If you’re interested in attending future events for Wasecans living in the metro area (or if you’re willing to travel to the metro area for an event), please email us to be added to the list to be contacted.

Saturday we again met at the Boat House for lunch. Early in the afternoon classmate Sharon Connolley Batt mustered a crew to create floral bouquets for the tables from flowers she donated. Later in the afternoon, Supt. Rottke led our classmates on a tour through Central School where he gave us souvenir pieces of the stair railing. Following the tour, we met up with Mrs. Elaine Fox (nee Biese), our kindergarten teacher, and had our photo taken on the steps of the main entrance. The photo replicated our 1947 kindergarten graduation photo.

Saturday evening we had our reunion dinner at the Miller Armstrong banquet room on 3rd floor. (I’d highly recommend the facility for smallish reunions and other events.) Forty-three classmates of our 66 living classmates attended, plus many spouses and companions. Mr. and Mrs. Jim and Elaine Fox were honored guests. Dick Sommerstad, class vice president, was master of ceremonies and speakers included Bruce Dowlin, class president; Larry Olson, class speaker; Knut Gerlach, our German foreign exchange student and the first AFS student at Waseca High School. Mrs. Fox spoke and distributed our Kindergarten Graduation Program to kindergarten graduates.

Sunday morning we met for brunch at the Starfire Grill before parting company. It was great to see all my classmates.

Mary Hinderlie Ager – May 14, 1941 – April 23, 2008

Mary Hinderlie Ager of Palo Alto, California, died peacefully in her home on April 23, 2008. She was 66 years old.

Born in Tyler, Minnesota in 1941, she grew up in Waseca, Minnesota; Midway, Washington; and West Seattle, Washington. In 1963 she graduated Cum Laude from St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota. She earned a Master of Arts in Teaching at Brown University in 1964, and was awarded a PhD in English in 1973 from the University of Pittsburgh. She married Tryg Ager of Eau Claire, Wisconsin in1964. They lived in Pittsburgh until 1967, then in Binghamton, New York until they moved to Palo Alto in 1978.

Her life reflected a pursuit of excellence through friendships. She is remembered by friends from high school in Washington, where she produced musicals and plays, and by classmates from college, where she sang with the St. Olaf College Choir for four years. This provided a foundation for a lifelong commitment to excellence in choral music, including several years with the Binghamton Symphony Chorus in New York, and more than 20 years with the Peninsula Women’s Chorus in Palo Alto. In recent years she, with about a dozen friends, formed the JewelTones ensemble to perform barbershop and popular music for numerous audiences in the Palo Alto area.

She believed that her musical groups were best thought of as communities of friends, and that bonds of friendship and a sense of community could raise the delight, the joy, and the spiritual quality of music for both performers and audiences. She articulated this belief in her co-editorship with Frank Farris of a volume, Take up the Song, that commemorated Patricia Farris Hennings, who conducted the Peninsula Women’s Chorus for many years.

As her children grew up, she shared in the founding of two nursery schools in Binghamton: one for disadvantaged children in 1967, and another, Growing Grounds, in 1972. In Palo Alto she was active in Parents Nursery School for many years. In each case she believed bonds of friendship brought parents and providers together to create excellence in care and a richer opportunity for the children..

Professionally she was a technical editor for Computer Curriculum Corporation and Aspect Communications, where colleagues fondly remember her good humor, her editing skills, and her ability to form friendships that were conducive to excellence into the workplace. Her writing and editing extended beyond work to development and publication of personal memoirs of several Holocaust survivors and veterans of World War II. She participated in the production of books, films, presentations, and performances related to the Song of Survival project – the story of how women imprisoned during World War II in Sumatra survived physically and spiritually through bonds of friendship and a remarkable body of music where these imprisoned women arranged, practiced, and performed classical pieces as a “vocal orchestra.”

Her positive outlook and friendships helped her to survive three different primary cancers over the past 20 years, until a fourth episode finally proved to be overwhelming.

She is survived by her husband of 44 years, Tryg; her son Andrew, his wife Laura, and their son Isaac; her daughter Emily; her brothers John and Mark; her sisters Lois and Anne; her nieces and nephews: Sasha, Paul, Charles, Keith, Kara, Keri, Peter, Eric, Trina and Martin and their children; her extended family; and a vast and diverse community of friends.

A family service and visitation were held on April 27th.

Memorials may be made to the Barbara and Richard Tobias Fund at the University of Pittsburgh, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Parents Nursery School in Palo Alto, or the Peninsula Women’s Chorus.

We had invited him to attend our WHS 1959 50 year class reunion later this summer. He will be missed.

Here’s a link to his obituary: http://www.asimas.com/ASIMAS/kohlmcraith/obituaryDescription.jsp?domain_id=322&deceased_id=197666

I read in a recent issue of the Waseca County News (12/16/08) that John Bendix, legendary Waseca High School teacher, is teaching a class this year as a volunteer. He taught 43 years fulltime, 7 years parttime, and now he’s teaching for no pay because he realized the school wouldn’t let him continue to teach on a parttime basis because of budget problems.

