Portraits March 2017

Pillars of Our Communities

Celebrating those whose contributions will keep Steele County strong for years to come

Calling this community home.

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PAGE 1

PORTRAITS IN STEELE COUNTY

Welcome Portraits in Steele 2017: Pillars of Our Communities

Inside these 84 pages, you will find rich, colorful stories about pillars of our communities — individuals, and in some cases families, whose contributions have made Steele County strong and will keep it strong for years to come.

The people featured here stretch across the spectrum of life here in Steele County — from those in the business community to those in agriculture to those in public life to those in the arts to those who are known for the community services they provide. Some of the faces and the names will be familiar; others may be new to

you. But each person profiled here has contributed something of his or her time, talents or resources to make Steele County a wonderful place to live. We are all made the richer in our lives because of these individuals.

This annual publication is a product of the Owatonna People’s Press staff, covering weeks

and months of photography, interviewing, writing, designing and creative advertising efforts.

We hope you enjoy Portraits 2017 for weeks and months to come as we celebrate the pillars of our communities.

— Tom Murray Publisher

FRIDAY, MARCH 31, 2017

Contents Friday, March 31, 2017

PORTRAITS IN STEELE COUNTY

Julie Rethemeier................................................................................................4

PAGE 2P

Pillars of Our Communities Celebrating those whose contributions will keep Steele County strong for years to come

Corey Mensink..................................................................................................8 Marie Sexton...................................................................................................12 Les Abraham....................................................................................................16 Anne Lamb.......................................................................................................23 Beth and Brent Svenby..................................................................................28 Russ Goette......................................................................................................34 Silvan Durben.................................................................................................38 Kim Cosens......................................................................................................44 Heidi Heimgartner.........................................................................................48 Dave and Kim Purscell..................................................................................52 Russ Rudolf......................................................................................................56 Jake and Alecia Peterson...............................................................................60 Mary Butler-Fraser.........................................................................................64 James Ebeling..................................................................................................68 Timothy Van Gelder.......................................................................................73 Pete Guenther.................................................................................................78

Portraits 2017 is a special project of the Owatonna People’s Press Publisher Tom Murray Advertising Director Ginny Bergerson Managing Editor Jeffrey Jackson Media Sales Consultants Per Kvalsten, Becky Melchert, Erin Rossow, Kyle Shaw, Autumn Van Ravenhorst Ad Design Nikkie Gilmore, Jenine Kubista & Kelly Kubista Page Designer Jeffrey Jackson Cover Design Nikkie Gilmore Contributing Writers/Photographers Ryan Anderson, Jeffrey Jackson, William Morris, Ashley Stewart Portraits 2017 is distributed to subscribers and readers of the Owatonna People’s Press at no additional charge and is available at the front counter of the Owatonna People’s Press.

All rights reserved. © 2017

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PORTRAITS IN STEELE COUNTY

FRIDAY, MARCH 31, 2017

Advertiser Index 20 Rifle & Pistol Club ......................................17 A Family First Insurance ................................21 A Touch of Charm ...........................................75 Abraham Consulting Technologies...............65 Albert Lea Monument ....................................69 Associated Church ..........................................25 B to Z Hardware & Rental ..............................75 Blooming Prairie Area Chamber of Commerce.................................................75 Blooming Prairie Public Utilities ..................75 Blooming Prairie Servicemen’s Club.............74 BTS/Budget Tax Solutions..............................83 Budget Blinds ...................................................11 Bunkies Grille and Bar/Aaron Ressler PGA..75 Cedar Travel .....................................................55 City Auto Glass ................................................65 City of Owatonna ............................................15 Cole’s Electric ...................................................55 Comfort Inn .....................................................57 Country Goods ................................................27 Cumberland’s Northwest Trappers Supply, Inc .... 29 Cybex ................................................................11 Dairy Queen .....................................................75 Darrick’s Preferred Auto .................................71 Deml Heating & Air Conditioning ...............41 Dream Day Bridals by Marcia .......................41 Eagle Prairie Insurance ...................................75 Ecumen Brooks & CountrySide ....................29 Ed’s Repair Service ..........................................81 Einhaus, Mattison, Carver & Haberman, PA .31 Ellis Body Shop ................................................27 Emmanuel Evangelical Lutheran Church ....25 Endres Window Cleaning ..............................71 Farmers Insurance Group ..............................21 Farmers & Merchants State Bank ....................9 Fareway Food Stores .......................................37 Federated Insurance ..................Back Cover, 20 Fireplace Connection ......................................79 Gandy ................................................................43

Geneva Bar & Grill ..........................................83 George’s of Geneva Supper Club ...................83 Good Shepherd Lutheran Church.................25 Holland Family Dental ...................................61 HomeSellers of Minnesota, Inc .....................75 Hubbell House .................................................67 J-C Press............................................................61 Jaguar Communications .................................84 Joe’s Repair Service ..........................................75 Jostens ...............................................................49 Kappy’s Collision Center ................................59 Kent Rossi Law Office .....................................31 Kernel Restaurant ............................................67 Kid’s Korner Educare ......................................67 KIK Marketing ....................Inside Front Cover Krejci Ford ........................................................81 Lerberg’s Foods ................................................83 Little Theatre of Owatonna ............................17 Loken Excavation & Drainage, Inc. ..............43 McCabe Motors ...............................................27 Main Street Dental ............................................9 Mark’s Repair ...................................................63 Modern Metal Products .................................13 Morehouse Place..............................................71 New York Life...................................................75 Noble RV .............................. Inside Back Cover Northland Farm Systems ...Inside Front Cover Northrop Oftedahl House ..............................59 Our Savior’s Lutheran Church .......................25 Owatonna Arts Center....................................17 Owatonna Bus Company ...............................65 Owatonna Community Education ................23 Owatonna Foundation ....................................19 Owatonna Floor Covering & Mirror ............77 Owatonna Granite & Monument ..................19 Owatonna Groundsmasters .............................5 Owatonna Heating & Cooling .......................63 Owatonna Hospital .........................................33 Owatonna Public Schools...............................23

Owatonna Public Utilities ................................7 Owatonna R.V. Services..................................59 Patton Hoversten & Berg, Attorneys at Law ....31 R&R Insurance Agency ..................................75 Randall’s License Bureau ................................41 Realife Cooperative .........................................43 Riverland Community College ......................39 St. John Lutheran Church...............................25 Salina’s Auto Repair and Sales, Inc ................75 Salon-e-Clips ....................................................77 SeniorPlace .......................................................17 Sette Sports Center, Inc...................................79 Specialty Personnel Services ..........................61 State Farm Insurance/Plemel Agency ...........17 Steele County Child Care Association ..........35 Steele County Clothesline ..............................17 Steele County Food Shelf................................17 Steele County Free Fair ...................................69 Steele County Landfill .....................................81 Steele-Waseca Cooperative Electric ..............47 Steve’s Meat Market .........................................83 Stewart Sanitation............................................51 Sweet Towing & Repair ...................................57 The Kitchen ........................................................9 Timber Lodge Steakhouse ..............................37 TPS Insurance Agency ....................................21 Travel Headquarters, Inc ................................79 Tri M Graphics.................................................13 Trinity Lutheran Church ................................25 Trinity Nursery School ...................................35 V.F.W. Post #3723.............................................69 Vandal’s Family Market...................................74 Walbran & Furness, Attorneys.......................31 Wee Pals Child Care Center ...........................35 Wells Federal Bank ..........................................47 Wencl Accounting ...........................................57 Wenger Corporation .......................................53 YoungLife ..........................................................17

Friday, March 31, 2017

PORTRAITS IN STEELE COUNTY

PAGE 4P

By JEFFREY JACKSON

Julie Rethemeier:

Cheerleader for the community

jjackson@owatonna.com

G

ive it a year.

That was the advice given to Julie Rethemeier — then known as Julie Toogood — when she first came to Owatonna.

A recent graduate of St. Cloud State University, earning a bachelor of science in business with an emphasis in human resources, Julie had moved back into her parents’ basement in Roseville as she looked for work. It was, after all, the late 1980s, and a looming recession in the country made jobs not impossible but sometimes difficult to get.

Then, an opportunity presented itself: a claims job at Federated Insurance. She applied and though she was not accepted, she was not totally rejected either. What they offered her was a position as a management services analyst, which meant that she would enter a management training program.

There was a catch. It would mean moving away from the Cities and to Owatonna, a move she wasn’t sure she was ready to make.

She still remembers when her father moved her into her apartment — the top floor of a house — and they were having a piece of pie together in her kitchen. It was then she made her confession.

“I said, ‘I don’t think I can live here, Dad,’” she said.

And that’s when he gave her the advice.

Give it a year, he said.

“And 28 years later, I’ve never looked back,” she said.

But more than simply live here, Julie Rethemeier has immersed herself in the community with a list of accomplishment pages long. Since coming to town in 1989, she has given Owatonna more than a year. She’s given it her life.

“I’ve fallen in love with this town, this community,” she said.

‘Social butterfly’ takes flight

Whenever Julie Rethemeier speaks nowadays to high school students, she makes a point of telling the students to apply themselves when they’re in school. It is the voice of experience talking.

See RETHEMEIER on 5 All smiles from the Rethemeier family.

Pictured, from left to right, are Meghan, Julie, Eric and Nick. Meghan is a freshman at Concordia College in Moorhead where she is majoring in biology and neuroscience. Nick is junior at St. John’s University where he is a political science major with a French minor. (Submitted photo)

PAGE 5

PORTRAITS IN STEELE COUNTY

FRIDAY, MARCH 31, 2017

Rethemeier From Page 4 By her own her admission, when she was younger, her younger self, Julie Toogood, was not too good when it came to academics.

“I loved high school as long as there were no academics involved,” she said.

It wasn’t that she didn’t have strong role models in her parents.

She did. Her father was president and CEO of Children’s Home Society of Minnesota, an adoption agency, and her mother was a nurse, who showed her what it was like for a mom to work outside the home.

And it wasn’t that she didn’t feel independent. Her father traveled a lot in his work, often journeying to Korea, China and India to bring back kids for adoption. And her mother often worked what Julie called “weird shifts” — 3 p.m. to 11 p.m. Between her father’s travels and her mother’s later shifts, the end result was that she and her older siblings often found themselves at home by themselves.

“We were on our own,” she said.

No, there was something else.

The youngest of four kids — the others of whom were, in her words, “very bright” — Julie never felt that she could measure up to her siblings. So when she became a student at the now defunct Kellogg Senior High School in Roseville, she focused more on what she called the “social aspect” of high school. She was a cheerleader and something of a “social butterfly.”

Julie Rethemeier (front row, second from the left) wears two hats in this check presentation from Federated Insurance to the Owatonna Foundation outside of Federated’s home office in downtown Owatonna. She not on only is vice president/director of public affairs for Federated, but she is also a trustee for the Owatonna Foundation, serving on its grants committee, its fundraising committee and its public relations committee. (Submitted photo)

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It had its drawbacks. For one thing, she said, when it came time to go to college, she wasn’t accepted into her choices.

“I didn’t get in because of my grades,” she said.

So at that point, St. Cloud State University seemed, she said, a “good option.”

It proved to be more than that. She began to take her first business classes her second year and then discovered, a bit to her surprise, that she liked them. And not only that, but she also discovered that she was pretty good at them, much better, in fact, than she had given herself credit for.

That certainly has born itself out in the 28 years she has worked for Federated and her rapid rise in the company’s management.

After a year as a management services analyst, she became the assistant administration manager, a position she would hold for about a year until she took on the role of human resources manager. She held that position for six years before moving onward and upward to become life operations manager, a position she held for a decade.

For the last 10 years, she has been in her current role as director of public affairs for Federated Insurance, where her job includes, as the name suggests, the public affairs of the company, including the company’s charitable giving.

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PORTRAITS IN STEELE COUNTY

PAGE 6P

Employees of Federated Insurance flash big smiles and thumbs up as they present a $2.6 million check made out to “Kids of Minnesota” to mentoring programs such as Big Brothers Big Sisters. Julie Rethemeier, who is a Big Sister herself as well as vice president/director of public affairs for Federated, stands second from the left next to Jeff Fetters, the president/CEO/chairman of the board for Federated. (Submitted photo)

Rethemeier

From Page 5 It’s a job, she says, in which she asks the question of who Federated is as a corporate citizen and where the company is making its charitable donations. But it’s more than that. Her office also coordinates volunteer efforts with employees and the United Way campaigns in all of Federated’s offices.

“Our involvement in United Way is hugely important to us,” Julie said.

It’s important, she said, because United Way is focused on building and maintaining healthy communities.

“And having a healthy community is important to us,” she said.

So important is it not only to the company but to Julie Rethemeier herself that she has devoted a lot of her own time to the effort.

For nine years, she has been a board member of the United Way of

Steele County. She has served on the organization’s personnel committee, its grants committee and its executive committee, and she helped start United Way’s Women’s Leadership Council, co-chairing the council for three years with Tanya Paley.

But it’s not the only leadership position she has undertaken in the community. Far from it.

Julie is actively involved in the Owatonna Area Chamber of Commerce and Tourism, serving currently as its board chair. That comes on top of having served three years as a board member, three years as an executive committee member and a year as vice president.

She’s a trustee with the Owatonna Foundation, serving on its grants committee, its fundraising committee and its public relations committee.

She is on the president’s advisory board for Riverland Community College.

Along with Jolyane Mohs, she spearheaded a group that led the effort to get an operating levy passed for the Owatonna school district, the first such passage of a levy in many years. Subsequently, she was a member of the facilities task force for the school district.

Over the years, she’s been involved in numerous activities for her church (Bethel), for her children’s daycare (Wee Pals), her children’s school (Washington Elementary) and her children’s activities (Owatonna Girls Hockey and Young Life).

For more than 10 years, she has been a member of the Early Edition Rotary Club, taking leadership roles in many of the club’s activities.

See RETHEMEIER on 7

PAGE 7

PORTRAITS IN STEELE COUNTY

Rethemeier From Page 6 She helped start a board of directors/advisory committee for Junior Achievement in Owatonna, assisted in the hiring of Junior Achievement’s first coordinator in Owatonna and served as the group’s board chair for three years.

Big sister

Then there’s Big Brothers Big Sisters of Southern Minnesota.

She’s served as a board member since 2006, as the organization’s personnel committee chair for three year and its board chair for six years, and currently serves as its past board chair.

But even more than that, she’s been a Big on more than one occasion, being a mentor for young girls who need someone to guide them, lead them, encourage them and care for them.

“I was a Big for five years, then I took a break,” she said. “I’m currently a big again.”

Her “Little,” as they are called, is a thirdgrade girl named Destiny.

“We’re perfectly matched,” said Julie. “I love the relationship aspect, doing things with her that she never gets to do.”

She took Destiny once to the Mall of America, for instance, where the girl was most excited to ride on an escalator.

“She had never seen an escalator before,” Julie said.

Of course, Federated Insurance is a strong supporter of Big Brothers Big Sisters and its mentoring programs, and as vice president/director of public relations for the company, Julie Rethemeier is highly involved in the company’s involvement, particularly the Federated Challenge, which raises millions of dollars to support mentoring programs.

“Our support to Big Brothers Big Sisters is huge,” Julie said. “It defines who we are, and it impacts the next generation of kids.”

But her involvement with Big Brothers Big Sisters started, she said, long before it became a focus of her job. She does it because she cares.

Not bad for someone who said she was not sure if she could live here.

l , .

Her biggest cheerleader

She met her husband on a blind date. Sort of.

It was still in her early days of working for the company and a friend of hers tried to set Julie up with her brother-in-law. It didn’t work out.

“I didn’t like him,” she said, declining to give his name. “But I met Eric.”

Eric was Eric Rethemeier, a man who had grown up in Owatonna, but was, at the time, working as a police officer in Cedar Rapids,

Julie Rethemeier poses for a holiday snapshot with her Little Sister Destiny. (Submitted photo)

Iowa. Eric, a friend of the as-of-yet-unnamed brother-in-law, had tagged along on the outing.

While Julie didn’t much care for the brother-inlaw, Eric she liked.

At first the relationship was difficult. He was, after all, living in Cedar Rapids with aspirations of being a cop in a larger department. The last thing he planned on doing was coming back to his hometown to be a police officer here. But after they tried to do the longdistance relationship, they settled on living in Owatonna.

They married in 1994, and Eric is now a captain in the Owatonna Police Department. But to Julie, he’s much more than that.

“He asks me every morning, ‘What do you have tonight?’” she said, acknowledging his acknowledgement of her busy, often hectic schedule. He’s very supportive of me, always my biggest cheerleader.”

And this from a cheerleader herself.

Reach Managing Editor Jeffrey Jackson at 444-2371 or follow him on Twitter @OPPJeffrey.

FRIDAY, MARCH 31, 2017

Friday, March 31, 2017

PORTRAITS IN STEELE COUNTY

PAGE 8P

Corey Mensink has served as Owatonna Market President for U.S. Bank since 2009. (William Morris/People’s Press)

Corey Mensink: Moving the needle forward

By WILLIAM MORRIS

community is actually having deeper relationships with the folks you have an opportunity to interact with each day,” he says.

Corey Mensink describes his philosophy based on a quote from baseball great Jackie Robinson: “A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives.”

“Each moment is a perishable opportunity, and I try to have a positive impact in some way with those I interact with each day,” he says. “My goal is to do my best to be a positive influence for others, and follow the example of so many that have provided that for me.”

To that end, his days are filled keeping active with nonprofit boards, community initiatives and local government. There’s also the small matter of raising five children. And of course, there’s his day job as Owatonna Market President for U.S. Bank.

He keeps up with all these roles, though, because each board or commission or responsibility is another way to build connections to the community he loves.

“The difference between living somewhere and being part of a

‘The value of a community’

wmorris@owatonna.com

Community involvement is something Mensink says was baked in at an early age in the small, rural town of Preston.

“In small communities, you tend to have really tight social structures,” he said. “Your fourth grade teacher is also your baseball coach, is also maybe a volunteer firefighter, so you’re in an environment where you’re expected to roll up your sleeves and get involved, and to me that’s where the value of a community comes into play.”

Mensink’s father worked in banking, his mother for the Fillmore County Attorney’s Office. He says they encouraged an ethic of participation by word and deed as he was growing up.

“My brother and I were expected, as we entered high school, ... that you’re going to be involved,” he said. “My parents in particular had the expectation that we would try all kinds of different things

and get outside our comfort zones, and that was the time we should be trying those things and finding out who we were.”

So he played football, basketball, baseball and golf; performed in the band and choir programs; participated in speech; and took part in various drama productions. The latter was something he says he initially didn’t want to try, until a teacher literally wrote a part for him into a play and told him he’d be performing it.

“We had a lot of mentors, teachers and coaches, that if they saw a talent in you, they fostered that and gave you the opportunity, put you in positions to develop it,” he said. “From that perspective, I think that community was perfect for me and a great place to grow up.”

Upon graduation, Mensink headed to the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, where he considered teaching (and coaching), or following his father’s path into banking. In the end, he took the second path, graduating with majors in finance and economics.

See MENSINK on 9

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PORTRAITS IN STEELE COUNTY

FRIDAY, MARCH 31, 2017

Mensink From Page 8 “I saw how that [career] allowed him to make a contribution not only to his work but allowed him the opportunity to get involved in the community as well, and that really resonated with me as well,” Mensink said.

And then, it was time to find a job.

Same banker, different banks

After college, Mensink says, he was open-minded about where he’d end up next.

“I came out of school, and I fired off lots of resumes to about every bank in the area, and was given a lot of advice,” he said.

The main thing he heard, he said, was that you need some sales experience to get your foot in the door, so his first job was actually Corey Mensink at a Big Brothers Big Sisters of Southern Mina step sideways, into insurance. Finding that not to his preference nesota Bowl for Kids’ Sake event in Owatonna. (Submitted (“I quickly decided I didn’t want that to be my long-term future,” photo) is all he has to say about it), he made the move to what was then Owatonna Wells Fargo as a vice president.

Norwest Bank in Rochester.

“There’s opportunity for advancement throughout my career in “They were enthusiastic about bringing me on board, and they different places, and When the opportunity came in Owatonna, I said with all their lenders, they like to put them through underwrit- jumped at that,” he said. “I saw that as a community where I could ing and collections first, so I spent the first year and a half collecting see myself long-term, and when I got here, it didn’t disappoint.” loans, underwriting loans, and after that moved onto the lending Once again, he spent six years in the position, but this time his move side of things, and have been there ever since,” Mensink said. wasn’t to a new city, but to a new company. In January 2009, he took the After working in Rochester for a year and a half, he moved position of Market President for U.S. Bank, where he remains today. to a Norwest branch in New Ulm for another six years, during “I loved the way U.S. Bank is aligned,” he said of the move. which Norwest merged with Wells Fargo. In 2002, he came to the “Their core ideals line up with mine really closely, and it was an

opportunity to align myself with a great organization and stay in the community that I love. It was a really good fit.”

The job duties of a market president are broad enough to defy easy description, Mensink says, but he describes it in terms of setting a tone for everyone else at the branch.

“I’m responsible for anything that happens here during any given day,” he said. “What I try to strive for is to have an atmosphere and culture that is very healthy, and a place where people want to come, so when people walk in the doors, it feels different, it feels like a place you want to be. That goes from our employees to our clients to our future clients.”

But for all that falls under his job description, Mensink has as much happening outside the bank as there is going on inside.

Finding a way back to education

In 2004, two years after moving to Owatonna, Mensink married his wife, Shari, then a special education teacher for the Owatonna school district, creating a substantial combined family.

“Each of us were single parents,” he said. “I had a boy and a girl and so did she [ranging from 3 to 6 years old] ... so we had lots of little kids.”

The couple, who later added another child, have been kept busy over the years chasing all their children to various activities. The youngest is now in fifth grade, while the oldest is a junior at her father’s alma mater, UW-La Crosse.

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Friday, March 31, 2017

PORTRAITS IN STEELE COUNTY

PAGE 10P

Corey Mensink, with Mark Fritsch of Owatonna Public Utilities, at a meeting of the Owatonna Rotary Club. Mensink was club president for the 2015-2016 term. (Submitted photo)

Mensink From Page 9 “To say the least, we have had a lot going on,” Mensink said. “All that dynamic got a little easier when four of our kids have drivers licenses. You do need support, and I’m fortunate I’ve been around a lot of folks that have supported my willingness or want to be involved.”

It was the children, and his wife’s career (she now serves as the district-wide special education coordinator for early childhood) that inspired him to add “elected official” to his resume. After serving on a facilities task force for the district in 2005, Mensink ran for and was elected to the Owatonna school board in 2007, where he remained and served as chair until 2011.

“I thought, my wife works in the school district. At the time I had five children that are going through that school system,” he said. “If I’m going to justify time away from my family, I think it makes sense that this would be a great way for me to get entrenched in something that they’re involved with too.”

In addition to wrangling with ever-present facilities issues, which in that era included debate over acquiring the then-vacant Pillsbury College campus, Mensink highlighted a number of curricular developments shepherded through during his tenure.

“Things that happened while I was on the board were the introduction of all-day kindergarten at Wilson, introduction of the Options

program at the high school,” he said. “Pushing forward some kind of innovative approaches to education, giving kids choices, and those were things that we were looking at when I was on the board. … And of course, it’s a $50 million organization, there’s a lot to manage on a daily basis, and there’s a ton of talented teachers and administrators in the district that are doing great work every day.”

Moving the needle further

The school board was not Mensink’s only experience in local governance. He currently sits on the Owatonna Economic Development Authority.

But even that only scratches the surface of his community involvement.

Asked to list his other activities, Mensink rattles off: Rotarian since 2010, and president from 2015 to 2016; United Way of Steele County Board of Directors from 2007 to 2015, and corporate campaign leader in 2006 and 2012; Junior Achievement board of directors from 2012 to 2016, including as chair and vice chair; Owatonna Hospital board of directors since 2010, including a stint as chair; Southern Minnesota Initiative Foundation lending committee since 2009, and board of directors since 2016; Owatonna Foundation board of directors since 2016; and Trinity Lutheran Church Foundation board of directors since 2015.

See MENSINK on 11

PAGE 11

Mensink

PORTRAITS IN STEELE COUNTY

FRIDAY, MARCH 31, 2017

From Page 11

“I think honestly, every organization that I’ve been involved with, I feel like during my tenure we’ve been able to make advancements that have made that organization better and more vibrant, and it’s because of the teams I’ve been involved with,” Mensink said. “I’m really a big believer that nobody can do anything themselves, I don’t care if it’s a board or a workplace or your family.

You surround yourself with really good people, hold each other to high standards and let everybody play their own roles toward the team’s success.”

And so everywhere he goes around town, he is surrounded by tangible evidence of the efforts he has made and organizations to which he has contributed.

“Many times you don’t have individual accomplishments in your tenure, but you continue to move the needle further,” he said.

“That’s what it’s about, having the conversation and moving the needle forward, And then letting others pick up the conversation and move it forward in their way.”

Mensink is quick to credit his family for patience with his many commitments, and the extended support network of family and friends that helped get the kids to their various events while he was off at one meeting or another. And there’ve been other tradeoffs: asked about hobbies and other interests, he has to shrug.

“A lot of my spare time over the years has been spent going to my kid’s events, so my hobbies have been following the kids

around,” he said. “My social groups have been primarily parents of the kids in the same things as my kids.”

Still, he sneaks in enough time to watch a college basketball or football game here and there, and perhaps one day he and Shari will be able to resume golfing, which they both enjoyed before their children became overwhelmingly busy. But he can hardly complain about that: after all, he’s trying to give them the same ethic of involvement that he learned from his parents.

“My kids have been, every one of them, although different, have all been involved with quite a few things all throughout their high school experiences, and it’s been fun to watch them grow and develop within our school system. We also feel very fortunate to be part of Owatonna, for our kids to be part of that system.”

And even as more of his children wrap up high school and move on to the next stage in their lives, Mensink, now 44, says he’ll remain busy with all the various ways he’s able to make a difference for the community.

