Lindeken gift to be Chadron State's largest

Connie Rasmussen, executive director of the Chadron State Foundation, said the total gift of nearly $1 million will be the largest it has ever received. She said the Lindekens specified that the funds be used for scholarships for students with majors or minors in the fine arts and humanities. It is planned that the initial scholarships will be awarded in the fall of 2007.

Chadron State President Janie Park said the gift will be a great benefit to the college.

“The scholarships will help attract and retain students who are interested in studying subjects such as art, music and theatre and the humanities,” said Park. “The Lindekens’ gift will forever enrich Chadron State College and its students in the fine arts and humanities.

“I regret that I never had the chance to meet the Lindekens,” Park noted. “But recently I have learned a great deal about them and their generosity. We will do our best to make sure students who receive the Lindeken Scholarships also learn about their exemplary lives and their service to the college and community.”

Bill Lindeken was born near O’Neill, the third of six children. He was 5 years old when the family came to Dawes County in a railroad emigrant car and settled eight miles northeast of Chadron, where he farmed and ranched the remainder of his life.

The family lost the title to the property during the drought and depression of the 1930s, but continued to live there and work for the bank that had taken possession. In the mid-1940s, about the time Bill married a neighbor girl, Frances Pinkerton, he bought back the ranch and then expanded it several times in the ensuing years.

Mrs. Lindeken died June 2, 1997 and Bill died Dec. 30, 2000 at age 86. They had no children.

The land is being purchased by Betty Balfany and her daughter and son-in-law, Dawn and Bert Bilby, who have managed the property the past five years.

Betty and her late husband, Don Balfany, began working for the Lindekens in 1961. The couples formed a partnership in 1978. Don died suddenly Dec. 5, 2000, less than a month before Bill Lindeken’s death.

Following several bumper crops in the 1950s, Lindeken was among the first Nebraska farmers to seek to export wheat, and helped organize Great Plains Wheat, Inc., which was the forerunner to U.S. Wheat Associates that still promotes wheat sales abroad.

Lindeken was appointed by Nebraska governors to two terms on both the Nebraska Wheat Commission and the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission.

The indoor swimming pool at Fort Robinson State Park that opened in 1979 is named in honor of the Lindekens. The couple contributed funds to construct tennis courts and sand volleyball courts at Chadron State Park in the mid-1990s.

In the early 1990s, the Lindekens gave $90,000 to build the carillon clock tower at Chadron State College.

Lindeken also contributed to the construction of the Mari Sandoz High Plains Heritage Center at Chadron State. He was presented the college’s Distinguished Service Award in 1990 and received the Chadron Area Chamber of Commerce’s highest honor, the Magic Key Award, in 1998.

Another beneficiary of the Lindekens’ success and generosity has been the Catholic Church. The Grand Island Diocese is receiving a gift identical to the contribution being made to the Chadron State Foundation while St. Patrick’s Catholic Church in Chadron is receiving a smaller gift.

Other assets in the estate are being distributed by the Lindekens’ attorney and trustee, Bevin Bump, for public, religious, charitable, scientific, literary and educational purposes.

Bill Lindekens’ brothers, Jack, 96, and Carl, 94, live in Chadron. A sister, Helen Gorr of Chadron, died earlier this month. Another of the girls, Byrdie Brecht, died in California in 2002. The youngest member of the family, Dorothy Nixon, lives on a ranch near Philip, S.D.

Frances Lindeken’s sister, Marge Stoner, and her husband Dale live near Chadron.