Volume 4 | Number 1
Welcome to Rise
Welcome to the January 2019 edition of Rise Grand Island the alumni newsletter for Grand Island Senior High published every other month by the Grand Island Public Schools Foundation. Rise is where we connect with thousands of Islanders across the globe, keeping you and them informed on what’s happening in Purple and Gold land, and reminiscing a little bit as well.
This is Volume 4, Number 1, the first edition of Rise this calendar year, our fourth year as the official publication for alums of Islander Nation. Thanks for reading us and for your comments and support.
We really enjoy hearing from those of you who find Rise in your in-box every other month. Give us a shout, especially if you or a GISH alum you know has done something new, newsy, or newsworthy. You can reach us at alumni@gips.org.
Our At the Top lead story this issue is about the publisher of Rise, the Grand Island Public Schools Foundation and all its good works. All those good things, by the way, are provided through generous donations from readers of “Rise” and countless others who believe in the mission of the Grand Island Public Schools.
Foundation Executive Director Traci Skalberg, writes about the GIPS Foundation’s investments and audit in Shaking the World, and revisits scholarship season (which is upon us) in Your Legacy. Their Opportunity.
Leigh Lillibridge’s Grand Legacy Update is about endings and beginnings, specifically, the demolition of the West Stadium and the groundbreaking ceremony for its shiny new replacement.
Our Class Reunion Update let’s you know who is going to party and when in case your class is on deck or maybe you just want to crash another class’s soiree and see a few old friends.
Islander Ken Aldridge, Class of 1960, has completed his eighth novel, a crime story about a college professor faking his own death and the small town police chief on the trail. Read more about it in Milestones.
Our Distant Mirror correspondent, Mike Monk, Class of 1967, writes words to live by … well, actually phrases and sayings to take to heart, providing enough examples that perhaps you may want to include them in your repertoire for daily living.
My I’ve Been Thinking column considers Super Bowl Sunday and those of us of a certain age who remember life before the Super Bowl, before we had to count those dang Roman numerals.
As usual we’ll see what songs were popular on the radio, what movies were wooing us on the big screen, and what television shows kept us from our homework each decade during January going back to the 1930s.
We hope you enjoy this Rise as we get year four off to a Grand (Island) start. Oh, yeah, I almost forgot: remember to keep pushing on.
George Ayoub, Class of 1968
Editor, Rise Grand Island
Grand Legacy Update
Historic Groundbreaking Celebration
Please join Grand Island Public Schools and Grand Island Public Schools Foundation on Monday, January 21, at 2:00pm in the West Gym at Grand Island Senior High to celebrate the groundbreaking for Memorial Stadium.
The celebration will include a presentation of Colors, performances by the Pep Band and Madrigals, comments and refreshments. The public is invited and encouraged to park in the west parking lot off Custer Ave.
We are excited that the new West Stadium will start to take shape soon. Preservation and improvements to East Stadium, which houses the War Memorials is included in the project and work on it will begin in early 2020.
To see the plans and vision for the project, please visit: Memorial Stadium:Our Vision
To donate visit: Memorial Stadium: Ways to Give
For questions please call 308-385-5900 Ext. 1170 or email: tskalberg@gips.org
Learn more about the exciting plans to update our Memorial Stadium.
Watch the video to hear from our Co-Chairs and click through the photo gallery to see project renderings and schematics.
At the Top
Rise 'Publisher' Supported by Generous Donors
As Rise begins its fourth year, the editors thought Volume 4 Number One was a good time to look more closely at the newsletter’s publisher: The Grand Island Public Schools Foundation.
For starters, Rise, Grand Island is funded by the Foundation, which provides opportunities for the 9,000 Grand Island Public Schools students solely because of generous donors — many of whom are reading this now. More accurately, everything the Foundation does from scholarships to maintaining an alumni list to spearheading huge projects such as the current undertaking in redoing Memorial Stadium, is funded through donations.
The GIPS district provides space for the Foundation to operate but not operating costs. Donations come to the Foundation in a number of ways, one of which includes campaigns to raise money for specific projects or simply annual fundraising campaigns. Since 1983 the Foundation has invested almost $750,000 annually in GIPS students.
As alumni, obviously, you are on the front lines of those the Foundation goes to for support. What you're reading is the result (one of many) of the generous giving from Senior High graduates … and many others who support the Foundation’s work.
The legacy created by such generosity is stunning, as are the achievements of the Foundation, who use the money prudently and with real purpose.