“Every one of the [organizations] is a way for me to continue to try to roll my sleeves up and make a positive impact where I can,” he said.

Mensink during a United Way campaign kickoff in 2006, when he served as campaign chair. (Submitted photo)

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Friday, March 31, 2017

PORTRAITS IN STEELE COUNTY

PAGE 12P

Marie Sexton:

Living lessons learned on the farm Medford city councilor Marie Sexton listens intently during a meeting about the proposed municipal complex for the city in July 2016. Voters overwhelmingly rejected the proposal in November’s general election. (Press file photo)

By JEFFREY JACKSON

jjackson@owatonna.com

When Marie Sexton takes her place at the table with the other Medford city councilors for a council meeting, her seat is positioned the closest to the audience.

It’s not by accident.

For 20 years she has sat in the same seat closest to the audience, closest to her constituents, closer to the people. And she’d have it no other way.

“I’ve worked for Medford for 20 years, not for myself,” Sexton said. “I’d rather be in the background.”

In that 20 years on the council, she has seen many things and backed many causes, including some not-so-popular causes, but she hasn’t backed down. And she won’t back down, especially if it means that the job of running the city doesn’t get done.

“In Medford, the people are always fighting each other instead of getting the job done,” she said. “Get the damn job done.”

It’s a spirit she comes by naturally.

Lessons learned on the farm Sexton’s father first plopped her down on a tractor when she was just 10 years. It was a John Deer 60, she still remembers, with no cab and therefore no air conditioning. It didn’t even have power steering.

It had been a wet spring that year, which meant that the crop farming had been. And Leo Chicos — Marie Sexton’s father — needed help on the land that he farmed near West Concord in Dodge County.

When he plopped 10-year-old Marie on that tractor, he had one thing to tell her. “‘He said, ‘You can do this,’” she said, and that was all.

It was one of the life lessons he taught his daughter on that farm. There were other lessons, of course.

“Watch your back” was another one — a lesson she learned from dealing with livestock.

See SEXTON on 13

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PORTRAITS IN STEELE COUNTY

FRIDAY, MARCH 31, 2017

Sexton From Page 12 “Don’t run and don’t back up” — another livestock lesson.

And, of course, perseverance.

“There were other times when things would come up, and he wouldn’t quit. He’s say, ‘If you’re not dead, you can go,’” Sexton said. “You survive. When you don’t have a lot of resources, you find a way to do it.”

Life on the council

Sexton first ran for the Medford City Council in 1996 and took office in 1997. It was not something she had ever planned to do.

But there had been a zoning issue in her neighborhood earlier that year that she had approached the then-mayor about. What she discovered was not only the issue, but the fact that a seat was about to become vacant and nobody had thrown a hat into the race.

“Nobody wanted to do it,” she said. “Nobody stepped up to the plate.”

Running for the office and becoming a part of the city council was, in her words, a “real eye-opener.”

“You don’t know what you’re doing for the first year, year and a half,” she said.

But after 20 years on the council with just one short break, Sexton has a pretty good handle on how Medford city government runs, though she’s not always satisfied with the way things play out.

Take, for example, the recently failed referendum on building a new municipal complex for the city. The referendum asked vot-

Medford city councilor Marie Sexton, standing second from the left, joins city staff and members of the Medford Veterans Memorial Committee at the outlet center in May 2014 to provide information about the memorial. (Press file photo)

ers to approve the building of a 19-144-square-foot building that would house the city hall and the fire department. It would sit on city-owned land and would allow the city to relocate the public works department’s garage and shop to the current city and fire halls’ location, thus resolving three space concerns.

In August, by a 3-2 vote, the city council approved the project’s scope and cost. Only one thing was needed for the project to move the project forward: voter approval.

Voters, however, did not approve it. In fact, by a 69 percent to 31 percent margin, they overwhelming rejected it.

Sexton was not happy with the result.

“The need didn’t disappear,” Sexton said about the proposed building project in November after the vote had been tallied. “It is still the best solution. We just have to explain it better.”

After a few months to reflect on it, she now points fingers as some of her fellow councilors who at first seemed to support the project and then turned their backs on it.

“The council and other people were behind this. They studied this,” she said in February. “If you come up with a project, you’d better be able to defend it. You can’t be on the council, then back up. If you do that, you aren’t doing Medford any favors.”

It was a lesson that she had learned from her father on the farm — don’t run, don’t back up.

At the same time, she knew there would be resistance to the proposal. After all, people are concerned with money. Yes, it would cost taxpayers some money. And yes, it would cost the city money, too.

But, she added, the city needed the facility and by not doing it now, the cost for the project would become more expensive in the months and years to come.

She compared it to home repairs.

See SEXTON on 14

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Friday, March 31, 2017

Sexton

PORTRAITS IN STEELE COUNTY

PAGE 14P

Marie Sexton and her five children.

From Page 13

“It’s like putting windows in your house,” she said. “You can wait till they fall out or you can maintain them.”

The problem was that there are too many people who were willing to wait, too many people who were resistant to change. And many of those people simply didn’t have the facts straight, she said.

“What knocked that thing off was the absolute lack of information and street talk,” she said.

She recalled one man who walked up to her and told her that, in his view, the firefighters didn’t need a training room.

“He thought it was an exercise facility,” she said, shaking her head.

And that was the problem.

“There are kinds of information circulating out there that is totally false,” she said. “We’ve got a lot of work to do realigning new things. The city still needs it. It just got a whole lot more expensive.”

And it will get even more expensive, she said, if the people are unwilling to change.

“Nothing in life stays the same,” she said. “I told my kids that.

Life is a process, not an event. I tell the grandkids the same thing.”

Losing her lifeline

Sexton never intended to live in Medford.

“I said I’d never live in a house in Medford,” she said. “Guess where I ended up living?”

Still, she has no regrets and certainly no complaints about what brought her to the town. Or rather, who brought her.

She met Jerry Sexton after she had left home to attend college in Mankato.

“I had no clue what I was getting into,” she said.

It wasn’t unusual for women in her family to further their education. Just the opposite. Her father had 12 siblings. All the boys in the family became farmers, while all the girls — her aunts — became professional people. Nurses and teachers.

Sexton thought she would follow in those footsteps. Specifically, she thought she would become a math teacher, perhaps in junior high.

“I won a math and science award in high school,” she said. “I love physics.”

But then, she took a course in calculus-based trigonometry.

And that pretty much put an end to her pursuit of teaching math.

“I ruled myself out of being a conventional teacher,” she said.

Instead, she ended up with a degree in English and geology, and in the meantime met and married Jerry Sexton.

For a while Jerry Sexton worked for 3M, then for a bank. Then they moved to Steele County and to a home in Medford, the town in which, she said, she would never live. In that time he worked for Owatonna Tool Company, until an economic downturn led to his losing his job. Then he worked for E.F. Johnson, until another economic downturn led to another job loss.

At the same time, Marie Sexton had started working for the Owatonna Public Library, a job that she started on March 16, 1981, and a job she still holds today. It was good because she was able to carry all the benefits for the family.

After Jerry Sexton lost his job with E.F. Johnson, he began to think about starting a business of his own, using his manufacturing background. Out of that came Straight River Cable, a business he founded in 1993 and which his sons run today.

Starting it up came with its own share of fear and trembling.

But Marie Sexton was there to encourage her husband with some of those lessons she had learned on the farm.

See SEXTON on 15

PAGE 15

PORTRAITS IN STEELE COUNTY

FRIDAY, MARCH 31, 2017

Sexton From Page 14 “I would tell Jerry, ‘Keep the word can’t out of the equation,’” she said.

And despite her initial reluctance to move to Medford, she is glad they moved to the community and proud of how her husband was such a strong supporter of the town, not only as a businessman who decided to keep his business in Medford, but also as a member and officer of the Medford school board.

“It meant a lot for him to be here,” she said.

Jerry Sexton died in 2010 after suffering his second heart attack in six weeks. He was 63. They had been married nearly 41 years.

Even today, it’s difficult for her to talk about him and his death with her eyes tearing up, her voice cracking.

“He was my lifeline all my life,” she said.

A common home

Marie Sexton doesn’t seem ready to slow down.

After she won her first election in 1996, she ran again and won in 2000, 2004 and 2008. On one occasion, she didn’t even campaign. She figured, she said, that the people who were likely to vote already knew her. Either they knew her, liked what she was doing for the community and would vote for her, or they knew her, didn’t much care for what she was doing and would vote for someone else. Either way, there was, in her

Medford city councilor Marie Sexton speaks during a public information session concerning the proposed $3.95 million municipal complex in October 2016. Voters rejected the proposal 69 percent to 31 percent. (Press file photo)

mind no reason that year to go door to door asking people for their votes. So she didn’t.

One can excuse her if in 2012 she decided not to run again.

Her husband’s death was still a very vivid, very recent memory.

So she didn’t run.

But then, six months later, one of the councilors resign, leaving an opening. The mayor approached Sexton and asked

her if she would be willing to be appointed in that place. She said yes, and has since run again.

“In my formative years, I’ve learned to know who you are, what you can handle and what you can’t handle,” she said.

As she reflected on the 20 years she has served the city of Medford, Sexton deflected any credit that might go to her.

“Before this gets too far, I want to make sure I express that any success I have had has been because of the multitude of Medford and area citizens who have given so much of their time and talent and remained committed to what we were attempting. I consider myself more of a coordinator, bringing people of talent together,” she said. “We do not do it alone, and it is imperative all sides work together for the benefit of the community we have. I strive to do this. We cannot be in it for ourselves.”

And she said, throughout her career on the council, she has sought the middle ground, always with the goal of benefiting the community.

“But at the same time, do the homework, play fair and direct,” she said. “And I will not be intimidated by criticism if vital elements are at stake. Eventually people understand, and yes, we do not always agree, but are always neighbors, linked by a common home — just like a family.”

Reach Managing Editor Jeffrey Jackson at 444-2371 or follow him on Twitter @OPPJeffrey.

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Friday, March 31, 2017

PORTRAITS IN STEELE COUNTY

PAGE 16P

Les Abraham:

A lifetime of service

Les Abraham has a passion for restoring, customizing and collecting cars, including these 1950s Fords. (Press file photo)

By ASHLEY STEWART

astewart@owatonna.com

L

es Abraham, a longtime Owatonnan, is a collector.

A collector of classic automobiles, vinyl records, mementos and perhaps, most importantly, decades — even centuries — of family history.

“There are a lot of stories,” he said as he fingered through one of his 400-plus-page bound books encompassing his mother’s genealogy beside another about his father’s.

The books are the culmination of Abraham’s countless hours of research, face-to-face interviews, phone calls as well as a compilation of photographs, historical information and stories from hundreds of families in his paternal and maternal lineages to publish as keepsakes for generations to come.

“I thought it was very important for our family to have something we could share, so I started collecting and collecting and collecting and getting information,” he said.

The work on his first book, “The Life and Times of Friedrich and Christina Miller’s Family,” separated into two volumes, began nearly 20 years before it was published in 2004, and work on his second, “Abrahams and Deeken: Re-uniting Two Families” was completed in 2013, a turnaround Abraham attributed to actually having a computer.

Abraham invested his own money into printing about 700 books between the two editions, and while it was no small expense, he believes it was well worth it.

“My goal was to have more than just names, dates, births, deaths and other statistics in this book. Those are all a matter of record. What I wanted in this book is the personality of everyone who is part of this family,” he wrote in the forward of his book “The Life and Times of Friedrich and Christina Miller’s Family.”

And in learning about other members of his family, and befriending them, Abraham in turn discovered more about himself.

“It was a benefit that came without realizing it,” he said.

Early beginnings

His story begins 160 miles north in Pierz, Minnesota.

There Leslie Rudolf Abraham was born on April 27, 1944, to Erma and William, who married in Hazen, North Dakota, nearly six years prior. Abraham was the fourth of eight children born to the couple between 1939 and 1952.

“I like to refer to myself as being in the top half of the middle,” he said with a wide grin.

After Abraham’s parents married, they moved to Owatonna, where they got jobs as a hired couple for different farmers in the area, and after a year — and the birth of their first child — they returned to Hazen, North Dakota, where they farmed on a family’s rented homestead for a couple years. In 1943, Erma and William purchased a farm in Pierz, Minnesota before the birth of Abraham, but three years later, the couple sold the property and returned to North Dakota, where they declined another opportunity to farm.

See ABRAHAM on 18

PAGE 17

PORTRAITS IN STEELE COUNTY

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Friday, March 31, 2017

PORTRAITS IN STEELE COUNTY

PAGE 18P

Les Abraham opens a present with his grandsons at his retirement party at the Owatonna Eagles Club in October 2014. Abraham retired from the Steele County Sheriff’s Office Special Deputies in September 2014 after 35 years. (Press file photo)

Abraham

From Page 16

“My dad, for a lack of a better term, was a good worker, but he was not a good manager,” Abraham said. “He would be very happy to help anybody he could, but when it came back to working on his own farm, he let it go.”

Erma and William divorced in 1951, and afterward, William moved back to Owatonna. In an attempt to reconcile, Erma and the eight children followed in August 1952 during the Steele County Free Fair, Abraham recalls. While the couple never remarried, the family remained in the city.

Abraham, who was a third-grader at the time, attended Washington Elementary School until sixth grade. In 1962, he graduated from Owatonna High School before attending Universal Trades School in Omaha, Nebraska, where he graduated in 1963 and

earned a certificate of proficiency in auto body repair — cars were a hobby of his, and would remain so throughout his life.

After graduating, Abraham returned to Owatonna where he worked at several body shops and gas stations, most of which are now the property of something else, like the Subway on Oak Avenue or Hardees on State Avenue.

At that time, the United States’ involvement in the Vietnam War between the communist regime North Vietnam and its southern allies, known as the Viet Cong, and South Vietnam grew and young men volunteered — or were drafted — into the U.S. military.

“We weren’t going to go until we got guaranteed schooling,” he said. “If we wanted to go to college, we were going to have to pay for it ourselves. It was that simple.”

In 1965, Abraham enlisted in the U.S. Army with his younger brother, Curt.

“The Navy, Marines wouldn’t give us guaranteed schooling, and the Army said they would if they could find what we wanted,” he said.

Draft deferments were granted to men with physical or mental disqualifications, wives and children as well as those attending college or working at home to support their families, which was almost the case for Abraham.

“I’ve always had problems with my eyes,” he said.

In fact, Abraham was diagnosed with lazy eye in both eyes at 5 years old; however, doctors were able to catch and correct his left eye.

“But not my right eye, so I basically have been blind in my right eye all my life and I got into the Army,” he said with a chuckle.

See ABRAHAM on 19

PAGE 19

PORTRAITS IN STEELE COUNTY

FRIDAY, MARCH 31, 2017

Abraham From Page 18 Abraham and Curt left for basic training in Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, that March before attending advanced training school for topographic engineering in Maryland, where they learned how to make maps.

Abraham was given the opportunity to leave the military three times when he failed physicals, but because he was adamant about serving at a time when a lot of men were looking for a reason not to, he wasn’t sent home.

“I said, ‘I gotta get to school. I’m going to go to school,’ and [the sergeant] said, ‘If you don’t pass, you’re out,’” he said. “Out of 28 in the class I came in No. 14, so they kept me.”

Had Abraham left, he would’ve been the only Abraham son of Erma and William’s not to serve in the military.

All seven of their sons — Harold, Lyle, Les, Curt, Warren, Dennis and Bruce — served in the U.S. military during the Vietnam Era. “I’m really happy that I did that because after looking at all the brothers, I would feel very bad being the one that didn’t go,” Abraham said.

In January 1966, Abraham was given a top-secret clearance and transferred to the U.S. Army Strategy and Tactics Analysis Group, a high-security unit, in the Washington, D.C., area, where he served as the senior cartographic draftsperson until he was discharged in March 1968.

While he was in the service, he also designed stationary, party invitations and caricatures in his free time.

Returning home

brother, Curt, went on a six-week vacation to “do what we wanted to do,” before he went to work in Rochester.

And because the job there wasn’t what he had been told, he applied for a position at Wenger Corp. in Owatonna, a company that’s reputable worldwide for its music, performing arts and athletics products.

“I only worked there for two months,” Abraham said. “It was a training ground to find out things I didn’t like.”

But one thing is certain he’d end up liking his next job — so much so that’d he’d retire from it more than 30 years later.

In June 1968, Abraham began working in the Wenger drafting and engineering department as a detail draftsman and was later promoted through the ranks to layout, design, project designer and senior project designer and engineer.

Throughout his time there, he helped design many of the products Wenger still uses today, including posture chairs, shelving, risers and mobile stages.

In the 1970s, Abraham’s time was primarily occupied with the design of mobile stages for the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, New York Performing Arts Center, Miller Brewing Co. and the Maryland, Illinois and Michigan state lotteries. Those projects forced him, willingly, to learn about a multitude of items, like electricity, hydraulics and more.

He currently holds 15 mechanical and design patents on Wenger products.

A photo of Les Abraham when he was in first grade

See ABRAHAM on 22 in 1950. (Submitted photo)

When Abraham returned to Owatonna after his service, he and his

For 59 years, the Owatonna Foundation has awarded grants totaling over $11.75 million for projects that touch every aspect of our lives in the following categories:

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Mail donations to: Owatonna Foundation P.O. Box 642 • Owatonna, MN 55060

For more information call: Laura Resler at 507-455-2995

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Friday, March 31, 2017

PORTRAITS IN STEELE COUNTY

PAGE 20

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PAGE 21

PORTRAITS IN STEELE COUNTY

FRIDAY, MARCH 31, 2017

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Friday, March 31, 2017

PORTRAITS IN STEELE COUNTY

PAGE 22P

Abraham From Page 19 “The work I was doing at Wenger was so interesting to me that the 33 years that I worked there, I looked forward to going to work every day because while I was doing it, I was still learning,” he said.

Shortly after returning to Owatonna to work at Wenger, Abraham began dating Shirley Wochnick, who graduated from Owatonna High School in 1966 with his younger brother, Warren.

Nearly nine months after the couple’s first date at the Steele County Free Fair, they married on May 17, 1969.

Abraham and Shirley later became the proud parents of two daughters — and Owatonna graduates now, as well — in the 1970s with the birth of their firstborn, Melanie, in April 1970, and the birth of their second, Heidi, in July 1975.

Giving back to Owatonna

In addition to working full time at Wenger Corp. and raising a family, Abraham also found time to give back to the community he was raised in through a variety of facets — with much credit to Shirley.

Shirley, who worked at Federated Insurance in Owatonna for 26 years before retiring in 2013, has been involved with local community and school theaters for decades with more than 30 years as a makeup artist for Little Theatre of Owatonna productions and more than 15 years for Medford High School.

It was because of Shirley, and Abraham’s supervisor at Wenger, in the late 1960s that he was involved with the design and building of about 40 production sets as well as other aspects, like the seat upholstery and the original air conditioning projects and the LTO Board of Directors, but in recent years, Abraham was diagnosed with macular degeneration making it difficult to work in dark areas, so he’s stepped back from much of that work.

In the 1970s, Abraham also became involved with Junior Achievement as an adviser, Wee Pals as a board member and the Steele County Sheriff’s Office as a special deputy.

“My neighbor had asked [me to be a special deputy], he was working as a deputy sheriff and he was in charge of scheduling the specials,” he said. “He came over one day and asked if I’d be interested in it, and I said, ‘I’d like to give it a try and see what it was like.’”

In 1979, Abraham became a part-time special deputy, which is something his father also did in the mid- to late-1950s. While serving as a special deputy, Abraham served the sheriff’s office in a variety of ways. He’s sat on crime scenes, watched over car accidents, been a bailiff at the Steele County Courthouse and provided security for dances around the county and at the fair. From 1993 to 2014, Abraham was also the special deputy coordinator, who scheduled where and when deputies worked.

Les Abraham holds a large pair of scissors during the ribbon-cutting ceremony for Highway 14 between Owatonna and Waseca in October 2012. Abraham has been an advocate for the four-lane expansion of Highway 14 for decades. (Press file photo)

He retired from that position in September 2014, and in October of that year, family, friends and colleagues gathered at the Owatonna Eagles Club to recognize his service.

“I enjoyed the learning parts, what to do and how it should be and learning how to work with people,” Abraham said. “I learned a lot from the guys who were doing it already.”

In the 1980s and the 1990s, Abraham served as a SEMCAC nutrition board member, Steele County Planning and Zoning commissioner, Owatonna City Planning and Zoning commissioner, Hometown Federal Credit Union supervisory committee member and board of director.

Since 1989, he’s been the Owatonna Memorial Gardens Board president and sexton.

“The owner had walked away from the cemetery, left the property owner’s book and the keys at the sheriff’s office and said, ‘It’s your problem, deal with it,’ so the county attorney sent out a notice to some of the people who owned lots out there and I was one of them,” he said.

Abraham said a meeting was held with the lot owners and a committee was formed to determine what to do with the cemetery. If nothing, Steele County would take it over and there’d be no more burials.

“We looked at it, and we didn’t want it to be closed, so we looked at ways to get it up and running again,” he said.

And the rest is history.

Over the years, more than 200 lot owners have been added, a road looping the cemetery has been paved, and its large Memorial Day flag display seen by thousands of motorists traveling off Interstate 35 near Clinton Falls each year.

“We’ve kept and maintained it very nicely throughout the years,” Abraham said.

He and Shirley have also delivered meals for the annual Thanksgiving and Christmas community dinners, which are organized and worked by more than 100 volunteers, for more than 20 years.

A lifetime of service

If his job at Wenger, his volunteering throughout the community and his family hadn’t kept Abraham busy enough, joining the Owatonna City Council was sure to.

In the 1980s, Abraham, who was serving on the city’s planning and zoning committee, decided to run for city council but was defeated by the incumbent, which he said was a relief.

“About halfway through the campaign I was looking at it and realizing I wasn’t ready and was hoping that I didn’t win,” he said.

After losing the election, Abraham started “learning what the job was” before giving it another go in 1994, when he was elected and would remain on the council through a number of election cycles until 2016.

As a city councilor, Abraham was involved with the work on the Law Enforcement Center, which now houses the Owatonna Police Department, Steele County Sheriff’s Department and Steele-Rice 911 Center; the Morehouse Dam; the Owatonna Business Incubator; and the disposition of the old hospital facility on Oak Avenue after its operations relocated to the health care campus on 26th Street, among many others as Owatonna has grown over the last 20 years.

For more than 20 years, Abraham has also served as an advocate for the four-lane expansion of Highway 14 from Rochester to New Ulm, but especially the section remaining between Owatonna and Dodge Center, as a member of the U.S. Highway 14 Partnership.

“I see a need to have that finished,” he said. “When I was up testifying at one point [at the State Capitol], I

made the comment that when I got out of the Army in 1968 I read our local newspaper saying [Highway 14] was going to be completed within the next three years. They picked up on that up there. That was 40some years ago.”

Abraham, who served as the partnership’s president and past president, said he feels good about it because its “had some good successes,” like the completion of the four-lane expansion between Owatonna and Waseca and rights-of-way funding from Corridors of Commerce that’s provided millions to Minnesota Department of Transportation District 6 to acquire land in Steele and Dodge counties for a future expansion.

Much of Abraham’s involvement with the city increased after he retired from Wenger in 2001, when he had more time to dedicate to things he believed were important for the city’s future.

One of those things was the Central Park band shell, which he designed and supervised construction for in 2004 for Owatonna’s Sesquicentennial Celebration. That work garnered him the Community Arts Award, presented each year by the Owatonna Arts Center, for his many activities supporting art in the city. The first person to receive the award was Harry Wenger, the founder of Wenger Corp.

In November 2016, Abraham was defeated in his bid for reelection as an at-large city council member, marking the first time in 35 years, he wasn’t on a city board, commission or council. He had served as the city council president for the past 10 years.

“If you go through and look at [my past involvement], there aren’t very many that I was on for a month or two months or a year and then got off. If I got on something, I looked at it and I believed in it, tried to work it out to the point where the job is done or we found some very capable people to step in and do it,” he said. “I wouldn’t let it rest until that happened.”

But for now, Abraham is resting — and enjoying more time with his wife, his children and his grandsons.

“I have two grandsons now that I thoroughly enjoy, and I’m hoping maybe we can have them come down in the summertime and spend time at grandma and grandpa’s. It’d be fun to do that,” he said.

And if he’s not with family, he’s likely working on his automobiles, a hobby he and his brothers share.

Abraham has a passion for restoring, customizing and collecting cars, including 1950s Fords. He’s a founding member of the Car Nuts Auto Club, which he’s belonged to for more than 40 years; and assists with car shows, classic and collector auto appraisals, and the auto museum at the Steele County Free Fair.

“Right now I’m kind of stepping back a little bit to survey what I want to do from here,” he said.

For those who know Abraham, it won’t be long before he picks up another project, participates in another organization or volunteers to help others because it’s what he’s done nearly his entire life.

PAGE 23

PORTRAITS IN STEELE COUNTY

FRIDAY, MARCH 31, 2017

Dr. Anne Lamb:

Weathering the storms

By RYAN ANDERSON

randerson@owatonna.com

Though 2017 is the year she turns 60, Dr. Anne Lamb is not ready to retire, she said. All her friends tell her “that’s going to be really hard for you.” (Ryan Anderson/ People’s Press)

I

n Touch Physical Therapy’s Dr. Anne Lamb picked up her life philosophy of living every day “like you only have six months to live” when she was 22, and it’s a mentality that has allowed her to weather the vicissitudes of life — including the sudden death of her husband when he was only 55 — with equanimity.

Her first job after graduating from college was at St. Joseph Hospital in Milwaukee, and there she put her physical therapy skills to work teaching patients with brain cancer how to walk, eat, dress, etc., following brain surgery, she said.

Because most died quickly, she learned not to wait to enjoy life.

The vast preponderance of these patients were afflicted with brain cancer right around age 60; they had waited their entire lives for retirement, but would die before enjoying that luxury, she said. “I started then my philosophy of, ‘If I only had six months to live, what would I do?’”

“I’ve not put things off,” she said. “Those patients taught me so much.”

