Most, if not all of you, are thinking what kind of heading is this? This phrase is the beginning of the prayer "Meménto, Dómine, famulórum famularúmque tuarum N. et N. et ómnium circumstántium, quorum tibi fides cógnita est et nota devótio, pro quibus tibi offérimus: vel qui tibi ófferunt hoc sacrifícium laudis, pro se suísque ómnibus: pro redemptióne animárum suárum, pro spe salútis et incolumitátis suæ: tibíque reddunt vota sua ætérno Deo, vivo et vero." that is prayed in the Catholic Mass. It can be translated as "Be mindful, O Lord, of Thy servants and handmaidens, N. and N. and of all here present, whose faith and devotion are known unto Thee, for whom we offer, or who offer up to Thee, this sacrifice of praise for themselves, their families and friends, for the redemption of their souls, for the health and salvation they hope for; and who now pay their vows to Thee, the everlasting, living and true God." The "N. and N." refer to the people to be remembered.
Within the last month, there have been half a dozen funerals of people that are closely connected to our class. On Feb. 9, 2024, we lost Sandra Wilber, sister-in-law of Cathy (Wilber) Madson; six days later, we lost our classmate Arlo Berkland; nine days later, we lost two noble men in Bernard Hietbrink, father of classmate Deanne (Hietbrink) Jacobs, and Bob Bartling, whose daughter Jane was a year behind us; five days later, on February 29, leap day, the wife of our teener baseball coach Bernie Van Essen, Sandy, passed away, and on March 5, Boyd Shank passed away. His two sons were about our age, the older one having graduated in 1966, while the younger one graduated in 1972.
Sandra (Rymerson) Wilber (https://www.eidsnessfuneralhome.com/obituary/sandra-wilber) graduated from BHS in 1957. In addition to marrying Art Wilber, BHS class of 1956, she was a classmate of Cathy's sister Mary, who later married "Chuck" Cecil. (Disclaimer: I also had a sister in that class). The annual lists Sandra's activities as: Chorus 1, 2; Cheerleader 1; GAA 1, 2, 3; HR Off 1, 2; Bobcat 4; Spanish Club 2, 3. The 1956-57 school year was the first year of the junior high program, with "Lefty" Johnson assuming the principal's position. He had previously been a science teacher (9th grade?). Some of the 13 Jr. Hi teachers listed were Etta Olson (history), Neva LaChance (Math and Art), Francis Dolan (PE and coach).
At the high school level, some of the teachers that we would later know were Mr. Serlet, Miss Mahlstrom, Mr. Kleinsasser, Mr. Karnes, Miss Helland, Mr. Stewart, Miss Briscoe, Mr. Hauschild, and Mr. Arne B. Larson. Mrs. Rodee is listed as director of plays for both the Junior Class ( "December Bride"--https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/December_Bride) and Senior Class (Dear Daffodil--could not find any internet entry for this play). Her picture, however, was not listed for either senior high school or junior high.
11 honor students were listed out of a class of 76, which is about 15 %. Today, it seems that half the class is composed of honor students.
When Tom Bozied and I were in college, Mr. Dolan asked us to supervise the elementary intramural athletic program. Todd Wilber, son of Art and Sandy, was a fifth-grader one year, and was on the championship basketball team. That team is pictured below:
Lyle Steenson's brother was a year younger than we were. Their father was a respected mechanic at Kjellsen's Chevrolet and Cadillac. Kenny Olson's parents had the Pheasant Cafe. The Pheasant was recently awarded a prestigious award from the James Beard Foundation (https://brookingsregister.com/stories/nation-about-to-learn-pheasants-secrets,73825?). Jim Woslager's father had the gas station by the old Spies store on 6th St. Anyone remember the name? Bob Grimsley's father was a custodian in the school district. Was Bruce Palmer's father a chemistry professor at SDSU (Ivan Palmer)? Jon Colburn is Lee's youngest brother. Joey Getzug is the son of Bert, the voice of KBRK when we were growing up. Bill Kenefick's father was our legion baseball coach in 1968. Bill was a fine swimmer in high school. Sadly, he lost his life in a car crash when the swim team was returning home from a meet in McLaughlin, South Dakota, while Bill was still in high school (late 1970's?) Jon Colburn, too, lost his life in a car crash near Sinai just about a year ago (https://www.rudesfuneralhome.com/obituary/jon-colburn). Our classmate Arlo Berkland (https://www.rudesfuneralhome.com/obituary/arlo-berkland) was a well-known and respected farmer. He farmed south of Volga. In our younger days, our running group often ran by his farm, but I never realized that he was farming that parcel of land.