Others in the business have recognized such stewardship, too. Charity Navigator, an independent body who evaluates charities using data-driven methodology, has awarded the Grand Island Public Schools Foundation its highest designation, a Four Star Evaluation, for five consecutive years. Not only does Charity Navigator consider fiscal responsibility, it also considers a charity’s ethics, transparency, and governance.
Charity Navigator said after its 2018 award “This exceptional designation from Charity Navigator sets Grand Island Public Schools Foundation apart from its peers and demonstrates to the public its trustworthiness.” Indeed, only 10 percent of the charities it evaluates earn four stars, and the Foundation is one of only 29 Nebraska charities with four stars and one of only three outside Lincoln and Omaha.
In 2018, the Foundation’s scholarship program awarded nearly $465,000 to students to help them further their educations. Scholarships have been a traditional part of the Foundation’s work, but it also provides students opportunities through a grant program called “Legacy Grant Funds.” Among those grants is the “Student Kindness Fund.” Bud and Gloria Wolbach generously seeded this fund to make money available to help when a critical need arose suddenly in a student’s life. You can read more about the Foundation’s Legacy Grants at https://www.gips.org/foundation/grants/
You can find even more ways the Grand Island Public Schools Foundation provides opportunities for the district’s students at our website: GIPS Foundation
When you check it out, be sure to remember that all those good works — including this newsletter — is because of generous donors from all over the country and the world: alumni, patrons, businesses, community members, teachers, students, and more.
I've Been Thinking
Super Numbers on a National Holiday
On the off chance you’ve been vacationing incommunicado on the dark side of the moon (and a Chinese space ship interrupted your peace and quiet), Super Bowl LIII is scheduled for Sunday, February 3, 2019, at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.
Two things: Super Bowl LIII is a football game, and LIII is 53 if your Roman numeral chops are a little rusty. I’ve never understood the NFL skipping regular numbers for something Nero would appreciate. I think Nero played a couple seasons for the Praetorian Guard, but don’t take my word for it.
Those of us of a certain demographic still remember January 15, 1967, the first Super Bowl (er … Super Bowl I … sorry Caesar), which wasn’t even called the Super Bowl, but rather referred to as the First World Championship Game between the NFL and the upstarts from the newer professional football league, the American Football League (AFL).
The game was dominated by Vince Lombardi’s Green Bay Packers who beat the tar out of the Kansas City Chiefs, 35-14 in front of 62,000 in the Los Angeles Coliseum. That meant the big old barn was only about two-thirds full. The NFL championship in Yankee Stadium in 1958 between the New York Giants and the Baltimore Colts was much more exciting, with Baltimore’s Alan Ameche diving in the end zone from one yard out in sudden death overtime to give the Colts the big shiny trophy.
The 1967 First World Championship Game between the NFL and the AFL did quite well on the tube. About 51 million of us crowded around our televisions as both CBS and NBC broadcast the game, earning huge market shares the total of which was 79 (CBS 43, NBC 36). A market share of any broadcast is the percent of TV households in the country with a television set in use that is tuned to a particular program. A rating differs in that it’s a percentage of all possible TV households in the country watching a specific show. Ratings are more closely aligned with the total numbers of viewers.
Which makes sense when you consider the game now attracts more than twice the number of viewers than during its inaugural effort and has had an almost 50 percent rating from time to time. Curiously, however, according to Sports Media Watch, if you use the combined 79 market share from the first Super Bowl, that remains the highest market share for the 52 big games already played.
Nor did the Super Bowl catch on right away as it took five years after the Packers/Chiefs throw down to eclipse their total viewership of 51.2 million.
Such numbers are hard to believe today as Super Bowl Sunday now reigns as a de facto national holiday, the country’s single day celebration of brats, beer, and football. Or something like that. Whatever forces are at work, SBS has no equal in the nation’s sporting psyche or attendant hoopla. So enamored is the country with all things Super Bowl that sometimes we forget a) there is actually a football game being played and b) it’s only a football game being played.
Not that the game has lost its prominence. For real NFL fans, the Super Bowl is the culmination of a nearly six-month season, so its outcome carries significant weight. That said, only partisans of two teams (out of 32) have an increased stake in the results. Millions of bettors have financial stake in the final score. Some viewers care more about the ads than the game, others about the halftime show. ESPN, which often runs the risk of talking any big game to death before it happens, will be at DefCon 1 as soon as the two teams who will meet in Atlanta are determined.
