Bismarck State College VOLUME 17 NUMBER 2 AUGUST 2013 4 THE BJC/BSC STORY 4-6 1939-1950 BSC Connections 7-9 1951-1960 is published quarterly at Bismarck State College, Bismarck, North Dakota. 10 Building BSC 11-12 1961-1970 Vice President for College Advancement and Executive Director, BSC Foundation 13-14 1971-1980 Gordon Binek 71 BSC Foundation Staff 15 Celebrating 75 years Amy Brown Gina Hruby Buchholtz 16-17 1981-1990 Christina Burns Janet Dixon Timeline 1939-2014 Julie Erickson 20-21 Deb Kraft Rita Nodland 19-23 1991-2000 BSC Foundation (800) 272-2586 or 24-26 2001-2013 (701) 224-5700 16 BSC Connections Staff 27-29 BSC Mystics Marnie Piehl, editor Crystal Forster, designer 30-31 Tradition of theatre Vicki Voskuil, writer Michelle Kraft, cover design Dusty Anderson, photography BSC Foundation President Brian Kroshus BSC National Alumni Association President 20 Angie Milakovic Send alumni notes to: Marnie Piehl BSC, PO Box 5587 Bismarck, ND 58506 [email protected] To subscribe or change your address: Rita Nodland 27 Alumni Coordinator BSC, PO Box 5587 Bismarck, ND 58506 ALUMNI/FOUNDATION/CAMPUS NEWS [email protected] 1-800-BSC-ALUM 33 Retirements bismarckstate.edu 34-36 BSC Foundation 37-38 Student recognition 30 39 Donors/In memoriam 40 Alumni Awards 41 Class Connections bismarckstate.edu/connections THE BJC/BSC STORY 4-6 1939-1950 7-9 1951-1960 10 Building BSC 11-12 1961-1970 13-14 1971-1980 On the corner of ... If we learned anything researching and writing this 15 Celebrating 75 years special issue of Connections, it’s that change is constant and necessary. In these (changed) pages you will read about BSC, 16-17 1981-1990 the college on the corner of Schafer Street and College Drive. You’ll read of our milestones and hear the voices of our leaders, Timeline 1939-2014 students and legends. This issue celebrates the present and future, 20-21 but it is the people of our past who set us up for the wonderful here and now – the first graduates of BJC in particular. For our 19-23 1991-2000 50th anniversary in 1988, the college brought back the class of 1941, and their sentiments are our sentiments. 24-26 2001-2013 We’ll let longtime Connections editor Jordis Conrad’s remembrance of our first alumni set the stage: 27-29 BSC Mystics “For the 50th anniversary we brought the first class 30-31 Tradition of theatre back … They were just an exceptional group of people. Every last one of them was so appreciative of what BJC did back at that time and what it had done for them in their life. Many said ‘I could not have gone to college if it hadn’t been for BJC.’ They were ever so grateful for leaders in the community and the state for what they did to get the college started.” And we are grateful for them. This issue is dedicated to the class of 1941. ESSAYS ALUMNI/FOUNDATION/CAMPUS NEWS 2-3 Then and now by J. Michael McCormack 18 Here and now by Phillip Weisser 33 Retirements 32-33 Reporting from the future by Dr. Larry C. Skogen 34-36 BSC Foundation 37-38 Student recognition 39 Donors/In memoriam 40 Alumni Awards 41 Class Connections bismarckstate.edu/connections CelebratING 75 YEARS - 3 Then and now “Most of us freshman were struck by the accessibility, teaching skills, and downright friendliness of our teachers.” I had always had an innate love of history, but the Colonel, as we all called him, channeled it into an academic mode. Though his lectures were less than charismatic, and his tests less than challenging, his after class office lectures beguiled us with his experiences in both peacetime and military combat not found in the textbooks. About this time, thanks to the continuing generosity of “Mr. Bubble” and philanthropist extraordinaire Harold Schafer, our little campus J. Michael McCormack community exploded from its cramped quarters on Boulevard to the new “cathedral of two-year entered the hallowed halls of old BJC in 1960 because the dear nuns learning” overlooking the Missouri. at St. Mary’s had seen me as a potential priest and first Irish Pope. As I remember the grand opening of Schafer I such, I was shoved towards St. John’s in Collegeville, Minnesota, for Hall and the throngs of proud Bismarckers which I, though academically prepared, was financially unprepared. My touring their new BJC campus. We told them plan B was to sully the halls of a state university. The lateness of my UND that the building would fulfill our needs for at paperwork made BJC a last moment choice, and one of the best decisions least 20-25 years. Little did we know! We were in my life. blessed with new science and language labs, Bismarck Junior College was founded by the far-sighted citizens of modern classrooms