Mary K. Murray Boyd is President and CEO of MKB & Associates, Inc., an education and human services consulting business. Ms. Boyd has extensive experience in management, leadership, communications and coalition building, serving in a variety of roles professionally and in the Saint Paul community. She held several positions in the Saint Paul Public Schools beginning as a teacher’s aide and retiring in 2001 as an Area Superintendent. Since retiring from Saint Paul Public schools, Boyd has served in three interim positions, Manager of Ramsey County Child Protection, Director of Ramsey County Community Human Services Department’s Family and Children’s Services Division and Dean of the Graduate School of Education at Hamline University. She has served as an adjunct faculty member at the University of St. Thomas and at the University of Minnesota.

Chester C. Owens Jr. is a retired business owner, veteran, historian, community activist, and student of Miss Scottie P. Davis in the late 1940s/early 1950s. He served in the U.S. Air Force. In the early 1960s, he worked with the Northwest District Citizens Committee and the NAACP to desegregate the downtown shopping district in Kansas City, Kansas, and served as chairman of the NAACP’s Labor and Industry Committee from 1960 to 1963. In 1976, Owens bought H.W. Sewing and Co., serving as president of the agency. In 1983, he was elected to the City Council of Kansas City, making him the first African American elected in the 20th century. Serving two terms on the council, he also briefly served as deputy mayor in 1984. Owens retired as president of H.W. Sewing and Co. in 1998. Owens has also served on numerous boards and as president of the Northeast Business Association, on the boards of Homeowner’s Task Force for the State of Kansas, the Economic Opportunity Foundation, and Sumner High School Alumni Association. He is also a member of Sigma Pi Phi and Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternities. He is the recipient of numerous awards, among which are the Kansas City, Kansas Leadership Award in 1989, of which he was the first ever recipient; the Kansas City Globe’s One Hundred Most Influential Citizens in 1990; the 2012 Outstanding Leadership Award presented by the Kansas House of Representatives;  the NAACP Civil Rights Award; and the Friends of Yates’ Black Man of Distinction Award. Owens has also been honored through the naming of the Chester C. Owens Sumner Alumni Room and The Chester Owens Jr. Construction Skills Training Center, which houses a U.S. Department of Labor-run program called YouthBuild, both named in 2011.

Mr. Owens will be joined by Granvile T. O’Neal, an actor and fine arts professional based in Kansas City, Kansas. O’Neal serves on the board of the Traditional Music Society and is curator for the Chester C. Owens Sumner Alumni Room, which maintains artifacts, memorabilia, and historical information on Sumner High School. He also has numerous commercial, voice overs, and film credits.

Steve Trimble is an author, a historian, and a frequent contributor to the Dayton’s Bluff District Forum. He is a member of the Ramsey County Historical Society Editorial Board, and has written a number of articles for our magazine, Ramsey County History, including an article on Scottie Primus Davis in the Winter 2022 issue. Steve is a frequent lecturer, author, and book collector.