On the Foundation
The best answer I ever got, and I don’t know if he read it somewhere or if it was his own answer, but he wrote “History is just one damn thing after another.” And I looked at that answer and I laughed. I still laugh about that because I don’t know how you grade that answer. You know, it certainly is accurate.
ABOVE LEFT: The state of Miller Lake circa 2006. ABOVE LEFT: Habitat and wetland conservation photo from FY 2009-10. (Both images shared by the Lincoln Trail College Foundation)
I just can’t tell you how much I appreciate that school and how much it’s done for me. And as a Foundation person. We’ve done some good stuff out there. The Foundation. And I’m not talking about me. I’m talking about the Foundation. When I started, we were doing maybe $15,000 in scholarships. And now, 20 years later, we’re doing $200,000 in scholarships. And, that’s the work of a lot of good people in the community and a lot of good people at Lincoln Trail College.
On fate
I served in one capacity or another with every presi- dent we’ve had at Lincoln Trail College from Piland on. Some were better than others. Some were outstanding. Some were less than outstanding. But, it was a great joy and a great 40 years. I often think if when I was working in the Study Skills Center at Murray and the phone rang, I wondered if I’d been in the bathroom or something had gone to do something else, and I missed Dean Harrell’s phone call asking me if I wanted to go to Robinson and check out a history job. I wonder if I missed that call, how my life would have changed.
On Miller Lake
If when I’m gone, I guess my legacy, I hope my legacy is Miller Lake. Because when I came, Miller Lite was a slough. It was a swamp. It was grown up and it was there were telephone poles in it and it was just a mess. And, when I got selected for the board, one of the questions that we raised was Miller Lake, and one of the things we had to decide what to do with it. Some of the board wanted to cut the levy, take a dozer, go in and cut the levy, fill it in, and sow it down with grass. I didn’t want to. I said, once we lose Miller Lake and the potential of Miller Lake, if we do that, we’ll never have a lake. It’ll be gone and we’ll never come back and revisit that and do it again. So we talked and talked and
12 LTC Annual Report
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