Doane Alumni Receive Awards Commencement Weekend
May 4, 2010
Contact: Rebecca Svec, director of media relations
Doane Alumni To Receive Awards Commencement Weekend
(Crete, Neb.) - Doane College will present seven alumni awards at its annual awards banquet Saturday, May 15. To make reservations or to get more information, contact Doane's Alumni Office at 402.826.8258.
Young Alumnus award
This award, presented to Doane graduates 35 years of age or younger, recognizes their commitment to excellence in a chosen career.
Brandon R. Wiese '03
Brandon Wiese graduated in 2003 with a double major in mathematics and physics. Following Doane, he completed degrees in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis.
Wiese is a principal systems engineer at Orbital Sciences Corporation, formerly General Dynamics Integrated Space Systems, in Gilbert, Ariz. He joined General Dynamics in 2005, working in a division that specializes in building satellites for a variety of customers, including the Department of Defense, NASA, commercial imagery providers, and classified government organizations. Wiese has worked on four spacecraft in his time at General Dynamics, with missions including ballistic missile detection, laser communication, high fidelity imagery, and Mars exploration. He has spent nearly six months at two separate launch sites, completing the final tests and component installations for two satellites. The most recent satellite, GeoEye-1, is in orbit providing customers such as Google with the highest resolution, unclassified imagery available in the world.
While a student at Doane, the Adams, Neb., native was a standout basketball player. His awards include being named twice to the NAIA All-America team, four times to the All-Conference team and twice the Omaha World Herald NAIA Team Captain. His senior year, Wiese was named an NAIA All-America Scholar Athlete and received Doane's Philip Stuart Becker Award. Wiese is the second player in Doane history to break both the 2,000-point and 1,000-rebound mark. In addition to athletics, Wiese was also a member of Doane's Hansen Leadership Program, Student Congress, Phi Eta Sigma honor society, and the Delta Kappa Pi social fraternity.
Wiese resides in Chandler, Ariz.
Paul Kersenbrock humanitarian award
The Paul Kersenbrock Award is given to alumni who exemplify the characteristics and life of the late Paul D. Kersenbrock, a member of the class of 1963 and a native of Crete, who distinguished himself by extraordinary, unselfish service to others.
Donald E. Siecke '61
Stanton High School graduate Donald Siecke attended Doane in the 1950s and went on to earn a bachelor of science in business administration from the University of Denver.
He began his career as a CPA in Denver and then entered the banking industry, serving as chairman of Kiowa State Bank in Colorado, organizing director of Century Bank, Scottsdale, Ariz., and director of Union Bank & Trust and Union Bank Shares in Denver. He serves as chairman and organizing director of the Colorado-chartered Redstone Bank.
Siecke is currently president of Kelmore Development Corporation in Centennial, Colo., and has served as president, chairman and principal/manager of numerous real estate development and investment organizations.
On his curriculum vitae, the long list of business achievements is equaled by his community service roles. Each year, he spends countless hours volunteering, collaborating, mentoring, counseling and tutoring. He promotes non-profit organizations and takes an active role in numerous charitable organizations.
Currently, Siecke is chairman and a 14-year mentor of Whiz Kids Tutoring. Whiz Kids began in 1990, convening pastors and business people throughout the Denver metro area to partner suburban churches in urban outreach, which led to a focus on one-on-one tutoring with elementary and middle-school children.
Siecke is also founding director of Urban Youth Ministries and Colorado Uplift and director of The Charitable Fund, Friends for Youth, Denver Leadership Foundation and Colorado Christian University. His titles also include director of Greenwood South Metropolitan District, Greenwood Metropolitan District, and Greenwood Water District.
Siecke resides in Castle Rock, Colo., with his wife, Jean. They have two children.
Exceptional Service award
This award is presented to alumni for extraordinary service to forward the goals and objectives of Doane College.
Dalyce L. Due '60
A native of Exeter, Neb., Dalyce Due graduated from Doane with a Bachelor of Arts degree in education.