Count me as one among those more thrilled with the news that, just days after the Super Bowl, pitchers and catchers are reporting for MLB’s spring training. Sure, I’ll watch on SBS, picking a team to back to give the broadcast some oomph and judging the ads for comic relief, sentimentality, and, in a few cases, utter idiocy.
Nor will I be partying, planning, as I do most years, to watch alone in my living room as my very wise wife neither knows from nor cares about this thing we call the Super Bowl.
Too, bad: She has some skills in Roman numerals.
Alumni Reunions
Planning a class reunion?
We can help get you started!
Contact us for your class list and send us information about your reunion. We will post it to our website.
Kari Price, Alumni Coordinator
kprice@gips.org
308.385.5900 ext. 1148
NOTE: Reunion information in this newsletter is current as of the publication date. To see Reunion updates and additions go to our Alumni Reunions page.
Class of 1956
The Class of 1956 wishes to extend an invitation to fellow classmates to join them at their monthly gathering. They meet on the 2nd Tuesday of each month at the Midtown Holiday Inn at 6:00 pm.
Class of 1966
The Class of 1966 wishes to extend an invitation to fellow classmates to join them at their monthly lunch gathering. They meet the 3rd Wednesday of each month at the Platt Duetsche at 1:00 pm.
Pushing On
Milestones
Islander Ken Aldridge, Class of 1960, has published his eighth book, "Death Be Nimble, Death Be Quick,” another one of Aldridge's crime novels.
After a college professor fakes his own death and ends up in Arizona, he is spotted by his former secretary. He feels he has no choice but to do away with the secretary before she blows his cover. Aldridge's main character, a small town Chief of Police in Texas, finds challenges in trying to solve this murder mystery all the time juggling the town's police work, dealing with its cast of characters, as well as his own troubled love life.
Born and raised in Grand Island, Aldridge graduated from the University of Nebraska-Kearney in 1964 and went on to become a Special Agent with the FBI, where he served for 24 years before retiring. He is married to Vicki (Varvel) Aldridge Class of 1961. They live in the Dallas area. Besides writing, Ken is a long time stamp collector and enjoys that challenging game called golf.
Shaking the World
Our Number is 1,289,423
I like numbers. I especially like numbers that verify the great work that donors are doing through the GIPS Foundation. Every year, I anxiously await the final audited numbers from the accountant. The number that matters the most to me is always the program expenditure number. For the 2017-18 school year, YOUR GIPS Foundation spent $1,289,423 on programs and scholarships directly benefiting our students. Um…that is a lot!
That number means that for each student in the district last year (9,918), YOUR GIPS Foundation invested $130. That is above and beyond the tax-funded education. It means that donors are helping students achieve a well-rounded and meaningful educational experience. Now, we all know that it doesn’t happen that every student gets that kind of investment every year. We don’t live in a world of averages and equals. However, over the course of a student’s educational journey with the Grand Island Public Schools, it stands to reason that each student will benefit multiple times from the philanthropy made possible by donors to the foundation and that is uplifting.
What do those opportunities look like? They look like payments for academic, athletic, and music camps. They look like classrooms of students learning to code using ozbots purchased by a Foundation grant. They look like a school full of students who get to see a live production in the theater. They look like the senior class applying for college scholarships. They look like these opportunities and so many more, thanks to donors who invest in our Foundation and invest in our students.
There is another number that I am always curious to see. That number isn’t found on the audit report but it represents a source of pride and community. This number is 2,470. This is the number of unique donors or households who decided to invest in our students last year. How comforting that so many people understand the importance of investing in our students. We receive gifts from those who live and work in Grand Island. But, we also receive gifts from alumni all over the country who remember their time as Islanders and want to give that enhanced Islander experience to the students who followed in their footsteps. To all of you, I say thank you for your investment. You make it all possible!
Your Legacy. Their Opportunity.
Under Construction ... The Building of a Legacy Scholarship Fund
Note: This article first ran in the September 2016 edition of the Rise Newsletter. As we enter another scholarship season with students, we felt it might be nice to run it again.
I often get questions about how to set up a scholarship fund that will benefit students. Here at the GIPS Foundation, we have made this process uncomplicated for the donor. As we sit down to build the fund, I will ask several questions. Is the fund a reflection of a family or business value system? Or, is the fund to recognize the legacy of a loved one? What is the essence of this loved one? What was important to him/her? We try to capture the essence of this person or goals of the donor with the scholarship fund guidelines.
The next questions revolve around the applicant. What kind of student do you want to help? We use the statistics captured in our online scholarship system to show donors what kinds of students are successful at acquiring scholarships and perhaps, what types of students are underrepresented.
