Struempler remembered during dedication

About 100 people gathered at the CSC Math and Science Building for a ceremony to recognize the new “Art Struempler Flag Plaza” and the “Art and Jo Struempler and Children Endowment.”

The plaza, which was constructed this summer in the area just north of the Math and Science Building, features a 25-foot flag pole, elaborate landscaping, decorative concrete paving and a concrete bench. Its design is conducive to outdoor instruction, and plaques have been placed on the bench and flag pole to recognize the former professor’s achievements in education and the military.

Dr. Janie Park, CSC president, expressed gratitude to the Struempler family and others for donating to the plaza and the endowment.

“This place is going to be well-used by students, faculty and staff who are looking for a place to spend a little quiet time, and we are so thankful that we can remember one of the faculty members who spent many, many years on this campus touching lives,” Park said. “We thank the Struempler family so much for doing this for us.”

Mrs. Struempler said Dr. Struempler would have been pleased with the results of the project and the dedication ceremony. The event was attended by family members, including Struemplers’ son Mike of Fort Collins, Colo., and daughter Barbara and granddaughter Lauren of Auburn, Ala.

“Art had four loves in life, and they were his spiritual commitment, his family, his country and his students,” she said.

Dr. 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.

Saturday’s keynote speaker was Mark Brohman, executive director of the Nebraska Environmental Trust, a 1986 graduate who studied under Dr. Struempler and was instrumental in raising funds for the project.

Brohman said Saturday’s big turnout for the ceremony was indicative of how many lives the Struemplers influenced.

“It just shows how much Art was loved by not only family, but also students and community members,” he said. “I probably had 60 or 70 professors over my nine-year college career, but Art was definitely one of the most special I had.”

Mrs. Struempler said Brohman proposed the idea of the new plaza during Dr. Struempler’s funeral, which was exactly two years prior to Saturday’s ceremony.

“Art was truly a military hero, and that’s why we chose a flag pole,” Brohman said.

During the ceremony, Brohman shared stories about the former professor.

He said having Dr. Strumpler’s name permanently associated with the Math and Science Building is appropriate, because the former professor was instrumental in getting the building constructed.

From taking students fossil hunting to challenging them to a game of handball in the basement of the Math and Science Building, Brohman said Dr. Struempler was more than just a classroom teacher.

“Art was all about life lessons,” he said. “You weren’t just a number.”

He also recalled the Struemplers’ black Labrador retriever, Levi, who attended the professor’s classes daily and became the building’s “mascot.”

Brohman relayed e-mails from other past students who were unable to attend the ceremony. One such correspondence came from sisters Cheni and Thandi Khonje, who came to CSC from Malawi. They graduated in 1986, later earned medical degrees, and now reside in New Jersey.

The e-mail stated that the sisters were at first “intimidated by (Struempler’s) stern looks, but we later discovered that behind the pensive demeanor was a mind that was unraveling the mysteries around him. That stern face would lighten up when asked questions.”