CCCC students have been special - The Concordia Blade

CCCC students have been special
Remarks made
by Brad Lowell at
the Founders' Day
luncheon on Feb. 8,
2015.
My first involvement with the effort
was back in 1963
when fresh out of the
service, I returned
to Concordia and
went to work for my
father at the BladeEmpire. I was initially inspired by Reese
Hughes,
president
emeritus of Pittsburg
State University, who
in a visit to Concordia said that junior
colleges can provide
an inexpensive way
for more students to
receive a post-high
school education.
He stressed that
community
colleges can provide the
same level of education for the first two
years at a lower cost
to the students and
in an environment of
smaller classrooms.
The expensive courses don't come until
the third and fourth
years of college, he
said.
I was named to a
steering
committee
along with John Peck,
Chuck Moss, Hugh
Emerich, Lee Doyen,
Harold Clark, Ron
Elwell, Arley Bryant,
Marvin
Brummett,
Ross
Doyen,
Leo
Gennette, Bill Walsh
and Dean Williams.
The
District
4
board of education
members were Larry
Peck, Charles Everett, Boyd Lewis, E.W.
“Bill” Larson, Celeste
McComas and George
Ganstrom.
I can remember we
traveled around the
state viewing community colleges. Although
Supt.
Of
Schools Harold Clark
and Arley Bryant
were the main movers
and shakers, I would
like to give special
recognition to Chuck
Moss, Hugh Emerich
and Leon Gennette
for their efforts.
Moss was one of
the best city managers Concordia has
ever had. He had a
keen mind, was ambitious and a person
who got things done.
Hugh was a dreamer and visionary. He
was the SWBell manager in Concordia and
once commissioned
an artist's rendition
of a two tiered 6th
Street to solve the
parking problem we
had on Main Street at
the time. I think the
only parking problem
we have now is over
the dinner hour in
front of the Mexican
restaurant.
Leon would become our chamber of
commerce manager
and was well known
across the state as
Mr. Concordia. No
one loved the community more than
Leon.
I left Concordia to
attend grad school in
the fall of 1964, so I
was not involved in
the heavy lifting efforts to establish the
college. However, I
am very proud of our
newspaper's support
for the project. Leading up to the vote on
the establishment of
the college as an extension to the high
school, there were
almost daily letters
to the editor printed
on the front page of
the Blade in support
of the project. Also,
there were at least
three front page editorials endorsing the
project and encouraging the patrons to
get out the vote on
establishing a junior
college.
Prophetically, the
vote on Jan. 26,
1965, which just
happens to be my
birthday, carried by a
huge margin of 2,445
to 181 or 14 to 1.
This was utterly
amazing because I
had come to believe
that there were at
least 500 people who
would vote against
the second coming if
it was scheduled for
May 2. The “no” votes
would be because
they wanted Him to
appear on May 1.
My thinking now is
that the “no” vote
has grown to at least
1,000.
When I returned to
Concordia in June of
1967, once again I
became a supporter
of the college. I have
filled in as the golf
coach for one year
and taught a journalism class for several years and have
served on the Foundation
board
for
three terms.
In the mid to late
1990s, when Charley
Hein was foundation
director, there was a
push to build a much
needed multi purpose facility. It included a gymnasium
with a running track
which could be used
for trade shows, an
area for the food service, a book store and
a wing which would
provide space for IT
classes.
I can remember
that Keith Christensen, who was on
the board of trustees at the time, and
I went around the
county to present our
case for the new facility to various focus
groups. Keith was the
voice of reason, while
I was the voice of the
future.
We attempted to get
government
grants
to fund the project,
but without much
success and we received a disappointing response from
our elected officials
in Washington.
Over these many
years, I have had my
differences with the
college administration, but never with
the institution.
I can remember my
opposition to the addition which was described as a “lean to”
by one former faculty
member. Matter of
fact we recently saw
the general contractor at his current day
job of managing the
Ihop restaurant in
Salina.
I can remember being confronted one
night after a board
meeting by the architect, who was only
licensed in Montana,
for asking him why
the laundry would be
placed in the far corner of the addition
and not nearer the
student housing.
The students apparently were of a
similar opinion and
moved a washer and
dryer into the front
lobby and placed
a sign on the top of
them stating, “If you
are on your way to
the laundry, you are
halfway there.”
You might remember that I had misgivings about the
expenses of a former
college
president,
who happened to
be our neighbor. He
eventually resigned
and moved on to another community college.
As I dug through
his expenses, it was
like I was Woodward
or Bernstein, coming
up with new revela-
tions each day after
I would submit open
records requests for
his credit card charges to the college.
I think the final
straw for me was
when I found out that
the college had paid
for boarding his dog.
I was roundly criticized by some board
members for my investigation
which
was termed a vendetta, particularly after
the grand jury decided not to indict.
Not true. I was simply doing my job as
a journalist and the
editor of the community newspaper.
