CSC honoring former chemistry prof with new plaza, scholarship

In addition to elaborate landscaping and decorative paving, the renovated space will feature a 25-foot flag pole and a concrete bench. Both of the latter items will bear plaques that recognize Struempler’s teaching and military achievements.

The area is beingconfigured to serve as an outdoor classroom. Plantings in the area include varieties that have become acclimated to the region and require minimal watering, such as coralberry, prairie hawthorne and staghorn sumac. A retaining wall will serve as student seating for classes, and more benches may be added later.

“The plaza area is one of the most beautiful views of campus and will provide a great area for professors who want to get their classes outside on a nice day,” said Lucinda Mays, who is in charge of the landscaping.

The Chadron State Foundation also has secured donations to establish a scholarship for a science student in the Struempler family’s name, as well as an endowment to maintain the plaza.

Struempler, who died Aug. 13, 2004, at age 83, was a native of Buffalo, Neb., once a small village north of Lexington in Dawson County. He flew 26 missions as a B-17 pilot during WWII. After earning a doctorate from Iowa State University, he completed two years of post-doctoral studies at the University of California Davis and taught three years at California State at Chico.

He also was an operations research analyst for the Strategic Air Command at Omaha for three years before coming to Chadron State as chairman of the Division of Science and Mathematics in 1965. He had that position more than 15 years before teaching chemistry full-time his final 11 years at CSC. He retired in 1991.

One of the speakers at the ceremony will be Mark Brohman, executive director of the Nebraska Environmental Trust, who studied under Struempler and was instrumental in raising funds for the project. Although Brohman came to CSC to study biology, the alumnus said he learned so much about chemistry from Struempler that he decided to make the subject a second major.

Before graduating from CSC with both degrees in 1985, Brohman was given the task of instructing freshman chemistry labs, an experience the administrator says helped him become accepted to graduate school and placed him on a successful career path.

“Dr. Struempler was more than just a teacher, he was a great mentor,” Brohman said. “He got involved in students’ lives and really got to know them out of the classroom. I was very fortunate to become acquainted with the Dr. Struempler and his wife, Jo. They were valuable members in the Chadron community.”

Much of the money for the plaza and scholarship was given by Struempler’s family. For additional fund-raising, Brohman teamed up with Connie Rasmussen, director of the Chadron State Foundation, and three other alums to contact former students for donations. The other alums are Steve Johnson of Fairfield, Dr. Jerry Messman of Fort Collins, Colo., and Tom Willnerd of Rock Springs, Wyo.

Brohman said he still keeps in contact with the former professor’s wife who lives in Fort Collins.

Other surviving members of the Struempler family are son Michael of Fort Collins, daughter Barbara and granddaughter Lauren of Auburn, Ala., brother Harold Struempler and wife Dee and sister Martha Berg of Denver.

 

Pronunciations: Struempler -- Strumpler; Brohman -- Bro-man