Because of her carpe diem mindset, Lamb and her husband, Philip, packed a great deal into their 30-year marriage, from extensive travel to raising four children, before he died from a pulmonary embolism while picking up Thanksgiving dinner from Owatonna Country Club in 2012, she said.

“I was very blessed that because of my theory on living like you only have six months, we got to do more than anyone else,” she said..

See LAMB on 24

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Friday, March 31, 2017

PORTRAITS IN STEELE COUNTY

PAGE 24

Lamb From Page 23 Lamb was born in Chicago, and her family remained there for nine years before relocating to Sheboygan, Wisconsin. Lamb’s mother was a nurse, her father an accountant, and Lamb the only daughter amid five brothers.

Growing up alongside five brothers gave Lamb her toughness, tenacity, and steely resolve, she said.

“You had to learn how to fight,” she said.

They never babied her, so “I had to keep up,” she said. That drive would eventually prove felicitous when she began running her own business.

At 16, she went to a technical college to take a key-punch operator course, and that training allowed her to earn more than double what her friends were making at their jobs, she said.

“My dad was always pushing me because he wanted to make sure I could take care of myself,” she said.

With athletic brothers, Lamb was active herself, but, in an era before Tile IX, her opportunities were limited in high school to track and swimming. Basketball for girls didn’t become available until she was a junior.

“It’s amazing how far we’ve come,” she said.

Lamb selected swimming, but instead of earning a letter, she received a charm because at that point it was simply assumed no girls would need letter jackets. Charm bracelets were considered more appropriate.

Though opportunities in school sports may have equalized, women still are battling from behind in the professional world. Lamb understands that while women have made strides in education and business, they’re still far from on equal footing with men.

Even when she was earning just as much as her husband, he would always get a higher credit limit, she said. Consequently, when Lamb would do career days at local schools, she always emphasized to girls they were going to have to work harder to be treated equally.

Lamb didn’t develop her more feminine side until moving into an all-girls dormitory at the University of Wisconsin, she said.

“That was not what I was used to,” she said.

Of course, because she never had sisters, she “worked harder to maintain female friendships,” and she remains close with several college friends, she said.

“I have great girl friends,” she said.

Even in the 1970s, not all parents saw higher education as important for daughters, but Lamb’s parents were tremendous proponents of school, she said. Because they grew up on the east coast, they realized the value of education, and even all Lamb’s grandparents went to college.

Anne Lamb was born in Chicago, and her family remained there for nine years before relocating to Sheboygan, Wisconsin. (Photo courtesy of Anne Lamb)

Only 25 percent of students at Wisconsin were female at the time, she said. Now, of course, Wisconsin actually has slightly more female students than males.

Feeling overwhelmed by her difficult courseload in physical therapy, Lamb returned to Sheboygan six weeks into her sophomore year wanting to quit, she said. Her mother talked her out of it, pushing her to stick with school, and Lamb returned.

She decided to seek “balance,” attending more sporting events and activities in hopes of relieving

academic pressures, but accounts vary on just how much she let up on her studies, she said.

“I think I went out all the time, but my friends from that time all say they went out, and I was always studying,” said Lamb.

Lamb’s mother was mildly disappointed Anne didn’t follow her into nursing, Lamb said. She shadowed her mother, gaining early exposure into health care, and her first job was as a nursing assistant, but “I felt like I didn’t have enough interaction with patients.”

“When I saw physical therapy, I thought, ‘Whoa, that is problem solving,’” she said. “I wanted to help people get back to work.”

Because she knew her intended major coming in as a freshman, “I was taking 10 science credits right from the beginning,” she said. Her hardest class was physics, and getting her degree from UW remains “one of the most stressful things I’ve done in my life.”

Rather than trying to stay in Madison, Lamb knew employment opportunities were more abundant in Milwaukee, so she focused her efforts there and landed the job at St. Joseph one week after completing her board examinations, she said.

Just as she graduated from Wisconsin, her parents and her younger brothers moved to Minneapolis because of a job opportunity for her father.

“Working was easier than school, and (physical therapists) can always get a job,” she said.

“There seems to always be a shortage of physical therapists.”

Lamb was once told by a mentor that most physical therapists burn out after four years, and it’s easy to understand why, she said. At the time, though PT’s worked in hospitals, they were afterthoughts, second-class citizens relegated to basements.

“We weren’t respected, then,” she said. “Now, everyone likes us because we’ve helped them with” some injury or ailment.

Consequently, Lamb began taking night classes for a master’s in health care administration in 1982, figuring she’d eventually move on from PT, she said. With the rest of her family in Minneapolis, and nothing tying her to Milwaukee, Lamb left the Brew City for Minneapolis and a job at St. Mary’s rehabilitation facility.

While taking classes through the College of St. Francis at night and working during the day sounds onerous, Lamb was still in academic mode because she’d only recently graduated from college, she said. Going back for her doctorate years later at age 50, on the other hand, proved “so much harder.”

Lamb also found the health care administration curriculum more enjoyable than her undergraduate work, because “it was about people, not so much science,” she said. She completed her master’s in three years, in 1985, and she had already begun running PT offices in 1983.

The deeper she delved into the various levels of PT, the more she realized she wanted to remain in the milieu, she said. “I feel blessed to have this skill.”

“It’s fun to watch the light bulbs go on for patients,” she added. “I love our profession. We are the movement specialists.”

See LAMB on 26

PAGE 25

PORTRAITS IN STEELE COUNTY

FRIDAY, MARCH 31, 2017

Church Directory A Time To Rejoice, Celebrate & Worship St. John Lutheran Church, ELCA

Our Savior’s Lutheran Church-ELCA

THURSDAY 5:00 p.m. Vesper Service SATURDAY 5:00 p.m. Contemporary Service SUNDAY 8:00 a.m. Traditional Service 10:30 a.m. Blended Service (9:30 a.m. Memorial Day - Labor Day) 9:15 a.m. Sunday School/Adult Forum Pastor Dave Klawiter Nursery • Handicapped Accessible • Air Conditioned Communion At All Services • Worship will broadcast over AM 1390 KRFO at 10:30 every Sunday

1301 Lincoln Ave • Owatonna • 451-7293 • www.stjohnowatonna.org

Lutheran Church 609 Lincoln Avenue Owatonna 451-4520 | tlcowatonna.org

Sunday Worship

8:15 a.m. Traditional • 10:45 a.m. Contemporary Education Hour 9:25 a.m.

Summer Sunday Worship 9:15 a.m.

Holy Communion At All Services • Air Conditioned Pastor John Weisenburger Assoc. Pastor Karl Korbel • Assoc. Pastor Lauren Baske-Davis

P.O. Box 423, 1909 St. Paul Rd Owatonna • 451-4853 www.oursaviorsowatonna.org

DISCOVER a relationship FOLLOW with full devotion GO into your world

Traditional Worship Contemporary Worship Education Hour

Emmanuel Evangelical Lutheran Church (WELS) 750 SW Jeffrey St. • Owatonna • 455-2729

8:00am 9:15am & 10:30am 9:15am - 10:15am

(all ages September - May) (Corner of 7th Ave & 26th St)

2500 7th Ave 507-451-4125

Thomas Smith, Pastor

Sunday Worship - 9 a.m.

Christian Education Hour - 10:20 a.m.

Summer Worship - Sunday 9:00 a.m. • Monday 7:00 p.m. emmanuel-wels-owatonna.com

TRINITY

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Come and Worship!

• Saturday 5:00 PM • Sunday 8:15 AM, 9:30 AM • Contemporary Service 10:45 AM Video of full service on Cable Channel 181 Mon 10 AM • Wed 6:00 PM • Sun 11 AM

Friday, March 31, 2017

PORTRAITS IN STEELE COUNTY

PAGE 26P

Anne Lamb — here with her daughter, Mallory — continues to run in multiple triathlons each year, a hobby she picked up 20 years ago, and her goal is to one day finish first in her section.

(Photo courtesy of Anne Lamb)

Lamb From Page 24 By this time, she also wasn’t making decisions only for herself anymore. She had a family to consider, both children and a husband.

Anne met Philip in Minneapolis at a ski club party when she spotted his class ring, she said. It was the same college, Lehigh University, located in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, from which Anne’s father graduated.

In fact, Philip had grown up only about an hour away from where Anne’s parents were reared, she said.

“I wasn’t really interested because I was in school, but he pursued, and he won,” said Lamb.

They were married within a year, and the family relocated to Chicago, Anne’s hometown, from the Twin Cities in 1990 because of a job opportunity for Philip, she said. She saw the move as an opportunity to escape professional burdens that had become exceedingly stressful and scale back to focus more on her family, but though she loves the city and continues to visit often, Chicago

would prove too crowded when trying to raise a young family.

“It took forever to drive anywhere, and we missed Minnesota horribly,” she said.

Consequently, the family moved to Owatonna in 1993, and Lamb remains to this day in the house her husband bought her during that relocation.

When Philip moved for work, Lamb — pregnant at the time — actually stayed behind in Chicago for three months.

The idea of being a stay-at-home-mom didn’t last long, because Lamb missed her patients, and she worked two-to-four days a week in both Chicago and Owatonna, she said. Upon moving to Owatonna, she commuted to Albert Lea for work for three years.

“My boss told me I needed to go out on my own, and that all my patients were coming from Owatonna, anyway, but I didn’t think I could do it,” she said. “All my friends told me to go out on my own, too.” So, finally, on Jan. 1, 1996, “I started writing my business plan.”

As she attempted to get In Touch Physical Therapy off the ground in Owatonna, the Owatonna Business Incubator “was wonderful,” she said. “They helped me find accountants and bankers, and it was all free advice!”

Fortunately, she already had a built-in client base from her work in Albert Lea, and she met others by playing racquetball regularly in Owatonna, she said.

Still, striking out totally on her own was an anxious time, because “physical therapists didn’t think outside the box then.”

As she continued to expand, she realized physical therapy work “is not just a hobby,” she said. “It’s a journey, and you really do bring your work home with you running your own business—you have no idea how much work is involved.”

She’d even see patients on weekends, which sounds like a hardship, but she actually appreciated the relative solitude of being in the office without the rest of the staff or phones ringing constantly, she said. “I loved the quiet.”

Her professional life continued to thrive, and her four children — Mallory, now 30, David, now 28,

Stephen, now 26, and Jordan, now 23 — grew into successful young adults, but the family was “devastated” by Phillip’s shocking death at age 55, she said.

“You lose a part of yourself,” she said. “You move on, but we don’t know how to fill that grief spot.”

He died six months before she was set to complete her doctorate work, but Lamb soldiered on because “I thought he would be mad at me if I didn’t finish,” she said.

Still, in her mourning, she considered selling her business.

“I wanted to get rid of it,” but in her time of need, “I really felt the support of a small town,” she said. “I felt like I was part of a community.”

Indeed, it was the patients who “got me out of bed,” she said. “Someone needed me.”

Furthermore, her son, David, who has followed his father’s footsteps into electrical engineering, has come aboard to help Lamb with many of the aspects Philip once assisted her, she said. “I wouldn’t have this business without Philip, and I wouldn’t have my doctorate, either.”

See LAMB on 27

PAGE 27

PORTRAITS IN STEELE COUNTY

FRIDAY, MARCH 31, 2017

Lamb: From Page 26

Anne Lamb met her husband, Philip, in Minneapolis at a ski club party when she spotted his class ring, since it was from the same college, Lehigh University from which Anne’s father graduated. Anne said she owes much of her business success to Philip’s help. (Photo courtesy of Anne Lamb)

“We would problem-solve together,” she added.

He even wrote her resumes and cover letters.

Lamb launched into her doctorate for multiple reasons, including that the ambition might be a shining example to her children, she said.

“I thought it would show them to work hard.”

Goal-setting — and writing those goals down — has long been key to Lamb’s success, personally, professionally, and in her athletic endeavors, she said.

“Setting goals keeps me young, and it keeps my brain working,” she said.

Though 2017 is the year she turns 60, Lamb is not ready to retire, she said. All her friends tell her “that’s going to be really hard for you.”

She has slowed down, however, delegating more to her trusted and exceptionally component staff, and being more selective in choosing which patients she sees, she said. She also continues to travel to Washington, D.C., as she’s done since 2000, to advocate for various bills and to espouse for the value of physical therapy.

“Every year, I say I’m going to stop, but it’s such a good opportunity,” she said. “I feel

like I am a good spokesperson for physical therapists.”

Though she continues to be worn down by the battles with insurance companies, the thrill of treating patients — solving puzzles — has not subsided, she said. “The human body is fascinating.”

“We don’t have to be as old as we think we are and go sit in rocking chairs,” she said. “I believe I can help them.”

Lamb refuses to grow old herself, continuing to complete in multiple triathlons each year. “It forces me to work out.”

She began 20 years ago, and her goal is to one day finish first in her section. She’s finished second before, but 2017 may be her year to finally grab the brass ring, as she moves to the 60-and-older heat for the first time.

Though she was an accomplished swimmer in her youth, biking — which she does yearround — is now the easiest portion of the triathlon for her.

Running, on the other hand, “sucks,” she said with a laugh.

“I definitely feel my age,” said Lamb, “but it doesn’t mean you give up. You just have to work harder.”

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PORTRAITS IN STEELE COUNTY

PAGE 28P

Beth and Brent Svenby:

Together again

By ASHLEY STEWART

astewart@owatonna.com

I

n many ways Beth and Brent Svenby grew up together.

“It seemed like the twins were around all the time,” she said. “They were basically more kids in the family.”

It wasn’t unusual for Brent and his twin brother, Brad, to visit the Loveless farm off of Highway 14 between Owatonna and Waseca, where Beth and her two brothers, Jeff and Paul, cared for sheep, pigs and steer to show at the Steele County Free Fair.

Brent and Beth Svenby of Owatonna danced the cha cha in the fifth annual Dancing with Our Steele County Stars in April 2015.

The event is a fundraiser for Healthy Seniors of Steele County. (Submitted photo)

Or even for them to stop to get their buttons sewn back on their shirts or feed their sweet tooths with some of Elaine Loveless’ delicious caramel rolls as they commuted to and from Minnesota State University, Mankato after graduating from high school.

“She liked making those, and they were very good,” Brent said.

To put it simply, the twins were adored, and they were around a lot.

“My parents adored them, my mother in particular,” Beth said.

“I didn’t get caramel rolls when I was leaving for college or coming home, but the twins did and she would have them ready to go.”

And while Beth’s and Brent’s education, relationships and careers took them on different journeys — even to different states — for nearly 20 years, the two would end up right back where they started: together.

Closer to home

Brent, one of three sons born to Leroy and Judy Svenby, graduated from Owatonna High School in 1988 before attending University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire.

His plan? To study criminal justice.

“I went through one year of college still not knowing what I wanted to be when I grew up, so I decided to transfer closer to home,” he said.

See SVENBY on 29

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PORTRAITS IN STEELE COUNTY

FRIDAY, MARCH 31, 2017

Svenby

one thing I don’t like is working out of town. I think I miss a lot of things by working out of town.”

From Page 28 His brother, Brad, who was attending Bemidji State University, did the same and together they transferred to Minnesota State University, Mankato. It was there that Brent found an interest in geography, which ultimately led him to his master’s degree in urban planning.

Brent completed his bachelor’s degree in geography in 1992 and completed coursework for his master’s degree in 1994 but didn’t obtain it until 2000.

“I had all my class work done in two years, and then I started working and didn’t complete my paper until nine years later,” he said.

In 1994, Brent started an internship with the City of Owatonna, where he wrote the city’s needs assessment study for a county-wide public transportation system, formerly known as Steele County Area Transit, or SCAT, while he also worked part-time at Steele County Planning and Zoning.

After completing his internship with the city, he worked 30 hours a week with planning and zoning before applying for a full-time position in the Olmsted County Planning and Zoning department in 1997, where he’d serve as a planner, senior planner and principle planner over the course of 17 years.

Brent’s basic job duties entailed reviewing development applications for the City of Rochester, which also consisted of property rezoning, platting of properties, lot development and site plan review.

“The growth has always been strong in Rochester,” he said. “It’s

‘That’s what I’ll be’

Brent and Beth Svenby have volunteered with Dancing with Our Steele County Stars, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Southern Minnesota and From the Heart, an event that raises money for local families journeying through cancer. (Submitted photo)

always been busy to say the least.”

In 2014, Brent became the senior administrative analyst for the City of Rochester, where he works with the redevelopment director on projects downtown as well as special assignments given requested by the city council.

“I’m happy where my life has taken me so far,” he said. “The

Beth, born the middle of three children to Donald and Elaine Loveless, graduated from Owatonna High School in 1986 before going to college “all over the place.”

She transferred three times during her undergraduate before landing at Augustana University in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, where she earned her degree in political science and secondary education.

“I never planned to be a teacher, but my parents at the end of my junior year of college said to me, ‘Well, you have one year left, what are you going to be?’” she said. “Because at that point in time there was an expectation that I finish school in four years, I said, ‘I have no idea,’ so I went to an academic adviser and said, ‘I have to be done in a year, what can I be?’”

Beth had enough coursework to graduate with a political science degree and enjoyed working with children, so the adviser suggested she become a social studies teacher.

“I said, ‘OK, that’s what I’ll be,’” she said.

And upon graduating from Augustana in 1989, she got a teaching job in Lead, South Dakota, but after a year, she moved to Marcus, Iowa, where she did some teaching and coaching while also working toward a master’s degree in psychology and counseling to “spend more time one-on-one” with children.

See SVENBY on 30

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PORTRAITS IN STEELE COUNTY

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Beth Svenby, principal at Washington Elementary School in Owatonna, with her students. (She’s the one in the middle)She’s served as the school’s principal since 2011. (Submitted photo)

Svenby From Page 29 In 1992, Beth earned her master’s degree in educational psychology and counseling from the University of South Dakota, and landed a counseling job in Augden, Iowa, which was one of a variety of locations she worked throughout the state over the next 20 years before returning to Owatonna.

“I have two brothers, but given their occupations, they were not able to leave their jobs and take care of our mom, so I chose to do that,” she said.

Her mother, Elaine, had been diagnosed with “a very rapid case” of Stage 4 colon cancer and wished to remain in her home until her passing, so Beth moved to Owatonna in February 2003 to help her father and hospice care for her mother until her death in May 2003.

The move was also good for Beth, too, who had unexpectedly become a single parent of a 7-year-old, 4-year-old and 6-month-old after a 13-year marriage.

“I needed the support of my family to figure out what my new norm was,” she said.

While caring for her mother, Beth helped her brother, Jeff Love-

less, at his orthodontic office with marketing and other areas as a “gap-filler,” but she missed working with children and the education setting, so she ran for a seat on the Owatonna School Board and was elected in the fall of 2003 and got a job as a counselor at Faribault Middle School.

In the spring of 2004, she received a phone call from the Owatonna school district asking if she’d like to interview for a high school counseling position. Accepting the position meant she’d have to resign from the school board, but it also meant being closer to her children, so she accepted.

Beth served as a counselor at Owatonna High School for a year, while she earned her administration license from Minnesota State University, Mankato, and in 2006, she accepted a position as the school’s assistant principal — one she’d hold until 2011.

In 2011, she became the Washington Elementary School principal, a position she still holds — and cherishes — today.

“I love and care for my own four [children] greatly, but all 500 of these kids are really special to me. You know when I do the morning announcements I tell them each day I love them and I really

mean that,” she said. “I can’t think of a place that I’d rather be, and it’s my responsibility to make sure that when they’re here for their hours each day that they’re safe, that they feel successful, that they’re happy, and that we’re meeting their needs.

“I take pride in that responsibility.”

An easy relationship

If someone were to tell Beth, she would remarry in 2004 — more than a year after her divorce and the death of her mother — she wouldn’t have believed them.

“I wasn’t very trusting at that point, but I had known Brent my entire life and his family my entire life so the trust element was easy to regain and it was easy for us to have a relationship,” she said.

In February 2003, Beth’s brother, Jeff, called Brent and Brad requesting their help to move her and her children back on the Loveless farm. After the move, Beth sent a thank-you note to Brent, who was living and working in Rochester, at the time.

See SVENBY on 32

PAGE 31

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PORTRAITS IN STEELE COUNTY

PAGE 32P

The Svenbys have been married for more than 14 years but have been friends for nearly 40. (Submitted photo)

Svenby From Page 30 “I still have it at home somewhere,” Brent said.

After that, the two started dating; something Beth said was a “cool thing” for her parents to see because she was going through “a very difficult time.”

“It was especially hard on my mom because she was also very ill, and she wanted to be there to help support me and by my mom yet she was fighting for her life,” he said.

While Beth cared for her mother, Brent, who had been a bachelor, was watching her children Spencer, Maria and Lane, and in August, during Steele County Free Fair week, the two were engaged to be married in Jan.3, 2003, at the Owatonna Arts Center.

“Brent did talk to my mom before she passed and said, ‘If I continue to date Beth would it be OK if I asked her to marry me?’ and

she gave her blessing,” Beth said. “She loved and adored Brent and knew that he would be there to take care of me and the kids. I think that was comforting to her in her passing, and I’m thankful for that.”

In December 2004, Beth and Brent expanded their family with the birth of Ty. Today, Spencer Versteeg, 22, and Maria Versteeg, 19, attend the University of Minnesota, while Lane, 14, attends the Owatonna Junior High School and Ty, 12, is at Willow Creek.

And while their children have kept them busy, they’ve still found time to give back to the community they grew up in, in a variety of ways.

Giving back

The Svenbys, especially Beth, are probably most well-known for their involvement with the From the Heart, a nine-member

committee that organizes a May half-marathon, 5K and Kids Fun Run that follows an evening spaghetti supper, silent auction and bake sale to provide support to families journeying through cancer.

It was nine years ago when Beth awoke in the middle of the night with a dream to help one woman. The woman — a complete stranger to her — was Lisa Hilstad, who was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2008.

“I was in church and I heard about a woman who had three children and had an advanced stage of breast cancer and was struggling,” she said.

Beth tried to shrug the dream off, but the next night, she awoke again.

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PORTRAITS IN STEELE COUNTY

Beth and Brent Svenby with their children Lane Versteeg, Ty Svenby, Maria Versteeg and Spencer Versteeg in the Owatonna City Council chambers.

Brent has been a city councilor since 2006.

(Submitted photo)

FRIDAY, MARCH 31, 2017

A good night’s sleep is in your reach

From Page 32

“I had, had a really weird dream about putting on a race and calling it From the Heart. It was very vivid, and I could see the whole day in my mind,” she said. “When I woke from that, I told Brent, ‘I have to do something for her.’”

It was then Svenby called her friends and started planning the inaugural From the Heart half-marathon to support Hilstad and her family with their physical, emotional and personal journey through cancer. Hilstad died in April 2009 — one month before the race, but about 700 people attended the first-ever event in memory of Hilstad and to support her family.

Since then, the event raised more than $300,000 for 25 local families.

“Ever since I lost my mom, cancer’s always something that is close to home and I want to advocate for people on that journey because you don’t understand how difficult that is until you’ve gone through it,” she said. “It’s an emotional ride, it’s a financial ride. It’s just everything.”

From the Heart proceeds also go to the Tyler Harlicker Scholarship Fund, which provides $1,000 scholarships to high school seniors. Since 2011, the committee has awarded 17 Tyler Harlicker Scholarships for $1,000 to students.

“We want to remind young people and have young people remind themselves that you’re never too young to start making a difference in the life of another person,” she said. “We have an obligation to do something that’s why we’re all here. It’s what we do for others; not about us.”

Beth said this past year the From the Heart Committee also started Random Acts From the Heart to support families, organizations or causes year-round outside of the May event. So far, the committee has completed seven random acts that “will impact not only families but the community as a whole,” she said.

In 2012, Beth was named Owatonna Business Women’s 40th annual Woman of Achievement 3 for her professional and philanthropic contri-

butions to the community, including From the Heart.

“That was a really great honor,” she said.

Brent, who is responsible for setting up the From the Heart course on race day and some other items, is also involved in city government at the Steele County Free Fair.

In 2005, Brent decided to run for Owatonna CCouncil because of his involvement in city government in Rochester and from a desire to “make sure the city maintained and continued to be the city” he grew up in.

“I wanted to make sure that was maintained for my kids and hopefully their kids at some point in the future,” he said.

Brent has served as a city councilor since January 2006, and was re-elected in 2009 and 2014.

In 2009, Brent became a fair superintendent for the Grandstand, where he served for three years before being nominated and elected to the Steele County Free Fair Board of Directors, a position he maintains today, in November 2012 after the death of Elmer Reseland, longtime fair secretary-manager, which left a vacancy. He has served as a director of the Grandstand as well as the Beer Garden.

“I’ve always loved the fair,” he said. “My grandparents used to live two blocks from the fair on Elm Street, and I just always remember staying at their house during fair with my cousins.”

The couple has also been involved with the Make-A-Wish Foundation, which grants wishes to children with life-threatening illnesses; Dancing with the Steele County Stars, which benefits Healthy Seniors of Steele County; the Owatonna Basketball Association, where Beth serves as the board secretary; and Big Brothers Big Sisters of Southern Minnesota, where Beth has been a Big Sisters for a student at Washington Elementary the past three years, and the Svenbys and their children are a Big Family for an eighth-grader.

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PORTRAITS IN STEELE COUNTY

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Russ Goette:

Finding greener pastures

When not busy as mayor, Russ Goette works in the butcher shop at Steve’s Meat Market in Ellendale. (William Morris/People’s Press)

By WILLIAM MORRIS

wmorris@owatonna.com

R

uss Goette says he left home in Ellendale looking for the greener grass. Thirty years, 7,000 miles and a brief jaunt to the afterlife later, he found it right where he began.

“This is my heart and soul, from one end to the other,” he says of the town.

As newly-elected mayor of Ellendale, he hopes that love of his hometown makes him an effective advocate and ambassador for the community, but the feeling goes much deeper than just his role as an elected official.

“We have one of the best little towns in the country, sitting right here,” he said. “[Our] assets far outweigh what we have in some of the bigger cities, and I just want to do my best to make sure my grandkids have a chance to grow up here.”

