The Wife of Don Mohlenhoff Passes Away

Many of us may remember Mr. Don Mohlenhoff, as he was the classroom instructor for driver's ed when we were sophomores in our last year at the old school.  He was also head varsity basketball coach from 1963-1967.  Russell Anderson, Teresa Steen's husband, was one of his players.  Some of us had older brothers who played for him:  Mike O'Connell, Bob Bozied, Zoell Colburn, Jim Iverson are some who come to mind.  Jim Kortan and Tom Osterberg from our class were on his last team our sophomore year.  The best player during his tenure was undoubtedly Eric Bundgaard.  He was one of those rare players who started as a freshman, and as a sophomore was an all-state player.  Unfortunately, he moved after that year (his father Axel was athletic director at SDSU, and took a similar position at St. Olaf College in Northfield, MN.  An interesting article on Dr. Bundgaard can be found at http://www.startribune.com/obituaries/120156569.html?refer=y)  If you are interested, you can do a web search and find some other good stories about him.

When we started at the new high school in the fall of 1968, Mr. Mohlenhoff became a health/PE teacher  and coach at the middle school, the former high school.  My first year of teaching at the middle school was 1973-4.  Mr. Mohlenhoff was the head 7th grade basketball coach, and I was his assistant.  One of his sons, Joel, was in that class.  Lee Colburn's younger brother Jon was also in that class. 

Mr. Mohlenhoff passed away about 10 years ago (http://www.millerfh.com/index.php?option=com_obituary&task=details&oid=2946.  Another intriguing site is http://www.fanbase.com/Don-Mohlenhoff  He played basketball at then South Dakota State College in the late 1940's, and was selected for the all-NCC team in 1947, 48, and 49--scrool down about a thir of the way on this website--http://northcentral.prestosports.com/Record_Book/mbb.pdf.  (You can also find Lee's name there for 1971, 72, and 73, and Jim Fergen, who started Fergen's Men's Wear in Brookings, who earned honors in 1938 and 1940.)    Among his teammates were Duane Colburn, Lee's father, Herb Bartling (of the Bartling family that owned Bartling's Furniture downtown), and Harry Forsyth, whose father owned the Dairy Queen (before Beth Billings' father did), and who himself later became athletic director at SDSU.  Mr. Mohlenhoff's wife Betty passed away on Oct. 20, 2012.  Her obituary can be found at http://www.argusleader.com/viewart/20121024/OBITUARIES/210240302/Betty-Mohlenhoff?odyssey=tab%7Cmostpopular%7Ctext%7CLIFE and at http://www.brookingsregister.com/v2_news_articles.php?heading=0&story_id=15939&page=80

Does anybody remember those films we saw in Mr. Mohlenhoff's drivers ed class?  One vivid memory, not from the films, but from the class was that he had a machine that could test our reaction time.  It had a gas pedal and a brake.  When a red light came on, we had to hit the brake.  There was a timer in there somewhere, and it would display the reaction time. One of the boys who had an exceptionally fast reaction time was Stewart Walz.  In gym class, he wasn't exactly one of the speediest ones on the playing field, but he was quicker than most of us when it came time to hit the brakes. 

Also passing away recently was Grace Sanderson, mother of Reed, Mark, Kwen, Laun, Jan, Terry, Dell, and Joy.  Some of us had older siblings that were in their class.  Laun was a year ahead of us, and Jan a year behind us, so we knew them better than the others.  He obituary can be found at http://www.brookingsregister.com/v2_news_articles.php?heading=0&story_id=15905&page=80