Eisenhower was born in Kansas, worked his way through Kansas State College and, upon graduation, served for several years as American vice consul in Edinburgh, Scotland. He then accepted an administrative appointment in the U.S. Department of Agriculture where for 16 years he was to be an important influence in the reorganization of that rapidly growing agency. During World War II he was made head of the War Relocation Authority, then set up the Office of War Information. He was with the O.W.I. when in 1943, he became president of his alma mater Kansas State, whence he came to Penn State seven years later at the age of 51. He left Penn State in 1956 to become president of Johns Hopkins University.