Catching the wanderlust

He didn’t feel that way when he was younger, though.

Goette graduated from New Richland-Hartland-EllendaleGeneva High School in 1979 and took up his grandfather’s farm outside town, but within a few years the itch to see the world had him packing his bags.

“I wasn’t married,” he said. “There just looked like there were so many opportunities out in this world, and if I was going to take a chance and go out in the world, that was the time to do it, before I had kids and a family.”

And so in 1984, he uprooted from Minnesota and moved west — about 1,800 miles west — to Eugene, Oregon, a city of 750,000. He’d visited family near there before, and says he was attracted by the landscape and a city that “seemed a good place to find out what it was all about.”

The move to a community more than 200 times larger than Ellendale was a definite change of pace, Goette recalls.

“The biggest thing was just not knowing anyone The doors were always locked. You never knew who to trust and who not to trust.

It wasn’t like here,” he said. “You’re pretty much just a little fish in a big ocean there.”

In Oregon, Goette got married and later divorced, leaving three children: Kaylah, now 30; Brandt, 29; and BreeOnna, 28. (Brandt will soon be joining him in Ellendale, he says, while the daughters remain in Oregon). For more than a decade, he moved around Oregon to different jobs in construction and manufacturing.

“It was kind of a dog-eat-dog world, that there wasn’t a whole lot of job security,” he said. “You left here, you could hold a job most of your life, if you chose to. You never really felt that security out there.”

But it was more than job security that kept him on the move, he said.

See GOETTE on 35

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PORTRAITS IN STEELE COUNTY

FRIDAY, MARCH 31, 2017

Goette From Page 34 “I felt out of place,” he said. “I never did feel like at home. It never really felt permanent. I guess that’s why I moved around a lot out there, trying to find that one spot that I can fit in.”

Down south and back

In 1997, that search took Goette to Las Cruces, New Mexico, perhaps the diametric opposite of Minnesota.

“Las Cruces is in the heart of the desert.

It’s hot,” he said. “The typical summer day is 105 to 115 degrees. Christmas time you’d see some snow, it’d be there for a week and disappear, and spring would start in February. The desert was all dead. There’s no colors, there’s no season changes there, and everything just seems to be dead.”

Goette by that time was an RV technician, and moved to Las Cruces with his son to train new technicians for the booming community, which has almost doubled in size since 1990.

If Eugene was a strange place to him after Ellendale, New Mexico was a different sort of beast entirely.

“That was a real culture shock, going down

there,” he said. “I lived 45 minutes from the Mexican border. Juarez, Mexico, I could drive down there, and It was like a third-world country — people living in little huts made with pallets and cardboard and burning old tires for heat, and on the other side, in El Paso, Texas, you could see rich multimillion-dollar homes.

It was the world of the Haves and Have Nots down there.”

Goette and Brandt lived in Las Cruces for a decade, but once again, he says, it never quite seemed like home. He describes it as a “lawless town” struggling to cope with immigration and drug trafficking. In the end, the spiraling cost of living, which he attributes to illegal immigration, convinced him to depart, and so he turned his steps back to Oregon, but that wasn’t his final destination.

“That was basically just getting reacquainted with my daughters there in Oregon, getting to know my grandchildren,” he said. “It was just a stepping stone, retracing my tracks and going back to Minnesota.”

See GOETTE on 36

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PORTRAITS IN STEELE COUNTY

PAGE 36P

Russ Goette describes his job as mayor like being a marketing agent for Ellendale. “We have a great town. People who haven’t been here should come and visit,” he said. (William Morris/People’s Press)

Goette From Page 35

‘And then I died’

In 2011, Goette moved back to Minnesota.

With him came his now-fiancee, Patti Carlson, a Brooklyn Park native who had joined him in Oregon.

“Oregon was fine for us. We were out exploring, seeing different areas in Oregon. And it was just an intuition or a feeling. It was time for both of us to go back home,” he said.

The two settled in Brooklyn Park in November 2011, but nine months later is when the story really gets interesting, Goette said, because that was when he died.

That’s right — died.

“Sept. 8, 2012, I died of a heart attack. I was dead for 24 minutes,”

he said. “I was fortunate that I was in the living room of our house and she was able to do CPR until the paramedics arrived to use the defibrillator to shock me back to life.”

Although today he says there’s no permanent damage, at the time it was a close-run thing. Goette spent eight days, including his 52rd birthday, in a coma. Heart attacks run in the men of his family — his father died of a heart attack at 55 — and when he was finally back on his feet, it was with a dose of new perspective.

“I have no worries any more,” he said. “I know where I’m going when it’s all over and done with. Stress is something we bring to the table. It’s not something God intended.”

And it also crystallized something he’d been learning for years: there really is no place like home.

“When I left Minnesota ... I was chasing things that were here

all along,” Goette said. “I just figured, I’m around for some reason, and I’m still trying to figure out what that reason is.”

At home in Ellendale

And so in 2013, Goette and Carlson moved to Ellendale. They live in the home once owned by his former Sunday school teacher, and he works for Steve’s Meat Market, while she works as a paraprofessional at the school. Both are thriving back in the small-town life, he says, but he was struck on his return on the ways the town had changed since 1984.

“Little by little, people weren’t noticing it, and I came back and it hit me full on, the things that were gone,” he said.

See GOETTE on 37

PAGE 37

,

y , n n

d

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PORTRAITS IN STEELE COUNTY

FRIDAY, MARCH 31, 2017

Goette From Page 36 One thing he missed was the concerts that once happened on the lot now occupied by the municipal building. Since 2014, he and Carlson have organized a new concert series just down the street, bringing bands from around the region on Saturday nights for the residents to enjoy. Still, he felt there was more he could be doing.

“I just had ideas on how to spark some business in town,” he says.

And so, when the office of mayor came up for election in 2016, he ran for it, and won.

Speaking in January, shortly after beginning his term, Goette said he’s still learning the ropes of city government.

“There’s a lot of time that’s spent doing the necessities, and I just really didn’t have a good grasp of what all that was, but I’m catching on,” he said.

But once he has the basics nailed down, he hopes to help the town capitalize on its location — at the junction of Interstate 35 and Highway 30 — to attract new interest and new business.

“I see my position as the mayor as more of a marketing agent,” he said. “You can’t just go to a council meeting and say, I work the second and fourth Tuesday of the month. We have a great

town, people who haven’t been here should come and visit.”

When he’s not working, running the city, or organizing concerts, Goette said he and Carlson enjoy getting out and about their small community.

“We just enjoy the small town life,” he said.

“We love to go out and try different diners, different places to eat, and I’ve got a lot of family around here so visiting family, both blood family and chosen family.”

And he looks forward to increasing those family ties soon, with Brandt and Brandt’s children soon to join them, and more trips to visit his daughters’ families in Oregon, or for them to visit him here.

Because after all, there’s lots of reasons Goette can give why people should want to spend more time in Ellendale.

“If you don’t know where Ellendale, Minnesota, is at, come check us out,” he says. “We’re here, we’re looking and we’re ready to open our arms and accept.”

William Morris is a reporter for the Owatonna Russ Goette and his fiancee, Patti Carlson, have organized a concert series each year on this People’s Press. He can be reached at 444-2372; fol- outdoor stage in downtown Ellendale. (William Morris/People’s Press) low him on Twitter @OPPWilliam

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PAGE 38

Silvan Durben:

Exploring creativity

A core belief of Silvan Durben’s about art is that, “You don’t have to like it or understand all of it, but you may discover something more than first meets the eye or your other senses.” (Ryan Anderson/People’s Press)

By RYAN ANDERSON

randerson@owatonna.com

T

he first thing to know about Silvan Durben, artistic director of the Owatonna Arts Center, is that he’s painfully shy and exceedingly reticent to talk about himself, so asking him to discuss his personal life in detail is about as easy as convincing Joel Osteen to spring for your bacchanal Vegas bachelor party.

“I am an introvert, and I am very shy,” he said. “I’m not someone who wants to have a lot of attention.”

Consequently, he constantly praises the OAC board, those who volunteer at the center, and the community as a whole for supporting him and the arts.

“The community has been willing to work with me and all my flaws,” he said. “Most of my time here has been spent trying to keep things moving forward and trying to hold it together.”

Those who have known Durben for years say his toil on behalf of the OAC has been exemplary, and he’s done far more than merely “hold it together.” Instead, he’s become synonymous with the success of the OAC. Sharon Stark, who has been involved with the Little Theatre of Owatonna “since day one” and served as the OAC’s administrative assistant for 13 years, promulgated that Durben is the reason the OAC is in the position it is today, because he’s solved myriad conflicts and “crossed so many thresholds,” she said.

“He is the Owatonna Arts Center,” said Stark.

Indeed, it’s rare for a community of modest size like Owatonna to have such a thriving arts culture, and Durben has been instrumental in creating this atmosphere, said Mary Butler-Fraser, who has been involved with the OAC for a quarter century.

“People like him, and they keep coming back,” she said.

Durben was born Sept. 15, 1948, in Austin, the oldest of four

children. His mother, who cleaned houses for the wealthier citizens of Austin before marrying, his father, who worked at Hormel and operated a garage on the side, and their four children, Sylvan, Lavern, Donald, and Donna, lived on the outskirts of Austin, but spent most summers at Silvan’s aunt’s country farm, interacting with their cousins, where it was in many ways a Rockwellian upbringing.

“We learned how to ride our bikes and all the other things kids do,” he said. “It was a childhood that may not exist anymore for a lot of people.”

Butler-Fraser, who spent three stints on the OAC board and is a patron saint for the Little Theatre, has known Durben “all my life,” she said. “We grew up together.”

See DURBEN on 40

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PORTRAITS IN STEELE COUNTY

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Silvan Durben and Judy Srsen share a light moment during an arts festival at the OAC. (Photo courtesy of Silvan Durben)

Durben From Page 38 “We shared an aunt and uncle,” she explained.

Consequently, she was present for those idyllic country summers Durben recalls so fondly.

“He was a typical kid, and we had a wonderful aunt, so there was always something to do,” she said. In addition to being a superb cook, their aunt was also an accomplished artist, and Butler-Fraser surmises she may have been the source for some of Durben’s artistic prowess.

She made everything from doll houses to treasure chests to lunch boxes, Butler-Fraser said.

“She was always busy working on something,” she said.

Before moving on to Pacelli High School, Durben attended grade school at St. Augustine, he said.

“I’m thankful for Catholic school,” he said, “because there was a lot of extra attention and help.”

Though never formally diagnosed, Durben believes he may be dyslexic, so teachers who were willing to take the time to education him were much appreciated, he said.

“They were very diligent,” he said.

Durben was always interested in the arts, but high school offered only a paucity of outlets; in fact, artistic opportunities were much more readily available in grade school, he said. “We learned calligraphy” in grade school, for example, while high school “was geared more toward college prep.”

“I didn’t fit into a world that was pretty much about sports,” he said. “I was not popular in high school. I was more of a scapegoat, but the instructors and teachers were very helpful.”

Durben is heartened, however, by the way so many students in Owatonna engage in both sports and the arts, he said.

“When I first came to Owatonna, it was a surprise to see so many kids in carolers and orchestra who were also very active in sports, and I think that is very positive here,” said Durben.

One of his few creative outlets as a teenager was the aunt who made and decorated wedding cakes, he said. “She was self-taught, and I learned a great deal from her.”

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Durben From Page 40 Durben began to appreciate the skill it takes to create effects when dealing with delicate, malleable media, he said. “I think a lot of us in art come to it through the crafts.”

“It’s not just about making something beautiful,” he added. “It’s working with your hands to make something, solving problems, and finding solutions.”

After high school, Durbin headed to Riverland Community College — then known as Austin Community College — where he received an associate’s degree in business, which he felt would help him land future employment, he said. An economics class, in particular, was “very exciting,” as it taught him to “think through how various actions and activities change economic outcomes.”

Though business was his nominal focus, he also took a litany of art classes, which opened his eyes to the creative world.

A pair of instructors at the school, Jim Wagner and Inoa Bell, comprised the entire art department, but they were exceptional, to such a degree that much of the curriculum at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design was informed by what Bell and Wagner were teaching in Austin, he said. For example, Bell taught a color theory class based on the tenets of Josef Albers, where Durben learned art could be “a wonderfully intellectual game of colors, making one color look like two colors.”

Albers, a painter, poet, sculptor, teacher, and theoretician, brought European modernism to America, according to the Art Story Foundation. Albers promulgated that color, rather than form, “is the primary medium of pictorial language,” and his theory had

a profound influence on the development of modern art in the United States during the 1950s and 1960s.

College art classes were portals of discovery for Durben, he said.

“They were designed for you to think and discover, not reproduce something or learn a technique.”

For example, “You can take unconventional material and use it in a different way,” he said. “Suddenly, you get hooked on finding some information and going down a path because it’s exciting to explore.”

Indeed, this is one of Durben’s core beliefs about art, he said.

“You don’t have to like it or understand all of it,” he said, “but you may discover something more than first meets the eye or your other senses.”

Invigorated by his first real taste of art at the academic level, Durben moved on to St. Cloud State University to pursue a bachelor of science in art education.

“That opened doors, and it was very positive, because I got to experience a variety of media,” he said.

The only two of which he didn’t spend time on were glassblowing and photography, he said. Everything else — from painting to sculpting — “I liked all of them.”

Art education was more about learning, “rather than always ending up with a lovely finished product,” he said. “Art to me is a process.”

“If you feel strongly about some artistic choice, you probably are going to make it work,” he added. “It’s trial and error.”

After graduation, Durben thought teaching might be a “good”

next step, he said. After all, teaching is a way of sharing one’s passion and interests.

“All the teachers we really liked knew their material and were very passionate about it,” he said. “I hoped I could do that.”

However, he didn’t land a teaching position, and instead went to work with a cousin who operated a machine shop in Minneapolis, he said. Among his duties were running a machine that made parts, some of which had to be fashioned within 1/100th of an inch.

Alas, “it wasn’t me,” he said. “I’m not mechanically-inclined.”

Fortunately, he was thrown a life preserver in the form of a government program that at the time paid for the OAC to bring Durben to Owatonna, he said.

“They didn’t know what to do with me, and I didn’t know what to do with them,” he said.

The OAC was still in the inchoate stages, having been established in 1974. Durben came to town in 1977, he said. Locals were very proud of the facility, he was able to meet the board, and the OAC was “relieved to have someone here.”

Jean Zamboni, a founding member of the OAC, was part of a committee of three OAC board members who interviewed Durben for the position, and she said, “it was a relief to know that somebody was in charge” after approving Durben’s hire. In the early days of the OAC, it was essentially completely volunteer labor, but bringing Durben on board in a professional capacity was “truly the beginning.”

See DURBEN on 42

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Durben From Page 41 While a federal grant initially paid his salary, “he was doing such a good job, we hired him,” she said. For Durben, no job was too small, and no detail considered unimportant.

“He did everything then, and he still does,” she said. “He’s very agreeable, and the arts center would not be running as smoothly without him.

He’s been a wonderful person to have there.”

In 1974, the City of Owatonna purchased the campus of the former Minnesota State Public School for Dependent and Neglected Children, which had been in operation from 1886 until 1945, according to the OAC. That same year, the Owatonna Arts Center was founded as a 501© 3 corporation under the direction of Mary Leach, with artistic flair being supplied by Marianne Young.

So, the OAC and Durben essentially grew up together. Because the OAC was so new, it had no established traditions, which freed up Durben and others to try unconventional ideas. The community was receptive to audacious suggestions, and a minimal budget almost forced such creativity.

“We never had any money,” he said. Consequently, “we could be bold and take chances.”

As Zamboni notes, for many years, Durben was truly doing the work purely for love of art, as his salary was a mere pittance, and something like health insurance wasn’t even a consideration.

“He was practically working for nothing,” she said. “It was just bare roots.”

Many of the risks taken in those years paid off handsomely, like throwing together a mishmash of decorations for annual Christmas displays, while a few did not, like intentionally flooding a room for an exhibition, he said. The latter experiment culminated with water leaking through a tarp, and a panic-stricken Durben feverishly tossing buckets of water out the only window in the room in the middle of winter.

“One does feel over one’s head at times, and I still don’t have all the answers,” he said. “We are exploring, and the only constant is the people willing to believe and be involved in the arts.”

Stark, who has been Durben’s friend since he arrived in Owatonna, said, “He’s a great friend and a delight to be around.” They’ve gone to numerous art shows and plays together, and he’s a person who “will do anything for you.”

“If you need something, he’s there for you,” she said. The arts — and the OAC in particular — are his raison d’être, and “he gives 110 percent to anything he does.”

Durben deflects credit, though.

“I don’t have a very positive self-image,” he added. “I’m not out here to sell myself or tell you how great I am.”

Stark said Durben’s modestly can prevent him from receiving his rightful praise.

Silvan Durben prizes arts education, always reaching out to the youth of Owatonna to get them more involved in creative endeavors. (Photo courtesy of Silvan Durben)

He’s made the OAC into “Owatonna’s living room,” she said. “It’s his life, he loves it, and he lives it.”

Butler-Fraser reconnected with Durben when he came to Owatonna, and he soon persuaded her to become more active with the OAC, she said. In fact, when she first moved to Owatonna, she didn’t even know about the OAC, and part of what Durben has done best as director is increase awareness of it.

“The arts are a vital attribute to Owatonna,” she said. “People come here for the arts.”

Butler-Fraser cooks for the soup lunches of the Pastimes series, and she assists with the annual Christmas displays, she said. She also makes a habit of bringing her daycare charges to the OAC for classes with Durben and others.

“This is an ongoing process, and the community has always been willing to roll up their sleeves and do things,” in addition to supporting the OAC financially, Durben said. “Art should always be an exploration.”

Because “we are always struggling in the arts for money, it’s been very humbling that so many artists and individuals do things here because they want to,” he added. “We are not paying everyone for everything that happens here in education, gallery exhibitions, and musical programs.”

Though the OAC is in a substantially-better fiscal position now than it was in those early years, it’s the magnanimous donations of individuals that have helped make it so, Durben said. Because of that continued trust, he feels compelled to never let the OAC grow “stagnant.”

Obviously, bringing Durben to the OAC decades ago turned out to be a propitious decision, and Zamboni is thrilled he’s been able to continue — and even elevate — the city’s artistic reputation, she said. “Owatonna has always been an artistic place.”

Durben admitted to being surprised by the number and quality of local artists when he initially came to Owatonna. It is clearly a community that enjoys, supports, and participates in the arts.

Part of what keeps Durben engaged after so many years is seeing new work, he said. Whenver anyone begins to believe all in-roads have been made in the arts, “someone puts a new twist on it.”

“My concept of art is pretty wide-open,” he added. “I like to explore the unique and the unusual, and I want to learn how it was made and why it was done.”

For example, before coming to Owatonna, Durben knew nothing of wildlife art, he said.

“I’m not an outdoorsman, at all,” he said.

But he’s learned more about the style, and the OAC has displayed a plethora of wildlife pieces over the years.

Though Durben spends most of his time at the OAC, he enjoys touring other galleries “to see what’s available,” he said. He also loves theater, seeing numerous shows — the best of which recently was “The Lion in Winter” — at the Guthrie Theater.

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Durben From Page 42 Durben’s parents are both deceased, as are Butler-Fraser’s, so “we include Silvan in all our family” events, she said. ButlerFraser has seven siblings, and several of her family members are artists, so they always “relate really well to” Durben.

Durben is not married and doesn’t have children, so he finds fulfillment in his various “art families,” he said. The arts center is his world, and “I’m fortunate to have landed here, because I’ve been allowed to grow as an individual.”

He is brilliantly creative, Butler-Fraser said. In fact, he decorated the OAC for her wedding reception, and “it was absolutely beautiful.”

What “amazes” her most about Durben is his willingness to chip in any way necessary, she said. For example, when she comes in the night before a Pastimes event, he’s always in the kitchen peeling vegetables or otherwise making sure the food portion will be complete.

In addition, when Butler-Fraser directed

a holiday program, “The Stars Come Out for the Holidays,” at the Little Theater, Durben decorated her set to universal acclaim, she said. They bought “100 yards of fabulous fabric, huge stars were hanging from the ceiling,” and everyone who entered the theater was monumentally impressed by the majesty.

No doubt, Durben has also been a major ally for the Little Theater, pitching in whenever he can, including helping with various sets, Stark said.

“The Little Theater works closely with him and the (OAC), and I know the theater inside-and-out,” she said.

Durben has no plans to retire anytime soon, he said.

“I enjoy what I do, and I hope I still have something to offer,” he said, though adding it’s folly to consider a legacy. “I’ve learned that whatever people think, I can’t change it. Their perception is the reality, even if it’s not factual.”

Therefore, he’s “just going to attempt to do the best job I can while I’m here,” he said.

“We explore creativity, (because) art is a process and a journey.”

Though he dislikes talking about himself, those who have known Silvan Durben for years say his toil on behalf of the Owatonna Arts Center has been exemplary, and he’s become synonymous with the success of the OAC during his decades-long tenure as creative director. (Ryan Anderson/ People’s Press)

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Kim Cosens:

Kim Cosens has been an Edward Jones financial adviser in Owatonna since 2002. (William Morris/People’s Press)

By WILLIAM MORRIS

wmorris@owatonna.com

I

n retrospect, Kim Cosens can see how each stage of his life prepared him to be where he is today.

“You look back and through your whole life, you pick up different skills at different points, and it all kind of comes together to something,” Cosens says.

That wasn’t always clear along the way, though. In fact, Cosens, 57, says he would never have pictured himself where he is today — a longtime financial advisor for Edward Jones, founder of a major music festival, and a fixture on various boards and commissions in the Owatonna community. In fact, if you’d asked him at the very start of his career, he’d have envisioned a very different path.

“If I’d had to start in this job right out of college, I don’t know if I’d have been very successful at it, but I look back and all the things I learned teaching, and working with those people, taught me how to work with a wide variety of people in this job and help them,” he said.

Put here for a reason

But that’s not to say he’s unhappy with how things have turned out.

“It has been sometimes interesting, … scratching my head and say, ‘Boy, Lord, I don’t understand. Why is it not working the way it was supposed to?’” Cosens said. “I look back on it now, and I realize, all of it was to help prepare me to move into this stage of my life, where I’m able to help lots and lots of people that really need help.”

The teacher from Spirit Lake

Cosens’ first career had very little to do with finance. He first spent 20 years as a high school band director.

The son of a military officer, Cosens was born in San Francisco and grew up primarily in Spirit Lake, home of “the only lakes in the state of Iowa,” he jokes. He attended University of South Dakota in Vermillion, studying fine arts and music education, and landed his first teaching position in Mitchell, SD. But after several years there, he heard the call of his adopted hometown — literally, as his home district called to invite him to apply for a vacancy in the band program. It was an opportunity he couldn’t refuse.

“I hadn’t realized all the things I hadn’t been taught in high school band in Spirit Lake until I went to college,” Cosens said.

“As nice a guy as my high school band director was, he didn’t teach us anything about jazz and a lot of other important things that I learned about in college and really fell in love with. I had said to myself, if I ever have the opportunity to go back to my hometown and help those kids learn the things I didn’t, that I would be interested.”

So he returned to Spirit Lake for several years, until his band was selected to perform at the state band director’s convention.

“We were down there playing at the convention in Des Moines, and I was hearing from all my colleagues around the state, ‘congratulations,’ and I thought they were talking about the selection playing for the convention,” Cosens said. “Then after about eight or nine people, one or two said, ‘Congrats on your new position.’ I said, ‘What do you mean?’”

What Cosens’ colleagues had heard before him was that the retiring band director at Sioux City North, one of the top programs in the state, had picked Cosens as his successor. Once again, it was an opportunity he couldn’t turn down, but this time he found himself regretting it.

See COSENS on 45

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I d ”

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Kim and Shelly Cosens on vacation in Alexandria in 2016. (Submitted photo)

Cosens

From Page 44

“I did it for all the wrong reasons,” Cosens said. “I did it because I thought of myself as, ‘Wow, I’m going to get to teach the best jazz program in the state, one of the top ones in the country,’ so I would say my ego kind of got in the way.”

I And so, after a year living in a large city, struggling to negotiate the politics of a high-level, high-pressure program, Cosens e was about ready to throw in the towel, not just on Sioux City, but s teaching, when he got the call that brought him to Minnesota and another decade in the classroom. d

Welcome to Waseca

It was actually two calls. The first call inviting him to apply as band director in Waseca, he turned down, and only when he got a call directly

from retiring director Butch Dufault that he decided to give it a shot. “[My wife and I] decided, you know, I’ve learned that I came to Sioux City for the wrong reasons, for ego, and that’s not the way you want to approach a successful career, putting yourself first,” Cosens said. “We said, ‘You know, what would it hurt to at least apply, and if I interview, even if they offer I don’t have to take it.’”

In the end, he did take the job and started at Waseca High School in 1994, a position he would hold through 2002. He found great satisfaction there, he says, starting a successful jazz festival and leading students year after year to state conventions, Solo and Ensemble competitions and more. But as the years wore on, it became clear that the workload needed to offer his students that level of opportunity was no longer sustainable.

“It got to the point in fall of 2000 that I needed to change or I’d get burned out. I was at school from 6:30 in the morning to 8:30 or 9

at night every day of the week. Most weekends, I was out competing with my own bands, or out judging others at competitions,” Cosens said. “I was neglecting my time at home with my own family. ... I just was feeling I didn’t have any balance in my life at all, everything was work, and I had become a classic workaholic.”

And so finally, he told his students in spring 2002 he would not be returning the next year. His plan initially was to find a position at a larger school where he could serve as an assistant director, and that summer he interviewed for several such jobs at elite band schools in the Twin Cities. In two cases, he was even told by interviewers that the job was his. But the offers all went to other candidates, and as fall approached, he still didn’t have a position nailed down.

See COSENS on 46

Friday, March 31, 2017

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Cosens From Page 45 “I was really baffled now,” he said. “I know I could get a job anywhere, but I didn’t want to teach just anywhere, I wanted to teach at a topquality school with a team of directors, and so I started to believe that maybe God had a different plan for us.”