I felt some measure
of vindication when
the Salina Journal
published an editorial entitled, “CCCC
board should accept
responsibility
for
wasted dollars.”
So, there have been
good times and bad.
As a result of our association with the
college we have made
some lasting friendships with staff and
faculty members, but
the greatest joy has
been the many students who have entered our lives.
We
sometimes
joke that they are
the children that we
never had together.
From Jeff Gerstner
to Dramane Diarra to
P. J. Stiles to Bobby
Carter to Phil Calvert
to Ryan Lane to Rudy
Meo to Pawel Stastiak
to Manourou Gakou
to Milena Ninkovic to
Monique Pitts to Jermaine Kermis to Eric
Marshall to Kendall
Russell to the four
young men from Senegal - and so many
others, we received
more than we have
given. Some of the
most beloved students were not ath-
letes and continue to
be a part of our lives.
When I was undergoing radiation treatments at the Mayo
Clinic in Rochester,
Rudy Meo took time
off from his job at a
Chicago bank to come
to Rochester to see
how we were doing.
Incidentally, Rudy is
heavily involved in a
youth basketball program in Chicago.
That same winter
Shawn Ellis, former
assistant basketball
coach, flew in from
Greeley, Colo. where
he was coaching at
the time to offer his
encouragement.
A special place in
our hearts goes to
Eric Marshall, a native of Detroit, who
is married and lives
in Lawrence with his
wife and new son. He
regularly emails pictures of his pride and
joy, Little EJ.
We even went on
one
Serbian
student's
honeymoon.
After Bebe Kostic's
wedding in Belgrade,
we traveled with the
newlyweds to Slovenia and then up
to Vienna. While we
were in Belgrade we
also had lunch with
Misha
Jezdanov's
parents.
Misha was also a
student when Milena
and Bebe were here
and
has
recently
opened a fitness center which stresses
the benefits of rowing
in physical fitnesses.
Last week he was featured on a Tampa TV
station.
Our
lives
have
been so much richer
because of the students we have known
and we thank Cloud
County Community
College for the many
blessings we have received.
College answer to prayer for Steimel’s education
By Sharon Coy
Blade Staff Writer
Lorene (Baxa) Steimel,
Concordia, has been a supporter of Cloud County Community College even before it
was established.
After graduation from
Agenda Rural High School in
1962, she was employed as
a bookkeeper at the Cloud
County Bank (what is now
the Citizens National Bank).
One of the men she was
working for, John Peck, now
deceased, was among the
active promoters establishing the college in Concordia.
When the election was
held to determine whether or not the county would
support the proposal, three
women in the community
were in need of transportation to the polls. Peck asked
Steimel if she would mind
giving them a ride and she
gladly obliged.
Since then, she became
a member of Cloud County
Community Junior College’s first graduating class,
furthered her education,
worked her way up to vice
president and comptroller at the bank, served as a
trustee on the college board
for two terms and spoke of it
proudly during its 20th anniversary celebration.
Steimel had always wanted to go to college and went
to work after high school
with the intention of saving enough money to do so.
When the college in Concordia became a reality, she
said it was like an answer to
a prayer.
Among Steimel’s recollections as a first year student
in 1965, was being directed
by a secretary to a van outside the high school to purchase her books. This was
after she had paid her $25
registration fee for the first
semester.
A van from the Kansas
State University book store
was filled with both new and
used books and here she
found what she needed for
her classes held in Concordia High School.
Steimel’s employer gave
her flex time that enabled
her to keep her job and
still attend school. She
took some classes on lunch
hours. Evidence of how hard
she worked can be seen in
the 1967 college commencement folder where she is listed as class salutatorian.
Among her first classes
were algebra with Brunell
Ukens, which was one of
her favorites, English Comp
1 with Gwen Fletcher, and
French with Thelma Workman.
“Classes were small so
the teachers got to know
you,” she recalls. “There was
more personal interaction.”
Fond memories include
going Christmas caroling
with the French Club and
singing in Everett Miller’s
first college choir which had
one of its performances televised in the high school auditorium.
Since Steimel never got to
attend classes in the building that is Cloud County
Community College today,
she made it a point in later
years to attend some evening
classes which she found enjoyable.
In Steimel’s address delivered 30 years ago, many
things said are still relevant
today. Among them, “It is
not the buildings that make
a school, it is the people who
care and give of themselves
to the students that is most
important. This philosophy—that the primary purpose of the institution—is to
meet the needs of the students—has continued over
the years.
CCCC supporter
(Above)Lorene Baxa Steimel, a first year student and longtime supporter of Cloud County
Community College, holds the college’s first yearbook. (Blade photo by Jessica LeDuc)
(Left) Lorene Baxa, member of the first graduating class of Cloud County Community Junior
College,receives her diploma from board of trustees president E.W. Larson. (Photo courtesy of
Lorene Baxa Steimel)
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