By PAUL HAMMELL
Nebraska Examiner
LINCOLN — Three public hearing have been set to gather testimony about the eight new nominees to the Nebraska Hall of Fame.
The State Hall of Fame Commission will hold hearings in each of the state’s three congressional districts.
This year’s nominees are:
- Famed baseball pitcher Grover Cleveland Alexander of St. Paul.
- Calvin Chapman of Nebraska City, said to be a key figure in the Underground Railroad and a former mayor.
- Elzada Urseba Clover, born in Auburn, the first botanist to catalog plants in the Grand Canyon.
- Howard Hanson of Wahoo, a composer, educator and champion of classical music. Won a Pulitzer Prize in 1944 for his Symphony No. 4.
- Ernst H. Herminghaus of Omaha and Lincoln. A landscape architect, he designed Lincoln’s Pioneers Park and was one of the founders of the Lincoln Symphony Orchestra.
- The Rev. Hiram Hisanori Kano of Litchfield, an Episcopal priest who was interred during World War II along with other Japanese-Americans. He is considered a saint by the Episcopal Church.
- Malcolm X, born in Omaha, also known as Malcolm Little and El Hajj Malik El Shabazz. He was a major figure in the Black power movement of the 1960s and an advocate for civil rights.
- Emma Louise Pound of Lincoln, author and folklorist. She taught English at the University of Nebraska and was a pioneer in linguistic studies. As an athlete, Pound was the first and only woman in NU history to earn a men’s varsity letter, winning the university tennis title in 1891 and 1892 against men.
The first public hearing will be held Monday, at 6 p.m., at the Nebraska History Museum in Lincoln. For the first time, the Hall of Fame Commission will consider nominees based on the location of their nomination, so Alexander, Clover, Hanson and Pound will be considered in Lincoln.
The Omaha hearing will be held Wednesday at 6 p.m. at the Revive Center, 2402 Lizzie Robinson Ave. Nominees for discussion are Chapman and Malcolm X.
The hearing for the 3rd Congressional District will be held July 25 at 6 p.m. at the Phelps County Historical Society, 2701 Burlington St. in Holdrege. Alexander, Herminghaus and Kano are the nominees to be considered.
The Nebraska Hall of Fame was established in 1961 to recognize prominent Nebraskans. One inductee is added every five years. To be eligible, a person must have been dead for at least 35 years. Busts of the Hall of Fame selections are displayed at the State Capitol.
Honorees must have been born in Nebraska or gained prominence while living in Nebraska, or whose residence in Nebraska was an important influence on their lives and their greatness.