Arlo's influence and respect was county-wide. His visitation was one of the largest I have ever seen. The parking lot was overflowing, and cars had to park a few blocks away. Arlo's twin sister Arlys told me that after Arlo's accident many years ago, doctors told them he likely would not walk again. However, Arlo's strength and determination proved them wrong. He recovered and resumed his love for the land.
Interestingly, just a few days before Arlo passed, Cody Rufer, Brad's brother, stopped by to catch up on old times. He lives at Lake Campbell. One of his neighbors is Arlo's sister Mary Ann. She had told Cody that Arlo was in the hospital in Sioux Falls with pneumonia. She thought he was making progress, but unfortunately, his condition worsened, resulting in Arlo's untimely death.
On Feb. 24, we lost two significant figures of the community. Bernard Hietbrink (https://brookingsregister.com/stories/bernard-edward-hietbrink,73111?) was the father of Deanne of our class. He was a renowned professor in the pharmacy department at SDSU. His obituary attests to the well-rounded life that he lived. I was fortunate to have a couple of his children as students during my tenure in the Brookings school system. Also going to his eternal reward that day was Bob Bartling (https://www.eidsnessfuneralhome.com/obituary/robert-bob-bartling). Most of us probably associate him with Bartling's Furniture Store. However, in the mid 1960's, the exercise bug re-infected him and also his brother Lorne. In high school, both were outstanding athletes. Bob's performances in track and field would still be competitive today. He set the then-school record in the long jump (called broad jump at the time), and was also a fine long sprinter. The 1944 annual lists his activities as HR off 1; Jr. Prom Committee; "B" FB 1,3; "A" FB 4; "B" BB 1,2; "A" BB 3,4; Monogram club; Lord of Bobcat Day; Track and Field 1, 2, 3, (4); Rotarian 4; BB captain. The annual attributed this honor to Bob: "His sportsmanship and ready smile; Definitely give him style." Anyone who knew Bob never failed to mention that he seemed to have a perpetual smile on his face (where else would one have a smile?) Notice the smiles in the images below.
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Bob was best known around the area, though, as a lover of track and field. Mentioned above is the running group that ran by Arlo Berkland's farm. Bob was a key member of that group. He was one of the founders of the local running club, Prarie Striders, and helped organize numerous road races in the area. He kept copious records of athletes, not only in track and field and road racing, but also in collegiate wrestling. He accumulated so many records and performances of athletes, as well as books on track and field, running, road racing, and wrestling, that the Briggs Library at SDSU has a section devoted specifically to those topics.
When Bob started jogging, he opened a shoe store in the basement of the furniture store. This would be the first Nike dealership in the state. His prices were much lower than anyone else's, and many schools and universities supplied their teams with shoes from that store.
My initiation into the local running community started right after college graduation. A few of us would meet at 6:30 am for our daily weekday jog (the above named Cody Rufer came as often as his schedule permitted) , while on Sunday, even more would gather at 7:00 am for our longer Sunday run. Suffice it to say that there were some interesting conversations during those forays into the countryside.
Bob's influence on the Brookings community was immense. Before he became so involved in running, he was and remained a supporter of athletics for all ages, from the youngsters up to the collegians. He was active in the promotion of amateur baseball, from the little leagues to the adults, and a contributor to the local high school and college athletic programs. He also served on the Hall of Fame committee for BHS since its inception about 20 years ago.