A new way to help people

It was his wife, Shelly, who helped point him in a new direction.

Kim and Shelly met when he was in college and returned home for the summer to work at a fast food restaurant, where Shelly, four years younger, was also working.

“I thought she was just cuter than cute can be, and I eventually asked her out and the rest is history, as they say,” he recalls By 2002, Shelly was working as a branch office administrator for investment firm Edward Jones in Waseca, and she wanted Kim to join her.

“She had been telling me for many months, in fact years, ‘Kim, you should work for Edward Jones. You’re good working with people, you care about people, have a financial background,’ and I said, ‘No, I know music, I know kids, I have a passion for that, I’m not interested,’” he said.

But this time, as the new school year approached with no position lined up, he decided to find out more. He met with Shelly’s boss several times, went through the application progress, and late in 2002 found himself embarking on a brand new career as a financial advisor.

It was a challenge, he recalls, studying up at age 43 on a new industry and preparing to take rigorous licensure tests. In some ways, though, he found his past experience as a band teacher gave him a leg up in surprising ways.

“In each of the schools I had gone to, I had inherited a program where the equipment was in horrible shape,” he said.

At each district, he said, he was able to work with administrators and school boards to obtain major new investments in his programs, which gave him valuable nuts-and-bolts financial experience.

“Much more of a business type approach to teaching, where, no knock on any other band director, but most other band directors are there because they love music and want to teach kids,” he said. “I did that as well, but I also had this business mind seeing how to put these things together.”

He passed his tests, and in December 2002, he set up shop at the office he still works from today on West Bridge Street as a newly minted Edward Jones financial adviser. The first few months were grueling, splitting time between learning from an Edward Jones mentor in Austin and building

Southern Minnesota’s Real Big Band, a 19-piece ensemble of which Cosens, second from back right, is a founder. (Submitted photo)

“A lot of people think it’s about the money. It’s not about the money. Money is just a commodity that helps you accomplish these other things that are important to you in life.”

— Kim Cosens a client base, but eventually he got his feet under him and hasn’t slowed down since.

“A lot of people think it’s about the money.

It’s not about the money,” he said. “Money is just a commodity that helps you to accomplish these other things that are important to you in life. Is that having a cabin up north? Is it buying a boat?

Is it being able to send that kid to college? Saying I want to leave a certain amount to my grandchildren? … While it’s a very big job, it’s a job I have fallen in love with. I love helping people, and in this case it’s helping people financially to set and achieve financial goals.”

Still got another song to play

Just because Cosens is out of the classroom, though, doesn’t mean he’s left band music behind.

Southern Minnesota’s Real Big Band, which he started 20 years ago, is a 19-piece ensemble that plays events and concerts across southern Minnesota, backing professional jazz musicians or performing the works of Gordon Goodwin, Duke Ellington and more. They’ve played several

times in Owatonna, and will again in March 2017, but it’s by his other musical project that he’s made perhaps the biggest impact on the community.

The Harry Wenger Band Festival, named for the onetime Owatonna band director and founder of Wenger Corporation, was an idea Cosens developed after several years working as a volunteer instructor with Owatonna High School band director Pete Guenther, preparing the band to march in competitions around Minnesota.

“At the end of that, I said, we need to establish a marching competition right here in Owatonna,” Cosens said. “There’s no better place in the entire world for a marching competition than the home of Harry Wenger. Why in the world would we not have a competition here in town?”

The project started slowly, but eventually, Cosens felt he had the support to take the proposal to the Wenger Foundation, established by Harry Wenger’s descendents, to ask for their support.

He got it.

“We wanted it to be a win-win-win,” Cosens said. “We wanted it to be a win for the Owatonna marching program, we wanted it to be a win for

the band students that would come to our festival, and we wanted it to be a win for the community of Owatonna itself, as a business community, the people that live here. Our goal as a board was we wanted this to be one of the best festivals available for students in the state of Minnesota, and now going into our eighth year, I believe we’re accomplishing that.”

Each year’s festival brings 12 high school bands to mark through downtown Owatonna for their peers, judges, and crowds from across the region. In the first few years, Cosens says, it took a few months for the band slots to fill. In recent years, though, the slots have been filling up in eight hours or less. He credits that popularity to a highly organized system that gives each band plenty of time and rehearsal space and pairs each group with a “host” to help guide them through the logistical hurdles of getting hundreds of high school students with expensive uniforms and equipment in the right place at the right time.

Cosens credits all of that to his board of directors.

“Most of these people have been on the board all eight years since we started this,” he said. “It’s kind of a year-round thing. We take a couple months after the festival is done to relax and recoup, but by the fall, we start again with our annual meeting and all our planning to make sure everything is going to happen.”

And the festival isn’t just a big deal for visiting schools. It’s a major day for the community and local band students as well.

“We just love the support and the love that we feel for the community toward the festival,” Cosens said. “I think it’s a great thing for Owatonna, and I think it has helped the Owatonna marching program to grow and improve, as these young kids that go to the day of the event see these bands go by, and often times a few years later find themselves in the marching band because they saw that, they got excited about that, they can see themselves doing something similar.”

‘I’ll continue quite a while’

On top of his day job at Edward Jones and the demands of running multiple musical programs and ensembles, Cosens can be found in a few other key roles. He still travels to different band festivals around the Midwest to serve as a professional adjudicator. He’s served on several local government boards and commissions, as well as a patient experience task force at Owatonna Hospital, and is currently president of the Owatonna Public Utilities Commission. But he’s also found more time in recent years to follow his own pursuits with his family.

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FRIDAY, MARCH 31, 2017

Cosens From Page 46 “It’s very easy for me to just keep working, because I know I can keep making things better and accomplishing things, but by doing that, I’m blocking out other important things in my life, things like spending time with my family,” he said. “When I got the job at Edward Jones, I made the promise to my wife and myself that I would find balance in my life, that I would not stay in the office all day long.”

Kim and Shelly are in their 36th year of marriage and have three children, Candice, Josh and Kyle, who live in Apple Valley, Waseca and Rochester.

There are six grandchildren and a seventh on the way. They are active in their congregation, Bethel Church, where Kim has served on various committees and as part of the worship music team. And thanks in part to a travel benefit offered by Edward Jones, he said he and Shelly have spent recent years exploring far beyond their Midwestern haunts, and now have dozens of photos from around the world in their home.

Through all his different careers and experiences, Cosens traces a few common threads. One is his family, which he says he is blessed to have all living within easy travel distance. A second is his Christian faith, which has carried him forward

even at times when he struggled to discern the path.

“That has been the driving force in everything I’ve done,” he said. “I would not have anything today, whether it’s the skills and the abilities that I’ve been able to be blessed with, or the opportunities to help other people, or the jobs that I have or have had opportunity to work in. I believe all that is from him, and I give all the credit and all the glory to God.” And at 57, he think he has plenty of opportunity yet to help others, through Edward Jones and beyond. He’s not in a rush to think about retirement.

“It doesn’t take a lot of physical ability, so long as my mind stays sharp and I feel like I’m making a difference in people’s lives and they need me, I think I’ll continue to do this for quite a while,” he said.

And he does so with a sense of peace knowing that every step, and even misstep, that brought him here had a purpose.

“It goes back to that same idea that there’s a reason I’m here, and I think the reason I’m here is to try to help, to make things better for other people,” he said.

William Morris is a reporter for the Owatonna People’s Press. He can be reached at 444-2372; follow him on Twitter @OPPWilliam

The Cosens during a hiking trip in Colorado. (Submitted photo)

LOCAL BANK. LOCAL PEOPLE.

Friday, March 31, 2017

PORTRAITS IN STEELE COUNTY

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Heidi Heimgartner:

A blessed life

Heidi Heimgartner with her husband, Paul, and their sons, Luke and Jonathan, in January 2017. (Submitted photo)

By ASHLEY STEWART

astewart@owatonna.com

W

hen Heidi Heimgartner became the associate pastor at First Lutheran Church of Blooming Prairie in 2001, she didn’t think she’d be there long.

“I had no plans to vamoose,” she said. “I just knew before I came that a first call usually doesn’t last as long as mine has.”

At the time, the average first call for a Lutheran pastor was four years, and Heimgartner’s tenure is four times that thanks to the every-changing congregation and community.

But she’s not only a pastor in Blooming Prairie; she’s a wife, a

mother and a behind-the-scenes advocate for whoever and whatever needs helping.

“It’s a wonderful surprise that we’ve enjoyed it so much and that I’ve been able to grow and develop in the ways that I have,” she said. “People have been very willing to embrace our family and that’s awesome.”

Growing in ministry

Raised on an Illinois farm, Heimgartner, then Heidi Skumatz, was one of three daughters — and an identical twin — born to parents who divorced when she was 14.

The middle child with seven minutes on twin sister, Heather,

and an 11-year difference from older sister, Michelle, Heidi was a high school freshman in 1990 when she moved in with her father and stepmother; first to New York, then to Iola, Wisconsin, the smallest place she ever lived.

“My parents woke me up when we were moving to look at the population sign, and I remember crying because it said 957, I thought this is never going to work,” she recalls with a chuckle. “It was a lovely experience for me.”

Heidi graduated from Iola-Scandinavia High School in 1993 with a class of 55 students, and while many of her classmates attended college in Madison or Milwaukee, she continued to make her way west.

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Heimgartner

“Congregations can look at more than one candidate at a time, but a candidate cannot look at more than one church,” she said, noting that’s how the process works as a way to deter the “whatcan-I-get?” mentality since pastors are called.

At the time, First Lutheran Church in Blooming Prairie was the only congregation in Heimgartner’s synod offering a full-time call within commuting distance of Rochester, but her consideration of it was “slightly unusual” for she had interned at the church earlier in her seminary.

After seeking approval from the bishop, she pursued it.

“I didn’t have any contact with First Lutheran for that entire year, so I wanted to see how they were changing and growing,” she said. “I wanted to talk to them about what they wanted the associate pastor to do, and then we could see if those things matched and they did very beautifully.”

An interview or two with First Lutheran’s call committee and a congregation vote later, Heimgartner was called to the church on April 8, 2001, and within months, she was a Blooming Prairie resident, associate pastor and officially ordained.

From Page 48

Heimgartner, who had an initial desire to be a French teacher, decided to attend the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire to study language, but before arriving at the university in the fall, she considered changing her focus to ministry, despite not growing up in a religious household.

“I had no idea what I was really saying,” she said. “I didn’t know what it’d entail, but again that was something I grew into.”

While taking courses to earn her bachelor’s degree in religion, Heimgartner worked for campus ministry, and in May 1997, she graduated summa cum laude from Eau Claire. Eight days later, she moved to St. Paul, Minnesota, to attend Luther Seminary, where she took 10 credits of Greek before starting the four-year program to earn her master of divinity in the fall.

“When you’re getting this degree, it’s like any other professional degree, but they’re also trying to place you,” she said.

That process began Heimgartner’s senior year at seminary as she worked toward ordination as a Lutheran pastor and became eligible for call.

In Lutheranism, graduating seminary students are assigned to a region within the U.S. or Puerto Rico and then a synod within the region. Because of her husband Paul’s job at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, she requested the regional bodies, which meet four times to assign new candidates, to place her in southeastern Minnesota.

“I had no guarantee,” she said, noting she could’ve been placed in North Dakota, Chicago or California.

FRIDAY, MARCH 31, 2017

Heidi Heimgartner with her twin sister, Heather, celebrating their 40th birthday near Madison, Wisconsin, in 2015.

(Submitted photo)

But they didn’t.

In the spring of 2001, Heimgartner was granted her request and placed in southeastern Minnesota to start looking at churches and communities to serve.

7

2017

Enriching her life, ministry

Heimgartner and her husband, Paul, have had a lot of good years together — at least 23, actually.

And most days, they can’t believe it’s been that long.

“Time changes when you get older,” she said. “It sounds like a very long time, but it doesn’t feel that way in your heart.”

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Heimgartner From Page 49 The two met in 1993 at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire during Heimgartner’s freshman year of college. She lived on the second floor of the residence hall where he lived on the third.

“For a long time, I just thought he was a nice guy,” she said. “I didn’t really know him.”

Through friends and college gatherings the two became acquainted and started dating later that year.

Paul, a small-town native Minnesotan who grew up in the Winona area, started at Eau Claire in 1992 and had his eyes set on returning to the Land of 10,000 Lakes and working at Mayo Clinic.

He was working toward a bachelor of science degree in biochemistry.

“He’s very focused, very smart and he really just only wanted to work for Mayo Clinic, and I remember saying, ‘Nobody gets their first job out of college,’ when he’s interviewing,” Heimgartner said. “His heart was so set on it.”

And now, 20 years later, Paul’s still working at Mayo Clinic.

“He’s held five different jobs at Mayo,” Heimgartner said, explaining that he’s currently a clinical education specialist who trains lab workers.

When Paul moved to Rochester for his job, Heidi was preparing to graduate in the spring and attend seminary in St. Paul, and despite not being close in proximity, they remained together.

On New Year’s Eve 1998, the two got engaged and were married the following June.

“We’ve had a lot of good years, and in some ways grew up together because we were trying to figure out where our lives were going,” Heimgartner said, reflecting on her and Paul’s early beginnings. “Luckily we grew in the same direction, which is awesome, so that’s something we thank God for that we do have each other and that we have such a long, deep friendship.”

In 2001, Heimgartner and Paul moved to Blooming Prairie, where she was called to serve as the associate pastor of First Lutheran, and since then, Paul’s commuted to Rochester.

It was five years before the couple expanded their family of two, but Heimgartner said the delay allowed them to finish their degrees, start their careers and be in a place to welcome parenting.

“It’s great to be a mom. I had no idea,” she said.

In 2006, Heimgartner and Paul welcomed their first son, Luke, and in 2008, their second, Jonathan, who are now both attending Blooming Prairie Elementary School as a fifth-grader and a third-grader, respectively.

Heimgartner compared having children to the part of movies “Pleasantville” and “Wizard

The Rev. Heidi Heimgartner, right, with ordained pastors modeling high-end Swedish wear at the Mill City Ruins in Minneapolis in 2013.

(Submitted photo)

of Oz” when everything switches from black and white to color.

“Totally having kids was like my life was in Technicolor after that,” she said. “It was the best.

People always tell you how much work kids are; they don’t tell you how great they are, and they’re pretty great.”

Even with Paul’s commute to Rochester during the week and Heimgartner’s work on weekends, the couple remain “equal partners” in parenting their children, which is something they agreed was important as a two-career family before having children.

She’s on for feeding Luke and Jonathan breakfast before they go to school and eating supper with them in the evening as well as bringing them to doctor’s appointments and dentist visits during the day, while Paul tends to the boys’ evening or weekend activities, but they overlap responsibilities when they can.

“I don’t think we’re different from any other family where we’re coming and going right now,”

Heimgartner said. “We knew that was a season of our life. It is the season of our life right now, and we’re OK with that.”

And because she’s the associate pastor at a church with a congregation of more than 200 people, the Heimgartners have had some additional help along the way, too.

In fact, Heimgartner calls many of the congregation members “surrogate grandparents, aunts and uncles.”

“My kids have a super positive childhood, in part because Blooming Prairie is such a great community and another part because their church is so wonderful,” she said. “It’s really fun to watch other people care for my kids the way I might care for their family in a different spiritual sense.”

‘A beautiful relationship’

When Heimgartner decided to pursue pastoral ministry, it was because she knew her interests were wide and the job would provide variety and growth.

“I like learning new things and gaining new skills, so pastoral ministry is great for me in that way,” she said. “It all centers around worship, teaching and pastoral care, which are all things that bring me a lot of satisfaction and I do feel I have skills in.”

As a pastor, Heimgartner said it’s her responsibility to administer the sacraments, such as worship, baptism and Holy Communion as well as teach adults and students in addition to pastoral care, which “includes a lot of things.”

Pastoral care consists of funeral ministry, premarriage counseling, wedding ministry, crisis ministry and whatever else is needed.

“Each day looks different when you’re a pastor,” she said. “There’s things we plan, things we do and programming we run, but responding to what the community needs that’s the part that we never know what that’s going to look like.”

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PORTRAITS IN STEELE COUNTY

FRIDAY, MARCH 31, 2017

Heimgartner From Page 50C Heimgartner admits some aspects of ministry come more naturally, while others have forced her to grow. Worship planning, preaching, writing and teaching as well as one-on-one visiting and small-group gatherings are things she thoroughly enjoys about being the associate pastor.

Building relationships with members of the congregation and the church staff is also something she has found meaningful in ministry.

One of those was the Rev. Charlie Leonard, a former senior pastor at First Lutheran Church of Blooming Prairie, who accepted a position in Rochester in December after seven and a half years with the congregation.

“We had a good friendship that would allow us to help each other, converse with each other and call upon each other for anything,” he said.

Leonard described Heimgartner as delightful, meaningful, enlightening, forward-reaching and she has the ability to listen and think critically as a pastor.

“She’s wise beyond her years, and I think that leads to effectiveness as a pastoral leader because she gains people’s trust,” he said.

Leonard was one of two senior pastors Heimgartner has worked beside during her tenure as associate pastor, and she anticipates there will be a third called sometime in the near future.

Cheri Krejci, left, and the Rev. Heidi Heimgartner of First Lutheran Church in Blooming Prairie color code and number puzzle pieces for the church’s fundraiser for the Boys & Girls Club of Blooming Prairie in 2013. (Press file photo)

“The future is very open,” she said. “I do want you to know nothing I do is ever alone. Here in the church we have great leadership and we work together, and at home, I don’t function alone. I have a wonderful spouse and two kids who also help in our household. I have a lot of support to do the things I do.”

And while serving as a pastor consumes a lot of Heimgartner’s time, she’s held leadership positions for the synod, joined the American Association of University Women and created a partnership between the Boys & Girls Club of Blooming Prairie

and the church, one that was started with a kitchen renovation in 2014 that was needed to feed dozens of school-aged children after school and during the summer at the club.

She also serves as a contract writer for Augsburg Fortress, a Lutheran publishing house, where she writes sermons for other pastors to use for inspiration for their sermons.

In 2015, the United Way of Steele County recognized Heimgartner as Blooming Prairie’s LIVE UNITED Award recipient for her service within the community. “[My work] is sometimes very behind the scenes, and I like it that way,” she said. “I don’t need to chair the board, but I do like it when people see me as a resource and call on me...That’s a favorite thing of mine to do, to advocate for the other things that are going on here and bless them and help people see their mission.”

As Heimgartner reflects on her 16 years as the associate pastor at First Lutheran Church of Blooming Prairie, she speaks fondly of the call she’s enjoyed, the congregation that’s now family and the community she calls home.

“Each year is different here, and they bring new challenges and new opportunities for the ministry, so it doesn’t feel like a rerun ever because I’m changing as the congregation is changing,” she said. “I think it’s a beautiful relationship and I thank God for it, not just for my role in the church but our lives in this community.

We’re really blessed.”

Reach reporter Ashley Stewart at 444-2378 or follow her on Twitter.com @OPPashley

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Dave and Kim Purscell:

Dave and Kim Purscell and family.

Finding their destiny together

By JEFFREY JACKSON

jjackson@owatonna.com

T

here’s some disagreement between Dave and Kim Purscell about the particulars of their courtship.

Oh, they remember where they met and how they met. And, of course, they remember getting married in March 1992, 25 years ago. But when it comes to that stuff in between, like saying exactly when they started dating — well, that another matter altogether.

“I started dating her in the summer,” says Dave. “She started dating me in the fall.”

PAGE 52P

But no, says Kim, they didn’t start dating in the summer. Not at all. Yes, something did occur in June of 1991, but to hear her tell it, it was nothing like a date.

“I got a ride with him to a party,” she says.

And that’s enough for him. He picked her up and drove her to the party, they were at the same party for the same amount of time, and he drove her home.

“That’s a date,” he says.

By her recollection, however, their first “official” date didn’t happen until several months later — in October of that year. Sixth months after that, they were married and on their way to a long and happy marriage that eventually would bring them to Owatonna —

even if they can’t agree about when that journey began.

Coming to America

Kim’s journey to Owatonna began up north. Way up north. In Canada. Specifically, she grew up in the small town of Kenora in northwestern Ontario, not too far from the Manitoba border.

It was in Kenora — a town that, until 1905, was known as “Rat Portage” — that her parents owned and operated a furniture manufacturing factory. And it was in that family factory that Kim had her first job.

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PORTRAITS IN STEELE COUNTY

FRIDAY, MARCH 31, 2017

Harry Wenger MARCHING BAND FESTIVAL

EIGHTH ANNUAL

OWATONNA| MINNESOTA

JOIN US JUNE 17, 2017 In this photo from 2008, Kim Purscell sits at her desk at the local office of the American Red Cross, where she served as director from 2003 to 2008. That same year, the Red Cross consolidated several offices and closed many of the local offices, including the one in Owatonna. (Press file photo)

Purscell

From Page 52

“I worked all of the machinery, loaded the truck, did it all. You do that in a family business,” she says. “I’m pretty handy with a bandsaw.”

She held other jobs, too, in her teenage years — working in a Safeway supermarket and in a restaurant, the typical teenage jobs.

Once she finished high school, she was off to college — first in Canada for a year, then to Los Angeles for two years, and finally ending at Bethel University, then Bethel College, in the Twin Cities, where she majored in communications and marketing.

After she graduated, she started to work in the airline industry in Canada, starting in Thunder Bay for Air Ontario and Air Canada, finally winding up in London, Ontario, where she was coordinating sales and promotions for the airline.

“I was working with casinos selling gambling junkets and with travel agencies selling different packages,” she says.

But it wasn’t exactly the job she was looking for.

Then, at an industry trade show in Sault Ste. Marie, she had a chance meeting with the president of Great Lakes Airline, a small, regional airline, then operating out of Spencer, Iowa. And she put a bug in his ear. If he were ever looking for someone to work sales and marketing for his airline, he should let her know.

A year later, he called her.

Soon, she was moving to the states, not as a student this time, but as an employee of the airline and a new resident of Iowa.

Spencer, Iowa.

Coming home

For Dave Purscell, Spencer, Iowa, was as close to a hometown as he had ever had as a boy.

“My dad was a pastor — Disciples of Christ — so we moved frequently,” he says.

That is, they moved frequently until young Dave was in fourth grade and they landed at a church in Spencer. They would stay there until he graduated from high school.

Once he had graduated, he was ready to fly out of there — quite literally.

Dave had always been interested in aviation and has earned his private pilot’s license. But there was more that he wanted to do.

Like his father, Dave felt a calling, though not to the pastoral ministry. No, what he wanted to do was to be involved in what is called “mission aviation” — work where pilots will fly Christian missionaries as well as those connected to humanitarian agencies to remote areas.

It’s not an easy job.

Dave was going to school at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, the school’s campus in Prescott, Arizona. Even so, his schedule was such that he had a difficult time doing what he needed to do to get the license he would need to be a mission aviator.

“I couldn’t get the time in for training while I was working full-time,” he said.

See PURSCELL on 54

It was 1946, a time when music programs were booming in schools all across America. A time when a good parade tune was hummed for days after the Fourth of July. Regional organizations and music associations were forming everywhere. It was a time when school music programs in major cities and small towns all across our nation were established. In Owatonna, Harry Wenger was “The Music Man.” As music director, he built the Owatonna High School band, choir and orchestra programs into national award winners. His passion was music education and when he couldn’t find the right equipment to support his students and programs, he built his own.

Harry was driven to make music education more enjoyable for students, and performances more thrilling for audiences and in Harry’s memory, the Harry Wenger Marching Band Festival will take place on Saturday, June 17, 2017.

Join us! Parade starts at 11:00am.

For more information on the festival visit: www.owatonnabandfestival.com 800.4WENGER (800.493.6437) www.wengercorp.com

Friday, March 31, 2017

PORTRAITS IN STEELE COUNTY

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In this photo from 2006, Dave Purscell marks a map of Steele County indicating where severe weather has been reported as a part of Skywarn, a group of volunteers who help emergency personnel during thunderstorms and tornadoes. For more than a decade, Purscell has not only been active in Skywarn but has taken leadership in the group.

(Press file photo)

Purscell From Page 53 But one opportunity did present itself between what he laughingly calls his first and second senior years. It was an internship that would take him back to an airline with which he was already familiar and to a town he knew. It was an internship with Great Lakes Airlines in his hometown of Spencer, Iowa.

And it was there that he would meet Kim, his future bride.

Part of a plan

When the newlyweds moved to Owatonna in 1992, they knew no one, absolutely no one.

Dave’s parents had moved from Iowa to Mankato, and Dave’s mother was seriously ill, in the last year of her life, as it turned out.

With her illness, the young couple wanted to be close to her.

“We wanted to be close enough to help, yet still be newlyweds,” says Dave.

And, added Kim, they did not want to be in the Cities. So as they were looking for a place to live and work and rear a family, they found Owatonna.

Because they didn’t know anybody in Owatonna, their first jobs

were with temp agencies here in town. One of his first jobs was with Jostens where he took his knowledge of computers and computer programming — still relatively new to many companies at the time — and taught as well as helped out that company’s IT department.

As for Kim, her work for the temp agency was good enough that she was actually hired by the agency.

“I met many, many business people,” she said.

Those encounters led to her being hired by the Owatonna Area Chamber of Commerce and Tourism, where she worked as director of tourism and as director of client services. Then, from 2003 to 2008, she was the director of the local office of the American Red Cross, staying with that position until the agency consolidated several offices. She also directed the United Way in Faribault for a short time.

Most recently, she has been the director of the Steele County History Center — a job she calls “fast-paced.”

“There’s a tremendous amount of things going on,” she said.

But for Kim Purscell, the twists and turns of her life were no accidents, but part of a plan for her life, her destiny. Indeed, when she got that phone call many years ago from the president of Great

Lakes Airline, offering her a job in the states, she remembers saying a little prayer. Or perhaps it was a questioning of God. “I said, ‘OK, God, what do you have in mind?’” she says.