Then we move into the mechanics of the fund. Is it the donor's desire that the fund make scholarships every year, forever? How much do you want to give in each scholarship award? When it is the donor's desire to make the fund an endowed fund that will generate a scholarship every year, we share the following investment strategy:
Endowed Funds - The GIPS Foundation generally allocates 4% of the endowed fund value to the annual scholarship award. So, if it is the donor's desire to create a scholarship that pays $1,000 each year, forever, the endowed fund value will need to be $25,000. A $500 scholarship would require a value of $12,500 for the fund.
Not all at once: Donors may start a fund and let it grow over time. The Foundation will invest the fund, beginning at any level, and let it grow to the desired endowment level. Donors can add to their funds over time as well. Remember, all gifts to the GIPS Foundation are tax-deductible.
The other option that the GIPS Foundation offers is called a pass-through scholarship. This is a fund that the donor gives each year for their scholarship award. The Foundation processes this award and passes it on to the college or university on behalf of the winning student. There is a nominal fee of $50 per scholarship for this service.
In both cases, the GIPS Foundation manages all of the details. We offer a comprehensive online application for students. For the review process, we gather approximately 80 volunteers who are assigned to one of 20 groups to review. These volunteers score scholarship applications independently online in a blind process (the fields identifying the student applicants are blocked from the reviewers). The scores are then calculated for each scholarship to reveal a list of ranked potential winners/alternates. This review culminates in an Equity Committee meeting where volunteers assign scholarships using these ranked lists while ensuring that one student doesn't win an overwhelming majority of the scholarships. At the end of the Equity Committee meeting, the students' identities are revealed.
At this point, the GIPS Foundation makes scholarship offers to the students and manages the acceptance process. Donors and students are invited to a scholarship reception to meet and get to know one another.
And finally, all scholarship winners must present proof of enrollment in a college, university, or trade school to the GIPS Foundation to have their scholarship released to their school.
At the GIPS Foundation we take pride in the quality of service we provide to donors who want to share their values with future generations through a scholarship fund. We make the process uncomplicated so that YOU can enjoy the satisfaction of investing in students.
For more information or to get started with your own legacy scholarship fund, call or
e-mail Traci Skalberg, 308-385-5900 ext. 1170; tskalberg@gips.org
A Distant Mirror
Adages I Live By
Over the years I have identified many simple adages (proverbs? words of wisdom? good practices? barnyard bromides?) that seem to help me make wise decisions. I will discuss just a few of the adages that I find interesting and of value. I do not pretend these are particularly original or necessarily involve complex thinking, but to me they are good habits:
1. First Things First
Of course, first things first. Who could dispute this? But just what are the “first things?” We all have a series of tasks or pleasures we intend to, or must, complete. The successful person in life carefully assesses which should come first. Some choices are easy. Should I put out the fire in the wastebasket before I finish reading the sports section? Some are less easy. Should I clean out the garage, or go to the gym to exercise? Should I do my holiday shopping early, or see the movie I have been thirsting to see, which leaves town tomorrow?
Some involve a more complicated analysis of what is more beneficial in the short run, or the long run, what will bring me more happiness, and what task can be successfully completed as opposed to the task that will plague you, and likely not be doable. Many “firsts” are to eliminate serious risks if the task is not done. Hope for the best, but plan for the worst.
Some involve balancing the values of the person making the decision. Should I leave work early to see my daughter run in the cross country meet or work to finish the project at work that needs to be done soon. For me the value of the experience of watching my daughter run had a high personal value. The moments of our lives that cannot be recaptured, or later accomplished. So, unless the work project cannot possibly be done at a later time, I go to see my daughter run.
Should I go to the political fundraiser at my law partner’s home or spend the night with my family? This one happened to me, and though the partner was not a close friend, nor the political cause an important one to me, I still went. My children were at that time maybe 13 and 10. Another law partner friend made fun of me for weeks about how “of course you should go to the political event, since your children will never grow up, but will be there for you to enjoy endlessly for the rest of your life.” I have also heard the adage that few people die regretting they had worked more at the office and seen their family less.
Some decisions deal more with what will produce the best mental state to get all the tasks completed. You may be faced with five projects in a day. One a long arduous project that must be done and four simpler less taxing projects that will not take long individually, but will as a whole take time to complete. Some people will feel that they cannot have peace of mind until the big project is complete, so they should do it first. Others will say that the feeling of accomplishment in doing the four smaller projects first will put them at ease and make the larger project easier to attack. Stated differently, do you feel better slugging it out to do the large project first, or first completing four projects on the list.