Having known Bob for many years, and having run many miles with him, it would be easy to write much more about what a truly wonderful man he was. Accolades abounded at his visitation and his funeral. Perhaps a couple of newspaper articles can summarize his humility and humanity. https://brookingsregister.com/stories/brookings-register-02272024,72422
This clipping was written by Mr. Walder, our junior English teacher, who was a close friend of Bob. https://brookingsregister.com/stories/remembering-the-running-mischief-master,73347
On leap day this year, we lost Sandy Van Essen (https://www.rudesfuneralhome.com/obituary/sandy-van-essen). That name may probably mean little to most of us, but she was the wife of one of our teener baseball coaches, Bernie Van Essen (Nancy Webbenhurst's brother Bob was the other coach). About 11 years ago, Bernie passed away, and we recognized him with this post:
Passing away recently was Bernie Van Essen (http://rudesfuneralhome.com/sitemaker/sites/RudesF1/obit.cgi?user=970705VanEssen). For most of you, that name probably means very little, but for some of us boys, he was a big part our summers in 1965 and 66. He and Bob Webbenhurst, Nancy's oldest brother, were our teener baseball coaches those years. In 1965, we qualified for the national teener tournament by winning our section tourney in Brookings, (Brookings, Watertown, Sisseton, and Milbank), the state tourney in Madison, and the region tournament at Igloo in the southeast corner of the state. I think it was called Igloo because it was a munitions depot, and the munitions were stored in buildings that looked like igloos (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Hills_Ordnance_Depot). We stayed in some old barracks that were there. Only two other teams were in the tournament: Miller, South Dakota and, I believe,a team from Crawford, Nebraska (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crawford,_Nebraska and http://crawfordnebraska.net/). Fortunately, we prevailed, and were on our way to Hershey, PA, for the national tournament. It was a great time. The bus ride was long, but memorable. We had picked up Judd Bergan, a pitcher from Watertown. He brought along his guitar, playing I'm Henry VIII, I Am by Herman's Hermits regularly. Bob Webbenhurst liked the Kingston Trio, so MTA (he will ride forever through the streets of Boston, he's a man who'll never return) was also played with some frequency. When we stopped to eat, the jukeboxes were quite busy, playing (if memory serves correctly) I Got You Babe (Sonny and Cher); Baby, The Rain Must Fall (Glenn Yarborough): What's New Pussycat? (Tom Jones); Satisfaction (Rolling Stones); Catch Us If You Can (Dave Clark Five); Eve of Destruction (Barry McGuire); Down in the Boondocks (Billy Joe Royal--this song may have been Walter Osterberg's favorite). We stayed at the Hershey Ballroom, right across from the amusement park. For me, that was the first time I had been more than a couple of hours away from home, so it was a thrill. We also visited the world-famous Hershey Chocolate Factory, and saw how they made some of their products. The Philadelphia Eagles conducted their pre-season football training camp at Hershey, so Bob Webbbenhurst, who played football at SDSU, arranged for Pete Retzlaff (http://bleacherreport.com/articles/846090-crazy-canton-cuts-pete-retzlaff) to visit with us at one of our practices. Pete had played at SDSC (as it was then known) over a decade earlier. He also gave us an autographed picture, which I can no longer find. In the picture above, we are receiving our trophy after the championship game in Igloo. Judd Bergan is the recipient, while in the back are Bob Webbenhurst, Tom Bozied, Phil Trautman, Lloyd Beneke, Doug deBoise, John Iverson, and Bernie Van Essen. In the front are Walt Osterberg, Tim DeWitt, Tom Osterberg, Chip Kabrud, Barry Buehler, Don Tordoff, Jim Arndt, and Randy Hofer. Also going along to Hershey were some of the fathers (Bozied, Kabrud, Buehler, DeWitt? others?) to help as chaperones. At the wake was a scrapbook with a number of pictures and news stories about that team that Bernie and his wife had put together. Looking at that brought back many fond memories.
March 5, 2024 saw the passing of Boyd Shank. What is most remarkable about him is that he was born in 1914, making him almost 110 years old (https://www.eidsnessfuneralhome.com/obituary/d-boyd-shank). In our senior annual, there is picture of his son Tim diving into the pool.
Notice additionally that our class had the intramural basketball champions.
Our condolences go out to the families that have been saddened by the loss of these wonderful people.
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