Crestland Reunion Hall of Fame for 2009
Joan Dee (Brockman) Rottler, Class of 1961
There are some people who may not have been on earth long enough to be rewarded for their contributions to society but they not only made an impact on multiple people's lives but are still giving in death. One such woman
is Dee Brockman, Crestland class of 1961. This Hall of Fame award is
being presented posthumously.
 Article printed in the Rod Library - Special Collections at the University of Northern Iowa in the fall of 1974: Jodee: a fresh approach by Carol Le Beau, News editor.
She's Jodee Rottler, wife, mother, and with the opening of the fall semester, she's also the new campus minister at St. Stephen's Catholic Student Center.
At first glance, it hardly seems possible that this energetic young woman with the bouncy brown shag and a gleam in her eye, could fit such a job description, but it's
true. Father Jack Kissling of the student center, proudly introduced his new assistant at all the masses last Sunday.
At the student center, Jodee will be facilitating a course entitled "On Trying to be Human." She does not intend to assume the position as teacher for the class--she is trying to provide an environment where the students participate and explore questions.
Pictured is Jodee in 1974 as she delivered the homily at a Sunday mass at
St. Stephens Catholic Student Center where she had assumed the role of
campus minister, assisting father Jack Kissling.
 Located in front of Catt Hall on the ISU campus in
Ames, IA, the Plaza of Heroines contains more than 3,600 bricks with the
names of women who, as role models, made an impact on families, communities,
and society as mothers, teachers, wives, scientists, friends and activists.
A granite bench bordering the Plaza of Heroines has been engraved in memory
of Joan Dee Brockman Rottler. - by her husband Steven P. Rottler.
Pictured at left is the Plaza of Heroines bricks that honor women who have
made an impact on someone's life. Besides the granite bench, two stones have
been placed on the walk in JoDee Rottler's name:
Section A - Row 28
In 1987, the Religious Studies
Program offered JoDee a one-semester temporary appointment. She stayed for
eleven years. JoDee's presence brought a whole new dimension to our department
and we were all - students and colleagues alike - the richer for it. She was a
natural. She loved ideas, loved books, loved to study religion and to teach
about religion; loved myth and ritual and feminine spiritual imagery--and
joyfully shared all her loves with any who cared to listen.
Teaching, for JoDee, was
far more than imparting information, far more than sharpening critical thinking
skills. Teaching also meant cultivating an empathetic approach to the wondrous
variety of people's worldviews. It meant engaging students holistically, with
equal regard for heart and mind. It meant helping them to integrate all of their
life experiences in a way that enabled them to become more capable members of
our society, and more compassionate citizens of the world. For many young people
- especially those who took her Women and Religion class - having JoDee as their
teacher was a life- giving affirmation. For others - particularly those in her
introductory courses on World Religions and Religion in America - it was a
substantial challenge to be confronted with new paradigms and alternative belief
systems.
Indeed, JoDee's very
self-presentation was often a challenge: She was a confident, wise,
justice-minded, feminist woman - an uncommon experience for many students at a
school of science and technology. Invariably the students were stretched by
their encounter with JoDee. In spite of reluctance and resistance on the part of
some, they grew both personally and intellectually. It is to honor JoDee's gifts
to her students that a memorial scholarship fund has been established in her
name through the ISU Foundation.
Teaching, for JoDee, was a
life's vocation, and one she was wont to relinquish. Throughout her years of
illness, her devotion to teaching was a source of amazement for myself and our
colleagues. As sick as she was, she came to Iowa State every day that she could
muster the energy, to be in the classroom with her students. When she lost her
hair from the chemotherapy, JoDee began wearing a variety of hats, and often
when she arrived on campus, I could tell what kind of day she was having by the
degree of droopiness of her hat brim. Many a day she would walk, slowly and
agonizingly, from her office to the classroom. She would move to the front of
the room, sit down at the desk facing her students, take a deep breath, and
begin.
Gradually, her voice would
grow stronger and her gestures become more animated. She would get up out of her
chair and walk toward her students, asking probing questions, telling her
stories, and inviting them to tell her their stories in return. It came to me on
one such day that, for JoDee, the classroom was as much a sanctuary as was a
field of wild flowers or a star-studded night sky; that these were graced
moments; that we had entered into sacred time and space. And when I looked
closely, I am quite certain that I saw the brim of her hat turning upwards, ever
so slightly, and I knew then that JoDee, in that time and space, was free and
whole as she imparted to her students unforgettable lessons of courage, dignity,
dedication, and love.
JoDee died of breast cancer
November 21, 1998.
