The Cold Couldn't Stop the Fun at Homecoming 2009
Snow flurries and freezing temperatures could not dampen the spirit and fun that a good crowd of alumni and friends enjoyed at Homecoming 2009, the weekend of October 9-11. Temperatures dipped below 30 for most of the weekend, forcing a lot of activities indoors (like the Resch Hall dedication ceremony...see below) but hearty Gracelanders enjoyed fellowship and renewal of friendship during an event-packed "fall" weekend. Photo galleries from the many events will be be added to the Alumni and Friends Web pages in the days to come. Click on Homecoming 2009 for glimpses of a great - albeit frigid - weekend.
It was a Nippy Ribbon Cutting for the New Resch Hall
The long-awaited dedication of Graceland's new Resch Science and Technology Hall took place last Saturday during GU's frost-bitten Homecoming weekend. The year-long transformation of the old Platz-Mortimore Science Hall into the state-of-the-art Resch Hall was celebrated "indoors" because of the frigid temperatures but dignitaries gathered at the entrance to the new building for an official ribbon cutting. Shown, from left to right, are Mike Zabel, Bob Bruch, Orman Brooner, Sherri Kirkpatrick, Vicki Ross, Sharon and Richard ‘Dick' Resch (capstone donors for the project), Ken McClain (Chair of GU's Board of Trustees), Graceland President John Sellars, Dwayne Shannon and Jay Newcom. (Zabel, Bruch, Brooner, Ross, Shannon and Newcom are all members of the GU Board of Trustees). More than 300 people attended the dedication ceremony in Zimmermann Hall during which Mr. Resch recounted his Graceland college days in the 1950s and gave his blessings that the new building will serve many generations of Graceland science students in the future. Classes began in Resch Hall in September.
Pioneer School Dedicated at Graceland's Amish Country Store
Vicki (McVicker) Ross cuts the ribbon last Saturday at the dedication of the Pioneer Country School House located at Graceland's Amish Country Store/Welcome Center/Maid-Rite complex in Lamoni. About 100 people attended the event during Graceland's Homecoming weekend. Vicki recounted the long process of acquiring the decrepit school (in near ruins) and restoring it to its original splendor.
Vicki, a 1950 Graceland alumna, thanked the many people who assisted her with the mammoth project, especially 1953 GU alumnus Orman Brooner, whose St. Joseph, MO construction company restored and moved the school from its original home on the Lineville-Leon Highway to the Welcome Center complex. Vicki poignantly recounted her years growing up in rural Decatur County and attending the Pioneer School. The interior of the school has now been restored and period furniture and décor adorn the facility. Read more about the Pioneer School. Read more about the Amish Country Store, including more information about the school.
Read More about Resch Science and Technology Hall, Graceland's New 'State-of-the-Sciences' Facility on our Lamoni Campus
Gustav A. Platz and Roy H. Mortimore would be proud indeed of the metamorphosis that has taken place within the hallowed halls of their namesake, Platz-Mortimore Science Hall. Graceland's Board of Trustees weighed many options before concluding that a complete renovation of Platz-Mortimore - a total makeover - would bequeath to our students a ‘state-of-the-sciences' facility. And now the makeover is complete and our students are discovering their futures in the new Resch Science and Technology Hall. Students are learning at Graceland today from our talented faculty, as yesteryears' students gleaned knowledge from professors like Platz and Mortimore and so many others.
The creatively transformed building is called the Resch Science and Technology Hall to honor Richard
J. "Dick" Resch and his family. Resch provided a $3 million capstone gift which, united with funds raised during the Graceland Forever Capital Campaign, provided superb infrastructure and industry-standard equipment, the winning mix to attract outstanding students and exceptional faculty. This historic commitment to academic excellence has lifted Graceland to the private-university pinnacle in the study of sciences, math and technology. (Resch is pictured at right)
Dick Resch is a 1958 pre-engineering graduate who has good memories of his classes in what was then the fairly-new Platz-Mortimore Science Hall. He would like his family to be honored also with the building's naming. His deceased parents were both Graceland graduates: Clifton Resch '33 and Lois Hatch '32 Resch. His grandmother, Vinnie Rudd, was a House Mother in the very early years of the Independence, MO Sanitarium and Hospital Diploma School of Nursng.
