962) from the University of Minnesota. He was professor of Geography at North Dakota State University from 1957 until his retirement in 1991. Dr. Kress died 23 August 2001 at the age of 80.

Warren Kress was born on April 15, 1921, in St. Paul, Minnesota. After enrolling at the University of Minnesota in 1939, he left college in 1942 to volunteer for the military draft. He participated in the D-Day offensive in World War II, landing on Juno Beach during the Normandy Invasion. After Normandy, Kress moved with his unit across France and into Germany where he stayed until the end of the war. His unit worked on the logistics problems of moving Allied forces through civilian populations of refugees and preserving functioning local governments during the war chaos. In 1946 Kress became a captain and stayed in the Army Reserve until 1964, eventually attaining the rank of major. Upon his return from the war, Kress again entered the University of Minnesota and completed his undergraduate degree in Geography in 1946. He remained at the school from 1947 to 1955, working on his graduate degree. Kress came to North Dakota Agricultural College to teach in September of 1957 (the name changed to North Dakota State University [NDSU] in 1960). Kress obtained his PhD from the University of Minnesota in 1962 and achieved the rank of professor at NDSU that same year. He taught at NDSU for thirty-four years. After his retirement in 1991, he was made Professor Emeritus of Geosciences. Kress married Norma Lucille Carter, a musician, in 1960. They had one son, Donald Carter Kress. On August 23rd, 2001, at age eighty, Warren Kress passed away. He was preceded in death by his wife, who passed away in 1982.