Dozens expected to gather for DWU reunions

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Dakota Wesleyan University celebrates 125 years this weekend, and in conjunction with homecoming and other events, several alumni groups will hold reunions over the weekend.

Karen Lantz, Rapid City, is one of more than 65 attending the Kugel Choir Reunion. Lantz, a 1965 graduate, and her two sisters Jody Ketel (class of 1959) and Betty Korzan (class of 1960), were members of Dr. William Kugel’s a cappella choir.

The group will rehearse Friday before performing at the Legacy Banquet that evening and a church service Saturday morning. Lantz said director Ken Ketel mostly selected songs the group sang under Kugel’s direction.

“I don’t think we’ll need to practice,” Lantz said, laughing. “He’ll just raise his arms and we’ll know the songs. It will be an exciting time.”

Lantz embarked on many opportunities while in the choir. Her freshman year, she and the rest of the choir traveled to California. Each year, the group took a large trip during winter break.

“We worked hard and were pleased to be a part of choir that sang difficult a cappella songs,” she said.

Lantz remembers the day Kugel recruited her and her sisters.

“He visited our farmhouse near the little town of Reliance and recruited my sisters and me to attend DWU,” she said.

Lantz was a sixth-grader at that time; her sister, Jody, was a senior.

“From that time on, I couldn’t imagine attending any other university,” she said.

Lantz recalls Kugel’s vigorous gestures when directing the choir.

“His last couple years, he directed us with fewer arm gestures, and mostly with facial expressions,” she said. “I think we concentrated more then, and sang better in our efforts to honor him.”

Doug Kusel, a 1970 graduate, will return to his alma mater to catch up with his football teammates and other athletes that have played the sport over the years.

Kusel, who now lives in Fort Worth, Texas, has made it back to the Midwest on occasion to attend hall of fame inductions and a few football games at DWU.

But this reunion, he said, will be great because of the large number of players it should attract.

A lot has changed compared to the way football was played 40 years ago, he said.

“We get to see people from over the eras that will come to talk about how the game has changed, how the uniforms have changed.”

“And of course, with the women there, there’s a lot of embellishing of the stories,” Kusel said.

When Kusel played football, the games were televised, which was quite an experience for a small-town Iowa boy, he said.

“The stadium’s down now,” Kusel said of the old Joe Quintal stadium. “But when we think about the old stadium now, it brings back old memories. We visited it a few years ago.”

The players and coaches will meet at 6:30 p.m. Friday at the Highland Conference Center.

The nursing school graduates will hold a reunion, too. Wyonne Kaemingk, associate professor of nursing at DWU and a graduate from the school’s nursing program, looks forward to catching up with classmates and former faculty of the nursing department.

The DWU alumni will be joined by graduates of the Methodist Hospital School of Nursing. They will meet from 5 to 7 p.m. Saturday at Wild Oak Golf Course.

The first nursing class at DWU graduated in 1975, which is the same year the Methodist Hospital Nursing School graduated its last class.

Nelle Funk, a 1940s graduate of the Methodist Hospital College of Nursing, will speak at the reunion.

There will be a short program on the facts of nursing and its transformation over the years.

Funk was Kaemingk’s professor when she was in college.

“She will be able to provide a great historical background (on nursing),” Kaemingk said.

Kaemingk said because of DWU’s smaller size, she was able to get to know her classmates and professors well, and it was one of the reasons she felt she excelled at DWU.

“They knew me by my name, and not just the nursing department, but the whole faculty. And they supported me,” she said.

The class of 1960 will also meet for its 50-year reunion over the weekend. The class will gather at 5 p.m. Saturday at the Sherman Center, located on DWU’s campus.

For more information on the upcoming reunions or to preregister for the reunions, contact DWU Alumni Director Jackie Wentworth at 995-2603. To find a list of activities and other information on DWU’s 125th celebration, log on to www.dwu.edu/125.

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