Of course, part of that plan, it seems, involved her meeting Dave Purscell.

Different impressions

Their recollections of that first meeting — or at least the impressions that each made on the other — differ greatly.

“I remember standing in a small hangar, the west hangar,” she says. “I didn’t notice him very much.”

His impression was quite different.

“I was absolutely struck with how beautiful she was, even though we were in a maintenance hangar,” he says.

By now, Dave was working for the airlines doing IT tasks, one of which was setting up a computer for Kim. The impression he made on her was a bit different than the one she had made previously on him.

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FRIDAY, MARCH 31, 2017

Purscell did cause some issues. Not only was there some confusion on exactly when they started dating — and there still is — but there were some differences about how they felt about one another.

“I remember the first time he said he loved me,” Kim recalls. “I called my mother and said, ‘This ruins everything. We’re such good friends.’

It took me a while to get feelings the same as his.”

From Page 54 “He was very, very nice, but he looked like a goofball,” she says.

A goofy ‘fro hairstyle, she says, a long cowboy moustache, snap-up shirts, a cowboy hat, “much too small” cowboy jeans and boots. And, no, she says, he doesn’t still have the outfit.

“He was a very nice person, but he needed a lot of work,” she says.

They got to know each other not only through work, but through two interns who had come there and whom they had both taken under their wings. The interns were from the same school — Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University — that Dave had attended. And he had been an intern like they had. He could show them the ropes, teach them what he had learned during his internship — helping passengers, pushing planes, polishing planes, pumping gas.

His summer of P’s, he calls it.

She, on the other hand, took them under her wing in a more motherly way.

“Dave and I and the interns — the four of us spent a lot of time together,” she says.

They were friends, good friends, which

A theme for life

Dave Purscell as his picture appeared on his badge from his work with Great Lakes Airline circa 1989. “He was a very nice person, but he needed a lot of work,” says his wife, Kim, who met him when she came to work at the airline. (submitted photo)

Dave Purscell still remembers the date: June 17, 2010 — the day when five tornadoes touched down within minutes of one another in southern Steele County.

He remembers it not only because of the destruction caused even by tornadoes in the sparsely populated areas of the county, but also because he was watching intently about what could happen if storms were to form in other, more densely populated areas. It’s all part of his work with Skywarn, the group of volunteers who help when severe weather strikes the county or surrounding areas.

“Weather is important to aviators,” Dave says, explaining his initial interest in the subject.

For years now, more than a decade, Dave has been not only active in Skywarn, but has taken leadership of the organization, even reaching out to county and city officials to get the local weather spotting group up and going.

And it’s rubbed off on Kim. “I have way more knowledge about weather than I ever care to know,” she says.

It’s all part of what they do to give back to the community, whether that’s through Skywarn, the Steele County Historical Society, the Red Cross or — and perhaps most especially — through their church, Bethel Church.

Indeed, though Dave never was able to take up mission aviation, they have been on about a dozen or so mission trips through their church to Vermilion Indian Reservation.

“If we tried to create a theme for life, it’s about serving,” says Kim. Dave agrees.

“It’s about serving others, not about notoriety or fanfare,” he says. “It’s about loving God and loving each other.”

Reach Managing Editor Jeffrey Jackson at 4442371 or follow him on Twitter @OPPJeffrey.

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The Rev. Russell Rudolf:

Joys and Sorrows

Russ and Jane Rudolf at their home in Owatonna. (William Morris/People’s Press)

By WILLIAM MORRIS

wmorris@owatonna.com

B

eing a minister is not the easiest job in the world, but the Rev. Russ Rudolf says he had one important qualification from the start.

“I love people,” says Rudolf, who retired in 1995 after 28 years at the pulpit of St. John Lutheran Church in Owatonna. “That’s the one thing I miss right now. When I was in the parish, I celebrated with people their baptisms, their confirmations … I celebrated life with them. Also I walked with them through their sorrows, through their disappointments.”

He’s seen a lot of both the celebrations and the disappointments through three decades of ministry and two decades of very active retirement. And as much as he’s enjoyed retirement (“It’s been great!” he says), he’s still finding plenty of ways to keep his hand in the community.

From Wishek to Owatonna

Long before he added “The Rev.” to his name, Russell Rudolf was born on the Fourth of July in 1933 in Wishek, North Dakota.

His earliest years he remembers are growing up in the depths of the Great Depression.

“We were a very poor family and lived on commodities and so forth,” he says. “My father worked for [Works Progress Administration]. It paid $12 a month. He was the bookkeeper. He had a third-grade education.”

But the family’s circumstances improved over the years, and by the time he was in high school, Rudolf was working at the lumber yard, concrete block plant and sandwashing unit, all managed by his father. It was during this time that he decided to go into the ministry, although to this day he can’t fully explain why.

At the time, he says, the Lutheran church expected pastors to

have a Lutheran education, and so upon graduation, he packed his bags for Waverly, Iowa, to attend Wartburg College. Then on to Wartburg Seminary in Dubuque (with a two-year break to study speech at Northwestern and complete an internship in San Diego) for his divinity degree, and it was time for the newly ordained the Rev. Russ Rudolf to be placed with his first congregation.

“In those days, you were sent, which is different today. Today, we have something of a choice,” he says.

By this time, Rudolf wasn’t moving alone. He married his wife of 61 years and counting, Jane, the summer after finishing his undergraduate degree.

“We met at a Luther League convention on the campus of Purdue University,” Rudolf says. “She’s from Keister. We always think of President Reagan when we say Keister.”

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Rudolf

FRIDAY, MARCH 31, 2017

From Page 56

Jane Rudolf attended one year at Wartburg before their marriage, but it was not until many years and two children through college later that she would finish her own degree. Those years were anything but idle, however.

“Most people don’t know how critical she was as a team member for me,” Rudolf says. “As a stay-at-home mom, until the kids were through college, she was my right-hand person.”

Rudolf with an ‘F’

And so he was sent, and found himself entrusted St. John’s Lutheran Church, a small parish of about 450 in the small town of Raymond.

Though they were only there a few years, Rudolf learned much later just what impact he had made.

“We were back for an anniversary, 125th anniversary, and this distinguished man in his 50s came to me and took my hand and began singing Jeg er saa glad, ‘I am so glad,’ and then he stopped and said, when Pastor Rudolf came to this parish, he started a small children’s choir, … and I still am able to sing many of those hymns,” Rudolf remembers. “It gets to be interesting.

You don’t know what you do in life, how it will affect someone later on. I got to talk to several of the kids that day, and it was amazing how many of them could still repeat the songs we sang.”

After Raymond, he was moved to Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Mankato as associate pastor, where he recalls being confounded by the cultural differences from his past church, which was in a part of the state settled from a different part of Europe.

See RUDOLF on 58

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PORTRAITS IN STEELE COUNTY

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Russ and Jane Rudolf with their two sons in 1967, during an interview with the Owatonna Photo News shortly after the family moved to town. (Submitted photo)

Rudolf From Page 57

“Rudolf. They had a very difficult time with that, because they assumed then that I was German,” he says. “When it became ‘F,’ I have no idea, except that when I go back to the genealogy of my family, there were five generations of grandparents that were born in Russia. When they came to Ellis Island, did the American not know how to spell Rudolph?”

In fact, Rudolf can trace his ancestry back to the 1750s, and really does have German roots, but his forebears migrated to Russia and remained until the 1800s, when the same hardships that forced them from Germany returned and sent them across the sea to America.

But despite the oddity of his name, he was able to find sufficient cultural common ground

in Mankato until he received a new placement in 1967: as lead pastor at St. John Lutheran in Owatonna, then a parish of about 1,800.

Joys and sorrows

Rudolf remembers the family first arrived in Owatonna during a terrible blizzard. Things didn’t necessarily get easier from there.

“At that point I was a very young senior pastor, which was unusual in the church,” he said.

“One of my mentors said to me, ‘Russ, you’ve been an associate pastor. You have no idea how difficult for you it will be on the other side of the desk.’ I was prepared, and yet I wasn’t prepared.

Fortunately, I had people, mentors that could help me along, a lot of them. If I ran into a problem, a quick telephone call.”

But he found a niche in Owatonna, and the

bishop, he says, was content to keep him in it.

All told, he served 28.5 years at St. John before retiring in 1995. And he has a lengthy list of accomplishments and milestones from his tenure, from the row of trees planted along the edge of the property to the Hendrickson pipe organ installed in 1976. He makes particular note of the St. John Lutheran Foundation, established during his time at the church.

“Because of a family, we were able to start a foundation, which … began awarding scholarships in 1979, and as I understand it, it’s currently a little over $700,000 [given],” Rudolf said. “In addition to that, they’ve given all kinds of money to baby churches starting out, to food shelves, and I have no idea.”

But for all the official accomplishments, many of the memories he takes away are the conversa-

tions that happened one-on-one. Rudolf describes a conversation several years ago with a woman, whom he initially did not recognize, who approached him at the grocery store. The woman had come to him early in his time in Owatonna for counsel after a few too many at a college party led to a pregnancy, and Rudolf spoke with her about the options available to her and how to share the news with her family. “[She said,] ‘You and I talked maybe four or five times, but I never let you know my decisions,’” Rudolf recalls. “‘Right now I’m going to say thank you to you. Because of our conversations, I kept the baby, I raised the son, and this morning I was introduced to my fourth grandchild from that incident. [My son is] a CEO.’”

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PORTRAITS IN STEELE COUNTY

Rudolf

FRIDAY, MARCH 31, 2017

From Page 58

“Those are the kinds of connections a pastor makes — the joys and the sorrows,” Rudolf says.

Beyond the church

Of course, Rudolf didn’t spend all his time at the church.

“The bishop and the council felt it very important I be out in the community, and that’s how I became involved in the budget meetings of the United Way. That’s how I became involved in Exchange,” he says. “One of the members said, you have to be part of a service club, and we want you.”

He’s been with the Exchange Club for 48 years now, including stints as an officer, president and editor of the club newsletter. He’s served on committees for United Way of Steele County, Steele County Social Services, Mankato State College and other church and community organizations, spoken to high school health classes and coached youth sports for Owatonna Parks and Recreation.

He’s done his fair share of writing as well, including for a time in the Owatonna People’s Press. He recalls writing a column urging the city to replace its original black and white street signs, which he says couldn’t be seen well after dark, and that one day he received a call at the church from then-mayor Wayne Klinkhammer, telling him to look outside.

“He said, ‘you got the first set of new signs,’” Rudolf says, laughing. “Lincoln Avenue and 14th, those were the first ones to go up.”

In his free time, he is an avid golfer and amateur photographer.

When Owatonna was switching from black-and-white to reflective green street signs, Russell Rudolf remembers, they put the first new sign at the corner of 14th and Lincoln, outside his church, in response to a newspaper column he’d written on the topic. (Submitted photo)

He was also kept busy raising two sons, now deep into their own professional lives: Tom as an engineer for Valparaiso and now for airplane manufacturer Aeronca, and Peter in IT first for Thrivent for Lutherans and now at Medica. He says his goal was always to keep those responsibilities, and to the rest of his family, at the top of the priority list.

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“I am first of all and primarily a Christian, a servant of God,” he says. “My second responsibility in life is to take care of my wife.

I asked God for that responsibility. My third responsibility, either by choice or by accident, was the care of my children, and then and only then, my responsibility as a pastor comes in fourth.”

Since his retirement in 1995, that priority list has become even simpler, with his family (now reinforced with three grandchildren).

He has worked part-time at Brooktree Golf Course and joined the board of the Owatonna chapter of Thrivent Financial. He and Jane also attend scores of concerts each year, both near and far (he calculated in 2009 the couple traveled more than 8,000 miles to attend 74 concerts).

And although he does sometimes miss the close-knit relationships of pastoral life, he says he’s happy to have left the heaviest responsibilities of the role behind.

“People don’t realize, on Christmas, or Easter, there’s the Maundy Thursday sermon, the Good Friday sermon, and the Sunday sermon. And if you have a couple funerals, that makes things even more interesting,” he laughs. “People don’t realize. Like my mom said, ‘Don’t you get it out of a book?’”

But from the pulpit or out on the town, he says he’s found joy in all the ways he’s been involved in the community.

“Yes, I made a difference,” he says.

William Morris is a reporter for the Owatonna People’s Press.

He can be reached at 444-2372; follow him on Twitter @OPPWilliam

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Jake and Alecia Peterson:

Touching lives

Because of their work schedules, Jake and Alecia Peterson don’t get much time together with their children — Mason, Peyton, and Brooklyn — so they try to make the most of every moment they do get to spend together as a family. (Photo courtesy of Jake Peterson)

By RYAN ANDERSON

randerson@owatonna.com

B

looming Prairie’s Jake and Alecia Peterson were both raised to value their communities and give back to them, and they continue to make such efforts a priority — they were honored as Blooming Prairie’s “Citizens of the Year” in January — touching virtually every tentacle of local life, from law enforcement and education to music and emergency services.

Jake was born in Owatonna in 1979, and has been in either Owatonna or — mostly — Blooming Prairie virtually his entire life, except for stints in Rochester and Winona for higher education, he said.

“I never really left,” he said.

Jake’s grandfather, Donald Sr., started Peterson Trucking in Blooming Prairie, and after his death, Jake’s grandmother ran the

company until Noah Peterson bought it. During the summer, Jake and his brothers would go on long-haul truck runs with Donald Jr. and their uncles, and it was time well spent.

Jake used to brag to classmates, because by the sixth grade, he’d been to 35 states and taken dips in two oceans and the Gulf of Mexico, he said. “How many kids can say they did that?”

Despite it being essentially a family trade, it was Jake’s grandfather who persuaded Jake to seek another path in life, convincing him the trucking business should not be his destiny, he said. He told Jake, “That’s a headache you don’t need.”

After graduating from high school, Jake figured he’d follow so many of the other Peterson men into truck-driving, but Donald Sr. wanted him to pursue a college education, he said.

“He didn’t want me to have to bust my butt and work so hard for so little money,” Jake said.

An acquaintance who lived in Peterson’s building at Rochester

Community and Technical College (RCTC) was in security and majoring in law enforcement, and he promulgated that Peterson might want to try that as a major, he said. After merely an introductory class, “I fell in love with it,” he said.

“I thought, this is cool. This might be my thing,” he said.

After two more classes, he was convinced, and he changed majors from nursing to law enforcement.

“I thought it would be fun, entertaining, and exciting, and you get to be outside,” he said. Furthermore, “you know you’ll be dealing with all types of different situations, but it’s still the emergency field, and you offer help and assistance to people.”

After graduating college, Jake was offered a part-time position with the Blooming Prairie Police Department, and he’s been a member of the force since March 2004, he said.

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FRIDAY, MARCH 31, 2017

Peterson From Page 60 “I didn’t expect to stay,” he said. “I just wanted to get my foot in the door and get my first badge.”

Life on the force

While the idea of working in his hometown had appeal, it also presented complications, Jake said.

“You have to see the darker sides and intimate sides of people I’ve known a long time, and I’m invading that privacy,” he said.

Oddly enough, it was his grandfather’s death that earned Jake a full-time gig with the BPPD and rooted him deeper in the community, he said. Jake’s grandfather was “in full code” when Jake and other emergency personnel responded to his grandfather’s home, and Jake was a major piece in the resuscitation process and in the ambulance on the way to the hospital.

Until reaching the hospital, Peterson didn’t allow personal emotions to encumber his rescue mission, he said.

“I never thought twice,” he said. “I just did what I was supposed to.”

Only when the cardiologist told him his

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“I blamed myself for quite a while for his passing, and I apologized to family and friends,” he said.

In fact, however, his grandfather’s situation was such that there was nothing Peterson or anyone else could have done to change the outcome.

Jake is forever thankful for his grandfather’s career advice, though, because “I don’t have to be on the road as much as my dad and everyone else, traveling constantly, gone for weeks at a time,” he said. Though he works nights for the BPPD, “I still get to go home at night,” as opposed to the peripatetic life of a trucker.

“I looked up to him, and he was my mentor,” he said. “He’d be so proud, because he instituted in me that the community needs you.”

After seeing his “dedication,” the then-chief of the BPPD offered Peterson the full-time position, he said. His actions that night “had sold the chief on my ambition, heart, and soul.”

See PETERSON on 62

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Blooming Prairie’s Jake and Alecia Peterson were both raised to value their communities and give back to them, and they continue to make such efforts a priority--they were honored as Blooming Prairie’s “Citizens of the Year” in January, touching virtually every tentacle of local life, from law enforcement and education to music and emergency services.

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PORTRAITS IN STEELE COUNTY

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Peterson From Page 61

Stix of Fury

Music is another of Jake’s passions, and by high school, he was “trustworthy” enough that the band director would let Jake conduct his classmates when he wasn’t available, he said. In addition to aplomb on the drums and faithfulness to the craft, Jake also had copious amounts of musical experience because he participated in basically every band — pep, marching, jazz, etc., — that was available.

Despite the other musicians being his peers, he never felt intimidated conducting, he said.

“I felt comfortable doing it, it felt right, it felt natural,” he said.

While in college, Peterson continued to play and take music classes, utilizing the drum set his father bought him when he was in seventh grade, he said. “I played that whenever I got bored, and it’s the same one I play with today.”

Peterson always “loved watching marching bands in parades,” he said. “For me, personally, there’s nothing like seeing a marching band in a parade.”

One year, the Su Fu Du drum corps came to play in Blooming Prairie, which gave Peterson the idea of starting his own drum corps.

“I thought they were the coolest thing ever, and I love drumming,” he said.

Convincing Alecia to back his quixotic notion — they’d have to dip into their savings to buy drums for students without knowing if anyone would participate — wasn’t easy, but she soon came around, he said.

“I had a really good feeling,” he said.

Alecia was concerned because at the time they were building a home, planning to start a family, and attempting to settle into the beginning of their marriage. In addition, she said, “my fear was that if we buy all these drums, and there’s no interest, then what?”

Furthermore, “I know nothing about drums, and I didn’t know if Jake could teach this team,” she said. “I needed to physically see it happen, because it is a big commitment for the kids.”

They launched Stix of Fury essentially on the if-you-build-it-he-will-come theory from “Field of Dreams,” she said. They took a leap of faith that if they bought the drums, youth would participate in the endeavor.

In the summer of 2010, the drum corps began with 15 students, and performed in seven parades, Jake said. Including transportation — a major expense — the inaugural edition actually “cost us money,” but that soon changed.

Before the second summer, Jake fielded numerous calls asking if Stix of Fury could play in a plethora of venues, he said.

Stix of Fury, the Blooming Prairie drum corps that started in 2010, has become a pivotal part of Jake and Alecia Peterson’s life. “It’s grown to be huge, something I never thought it would be,” he said. Because Jake, Alecia, and at least one or two if not all three of their children go on all the trips, the students in the drum corps have become “part of our family.” (Photo courtesy of Jake Peterson)

“We went from begging to them calling us,” said Jake.

Emboldened, he felt it was incumbent upon him to upgrade equipment, even though “we didn’t have the money for it,” he said. “I wanted us to sound the best of the best, so we got all new snare drums.”

To procure them, he asked for a loan from the Blooming Prairie Education Foundation, and they lent him the money with a flat interest fee of $100, he said. Then, in 2013, Alecia, who had been critical behind the scenes as the band got off the ground, suggested adding color guard to Stix of Fury.

Her motivation was twofold; first, few parade drum lines have such color guards, so Stix of Fury had “unique visual effects,” Jake said. Secondly, it was a way for Jake and Alecia, who played clarinet in band and been in color guard when she was young, to spend time together during the summer.

“She bought the flags, and she runs it,” he said.

“People loved it.”

They added a trailer three years ago to store instruments, which means the members no longer have to pack and unpack their equipment into Peterson’s basement for every practice and performance, he said. Furthermore, it gave them more room on their bus, which came in handy as they added members to their mix.

“It’s grown to be huge, something I never thought it would be,” he said. Because Jake, Ale-

cia, and at least one or two if not all three of their children go on all the trips, the students in the drum corps have become “part of our family.”

Unfortunately, Stix of Fury was dealt a blow this winter when Palmer Bus Service dropped its charter insurance, meaning the company could no longer transport groups like Stix of Fury. This meant a dramatic rise in costs for the drum corps, which is why Jake and Alecia started a GoFundMe page called “Save Stix of Fury,” to try and raise enough money to perform this summer, and they also conducted several fundraisers, like a breakfast and silent auction at the Blooming Prairie Pizza Cellar Feb. 26.

They needed to raise a total of $7,000 to continue operations this summer, and they were able to meet the goal, so Stix of Fury will perform this summer. Of course, the higher travel costs aren’t going away, so the group will need to continue fundraising for future years.

A heart set on children

Jake and Alecia first met at Winona State University, where Jake studied to be a police officer at Winona State and Alecia was an elementary education major.

Alecia was born in Wabasha in 1982, but she grew up in Nelson, Wisconsin, and graduated from Durand High School, where she played tennis and was a cheerleader, but her heart was

always set on children, she said. In fact, when she indicated she planned to go into teaching, it was as predictable to her parents as the arrow of a compass finding true north.

“I was always really kid-oriented,” and her first jobs were as a nanny, in child care, and volunteering through church with Sunday school and Bible study, she said. In high school, she spent a preponderance of her volunteer hours assisting in the elementary school.

“I really appreciate their innocence and their energy and excitement to learn new things,” said Peterson, who has taught first grade at Washington for 11 years. “It’s kind of contagious.”

Though she only got one “B” during her collegiate tenure — in a math class — it “didn’t come easily for me,” she said. “I was the type who worked really hard, who was up at 4 a.m. quizzing myself with flash cards.”

Jake’s roommate was friends with Alecia and her roommate from the previous year, so the four of them quickly began hanging out in a large group, Jake said. One day, Alecia was absent from the usual clique, and Jake, who had realized by this point he had feelings for Alecia, asked her friends where she was. Told she was “sick with the butterflies” in her room, he asked why, and they told him she “liked” someone, but she didn’t know if the person felt similarly about her.

Jake said he could empathize, as he was in the same predicament; they pressed him regarding the object of his affection, and he eventually revealed it was Alecia, which sent her girl friends into fits of giggles, he said. They told him he absolutely had to go speak with Alecia, and he did.

He told her he heard why she wasn’t feeling well, said he “really liked her,” and added that he hoped it worked out well with whoever she was pining for, he said. After his revelation, she offered that Jake was the man she had in mind, and they’ve been together ever since.

What he leaves out is how nervous he was as he attempted to tell Alecia his feelings, Alecia said. He nearly wore a hole in the knee of his jeans because he kept anxiously rubbing that spot.

“He always seemed so cool, calm, and collected,” she said. “He usually does not seem vulnerable or emotional.”

So when she saw his behavior change so much, she knew he was totally sincere.

What impressed Alecia about Jake was his “drive and dedication to do what seemed impossible,” she said. She appreciated the fact he was striving to be the first in his family to finish college, and that he cared about others, as evidenced by majoring in law enforcement and his time on the BP ambulance crew.

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Peterson From Page 62 “I would love to do the ambulance, but I can’t deal with blood and stress, so I was excited to hear him talk about it,” she said. “I’ve always like helping people and doing things for people, so we had that in common.”

“My goal in college was not to find a girlfriend, I was there for my degree and my career,” he said. “But she was so fun to be with, and we’d stay up all night just talking.”

Sometimes, Jake would already be finished with his homework, but he’d keep Alecia company so she didn’t fall asleep as she studied late into the evening, he said. “We just love spending time together, and I fell head over heels for her.”

“He was always a night person, which is why (our marriage) works for us now, and he would quiz me or just keep me awake,” Alecia said.

“He knew that school and my grades were very important to me.”

In addition to her winning personality, it didn’t hurt that she was “just gorgeous,” he said.

“She’s still beautiful.”

They have three children, Mason, six, Peyton, three, and Brooklyn, one, but Alecia won’t have

a chance to teach any of them, as they’ll attend school in Blooming Prairie where the family resides — a fact not mourned by Alecia.

“I just want to be mom at home,” she said. “I always wanted to enjoy my kids and have them enjoy me.”

Of course, with Peterson working nights for the BPPD, not to mention his volunteer efforts with the BP Ambulance service, BP Fire Department, and Stix of Fury, “I rarely see my kids,” he said. “It’s tough, and that’s not something I ever thought about when I got into law enforcement.”

It’s especially “hard on” Alecia, and “I don’t know how she does it,” he said. “She’s a very strong woman, and I don’t think many women would have stuck around for this, but she’s amazing.”

Alecia said the balance is “constantly a work in progress for us.” When they didn’t have children, she could be more amenable to Jake’s schedule, but that has changed with children.

“They thrive on routine,” she said. “With every new child, we’ve had a little less time.”

That’s why it’s crucial “to take it moment by moment,” she said. Her main concern is “making sure the three of them are happy.”

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“We feel these things are adding to the community, and what we do is really important,” she said. “We chose these professions to give back.

We just need to make sure our time together really counts.”

Jake usually takes his hour break each evening when the family can have dinner together, and they make sure to make the most of the weekends he isn’t working, she said. “We want to make sure the time we do spend together is worthwhile,” and activities they take part in need to be enjoyable for all five members of the family “so we can make memories.”

Jake has stepped back from some of his obligations, however, in order to be home more, he said. He takes fewer ambulance and fire calls than he once did, even going so far as to plan on retiring from the ambulance rotation, but Alecia and the rest of the crew convinced him not to.

His fellow ambulance volunteers said they’d rather have his help — albeit it diminished — than not at all, and Alecia didn’t want him to step away from something he so clearly adores, he said. “The kids are very smart, and they get

it; plus, they like the ‘behind-the-scenes’ action, getting to see the ambulance and fire trucks whenever they want.”

After all, the fact he was on the ambulance crew is what initially appealed to Alecia, she said. “He always lit up when he talked about it.”

“He’s invested so much time learning to be the best EMT he can possibly be, and he has become a wealth of knowledge” for the younger crew members, she said. “That can’t go wasted.”