Dick is president and CEO of KI, an industry-leading, award-winning furniture manufacturer with 3,000 employees worldwide. You'll find KI furniture in GU's Helene Center for the Visual Arts and it will adorn Resch Hall. To say that Dick is a self-made man is a true understatement. At age 37 he put everything he had on the line and managed a leveraged buyout of KI (then Kreuger Metal Products). Since then he has always eyed the ‘long view,' never looking back. Fiscal discipline, worker education and community responsibility have been his life-long guideposts.
Dick received our most prestigious recognition, the Distinguished Service Award, at Homecoming 2003. Homecoming 2008 marked Dick's 50-year Honor Year Class reunion and he was back on "the Hill" to celebrate with family and old friends. He presented a "giant check" at his 50-year reunion dinner to make official his gift for Resch Hall. (Dick is pictured at left with Sherri Kirkpatrick, at the 2008 50-year reunion.)
A donor wall of fame adorns the beautiful, high-glass lobby of Resch Hall, along with the existing bronze plaque honoring Professors Platz and Mortimore. So many donors, with gifts large and small, have made Resch Hall possible. Even the 2008 graduating class donated nearly $1,500 for student lounge furnishings.
That brings us to the building itself and what has been done. Director of Facility Services Kurt Remmenga, Grounds Chief Bob Kelly and their crews of employees and 20 student workers began May 19, 2008, the day after Commencement, and in less than a month they removed everything from the building except the walls. It was the work of contractor J.E. Dunn to transform architectural firm Gould Evans' design. All concerned stayed on schedule and on budget and the building was completed in plenty of time for fall 2009 classes. (Above, the entrance to the new Resch Science and Technology Hall.)
Science faculty members heroically packed up their office and lab equipment and they helped with the moves to temporary quarters in the basement of the Frederick Madison Smith Library (Computer Science and Information Technology), Zimmermann Hall (Mathematics) and the ‘North Science Hall,' a former group home just north of campus (Chemistry and Biology.) Huge amounts of furniture and equipment were stored in a building downtown Lamoni owned by GU Board Chair Ken McClain. Academic year 2008-09 science classes held around the Lamoni campus were a supreme challenge, but according to Science and Math Division Chair Dan Pratt, "We were up to it. Faculty comraderie has been inspiring." Pratt said faculty members "focused on making the 2008-09 academic year a great experience for students, despite the obvious hardships. "My colleagues were very excited about moving into Resch Hall and they are settling in to the beautiful new building."
The transformed building is a marvel of planning (faculty played an integral role), designing and engineering. Everything - wiring, plumbing, A/C and heating - was removed. "Alumni will not recognize the building," said Remmenga, "inside or out. Absolutely everything is new!" Indeed, the sleek, futuristic building will take you by surprise. (Math and Science Division Chair, and Assistant Professor of Chemistry Dan Pratt has been posting periodic letters during the construction process. Click on Letters from Dan.)
A significant gift from Dick Resch in 2002 brought to life a long-sought arena in Green Bay, now home to the Green Bay Gamblers hockey team, the University of Wisconsin men's basketball team and myriad entertainment events. The beautiful, two-story, glass-front edifice is truly an awesome sight. It is named the Resch Center. Dick and his wife Sharon live in Green Bay.
When Dick was back for Homecoming 2008 he tooka look at Platz-Mortimore and envisioned the new Resch Hall. If you see the magnificent Resch Center in Green Bay, then tour the new Resch Hall at GU, there are instant similarities, like the imposing glass fronts. "It's the contemporary style of architecture I like," Dick said. "There will be lots of light. Besides the beauty it will cut down on power use." KI is a leader among manufacturing giants in global support of LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification for construction.
An atrium lobby in Resch Hall leads you down a row of spacious, glass-front faculty offices. "This promotes great collegiality," Pratt says proudly. Classrooms and labs are also ultra modern. There are student lounges with an internet-café feel. Special ID cards provide students 24/7 access to the building. Ackerley Scholars are exploring the Computer Science world through technologically-amazing ‘StarLine' electrical conduit. Airflow and ventilation were critical priorities, says Remmenga, and lab airflow is now operating through separate systems. Safe, functional, inviting and beautiful...there is too much to write to describe fully the tremendous details of what Resch Hall now has offer to our students and faculty. In short, it offers them a very bright future!