Again, what should be first? Some important life goals, like fitness, require us to simply declare exercise to be an inviolable part of one’s day, much like sleep and eating. Some long term goals, like writing a lengthy piece, embarking on a do-it-yourself-fix-it-up project, or creating a vegetable garden, must also be given certain priorities, depending on the value you place upon them. Otherwise, they are unlikely ever to be done.
One also benefits when one does small things in the most efficient and productive order. I turn on my Keurig Coffee maker before I go out to get the papers in the morning, since it will be ready to make coffee by the time I return. If I have errands involving four stops in the car, which route will cover all the bases, and be the fastest, most efficient, or most aesthetically pleasing? It is particularly pleasing and wise, I believe, to make a list of long term goals you wish to accomplish, whether it’s for travel, preserving mementos, historical sights to visit, trips to see friends, or athletic events you wish to experience. These goals may be given a “first” priority, since they often demand significant planning or work.
2. Don’t Worry About Things You Cannot Alter
Everyone, quite understandably, worries about what will happen in our lives. But one can be far more peaceful by restricting our worries to things we can impact or resolve by our actions. When flying, I literally never worry about dangers, since nothing I can do can alter whatever will happen. I have a friend who is a worry wart, and was once described as such a worrier that every day he woke up worried about whether the force of gravity would continue to exist and keep us on earth. Once the test has been submitted, you can’t change it, so don’t worry about it.
3. You Are Never a Prophet in Your Own Land.
History is replete with stories of persons from distant lands, who became prophets, leaders, or beloved and trusted persons. It seems we discount those around us, in our little part of the world, but a stranger has the allure of having different and foreign experiences, new values and a freshness that our neighbors do not have.
In the working world, you see this when consultants come in to share wisdom with employees and managers. Any idea they have is deemed to be wise and of value, even though an employee may have already suggested it. In family situations, you often see one spouse who seems inclined believe any stranger on the street over his or her spouse.
4. One person’s trash is another person’s treasure.
Beginning in about 1957, I began to collect baseball and football cards. I once brought my new 1957 football cards with me on a visit to my friend Randy Spiehs (GISH Class of 1967), and compared his 1956 cards from the prior year. It quickly became clear that he thought my new cards were far more desirable. So I began to trade him all my new cards for his prior year cards. I never said a word, but kept thinking, “This guy is crazy. His cards are far more valuable, since I can no longer buy them, but mine are still being sold.” I rode away on my bike thinking I had made a great steal. And, as I rode away, I remember overhearing Randy say to his brother Dale, “You won’t believe what that dumb Monk did.”
5. Never a Horse That Can’t Be Rode and Never a Cowboy That Can’t Be “Throwed.”
This rodeo metaphor is just a lesson in humility. However adept one might be at a certain event or practice, there is always someone who is better. Shakespeare in Hamlet expressed a somewhat similar thought:
“Let Hercules himself do what he may,
The cat will meow and dog will have his day.”
Even the legendary Hercules is not all powerful.
6. Homespun Maine Wisdom
My good friends the Fralichs, from Maine, had the classic Maine approach to life that involved wise husbandry of resources: Waste not, want not. I will not expound upon this further, but just repeat a little saying they taught me:
Buy it new, wear it out.
Make it last, do without.
A Spartan lesson in today’s extravagant world, but a wise one, I think. Another great Maine saying they taught me about Maine’s weather is “Nine months of winter, and three months of mighty tough sledding.”
7. Time
“Time is the reef upon which most of our dreams eventually crash.” I have never forgotten this chilling line after first hearing it. The message, if nothing else, is an incentive to begin to focus more assiduously on achieving our fondest dreams.
8. Self Praise is no Praise
Long ago I saw Groucho Marx on the late night Dick Cavett show. He was asked a question about his accomplishments, and deferred, saying, “Self praise is no praise, so let’s talk about something scandalous or dirty.”
A friend of mine from my days at Harvard once told me that he never volunteers that he went to Harvard since it always has more power if it comes up on its own. Another friend who has degrees from Harvard (BA), Oxford (Masters), and Stanford (PhD) put on his Facebook page, under Education, the single entry, “Union High School, Union New Jersey.” The less you brag about your achievements, the more they will be respected.
