PROFESSIONAL | NONPROFIT
ANNE RIECK McFARLAND Sioux Falls, SD
Empowering Children & Adults with Disabilities Innovative. Inspiring. Inquisitive. Inclusive. These are just a few of the adjectives used to describe Anne Rieck McFarland, long-time leader and advocate for people with disabilities. It is a life’s work that began by chance with a part-time job at the Aberdeen Adjustment Training Center while Anne attended Northern State College in the 1970’s. “I grew up on a farm near Warner about 25 miles from Aberdeen,” Anne explains. “Nine guys lived in the group home, and we’d drive them out to the farm about once a week. They just loved it, we all did!” The farm had much to do with shaping Anne’s character, instincts and work ethic. “I thought I had a pretty ordinary childhood,” Anne recalls. “But, looking back, it was rather extraordinary. We had certain chores to do at certain ages, and that instilled confidence and the ability to work independently. I learned how to drive a twoton truck before I knew how to do laundry!” Anne was the third of four children born to Harley and Jean Rieck. While Harley ran the farm, Jean was the school’s Business Manager and rode the school bus to work every day. It was uncommon in those days for a wife/mother to work outside the home, but Anne and her siblings thought nothing of riding the bus with their mom. To the Rieck family, work was more about capability than gender.
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2018 HONORS CEREMONY
“I have never thought of ‘glass ceilings’ when it comes to my career,” Anne observes. “But that can be a different matter for people with disabilities. It generally comes from a lack of understanding, and that is my wake-up call to educate and inform. I have learned that you can’t lead if nobody is following.” Anne graduated from Northern in 1977 with a B.A. in Community Services and Early Childhood Development. Rather than open the small day care business she envisioned when starting college, Anne took her newfound passion to the Mitchell Adjustment Training Center where she was named support person of the year within two years. Career opportunities then took her to Muscatine and Burlington, IA.
