Walter Olaf Lundquist was born in Janesville, Minnesota on July 15, 1907 and lived there through the mid 1930s. He received his primary and secondary education in Janesville and finished off his education at the Mankato Commercial College when he was 19 years old. When he left Minnesota he moved to Idaho and lived there the remainder of his life. He owned the Western Auto Hardware Store in Moscow, ID for almost thirty years before going to work for the University of Idaho. In 1943 he married Ruth Dillon and had two children, John and Mary. Walter Lundquist died March 3, 1995.

The Mankato Commercial College was originally founded as the Northwestern College of Commerce on June 9, 1891 in Mankato, Minnesota. It was a for-profit school that taught business courses to both men and women. Founded by H.L. Rucker of Minneapolis, the new business school started with two teachers, A.G. Matter and J.R. Brandrup. The main courses taught were bookkeeping and shorthand. Other classes like penmanship and typewriting were also available. In 1904, the college was incorporated under the name Mankato Business and Commercial College. The name had been in use for some time before the official incorporation.

With the beginning of World War I, the school began to flourish. There was high demand for business training and in the winter of 1919-1920 the school had 1100 students in attendance. After the war the schools enrollment decreased, and by the 1970s, the school graduated an average of 290 students per year.

Over the years the College transitioned into a two-year program that continued to focus on all types of business courses. The Mankato Commercial College closed in 1980.