and a massive “Guthrie Jr.” Bismarck as a community college in 1939. And, as a student body, we auditorium and full stage. Our more intimate were a community, academically and socially. Our big dances and socials dances could now be held in the bronze fire- were held at the Bismarck Municipal Country Club, where the house band placed student lounge, and what passed for consisted of English teacher Cal Heine on piano and sociologist Ray Heid athletics at that time had their own small locker on bass. Many of the BSC faculty moonlighted at a variety of jobs from room on the first floor. Life was good. dance bands to farming. The student community was mostly from local But, all good things must pass, and my tenure or neighboring county high schools, with a sprinkling of back-to-school at BJC was ending. A concert on campus by vets, older than average adults, a small minority of Native Americans, and the famous UND Varsity band impressed me, unclassified masses. and I became even more impressed when Most of us freshman were struck by the accessibility, teaching skills, and they adopted me to sing with them as they downright friendliness of our teachers. My fondest memories as a student, took over the piano bar of Jerry’s Supper Club and later as a colleague, were of “Lady Jane” Grey Smith. Having trod one fine spring evening. UND, where I could the actor’s boards at St. Mary’s, I soon became acting cannon fodder become both singer and historian, was my and indentured servant for this charismatic, demanding, charming and choice, and the die was cast. perfectionist 5’2” dynamo. I’ve never regretted a moment spent with her A few years later, while working my usual and miss her to this day. summer job in the paint department of the While Lady Jane mentored my thespian life, what was to become my old Montgomery Ward store in downtown professional life at BSC was mentored by the gentlemanly old soldier and Bismarck, Dean Ralph Werner recognized me scholar Colonel (later Ph.D.) Wesley Wilson, graduate of West Point and as a recent history major alum, and asked WWII and Korean War veteran. how things were going at UND. I told him I CelebratING 75 YEARS - 4 was completing my graduate program in our salary conflicts. In some cases In the last few years I’ve thought a lot in history and teaching part time at a tempers flared, but diplomacy usually about why I have stayed the course parochial high school. He responded, won out. here; as well as how and why the old kiddingly I thought, “good for you, Among my best friends were the “vocies” community college culture that drew maybe you can replace the Colonel when who taught the blossoming technical me in and nurtured me, as both student he retires.” education at BJC. I was always in awe and professor, will survive in the brave The next time we spoke, Dean Ralph of the discipline and skills they loving new world of constant technological and Werner told me that my dear mentor had imparted to the students so important global educational challenges. died suddenly and asked me to replace to our community workforce. My favorite Will the old-timer faculty that celebrated him. Once again, the good Colonel had testament to the vocational students’ births and marriages, socialized as influenced my life, by leaving his. So I skills applied to the arts came when I friends as much as colleagues, helped out broke my high school contract, loaded found myself short of multi-skilled stage and intervened in times of personal or up my STP-burning Chevy with a new hands for Lady Jane’s musical “Gigi.” family crisis, and buried their colleagues wife, rocking chair, and 12-inch GE black I contacted my Ag department friends with love and the dignity accorded and white TV, and once again entered who lent me students skilled in basic an educator, be able to adapt to the the hallowed halls of BJC, this time as a construction and allied fields. I ended up academic and technological realities of freshman instructor of History. with a magnificent set, and they ended the present and future? Will we continue My first day of class, wearing my well- up appreciating the music, dancing and to find presidents of integrity, vision, and worn UND fraternity blazer, with six acting skills of the actors, especially respect for our diverse student body? quickly written class preps in hand, I the ladies! They later staged their own Can such diverse faculty, administration met my new boss, Dean Werner, in his version of the musical, called “Gigli.” It and staff adapt to the challenges of the unimposing office, where he introduced was one of the college’s finest melding of future? me to my new colleagues.