Arthur M. Nakatani received a bachelor's degree from Stout in 1971 and a master's in 1972. He was teaching elementary school in the District of Kona, Hawaii at the time of his untimely death in 1989.
The Nakatani Center for Learning Technology was established in 1993 through a substantial bequest from the estate of Kiyo Nakatani, in memory of her late son Arthur M. Nakatani.
In 2008, the Teaching and Learning Center at UW-Stout was renamed the Nakatani Teaching and Learning Center and assumed leadership in promoting the goals of the Nakatani bequest to promote the art and science of teaching.