Bendix was presented with the Book of Golden Deeds Award by the Exchange Club for his teaching dedication and generous service to the community.

Way back in the 60s Bendix touched my family when he stepped way out of his teacher box and asked my father if we could help out a family friend who needed help. My father agreed. In case you don’t know it, John Bendix really is a very special person. The Waseca schools and the Waseca Community are lucky to have him.

1950
Wilda Krampitz Stolberg

1951
NA

1952
Eddie Bergland
Maxilee Moon Nydegger

1953
Raymond Bartz

1954
Hugh Miller
Shirley Mittelstaedt
Barbara Ferry Park
Gladys Kelm Rice

1955
Marlys Weyhrauch Kauffman

1956
Donald Klinger

1957
Pat Lindsay Johnson

1958
Sharon Calcut Bethke
Donwin Molle

1959
NA

1960
Richard Carlson
Jerry Freseman
Carol Harding Jenson
Judy Meyer Power
Lorna Gerdts Rowdon

1961
Roger Brown

1962
Bonnie Clayton Carson
Judy Caswell Pahl

1963
Michael Sheeran
C Michael Olson
Kathleen Ostendorf Schultz
Betty Wick Spooner
Terrance Wilkowski

1964
David Marsh
Frey Reinecke Tripp
John VonRuden

1965
David Briggeman
James Deno
Michael Erickson
Jaime Mac-Veigh – exchange student from Spain
Mary Freundl Pettik

1966
Michael Edwards
Diane Vogt Erickson
Ardith Graham
Judy Parker
Dominique Richard – exchange student from France
Ronald Spies
Bob Summer
Linda Weiland Wilson

1967
Gunnar Anderson

1968
Barbara Karolevitz Olson
Laviere O’Riley

1969
Deborah Schmitz Blowers
David Brown
Lorna Christenson
Edgar Eaton
Jane Hager Weiske
Pam Jewison
Karen Peterson Klinger
Paul Miller
Cheryl Wobschall Neid
David Nichtern
Raymond Peterson
Carmen Blowers Roemhildt
Sheila Ruedy
Stuart Sanbeck
Craig Schroeder
Jackie Selvik Senne
Shirley Singlestad Wagner
Jeanette Weber
Vickie Bjork Yungerberg

1970
Timothy Anderson
Randy Buker
Dan Elias
Judy Klinger Howard
Donald Mackie
Jim Madigan
Gary Mueller
Vararak Addy Ruenguisesh
Randy Scarbrough – Exchange student
Rebecca Schmiedeberg
Joanne Volkmann
Elizabeth Zorraquin – Exchange student

1971
Kathy Tobin Anderson
Dan Dardis
Luann Reinhartz Meyer
Michael Powell
Minh Quang Le – Exchange student

1972
Brent Amundson
Betty Behsmann
Hans Buege – Exchange student
Diane Coffin
Debra Berg Cook
James Deichen
Sherri Rupp Guy
Mark Harris
Shari Heuberger
Paula (or Pamela) Hunt
Lydia Jebe
Marcella Klamke
Michael Miller
Lynn Mueller
William Musel
Laurie Naseth
Michael Nelson
Terri Pinto – Exchange student
Susan Reinhardt
Charmaine Sandness
Eddie Strobel
Steve Smith
Dean Swenson
Tom Tews
Jim Trubenbach
Dan West
Steven Wolff

1973
LeeAnn Krough Aldrich
Kika Aros – Exchange student
Janet Benjamin
Renee Coy
Brian Draeger
Pam Edwards
Lane Gilbert
Kathy Henry
Pam Johansen
Myra Goettl Janbloedt
Jane Mittelsteadt
Michael Root
Linda K Schmahl
Linda Simacek
Sachiko Takahashi – Exchange student
Kathy Thompson
Cindy Turley Swenson
Kathy Weaver

1974

Juan Ramon Bilbao – Exchange student
Susan Dahl Buker
Nancy Lande Cassellius
Joe Gleason
Debbie Jenson
David Kanne
Anna Katz
Leena Laine – Exchange student
Jean Buker Lindquist
Steven Miller
Becky Polinski
Gail Grothe Soderquist
James Spaulding
Alan Steinke

If you were a foreign exchange student in a Waseca school, contact me to make sure we have your correct contact information. And, if you were a host family or friend of a foreign exchange student and you have contact information for a foreign exchange student, contact me to make sure we have current contact information for the student in our lists.

Here’s a list of the missing exchange students I’m aware of:

1965 – Jaime Mac-Veigh (Spain)
1966 – Dominique Richard (France)
1970 – Randy Scarbrough, Elizabeth Zorraquin
1971 – Minh Quang Le
1972 – Hans Buege, Terri Pinto
1973 – Kika Aros, Sachiko Takahashi
1974 – Juan Ramon Bilbao, Leena Laine