By Mary Sawyer, November 28,
1998
Honored by: Mary Sawyer
Edna Wiser
Students from Religion Class
Other colleagues
Section B - Row 8
There are many women in my life who do not really know how important they
are to me. They have served as wonderful role models and I have learned much
from them. This includes my mother, Florence Lystila Cline, who is still
very active at 85; my sister Ann, a very giving individual and many female
friends. Special Iowa friends are Jodee Rottler, Rachel Christensen and Mary
Anne Gibson. 4/15/94
Narrative Updated: 4/15/1994
Honored By: Jean Palmer
Author who was influenced by JoDee Rottler:
Church on the Margins by Mary R. Sawyer
EXCERPT FROM PREFACE: These experimental engagements with community prompted
me--nudged me--to begin this book project, but the work was interrupted when
significant individuals in my life--a dear friend of twenty-three years, my
closest colleague, and then my mother--became ill. Between October 1996 and
October 1999, each of them died of cancer. I have returned to this project
as a way of honoring and remembering Leanna Bell, JoDee Rottler, and my
mother Polly Kentfield Sawyer, to whom this book is dedicated. They continue
to be part of my spirit community. . .
 Jodee Rottler filled her 55 years of life on this earth with more
accomplishments than a dozen people normally fill in a lifetime. You will
note from her obituary plus the articles quoted above that she had held many
varied positions, taught more subjects, been involved in self-help groups,
yet had time to raise a family while keeping her musical talents honed.
Those who have honored her have only touched the surface of her total
achievements in life.
Her obituary: Joan Dee (JoDee) Rottler was born March 3, 1943 at Storm Lake, IA, the daughter of Slater and
Margaret Brockman and died Saturday, November 21, 1998 of breast cancer at her home in Des Moines.
She graduated from Crestland High School in Early, IA in 1961. She received a B.A. in history and government from Iowa State University in 1965. Her graduate education included a Master's degree in Russian History from Indiana University in 1967 and a Master's degree in Religious Studies from Mundelein College in 1979. She was employed as a secondary math teacher in Louisville, KY and at Dowling High School in Des Moines. She was a program advisor for the Dean of Students Office at Iowa State University, a campus minister at Drake Newman and the University of Northern Iowa and a UCCM campus minister.
She was the first director of the Renewal Center at Mercy Hospital in Des Moines and later continued the program as a private, non-profit community service program.
For the past 11 years she has been an Instructor of Religious Studies as ISU in Ames, where she recently received an Excellence in Teaching Award. The award read "In recognition of your profound care and compassion for students, and extraordinary dedication to teaching from your colleagues in Philosophy and Religious Studies, Iowa State University." She also gave numerous workshops, lectures and retreats and served as a spiritual counselor throughout Iowa.
Joan married Steven Rottler on June 18, 1967. She has two sons, Benjamin, 25 of Tokyo, Japan and Christopher, 21, of Des Moines.
In addition to her immediate family she is survived by her mother, Margaret Brockman of Odebolt, a sister, Kay Clanton of Omaha, NE and a brother, Mike Brockman of Nevada city, CA.
Joan's belief in the sacredness of earth and its people involved her in many community issues including education, religion, politics, the environment, Native American issues, and breast cancer education and support groups.
Joan will be remembered for her great and generous heart, for her enormous capacity for life-long friendships; for her ability to elicit the best from others; for her ability to challenge and affirm students; for living the courage of her convictions; for enduring and also embracing much physical suffering, including living with breast cancer for four years.
She will be remembered for her love of books, teaching, learning, music and her great skill in dancing. She was accomplished in piano, guitar, baritone horn and vocal harmony.
Joan taught and lived the mind-body-spirit connection before it became part of the popular language. As Renewal Center director in 1994 she initiated and taught Buddhist meditation classes which grew into an ongoing meditation group. As director she also initiated and co-hosted a Buddhist retreat at the Unitarian Church last spring.
A teaching colleague remarked that she "was an ecumenical minister wherever she went in institutions of higher education."
She will be missed by family, friends, students and all who came in touch with her prophetic presence.
A service of remembrance was held Friday, November 27 at 7:30 p.m. at Dunn's Funeral Home, 2121 Grand. A memorial service was held Saturday, November 28 at 11 p.m. at the Unitarian Church at Bell and Casady Drive. Another memorial service was held Dec. 7 at the Memorial Union on the ISU Campus. Joan's body was cremated.
JoDee's legacy lives on through an annual scholarship program at Iowa
State University in Ames, IA.