Still, being away from home so much weighs on him, because he remembers growing up with only one parent, he said. “I don’t want them to feel like Dad is always gone because I might as well go and drive a truck if that’s the case, but I want to give back to the community as much as I can.”

“I’ve always wanted to help people,” he added.

“It’s in our blood — a Peterson thing to be part of the emergency services.”

• Alecia believes having children of her own has made her a better teacher, she said. “My excitement has grown because I want to be the teacher I would be proud as a parent for my child to have.”

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Mary Butler-Fraser:

A tale of survival

By JEFFREY JACKSON

jjackson@owatonna.com

T

here is a strength to Mary Butler-Fraser that is undeniable, a strength to her that you notice within minutes of meeting her, a strength that came, as strength often does, not from an easy path but out of adversity.

She is a survivor — quite literally. And it is a designation that she uses to describe herself.

“My ex-husband beat me until I almost died,” she said matterof-factly.

The year was 1981, and Mary was separated from her husband, living in a home here in Owatonna with her young daughter.

Drunk, he broke into the house where she and her daughter were living and proceeded to beat her and beat her and beat her. The marks he left behind were so bad that when her parents initially saw her in the hospital, they didn’t recognize her.

“I lived in fear for several years,” she said.

And even today, decades removed from that event and the

destructive relationship from which it emerged, the experience yet haunts her on occasion.

“Every now and then, it comes back to me,” she said.

It’s understandable. Still, she said, the experience has made her, in her words, “a stronger person.”

“I have learned to live with it,” she said.

And there is little doubt, Mary Butler-Fraser is a strong person.

A Blossom blooms

By her own admission, she wasn’t always that way — even when she was growing up on a farm in rural Mower County. She wasn’t a typical farm girl, she said. Yes, she had chores, but not chores that were difficult or taxing. Her job was picking the eggs and counting them and counting them again and again. Her father — strict and insistent on detail — made sure she got the number right.

Still, it was an easier job than most of her siblings were given.

“I was kind of the spoiled brat of the family,” she said.

But if she was spoiled, it was not without good reason. Her health, in her early years, was not good. She suffered from rheu-

matic fever — an inflammatory disease that can, if left untreated, lead to permanent damage of the heart.

For Mary, the fever meant that she spent her first year of school at home with a tutor rather than in a classroom.

When it came time for her to go to school, she did not attend country school like her older siblings did — she’s the third youngest of eight children — but went to school in Blooming Prairie.

“I’m a Blossom,” she said proudly.

The reason for her first venture into Steele County was simple: When school district lines were being drawn, many of the farmers in that section of Mower County preferred to be in the Blooming Prairie school district where the taxes were lower. So though the farm on which her family lived was barely in the Blooming Prairie district, it was in that district.

When she graduated from Blooming Prairie High School in 1972, she moved to Minneapolis to continue to her education and to work.

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Butler-Fraser From Page 64 While there, she ran into a woman whom she knew from Austin, a woman who was in the early stages of forming the Owatonna Gymnastics Club. Mary had been in gymnastics herself — the vault and the balance beam were her specialties at the gymnastics club in Blooming Prairie — and so she moved to Owatonna to help start the club.

Things were a lot different in those early years of gymnastics in Owatonna, she said, not like they are today when gymnastics is a recognized and well-respected school sport.

“We went from school to school, hauling equipment,” she said, “from Lincoln to McKinley to Washington, the old high school gym, after school and on Saturday mornings.”

It wasn’t the first time that Butler-Fraser was involved in work supporting kids and it wouldn’t be the last — far from it.

Life behind the scenes

If you spend much time backstage at the Little Theatre of Owatonna, you’re likely to run into Mary Butler-Fraser — a former member of the LTO board of directors and an inductee into the theater’s hall of fame.

Mary Butler-Fraser (seated) works on costumes for Little Theatre of Owatonna’s production of “Treasure Island.” (Press file photo)

It’s not surprising. In the 30 years or so she’s been involved with LTO, she’s been in a show or two, directed some, worked with numerous productions in various capacities and spent a

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lot of time as the technical director of many productions, most recently collaborating once again with Craig Berg on the theater company’s production of “Prelude to a Kiss.”

“I’ve done everything but sell tickets,” she said.

The theater was, in some ways, a second home to her children.

“My kids grew up in this theater,” she said recently while sitting in the theater’s small office.

In fact, her youngest child, Max — now a Ph.D. candidate in plant genetics — was just 4 days old when she first took him to the theater so she could do a little more backstage work on a production in which she was involved.

And she’s always involved. By her count, since she first got involved with LTO she’s been a part of 70 shows, not counting the 10 shows she’s helped with in Medford and the handful of shows she’s been a part of with the Merlin Players in Faribault.

So why the theater?

“I work with kids all day long,” she said, with a nod to her work as a daycare provider, working and caring for children from 6 weeks of age to 12.

As much as she loves working with children — and make no mistake about it, she does love — she looks forward to the downtime as well.

Theater provides that downtown to her.

See BUTLER-FRASER on 66

Friday, March 31, 2017

PORTRAITS IN STEELE COUNTY

PAGE 66P Mary Butler-Fraser (far left) poses with the cast and crew of Little Theatre of Owatonna’s production of “A Prelude to a Kiss.” ButlerFraser was technical director for the production. (Submitted photo)

Butler-Fraser From Page 65 “It’s my way of getting out and spending time with adults,” she said.

Indeed, it was seeing the interaction between adults involved in theater that first piqued her interest.

At the time, Butler-Fraser was working as a server at the Open Hearth restaurant, long-since closed.

“The theater people hung around there,” she said, “always coming in late at night.”

And she enjoyed it when they would come in, going to the restaurant’s piano bar, singing, having a good time. She was intrigued.

It wasn’t that long before Butler-Fraser left the restaurant to operate her daycare. Then, one day, one of her daycare dads, Rick Wittrock, approached her about getting involved.

Wittrock was acting as technical director for one of the LTO productions and knew that Butler-Fraser — a seasoned seamstress who had been sewing since she was 6 years old — knew her way around a sewing machine. Would she consider helping out with costumes on the production?

Not only would she consider it, she did consider and did help with the production. From that moment, she was hooked.

“Once you get the bug…” she said, her voice drifting.

But it wasn’t always easy.

In one production, she was working as technical director with legendary LTO director Sarah Foreman. Foreman directed 18 shows over a 30-year relationship with the theater company. But though she was successful as a director, Foreman also had, shall we say, a reputation of not always being the easiest person to work with.

“People warned me about her,” Butler-Fraser said, adding that people who knew them both wondered what would happen when the two strong personalities — Foreman and Butler-Fraser — worked together.

Their suspicions were confirmed, and on more than one occasion during the production, the two clashed.

“I couldn’t do anything right,” Butler-Fraser recalled. “She yelled at everybody and everything.”

Butler-Fraser vowed never to work with her again.

But then, the next season, Foreman was slated to direct the holiday classic “A Christmas Carol,” and she called upon ButlerFraser, who usually works behind the scenes, to audition for the show. Butler-Fraser was blunt and frank.

“I said, ‘Only if you won’t yell at me,’” said Butler-Fraser.

Foreman agreed and lived up to the promise. The two quickly became very close friends.

In 2006, during the run of LTO’s production of “The Music Man” — a show which Foreman was directing and Butler-Fraser was assisting — Foreman died unexpectedly during the second week of performances. Butler-Fraser still misses her old friend.

In the meantime, she continues to be involved in the theater and has no plans to step away from it, especially the technical aspects of a production.

“I love watching a show come together, from the props and costumes to the actor, from the first read-through to the opening of the show. You say, ‘Wow, we really did this,’” she said. “It kind of a high.”

For the sake of the kids

Butler-Fraser’s involvement with kids goes beyond her work as a daycare provider, though she is certainly proud of that. In fact, she figures over the years that she’s cared for a couple of hundred or so children, including the children of children she once cared for.

“Some of them still come back to visit me,” she said.

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Butler-Fraser From Page 66 And she’s not ready to give it up yet — not by a long shot.

“The kids get to be family,” she said. “I love them.”

But there have been other ways in which she has shown her love for kids.

Butler-Fraser was also one of the original members of the Night of Knights Auction Committee, the group that is responsible for organizing the highly successful auction that raises money for St. Mary’s School.

Butler-Fraser remembers that before the auction became an event in Owatonna, the school had an antique show as a fundraiser.

There was just one problem with the antique show, however.

“It wasn’t making any money,” Butler-Fraser said — not something you want from your fundraiser.

So a group that had connections to the school — Butler-Fraser included — came up with the idea of an auction and went to the school and to the parish priest and pitched the idea. They were given the green light and went ahead with the expectation of raising maybe, just maybe, $10,000.

“We raised $20,000,” she said.

It’s been an Owatonna institution ever since.

Then there’s her work with the Festival of Trees, the annual even that raises money for Advocates for Developmental Disabilities.

For 26 years, the event has been the big fundraiser of the year for the organization that provides support, advocacy and service to children and adults with developmental disabilities and their families. For 25 of those 26 years, Mary Butler-Fraser has helped organize the holiday festival. And, because she did such a good job that first year working for the Festival of Trees, for the last 24 years she has sat on the organization’s board of directors.

And it’s all because of the kids.

Not so shocking, really

Though Mary Butler-Fraser doesn’t do what she does for the accolades, nevertheless the accolades have come her way.

In 2015, she was selected as the 29th recipient of the Community Arts Award for her work not only with Little Theatre of Owatonna, but also with the Owatonna Arts Center.

“I was pretty humbled and surprised,” Butler-Fraser said at the time. “I didn’t expect it at all. A lot people are deserving of the award.”

But it wasn’t the first time — and probably won’t be the last — that she was recognized for her contributions to the community.

Ten years before, in 2005, she was named the Woman of Achievement by the Business and Professional Women of Owatonna.

“I was shocked I was even nominated,” Butler-Fraser said.

After hearing that she was nominated, Butler-Fraser was asked

Local's Favorite Since 1981

to fill out an application, something which, she admits, she wasn’t going to do.

“That’s when Sarah Foreman summoned me to her home, sat me down with the application and said, ‘You will be in this,’” Butler-Fraser said.

And it wouldn’t be the last time she was shocked.

As in years past, the event was to be held on a Friday night in March. But an unexpected late winter snow storm forced the postponing of the event from that Friday night to Saturday night — a postponement that caused problems for Butler-Fraser. She had tickets for another event.

But the organizers wanted her there and so talked to her daughter Katie and made certain she could get her mother there.

“I ended up going,” Butler-Fraser said. “And when they called my name, I about fell out of my chair.”

Shocked again, due, in part, to the fact that a child care provider had never been awarded the honor.

Butler-Fraser attributed her award with the fact that during the interview with the judges, she was open and honest about some chapters of her life that she would have just as soon forgotten, most especially the domestic abuse that she suffered.

Mary Butler-Fraser not merely survived, she prevailed.

Reach Managing Editor Jeffrey Jackson at 444-2371 or follow him on Twitter @OPPJeffrey.

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PORTRAITS IN STEELE COUNTY

PAGE 68P

James Ebeling:

Hometown Servant

James “Corky” Ebeling and his wife, Julie, with Steely and Stella at the Steele County Free Fair. Ebeling served as fair board president for nearly 20 years. (Submitted photo)

By ASHLEY STEWART

astewart@owatonna.com

J

ames Ebeling has spent his entire life being busy.

“That’s the thing about me,” he said. “I’ve just always been really busy, working, volunteering or getting involved.

I’m just used to it.”

That’s because over the years, Ebeling has juggled commitments to his family, friends, coaching, Owatonna Parks and Recreation, Corky’s Early Bird Tournament, Steele County Free Fair and local government in an effort to preserve a community he hopes others can — and will — cherish as much as he has for decades to come.

“I grew up here,” he said. “My family is here. My friends are here, and I’ve just loved what’s it’s had to offer and what it did for me.”

A country upbringing Ebeling, more commonly known as “Corky,” was born the old-

est of three children to James and Carol Ebeling on April 20, 1958, and was reared on a small family farm seven miles southwest of Owatonna in Meriden Township.

The farm, which had been owned and operated by Ebeling’s grandfather prior to his father, was primarily run as a dairy farm, but like most small farmers at that time, there was swine, sheep, chickens and crops, too. Over time, the operations have been reduced to strictly crops as his father continues to run 180 acres of land today.

As a child, Ebeling attended first through sixth grade at a oneroom country schoolhouse within walking — or biking — distance of the farm, where he credits his teacher, Doris Fogal, for his learning much more than math, reading and geography.

“It was crazy how much she taught us in that country-school atmosphere,” he said.

Ebeling, who believes he was one of the last classes in that

country school before the state required all schoolhouse students to move into nearby school districts with K-12 offerings, transitioned to Owatonna at a time when its numbers required two junior high schools. He was the second class in the current Owatonna Junior High School building on 15th Street Northeast in the 1970s.

“Going to junior high was a shock because I went from whatever I had in my class at the schoolhouse, which was probably 12 or so, to a much larger class,” he said.

In junior high — seventh, eighth and ninth grade — Ebeling participated in football and baseball, and when he entered high school in 10th grade and the junior high schools combined, he got involved in FFA and started working after school and on the weekends.

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Ebeling From Page 68 His first job outside of the farm was at Cashman Fertilizer Company, which was located between Bridge Avenue and Rose Street in downtown Owatonna, and then, as a high school upperclassman, he got a job at Duffy’s Fairway, a grocery store owned by Duffy Hamren and located on the corner of 18th Street Southwest and South Cedar Avenue, which is now the Salvation Army.

At Duffy’s Fairway, Ebeling worked as a meat cutter, and later an assistant store manager on weekends, until he graduated in 1976 from Owatonna High School.

“The two meat-cutters there taught me everything,” he said, noting customer service was a large part of the grocery business, Corky Ebeling with Owatonna Parks and Recreation staff in especially at the meat counter, and it’s one he’s carried with him 2015 during an all-staff meeting at the Four Seasons Centre. since then. “I didn’t know anything when I started, but it’s still a (Submitted photo) passion of mine today.”

Prior to graduation, Ebeling expressed interest in running the itself — one that would ultimately prove to be the right fit with his farm with his father, but because the two are only 20 years apart, farming background, people skills and interest in athletics more it wasn’t feasible, especially since his parents were still rearing his than three decades later. younger brother, Calvin, known as Dude Ebeling, and his younger ‘An old-school parks and recreation guy’ sister, now Michelle Nelson, on the farm.

Ebeling says he remembers taking a test in high school that was “He was too young, and it wasn’t big enough to support two families, so then I went elsewhere,” he said, noting his parents still supposed to tell him and his classmates what occupations they were destined for, and he got department of natural resources. live on the farm and run the land today.

“Mine showed doing something outdoors,” he said.

In 1976, Ebeling was hired at National Hydro-Ax, a plant loThat was something Ebeling kept in mind, so when a maintecated off County Road 45 just south of Owatonna that built forestry products and machines, in the hydraulics department. He worked nance position opened up with Owatonna Parks and Recreation at Hydro-Ax about a year before a new opportunity presented while he was working at Hydro-Ax, he decided to apply. But after

he was offered the position, the individual he was slated to replace returned to the department.

“I didn’t know if I had a job or not,” he said because it had happened after he submitted his two-week notice at Hydro-Ax. “I was pretty nervous.”

However, the city park board and council agreed to hire Ebeling as a maintenance technician in September 1977 because another employee was nearing retirement, and he worked under then Parks and Rec Director Leo Rudolph.

In 1980, Rudolph promoted Ebeling to the department’s first parks director, which was previously a working-foreman position.

“It was challenging at first because I was the youngest person on the crew with the least amount of experience, but it worked out because of my experiences with the farm, softball, FFA and 4-H,” he said.

Ebeling quickly became involved in the Minnesota Recreation and Park Association, Southern Minnesota Recreation and Park Association and the National Recreation and Park Association, too. “[Leo] was very big on keeping current, keeping fresh, and he also instilled in me the importance of community involvement to become a well-rounded community leader. He made me do that, and I’m glad he did.”

In November 2012, Ebeling was named the interim director of parks, recreation and government buildings after the retirement of director Jeff McKay, and in April 2013, he officially took over the position after interviewing with city administration.

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PORTRAITS IN STEELE COUNTY

PAGE 70P

Ebeling From Page 69 While Ebeling will turn 59 years old in April and is eligible to retire with full pension from the City of Owatonna under the Public Employees Retirement Association’s Rule of 90 — when an individual’s age and years of employment total 90 — he said there are still projects he’d like to see come to fruition, like a succession plan for the city’s parks and rec department that was spurred by the retirement of at least four individuals with extensive years of service in 2012 and a new multi-use trail from North Street to 26th Street, which will be an extension of the city’s current parks and trails system that has been built and expanded under decades’ of city leaders.

In January 2016, Ebeling received the Minnesota Recreation and Park Association’s Clifton E. French Distinguished Service Award that is issued once, or occasionally twice, a year to honor lifetime achievement and dedication by one of its members. The recognition made him only the second Owatonnan to receive the award; the first was Rudolph, one of Ebeling’s most influential mentors.

Ebeling was nominated for the award by Owatonna Recreation Superintendent Mary Jo Knudson.

“It’s very well-deserved,” she said in an interview in January 2016. “He’s worked tirelessly for parks and recreation in Owatonna and in the state. … For being an old-school parks and recreation guy, he really has amazing vision for what parks and recreation can be.”

Ebeling, who will celebrate his 40th year with Owatonna Parks and Rec in September, said he’s never thought about leaving the city for a different job or something else.

“It’s been great here,” he said. “A lot of people call me a mentor now, which is incredibly rewarding.”

Softball days

As a child, Ebeling grew up on the softball field with his father, who he says was “a phenomenal shortstop, long-ball hitter and team player,” and with much credit to his father and his years on the Meriden Meadowlarks 4-H softball team, he, too, became an exceptional player.

“It’s been in my blood my whole life,” he said.

In high school, Ebeling ditched school-based organized sports and invested much of his time playing summer ball in a league that was growing in numbers as popularity in slow-pitch softball started to grow in the 1970s.

After graduating in 1976, Ebeling started an adult softball team named JB Liquor that he played on and managed. The team competed in the Owatonna top league against local teams, like the powerhouse Owatonna Eagles Club and others, but in 1977, he was forced to make a decision on his involvement as a player and a manager with the team as competition within the league and the team’s success grew. Ebeling then gave up his playing duties to become a full-time manager.

“I couldn’t play and manage at the same time at the level we were trying to get to, so I quit playing and solely managed,” he said.

Ebeling, who at 18 years old was elected the Owatonna Softball Association’s youngest president, managed a traveling slowpitch softball team that competed in the five-state area nearly every weekend from April to September for years, while also starting and organizing the annual Corky’s Early Bird Men’s Softball Classic.

The classic began in 1979, when Ebeling was 20 years old, as a

Corky Ebeling, right, with Doug Meier, left, and Shane Robbins, center, during the 29th annual Corky’s Early bird Softball Classic in 2008. Ebeling turned over the reins after the 2009 tournament. (Submitted photo)

small 16-team slow-pitch softball tournament held on a weekend in Owatonna but it has nothing but grown since.

“It’s well-known nationally,” he said, adding its garnered attention from Fox Sports North and ESPN radio over the years — and for good reason, too.

In 2016 — the classic’s 37th year — a record-breaking 176 teams from Minnesota, South Dakota, Iowa, Nebraska, Illinois, California, North Dakota and Wisconsin participated in what’s now a threeday event with games played on fields in Owatonna and Faribault.

“Loren has taken it to the next level,” Ebeling said.

For the past eight years, Loren Dietz has organized the classic, while Ebeling and his family and friends run the concessions for the event that draws about 3,000 players and fans.

The event donates $5,000 to the Owatonna Parks and Recreation Youth Scholarship Fund every year to help about 400 underprivileged children play youth sports. It also gives between $5,000 and $10,000 each year to upgrades at Owatonna sports complexes as well as youth softball teams.

“It was a big part of my life for a long time, and it still is,” Ebeling said.

In 2010, Ebeling was inducted into the Minnesota Softball Hall of Fame.

community.”

But by the turn of the century, Ebeling was elected a member of the fair board thanks to the mentoring of Ted Ringhofer, a former city council member, chamber president and fair board member, and Elmer Reseland, a former educator and longtime fair secretarymanager.

Reseland, who died during the 2012 fair, worked with Ebeling on concession contracts for years, working to bring new and exciting food and product vendors to the state’s largest county fair that draws hundreds of thousands of people each year.

“It wasn’t too many years, only a couple years on the fair board before I got asked to be vice president and then got elected to be president,” he said.

In 1998, Ebeling was elected fair board president, which is a position he held until November 2012 when he was promoted to interim director of parks, recreation and government buildings with the city, but remained on the fair board until the fall of 2014.

“I feel proud to be a part of that,” he said. “I’ve met very hard working people who’ve become lifelong family and friends of mine and the fair’s.”

And despite not being on the fair board, Ebeling continues to volunteer his time with concessions each August.

Joining a decades-old tradition

A calling to serve people

It was in the early 1990s when Ebeling became involved in the ever-popular area attraction known as the Steele County Free Fair as a volunteer.

“It wasn’t easy to get on the fair board because when people got on there, they seldom went off,” he said. “It was high profile in the

It was in 2008, when Ebeling’s desire to be involved in county government — one stemming back to the 1980s — finally landed him on the election ballot for District 4 county commissioner.

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Ebeling From Page 70 “I was starting to think about it when longtime commissioners were in place who I knew personally, and each one told me they’d run another term and then help promote me as a candidate, and each time it fell through,” he recalls. “Then, I moved, and for whatever reason it didn’t happen, and after getting it, I’m thankful it didn’t happen when I had kids in school because between the job, my community involvement with the fair board, the EarlyBird Classic, running softball teams and raising a family, it would’ve been too much.”

So, the 2008 election was “perfect timing.”

Ebeling ousted 10-year Commissioner Jim Wagner to represent District 4 on the Steele County Board of Commissioners in November 2008 earning 2,283 votes over Wagner’s 1,663, and in 2012, he defeated challenger Roger Wacek for another four-year term. However, Ebeling, along with fellow incumbent commissioners, were unseated by newcomers during the 2016 election.

“I would’ve liked to do it longer, but it didn’t happen,” he said. “We’ll see what happens in the future.”

As county commissioner for eight years, Ebeling served on a variety of committees and boards at the local and state level for transportation, public safety, health, tourism and more.

“It leads back to everything else, my calling is to serve people, and I love seeing people enjoying themselves,” he said. “I wanted to serve the community and try to make it a better place and keep improving and keep growing.”

Ebeling’s efforts were recognized by area residents in 2015 and 2016 when he was voted Best Local Politician in SouthernMinn Scene.

James “Corky” Ebeling, left, being sworn in as Steele County District 4 Commissioner by Judge Joseph Bueltel, right, in January 2009. Ebeling served as a county commissioner from 2009 through 2016. (Submitted photo)

The value of family

But had it not been for the support of his family, especially his wife, Julie, of nearly 40 years, and his friends much of his involvement would’ve ceased to exist.

“There’s been so many things that he’s done over the years I can’t even remember,” said Julie, who’s worked at Viracon in sales for about 30 years.

It was the summer of 1976 when Ebeling first met Julie Arndt,

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a 1975 Owatonna High School graduate, at Duffy’s Fairway.

Julie recalls being at the store to buy laundry detergent with her roommate, who was a good family friend of the Ebelings, when the two were officially introduced.

“We were friends for three or four months before we went on a date,” she said.

Ebeling said despite the two growing up in the same town, going to St. John Lutheran Church and attending Owatonna High School a year apart, they didn’t really know each other until that summer.

But it didn’t take long to change that. The two married on July 1, 1978, and had their daughter, Jenna, on Aug. 1, 1985, who is a radiation therapist at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, and their son, James Ebeling III, on Aug. 2, 1988, who is a designer for Amazon in Seattle, Washington.

“We had them involved right away. We never let them sit still,” Ebeling said of their children.

And that meant so were the Ebelings from PTO to coaching to attending sporting events to watching band concerts and everything in between.

“Now that I look back, I think I got more done then than now,” Julie said. “We’re really busy, but we’ve always had a lot of fun together. That’s what it’s all about.”

Ebeling agreed.

The couple are grandparents to a 5-year-old grandson, Caleb, and nearly 2-year-old granddaughter, Norah, which is something Ebeling said, is great.

“It’s been a good ride,” he said. “We’ll see where life leads to next.”

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PORTRAITS IN STEELE COUNTY

PAGE 72P Timothy and Andrea Van Gelder with their children, Carson, 8; Brendan, 6; and Erin, 3. (Submitted photo)

Timothy Van Gelder:

Man of medicine, man of music

By JEFFREY JACKSON

jjackson@owatonna.com

I

f it weren’t for his attraction to air conditioning, Timothy Van Gelder may never have left the farm.

At least that’s what he tells people — jokingly, of course, he says, though the twinkle in his eye and the slight smile suggest there might be a smidgen of truth to it.

But whatever it might have been that propelled to make his choices and take his steps, it was enough to get him into medical school and eventually to Owatonna where Van Gelder now practices family medicine at Mayo Clinic Health Systems — Owatonna.

“I do everything from delivering babies to caring for elderly people,” he says.

And everything in between, it seems, including sports medicine — an interest that has led him to be on the sidelines of every Medford home football game.

Oh, he had thought about other fields of medicine, including obstetrics and pediatrics. When in his residency and taking his rotation in surgery, he even considered becoming a surgeon.

But he chose family medicine over obstetrics and pediatrics because, he says, he likes a bit of variety in his day. And he chose it over surgery because, well, he prefers his patients conscious.

“I like to talk to people,” he says.

Sure, he could talk to people when they’re under the knife. But with that much anesthesia, they tend not to talk back.

But it’s not just his medical skills and his bedside manner that have ingratiated Dr. Van Gelder to the Steele County community since he moved here in 2010. It is also the way he has immersed himself in other areas of the community — music, the theater, his church and even the world of baking.

That’s right. Baking.

But we’re getting ahead of ourselves.