Due was an elementary school teacher before working 16 years as director of Christian education at First Plymouth Congregational Church in Denver. In 1992, she earned her master's of social work degree from Smith College in Northhampton, Mass.
Since that time, she has dedicated her life to the social work field, serving 12 years as a clinical social worker in the psychiatric unit of the University of Colorado Hospital before joining the Porter Adventist Hospital Rehabilitation Unit as a case manager.
Service work and volunteering are in Due's blood. Her many volunteer roles in the church and community vary from respite care, volunteer and church school teacher to relief worker during floods.
In addition to these roles, she always has time for Doane. Many times Due has opened her home to Doane gatherings and hosted dinners as well as overnight guests. She has even hosted Doane choir members during tours to the Denver area. She twice accompanied several Doane students as they traveled to Spain.
An active member of the Rocky Mountain Alumni Chapter, she is touted as one of Doane's most enthusiastic supporters in the Denver region. Due continues to encourage students to consider Doane for college.
She has three daughters and five grandchildren.
Platt Alumni Music award
This award is presented to alumni for outstanding achievement in the field of music.
Vesta Jo Curtiss Still '89
Alliance, Neb., native Vesta Jo Still graduated from Doane College in 1989 with a degree in music and English. She teaches grades 5-12 band and 7-12 choir at Logan Public School in Logan, Kan., where her bands continue to achieve at high levels. During her tenure, the high-school band has earned a 1 rating at the State Music Festival numerous times.
Still encourages her students and insists that even at a small school they can accomplish great things. She believes that quality breeds quality and students can learn to play/perform well if it is expected. Through her philosophies, Still has created a winning culture in Logan.
She has been honored several times for her job as a music educator. In 2007, she was selected as the Teacher-of-the-Year by VFW Post #8873 of Stockton and the VFW Kansas District 9. In 2008, she was honored as the Northwest District Kansas Music Educators Association (KMEA) Outstanding Middle-Level Music Teacher.
Still is completing her 10th year at Logan. She began her teaching career in Argra, Kan., where she taught 7-12 music and 7-8 grade English for two years.
Still is an active member with the United Methodist Church and has served in various leadership roles at the church. She also has served as president of the Logan Teachers' Association and is active in KMEA.
She and her husband, Brent, reside on a farm near Phillipsburg, Kan.. They have two children.
Alumni Educator-of-the-Year award
This award is presented annually to alumni who have made outstanding contributions in the field of education.
Susan Eickman Weber '70
Fifteen years into her teaching career, Susan Weber thought she had things figured out. She had earned her degree from Doane in elementary education and graduated summa cum laude. She had several years experience with Title I Reading, and had taught third, fourth, and fifth grades before finding her niche teaching kindergarten in Dorchester.
She was six years into her career in Dorchester when one student changed everything. He was legally blind. Weber spent that year finding ways to teach her lessons to someone who couldn't see. Several years later as the student began to lose the rest of his vision, she learned how to teach Braille keeping one step ahead of him on a daily basis.
In 1986, Weber became the vision resource staff and teacher for the Dorchester schools. In 1993, she completed a master's degree in special education with an emphasis in vision. In 1993, she became the full-time vision resource teacher with Dorchester and Milford schools.
In addition to her positions with the schools, Weber was also an independent service provider for the Nebraska Department of Education for visually impaired students from 1993 to 2009, taught summer courses at Nebraska's School for the Visually Handicapped in Nebraska City from 1991 to 2008, and was a Technical Assistance Team Member for the Nebraska DeafBlind Project through the Nebraska Department of Education.
Among her many awards and accolades are the 1993 Nebraska School for the Visually Handicapped Partner-in-Transition Award, the 2002 Special Recognition Award by the Nebraska Center for the Education of Children Who Are Blind or Visually Impaired and Nebraska Chapter of AER, the 2002 Christa McAuliffe Prize from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Teachers College, the 2009 Friend of NCECBVI award, and the 2008-09 Milford High School Service Award from the National Honor Society.