9. Always Quickly Tell Friends When You Learn Good News About Them
I have a friend in my baseball fantasy league who is a master at sharing good news. The minute he learns one of my players did quite well, he emails, texts or calls. This practice not only conveys good news, but also associates him with the good news. If he learns of bad news for my team, or otherwise in life, he is silent. He makes his friends feel happy, and becomes enmeshed with that happiness. We all know, of course, that one person who is dying to tell you bad news, just so he can see how much it hurts and how you react. These people tend to say they of course did not want to be the one to share the bad news, but they knew you would want to know. Liars!
Mike Monk, Class of 1967, can be reached at m.monk@mpglaw.com.
In Memoriam
November and December memorial list of GISH Alumni
KEVIN BUHR, Class of 1975, died Oct. 24, 2018, in Phoenix. He was 61.
WAYNE GULZOW, Class of 1950, died Nov. 1, 2018, in Grand Island. He was 86.
BARBARA “JO” (MILNE) SANDERS, Class of 1957, died Nov. 5, 2018, in Grand Island. She was 79.
SHIRLEY (CAMPBELL) MCKINNEY, Class of 1948, died Nov. 8, 2018, in Grand Island. She was 88.
STEVEN COCHRAN, Class of 1991, died Nov. 11, 2018, in Grand Island. He was 46.
KEN FISCHER, longtime head football coach at Senior High, died, Nov. 12, 2018, in Lincoln. He was 91.
DENNIS GODSELL, Class of 1953, died Nov. 13, 2018, in Garland, Texas. He was 83.
CAROL HOWARD, Class of 1968, died Nov. 13, 2018, in Grand Island. She was 68.
JAMES (JIM) KUSZAK, Class of 1958, died Nov. 13, 2018, in St. Paul. Jim lived in Dannebrog. He was 79.
WARREN HOOVER, Class of 1942, died Nov. 16, 2018, in Lincoln. Warren lived in Grand Island. He was 94.
PAULA (PENNER) REIMERS, Class of 1961, died Nov. 17, 2018, in Grand Island. She was 75.
JON HEINRICH, former Senior High teacher, died Nov. 19, 2018, in Grand Island. He was 72.
JEAN (MAUPIN) PREISENDORF, Class of 1957, died Nov. 19, 2018, in Sun City, Ariz. She was 79.
HILMA (KRIEGER) HUSEN, Class of 1941, died Nov. 19, 2018, in Grand Island. She was 96.
RUDY LIEBSACK, Class of 1937, died Nov. 20, 2018, in Grand Island. He was 99.
SHIRLEY (WOODRUFF) BRUHN, Class of 1954, died Nov. 20, 2018, in Lincoln. Shirley lived in Grand Island. She was 82.
JOAN ( KIKENDALL) CARROLL, Class of 1952, died Nov. 21, 2018, in Springfield, Mo. Joan lived in Grand Island. She was 83.
RENEE PETERSON, Class of 2001, died Nov. 26, 2018, in Grand Island. She was 35.
LARRY MILLER, Class of 1958, died Nov. 28, 2018, in Grand Island. He was 78.
LESLIE (ELLIOTT) MEENTS, Class of 1985, died Nov. 29, 2018, in Grand Island. She was 51.
DR. GENE VAN WIE, Class of 1953, died Dec. 1, 2018, in Grand Island. He was 84.
MARILYN (KUHLMAN) WILSON, Class of 1945, died Dec. 3, 2018, in Grand Island. She was 90.
DARLENE (WILHELMI) SMITH, Class of 1952, died Dec. 6, 2018, in Munster, Ind. She was 83.
RUSSELL JORDAN, Class of 1982, died Dec. 8, 2018, in Grand Island. He was 55.
LARRY HESCOCK, Class of 1965, died Dec. 16, 2018, in Fairfield. He was 71.
KIRK NELSON, Class of 1983, died Dec. 17, 2018, in Kearney. He was 53.
GARY RUFF, Class of 1957, died Dec. 19, 2018, in Las Vegas, Nev. Gary lived in Grand Island. He was 79.
THELMA (FARRIS) SPIEHS, Class of 1941, died Dec. 24, 2018, in Grand Island. She was 95.
LARRY IRISH, Class of 1971, died Dec. 24, 2018, at Johnson Lake. He was 65.
GERALDINE “GERRI” (GULZOW) MEHRING, Class of 1947, died Dec. 25, 2018, in Grand Island. She was 89.
DAVID “BUZZ” STEWART, Class of 1979, died Dec. 29, 2018. He was 57.
DAVE HESCOCK, Class of 1968, died Dec. 31, 2018. He was 68.
To report an alumni death since December 31, 2018, please send an email with the first name, last name, class year and maiden name if applicable to alumni@gips.org