See VAN Gelder on 73

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PORTRAITS IN STEELE COUNTY

FRIDAY, MARCH 31, 2017

Dr. Timothy Van Gelder cares for one of his younger patients at Mayo Clinic Health Systems — Owatonna. As a family medicine physician, Van Gelder does everything from deliverying babies to caring for elderly people and everything in between. (Submitted photo)

Van Gelder From Page 72

Life on the farm

The Van Gelder family farm sets outside of Orange City, Iowa, a town of about 6,000 in the extreme northwest edge of the state — a stone’s throw from both the South Dakota and Nebraska state lines.

They raised hogs there, some corn, soybeans.

“I liked living on the farm,” Van Gelder says. “It was a great way to grow up.”

His father had grown up on the same farm, and Van Gelder considered becoming a farmer himself. But there was something that was holding him back.

“I didn’t like the uncertainty,” he says.

And there was uncertainty when it came to farming, particularly in his formative years. Timothy Van Gelder, his parents’ third son, was born in 1980, shortly before a financial crisis crippled many Midwest farms.

Tight money policies by the Federal Reserve caused farmland value to drop up to 60 percent in some parts of the Midwest. Record production resulted in a glut of farm commodities, forcing prices down. That, combined with an export decline caused by an embargo to the Soviet Union, led to an increase in farm debt, reaching a staggering $215 billion by 1984 — double what it had been in 1978. Farm foreclosures rose dramatically, and economists said more than 33 percent of farmers were in serious trouble. By 1987, farmland values bottomed out.

Though he was just a boy during the most difficult years of the farm crisis, Van Gelder still remembers the uncertainty that was attached to it, along with volatility of the market that they were so dependent on and even the fickleness of the weather that could mean the difference between a good year and a bad one.

Still, it was what he knew as a boy and, therefore, where he saw his life.

There was another thing, though, that kept him from staying on

the farm. He was one of three boys in the family and the youngest one at that. Though he may have wanted to stay there and farm alongside his father, even as a boy he knew that the farm wasn’t big enough for them all to stay.

He would have to find a different path.

A man of music

It didn’t take long for the community of Owatonna to discover that Dr. Van Gelder was more — much more — than a man of science, a man of medicine. He’s also a man of music, with an incredible tenor voice that soars alongside his stage presence.

The discovery came quickly, spurred in part by Van Gelder’s desire to immerse himself immediately in Owatonna’s arts community when he came to town.

See VAN Gelder on 76

Friday, March 31, 2017

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PAGE 74

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PAGE 76P

Van Gelder Mayo clinic in Owatonna and spoke to Dr. Brian Bunkers.

“He was a great recruiter,” Van Gelder says, “very personable.”

They came for an interview in December 2010.

As part of the visit, they toured Little Theatre of Owatonna, where Van Gelder would see the stage on which, unbeknownst to him, he would perform many times in the upcoming years.

From Page 73

“We jumped in with both feet,” he says, both about himself and his wife, Andrea.

For Van Gelder, one of his first forays into the local arts scene was with Little Theatre of Owatonna, about seven months after he arrived, when he auditioned for the LTO production of the musical “The Unsinkable Molly Brown.”

He simply wanted to get involved with musical theater — a great love of his — in his new home.

He was ready to take any small part they wanted to cast him in.

He didn’t get a small part. Instead, he was cast as Johnny Brown, the husband of Molly Brown and the male lead.

“I was scared,” he admits. “I never played the lead before. I was expecting to be in the chorus.”

Since then, he has been in four other shows — he limits himself to one a year — and they have all been musicals: “Into the Woods” in Faribault and “Grease,” “The Producers” and as Jesus in “Jesus Christ Superstar,” a role that he says he was intimidated by.

He says that one of these days he may venture out and take a role in a straight play, a nonmusical, though he confesses that the prospect unnerves him a bit.

“In a straight play, you don’t have the music to hide behind,” he says.

Though anyone who has heard him sing will tell you he’s hardly hiding behind that voice.

In fact, he has been using and training that voice ever since he was a boy on the farm back in Iowa.

“Music was always a part of my life,” he says, recalling how, as a boy, he was a member of the children’s choir in church and how he loved going Christmas caroling with groups from that church.

And he comes by his musical talent naturally.

Partially.

“My mom’s musical,” he says, then pauses and smiles. “My dad can’t hold a tune to save his life.”

A turning point came for young Tim when he was 13 and he landed a small role as a Polynesian boy in the musical “South Pacific” that was being performed as part of Orange City’s annual “Tulip Festival.”

“That set me off,” he says.

He soon became more involved in music and theater, taking voice lessons, joining the choir, playing trumpet in the band. He even attended a musical theater camp when he was an eighth grader.

“That was a big deal for a small-town Iowa boy,” he says.

And, when it came time for him to further his education beyond high school, he was awarded a scholarship in music to sing with the choir at Northwestern College, a small Christian college in his hometown of Orange City.

Consider Arizona

Timothy Van Gelder plays guitar and sings a solo during the Little Theatre of Owatonna’s production of “Grease” in the summer of 2016. (Submitted photo)

For those who don’t know him on the theatrical stage, he may be recognizable from singing at the Hometown Sampler or the Steele County Free Fair — or countless other venues around the county — as a member of the a cappella musical group Bad Tangerines.

It perhaps should come as no surprise that, for a man whose introduction to music came as a child in church choir, his involvement with Bad Tangerines came through church when he and his family started attending Trinity Lutheran Church in Owatonna.

His wife, Andrea — an incredible musical talent in her own right — was directing the high school choir at Trinity and the Van Gelders became part of the church’s praise team, the group that helps to develop the contemporary service at the church. There they met Mike and Tammi Ferch, part of the praise team as well and founding members of the Bad Tangerines.

Van Gelder was invited to be a part of the group, and he’s been a part of it ever since.

“It’s fun to be in a group like that,” he said, though he admits that he was intimidated at first by the fact that they have no printed, just lyrics and a pretty good idea of what the tune sounds like from which they make up their own harmonies.

He fit right in.

“Music has been for me a wonderful release,” he says, “a way to use the other side of my brain.”

Finding Owatonna

Van Gelder’s love of music and theater was a

part of his choice in applying for a position with the clinic in Owatonna and his subsequent coming to Steele County.

Of course, there was more to it than that.

The year was 2009, and Van Gelder was finishing his third year of medical residency in La Crosse, Wisconsin. He and his wife, whom he had married in 2005, now had to make the decision of what was next.

“We were looking to move and for me to get my real first job,” he says.

And with it came the discussion of where to go, what community to move to. They each had stipulations. Though he didn’t mind being close to a big city, he didn’t want to be in a big city. For Andrea, the stipulation was much simpler: she didn’t want to live in a town so small that A&W was the nicest restaurant.

Then there were the things that they agreed on: arts and music needed to be an important part of the community; since she was originally from Arizona and her parents still lived there, they needed to be within an hour of a major airport; and there needed to be an access to Broadway — if not the Great White Way itself, at least access to Broadway shows.

“We love Broadway shows,” he says.

So the couple took out a map, drew circles around major metropolitan areas that were known for bringing in touring companies of Broadway shows and looked at the communities within those circles that might meet their criteria. One of the cities was Owatonna.

With that, Van Gelder made a cold call to the

Of course, what really brought the Van Gelders to Owatonna was medicine. And what brought Dr. Van Gelder to medicine was, in great part, the example that his parents set for him when he was young.

He always loved science. And, as the prospect of living and working on a farm became dimmer, he considered becoming a veterinarian. After all, when the vet would come out to their farm to determine, for example, why a pig had died, young Tim was always right there in the thick of it. So maybe, just maybe, that’s the place he should be, the profession he should follow.

He jokingly tells people that he would have been a veterinarian and worked with animals out on the farm but he likes being inside in the air conditioning too much. And it is a joke. What led him to medicine was something else altogether.

When he was young — just 5 years old, as he remembers it — his parents became foster parents, helping Bethany Christian Services place children whose families may have been in crisis in supportive homes. That example never left him. What he felt was the need to mesh his love for science and the social service example that his parents had set.

“That social service example,” he says, “pushed me toward medicine.”

The road to becoming a doctor, however, was a long one and had a few twists and turns that he didn’t expect, but ones for which he is now grateful. Consider Arizona.

Van Gelder’s oldest brother, Jay, was going to work on the farm with his father until he felt another calling — one into the ministry. When the brother left the farm, he took a position as a youth pastor of a Reformed Church of America parish in Phoenix, Arizona.

The young youth pastor knew few, if any, people in Phoenix. But a family in the church — the Ackermans — took him under their wings.

He and his family shared Thanksgiving with the Ackermans. Christmas, too.

The brother Jay asked the youngest Van Gelder to come down and visit him in Phoenix. And when the youngest Van Gelder went to Phoenix, he met the Ackermans. And when he met the Ackermans, he met their daughter Andrea.

See VAN Gelder on 77

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FRIDAY, MARCH 31, 2017

Van Gelder From Page 76 By then, Timothy Van Gelder, who was two years older than she, was in college back in Iowa, and Andrea Ackerman was still in high school in Arizona, though she was looking at where she would go to school after she graduated.

“The only school she applied to outside of Arizona was Northwestern,” he says.

Northwestern College in Orange City, Iowa, his hometown.

Northwestern College where he said he would never attend but where he was then not only going to school, but where he was singing in the choir.

Northwestern College, which has a student body smaller than her high school in Arizona.

And the school that she eventually attended — Northwestern College.

As the Ackermans had taken Jay Van Gelder under their wing when he moved to Arizona, so the Orange City, Iowa Van Gelders took Andrea Ackerman under their wing when she came north for her education. As Timothy Van Gelder remembers it, she was at his house every Sunday for Sunday dinner. And his oldest brother had some advice for him.

“He told me, ‘Now that she’s up there, you should date her,’” Van Gelder says.

And he did, even though later he found out that it was against the rules at the college. After she graduated from college, they married.

Flash forward to 2017. The Van Gelders and their three children — Carson, 8; Brendan, 6; and Erin, 3 — have acreage out west of town where they are teaching their children some of the joys of growing up on a farm.

The boys are helping to raise 4H beef cattle, which they will show at the Steele County Free Fair. They’re being guided by the teenage children of Jay, Van Gelder’s oldest brother, who moved back to pastor a church in Iowa. Carson, Van Gelder says, will someday join him on stage.

“He’s always putting on a show,” he says. “I’d love to do one with him.”

Then there’s Brendan, a kindergartner who’s learning his sight words, learning to play hockey and learning one liners, delivered with a smirk on his face.

And there’s Erin — 3 and going on 23, he says. He calls her a “ball of fire” and says she can discuss any princess you care to name.

Andrea works more at Trinity, with the praise team, the kids choir and small groups.

As for Dr. Van Gelder, there’s yet another side to him as well — one that comes with icing. For several years now, the physician, vocalist, actor and occasional farmer has also been a baker. But even that is something he attributes to life on the farm.

When he was young, he says — the youngest of the three brothers — his brothers would be outside helping their father with chores around the farm.

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“I stayed in the house with Mom,” he says. “I baked with Mom.” And he still has that talent for baking cakes.

Over the years, he’s baked cakes not only for his children’s birthdays — cakes that he says are becoming increasingly difficult as the children grow older — but he’s also crafted cakes for the Young Life Cake Auction and to show at the Steele County Free Fair. He’s even won ribbons at the fair, and not just for his cakes.

He’s been awarded grand champion as well for both his cupcakes and his scones.

He comes by it naturally — no, not the cupcakes and the scones, not even the music and his bedside manner as a doctor.

No matter how easy those may seem to come to him — and they do seem to come easy to him — they take effort, practice, work.

What seems to come naturally to Van Gelder is the desire to share his talents with his adopted community and to serve the people around him.

It’s understandable. When he was a youth, he would go to church twice a day on Sunday. And service played a “big part” in the faith in which he was reared, he says.

That has never left him.

“Church life is a big part of our life,” he says. “It’s another place to strengthen our relationship with people and our relationship with Christ.”

Reach Managing Editor Jeffrey Jackson at 444-2371 or follow him on Twitter @OPPJeffrey.

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PAGE 78P

Pete Guenther:

Reflections on a life in music and education Growing up, Pete Guenther’s family traveled extensively. Even today traveling to places like Chicago, where Guenther had some fun in Millennium Park’s Cloud Gate sculpture, is a bond he shares with his wife, Holly, and their children. (Photo courtesy of Pete Guenther)

By RYAN ANDERSON

randerson@owatonna.com

P

eter Guenther, director of bands at Owatonna High School, became the accomplished conductor he is today based on the lessons he’s learned from numerous mentors and from his life experiences — both good and bad.

Directors must interpret each piece personally, and everyone brings different emotions to music, he said.

“Composers write black and white, but we paint it. We give it the color, vibrancy, and soul,” he said of the work of conductors.

In retrospect, Guenther’s career as a teacher seems predestined.

Both his parents were teachers, and they built a friend network of fellow teachers, many of whom became surrogate “aunts and uncles” to Guenther and his brother.

“My parents were big on family and values and creating networks of people,” he said. “They were trying to show my brother and me how important those relationships are with people, and sustaining them is pivotal.”

Despite all those signs, “I was bound and determined not to be a teacher,” Guenther said.

Because of his affinity for space and astronomy, Guenther was going to study physics and aeronautical engineering so he could eventually work at NASA. “It was the naiveté of being a teenager. I didn’t want to do what my parents did,” he said. “Education is an interesting animal. It finds you,” not the other way around.

Part of what cooled Guenther on the possibility of teaching was seeing the stress it put on his mother, who was always assigned the most difficult students because she was such a gifted educator.

In an era before computers, Guenther would watch his mother hand-write a litany of full-page progress reports for every student.

“She could handle it, but it would stress her out to no end, and that maybe scared me off a little bit,” he said.

This was a time before schools were blessed with numerous special education teachers and paraprofessionals, so his mother, JoAnn, all alone, had to face students all over the learning spectrum and make sure they all received proper education.

Guenther did, of course, eventually go into education, and he’s been told his ability to relate to students is one of his strongest attributes, he said.

“You can’t communicate with students unless you have their trust,” he said.

See GUENTHER on 79

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Guenther From Page 78 It’s particularly “special” when former students return to tell him they are still playing music years after he taught them, he said.

“Music is for life,” he said.

Guenther was named Owatonna’s teacher of the year in 2010, and he was selected to receive the Owatonna Community Arts Award in 2013. He’s also taken immense pride in bringing composers and guest artists to Owatonna, like world-renowned composer Samuel Hazo.

Guenther became acquainted with Hazo through Owatonna’s Wenger Corporation, when Wenger commissioned Hazo to compose a piece for their 60th anniversary celebration, he said.

The Owatonna High School concert band was credited with premiering that piece, “Rush,” in 2008.

Early life

Guenther was born Sept. 20, 1969, in Milwaukee, and he grew up in the suburb of Greenfield. His mother taught kindergarten, and his father, Joseph, taught industrial arts at Whitnall High School, so his parents taught in the

Pete Guenther got to know noted composer Samuel Hazo through Owatonna’s own Wenger Corporation when the company commissioned Hazo to compose a piece entitled “Rush,” which commemorated the 60th anniversary of Wenger Corporation. The Owatonna High School Concert Band is credited with its premiere in 2008. (Photo courtesy of Pete Guenther)

same district, just as Peter and his wife, Holly, who teaches elementary band and music, do in Owatonna.

Joseph was a busy guy, as in addition to teaching his classes, he had a predilection for photography and taught classes on the subject, he was heavily involved in the theater department buildings sets, and he even drove a truck during the summer when Peter was young, Guenther said.

“He was always active,” he said.

Guenther is thankful for myriad gifts he received from his parents, perhaps most notable of which is exposing him early on to travel and imbuing him with a sense of wonder regarding nature, he said. In fact, one summer, the family — Guenther, his parents, and his younger brother, Paul — locked the doors of their house the day after school ended to take to the road and didn’t return until the day before the next school year began.

“We traveled all over, and it’s still in my brain, now. It’s something I’ll never forget,” he said.

“Both my parents treasured nature and made sure we did, too, showing us our beautiful country.”

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PAGE 80P

Pete Guenther, OHS music and band teacher, understands that, “As teachers, we try to inspire someone to make a difference. That’s our job.” (Ryan Anderson/People’s Press)

Guenther From Page 79 Indeed, in addition to music, travel is a vital connection between Peter and Holly. Her parents also took her on adventures throughout childhood, and the pair have done the same for their five children — Carly, 22, who just graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire with a kinesiology degree, is a personal trainer, and is getting married next fall, Ryan, 19, Brandon, 17, Max, 13, and Evan, 6.

“We are always going somewhere, every year, and our kids won’t forget it, either,” he said.

Guenther attended a Catholic school, St. Mary’s, and played trombone, calling it a “good experience.” In fact, his fifth-grade year was the first time the school offered band.

He initially wanted to play trumpet, but his instructor suggested he’d be better suited to trombone, he said.

“I’m glad he did because I enjoy playing to this day,” he said.

He also had a pair of quality teachers: Jack Remus, who was “a jovial, happy guy,” and then LuAnne Peterson, who Guenther actually reconnected with via Facebook a couple years ago, he said.

“She remembered me, and we talked about music,” he said.

Peterson had recently retired, and she advised Guenther to cherish every moment as a teacher, because by the time one reaches the middle of his or her career, time begins to accelerate.

“I feel that a little,” he said.

Peterson gave him his first-ever solo, Max Denmark’s “Scene de Concert,” and, in a total fluke, she also happened to be his judge

(judges are assigned randomly), he said. It’s a solo he still assigns students now as a teacher, and he has one student playing it this year.

Going from Catholic grade school to public high school was a major change, for sheer size alone and Guenther has never forgotten that feeling, which makes him uniquely equipped to help young students as they transition to OHS, he said.

“I know what it’s like to feel like a guppy (among) big fish,” he said.

In fact, that’s one of his favorite parts of being the band director, seeing students grow from freshmen to seniors over four years, he said.

See GUENTHER on 81

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Guenther From Page 80 “That’s what I remember,” he said.

His transition to high school was eased, however, by the fact he already knew so many teachers through his parents, he said. Every day, at least one teacher would give him a reassuring smile or a nod.

It also helped that, with the exception of calculus and geometry, school “came easy” to him.

“I didn’t have to study a lot,” he said.

That afforded him plenty of time for extracurricular activities, like sports — he played basketball, ran track, and captained the golf team — music, where he played in the concert, pep, and marching bands, played in the orchestra pit during musicals, and did a trombone solo each year, and leadership opportunities, as he was student council vice president and math club president.

It wasn’t until college that Guenther first encountered academic difficulties, he said.

“I was absolutely drowning,” he said.

He considered both Marquette University, which is a compact, urban campus in downtown Milwaukee, and the University of Wisconsin, which sprawls across Madison, before deciding that UW-Eau Claire “was just the right size,” he said. He was impressed by the school’s academic standing, especially the science — and more specifically, the physics — departments, and they boasted a quality arts program.

“Still on the engineering thing,” Guenther went to Eau Claire as a pre-engineering major, and his “master plan” was to eventually

land at Purdue University for aerospace engineering, he said. “It was the first time I had faced that academic rigor, I had some really tough professors, and my grades were declining.”

Hearing music’s call

As fate seemed to be nudging him away from a science career, he was also being pulled toward music, he said. Already in marching band and concert band, he decided to also take trombone lessons, and his parents gave him a new trombone as a Christmas present to replace his “old beater.”

As he continued lessons, it came time to take an exam, and after he performed for the judges, they told him that he was pursuing the wrong degree. They felt he should be a music educator, and told him he’d just have to “trust” their advice.

He contemplated the shift in majors, and since he could see his own struggle, he “took the plunge,” he said. With more music classes and fewer science courses, his grades shot up immediately.

“I was good at it, and I gained more confidence as a performer because I had found my niche,” he said. “My dad told me later he could tell I wasn’t destined to be a scientist, but he had to let me figure it out for myself.”

Just as he was feeling confident about his new direction, his private teacher, Rodney Hudson, told him that if he was truly serious about music as his raison d’être, he needed to strip down completely and start anew. Hudson told him to forget everything he knew — or thought he knew — and rebuild from the ground-up.

“That process of rebuilding myself is the most pivotal lesson

I teach my students,” he said. “It’s a lot of work to change oneself over, and I can appreciate their frustrations and struggles, but they need that jumpstart or restart.”

Another crucial lesson came in Guenther’s first conducting class. After making a slight motion with his hand to start the orchestra, his two instructors smiled and told him to do it again. After he did it a second time, they told him to put his hands behind his back and then start the group. Guenther smiled at the musicians, nodded, and lifted his head — and they began to play.

“I learned a lot about communicating with people,” he said.

“Conducting is a powerful mechanism, and you can command 10 or 500 people with that power.”

“It’s an unforgettable experience when you can share music without speaking,” he added. “It’s through facial expressions and gestures, and because your back is to them, the audience never sees it, only the musicians do.”

The music milieu also taught him humility because “you realize how good other people are,” he said. “There is always someone better than you.”

It’s futile to have an ego in music, because very quickly someone will come along to “put you back in your place,” he said. For example, when Guenther was a freshman in college, the marching band director, Dr. Donald George, singled him out during an early practice on the football field to tell him he was the loudest trombone player he’d ever heard. It was not meant as a compliment.

See GUENTHER on 82

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PAGE 82P

Guenther

— Ritzenthaler moved to the elementary level and Guenther ascended to the high school — so Ritzenthaler could mentor Guenther for two years before he retired, which led to some “interesting” interactions.

For example, one day, while Guenther was directing a practice session, Ritzenthaler stuck a note in his office window that looked out to the band room reading, “Third trumpets are sharp, please fix.”

The two always ate lunch together, and on the way to the cafeteria one day, Guenther offered that the morning’s rehearsal had been a success.

Ritzenthaler whirled around like a striking cobra to disabuse Guenther of the notion, instead rebutting, “Son, you ain’t even close.”

Guenther was “ticked,” and after stewing for a bit, he grabbed the copy of the piece they’d been rehearsing, threw it on Ritzenthaler’s desk, and said, “Show me.” Ritzenthaler pulled his copy of the same composition from his files—it appeared old enough to have been unearthed at the same time as the Dead Sea Scrolls — and it was filled with personal notes, which the two then proceeded to go over for three hours.

Guenther attributes much of his success to the mentors he’s had, and he believes God put them in his path, he said.

“God led me to do music, and started to give me the puzzle pieces to lock together,” he said.

After eight years in Lake City, Guenther came to Owatonna in 2001, he said. He had a champion in the high school’s retiring band director, Jim Thulien, who knew of Guenther’s work in Lake City and was impressed.

When he first arrived, Guenther noticed the bands “were very, very technical, but I felt they were missing [heart],” he said. They “could get robotic, so I needed to infuse some (feeling).”

From Page 81 “I learned how untrained and raw I was,” he said. “I didn’t have the polish or the intricacies, yet.”

As he delved deeper into conducting and music theory classes, he found more outlets for his musical soul, he said. For example, he joined the professional music fraternity on campus — eventually rising to president — as well as the “Singing Statesmen,” a male choir on campus that his son Ryan has also joined at UW-Eau Claire as he works to become a physical education teacher.

The “Singing Statesmen” was one of the best musical experiences of Guenther’s life, because it was the first-time he discovered vocal music, he said.

“I had never really sung before,” he said.

The group even toured seven European countries in 1990, he said. This included time in Hungary, which was transitioning from a communist state to a democracy, providing Guenther a fascinating peek at a totally different society.

Music practice leads to marriage

Of course, the most important part of this time in Guenther’s life was meeting his wife, Holly.

They’ll celebrate their 25-year-anniversary in June. Their first interaction nearly took a turn toward the macabre, however.

Guenther was playing bass trombone in the jazz ensemble, while she was playing tenor sax in front of him, and he lost his grip on his trombone’s slide, he said. It grazed her ear as it flew across the room.

“She gave me a look I will never forget,” he said.

There was a quick second look, and after profusely apologizing for nearly concussing her with his slide, the two began to bond over music and childhood traveling exploits, he said. Talking remains a core tenet of their marriage to this day.

“I am never short for words, and neither is she,” he said.

In fact, when they travel, they almost never use the radio, because they spend all their time talking.

She’s “an amazing person, an inspiration to so many, and one of the best musicians I know,” he said. “Holly is my rock, she’s the one.”

In fact, “I don’t know where I would be without her,” he said. “She keeps me honest and true.”

Learning how to teach music For a semester, Guenther went to studentteach at the Eleva-Strum school district, which is roughly 30 minutes south of Eau Claire, because he desired the tutelage of David Mueller, who ran one of the top small-school band programs in Wisconsin, he said. Mueller was always su-

Discovering the emotions in music

Pete Guenther calls his wife, Holly, who is also a teacher, “my rock. In fact, “I don’t know where I would be without her,” he said. “She keeps me honest and true.” (Photo courtesy of Pete Guenther)

pervising, but he allowed Guenther plenty of responsibility, handing him the jazz ensemble, for example, on day one.

“I learned real quick how to program for groups, which is essential,” he said.

While some directors lack the knowledge and/ or the belief in their charges to challenge them, Mueller set standards high, and students — and student teachers like Guenther and his wife — met them.

After graduating college, Guenther got a job teaching junior high band in Lake City, Minn., where he met yet another prodigious influence on his career, Stephen Ritzenthaler, who was the high school band director. To this day, people know his name, because he “was a powerhouse in southern Minnesota.”

He was very knowledgeable, but he had a razor sharp wit and a “quick blade at the podium,” Guenther said. The pair switched places

Guenther is able to find emotion in music because of heartbreak.

His mother died of cancer in 1998, and his brother was claimed by the same disease at only 38 following a gruesome three-year battle, he said.

“When your heart has been broken, it changes the way you communicate,” he said, adding, “It changes the way you see life, the way you value it, and the way you interpret music. You take a step back, and you’re more empathetic and caring.”

Perhaps not surprisingly, as students flourish personally, their musicianship also improves, he said.

“As teachers, we try to inspire someone to make a difference,” said Guenther. “That’s our job.”

PAGE 83

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