Weber retired from public school teaching in May 2009 and lives in Milford. She continues to serve as a substitute teacher and an independent service provider for the Nebraska Department of Education. She and her late husband, Marvin, have two children and three grandchildren. When Weber graduated from Doane in May 1970, her daughter was just a newborn. Weber was as proud of that accomplishment as she was of her degree. Her family remains of utmost importance to her.
Builder award
Builder Awards are presented yearly to alumni who have made immeasurable contribution of time and effort to the building of the college and whose leadership has set a living example.
(This award is presented posthumously.)
Martha Miller Osterhout '60
At Doane, the name Martha Osterhout is synonymous with hard work. For nearly 20 years, Osterhout planned, planted and pruned Doane's 300-acre campus, making the college one of the most beautiful in the Midwest.
Osterhout, who made Crete her life-long home, attended Crete Public Schools and Doane, where she was an energetic, talented athlete, whose activities included synchronized swimming, trampoline and tumbling.
She married high-school sweetheart, David Osterhout Jr. It was no surprise when in the mid-1980s Martha came to work at Doane as her mother, as well as her father-in-law, both worked at the college.
She joined the college's grounds crew in paint and finish work on the nearly complete Doane Village. From there she moved into the maintenance department, eventually becoming grounds superintendent, which fit her love of the outdoors. She tackled every job, whether routine tasks like mowing or the always-interesting task of moving the swans. It was more than a job to her and it was more than the outdoors that Osterhout loved, it was Doane...it was her life.
So in September 2004, after being diagnosed with cancer, Osterhout was forced to leave her job and focus on her illness. But even in the midst of treatments and doctors, Osterhout joked about returning.
Unfortunately, she was never able to return. Osterhout lost her six-year battle with cancer in January this year. She was 71.
Even in her death she continues to make Doane a better place as she requested her memorials be directed to Doane.
She and her husband, David, had one daughter, who preceded her in death, and two grandchildren.
Builder award
Builder Awards are presented yearly to alumni who have made immeasurable contribution of time and effort to the building of the college and whose leadership has set a living example.
Builder Award
Gerald R. '51 and Vivian Nerud '51 Kahle
Gerald and Vivian Kahle graduated from Doane in 1951. Gerald (Jerry), a Crete native, majored in chemistry and mathematics and Vivian, from rural Dorchester, majored in English and earned a teaching certificate in elementary education.
Both graduated with honors from Doane; Jerry, magna cum laude and Vivian, cum laude.
The couple married in August of 1951 and soon moved to Columbus, Ohio, where Jerry enrolled in graduate school at Ohio State University. Jerry earned a fellowship his fourth year and graduated with a master's degree in analytical chemistry and a Ph.D. in organic chemistry.
Meanwhile, Vivian taught third and fourth grades in the Columbus, Ohio, school system for four years.
After graduation, Jerry accepted a position as a polymer research chemist with Phillips Petroleum Company (now Conoco-Phillips) in Bartlesville, Okla. During his 29 years with Phillips, he achieved promotions as Chemical Research branch manager, Polyolefin Research branch manager and manager of Catalyst Development and Manufacture.
Jerry's expertise earned him a transfer to the company's chemical department for Europe/Africa operations in Belgium, where the couple spent four years.
During his career, Jerry also authored or co-authored 29 U.S. patents, numerous foreign patents and 11 technical journal papers.
Vivian was active in several community organizations including the Red Cross, served as a hospital volunteer, and was a member of the Bartlesville Service League. She also taught Sunday school.
Throughout their busy lives, the Kahles never forgot Doane, where Vivian was a member of Gamma Phi Iota and Jerry joined Delta Kappa Pi. They attended class reunions when possible and always welcomed visits from college representatives. Their active support has allowed Doane to not only maintain its high level of education but also made it possible to grow its programs for further generations. They are members of the Doane College Heritage Society.
The Kahles, now retired, reside near Table Rock Lake in northwest Arkansas. They have three daughters and seven grandchildren.