Joan Dee Rottler Scholarship in Religious Studies
Joan (JoDee) Rottler was an instructor of religious studies at
Iowa State University from 1987 to 1998. This scholarship has
been established in her honor as a tribute to her love of
learning and passion for teaching.
Two tuition scholarships of $1,000 each have been awarded
annually to ISU Religious Studies majors since 1999. |
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Crestland Reunion Hall of Fame for 2008
Jack Evans, Class of 1966
Jack B. Evans has accomplished several unrelated ventures in his adult years, much to the benefit of Cedar Rapids where he makes his home. Not only has
he succeeded in his professional life but he excels in public service.
 When the farm crisis hit Iowa in the early 1980s, 1,500 people moved out of Cedar Rapids almost overnight while business after business closed and laid off workers. A crane manufacturing plant closed which emptied a 50-acre plant site and vacated three huge factory buildings. It wiped out thousands of blue-collar jobs that paid top wages. Evans and other community leaders founded a Committee of 100 and set off to try to lure new business to Cedar Rapids. By 1996, the city had attracted more than 90 new firms from as far away as Korea, Finland, Germany and the Netherlands to locate plants in their city. Jack Evans, now president of a foundation that supports local causes, will not forget that day in the 1980s when the crane manufacturing plant closed.
Jack Evans graduated in 1970 from Coe College in Cedar Rapids with a B.A. in Business Administration, after which he earned a M.B.A. in Finance and Investments from the University of Iowa in Iowa City. He and his wife, Nancy, have three grown sons: Matthew, Will and Peter.
Jack B. Evans joined Alliant Energy's Board of Directors in January 2000 and has served as the Chair of the Board's Audit Committee since 2001. Evans was also serving as President of the Hall-Perrine Foundation, a Cedar Rapids-based private philanthropic corporation. He joined Hall-Perrine Foundation in 1996 after 23 years with SCI Financial Group, Inc., a regional financial services firm, where he held positions including Vice President of Research and Executive Vice President before becoming President and Chief Operating Officer.
 Evans also served on the Boards of Directors for the Cedar Rapids Gazette Company, the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago and Nuveen Institutional Advisory Corp., Vice Chairman and a Director of United Fire and Casualty Company, and Priority One, which is the economic development affiliate of the Cedar Rapids Chamber of Commerce. Mr. Evans has served as a Director of AEC, IP&L (or predecessor companies) and AER since 2000.
Evans is the past chairman and life trustee of Coe College, the Iowa College Foundation, the Metropolitan Library Foundation, and the United Way of East Central Iowa. Other past board activities includes Brucemore Inc., Cedar Rapids Airport Commission, Four Oaks, and Westminster Presbyterian Church.
 Evans is a former member of the Chicago Stock Exchange and a part-time instructor and a member of the Advisory Council of the Department of Finance in the Tippie College of Business at the University of Iowa.
Iowa Governor Chet Culver announced on March 15, 2007, his appointment of Jack Evans to the state Board of Regents. Four new appointees pledged a commitment to openness and transparency in governing Iowa's three state universities and two special schools. Gov. Chet Culver announced his selection of Bonnie Campbell, Jack Evans, Craig Lang and David Miles to fill four open seats
 on the nine-member board. Culver said he selected members based on their backgrounds, experience serving on boards and their commitment to openness and to working with faculty, staff and students.
"I know they understand and respect the awesome influence the board has," Culver said. "To get four people on the board of this caliber at the same time I think is a great opportunity."
Jack still maintains close ties to Northwest Iowa where he grew up.
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Crestland Reunion Hall of Fame for 2007
Dennis Marple, Class of 1963
Dennis N. Marple, Department Head 1992-2001, A Brief Biography.
This review was prepared by the Department of Animal Science,
Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa in 2001.
 Dennis Neil Marple was appointed head of the Department of Animal Science at Iowa State University in October, 1992, with administrative responsibilities for instruction, research and extension programs that support the swine, beef, dairy, sheep, horse and poultry industries. He resigned that position March 26, 2001.
Dr. Marple, a native of Nemaha, Iowa, received his B.S. degree at Iowa State University in 1967, the M.S. degree from Iowa State in 1968, and a Ph.D. degree from Purdue in 1971 with emphasis on Meat Science and Environmental Physiology. Two years of post-doctoral studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison followed, where he conducted post-doctoral studies on animal physiology and meat quality.
Dr. Marple joined the faculty of the Department of Animal and Dairy Sciences at Auburn University in 1973 where he was involved in teaching and research activities until being appointed Head of the Department in 1989. He taught courses in animal growth and development, and was involved in research on swine growth and meat quality as well as beef cattle research on shipping fever and fescue toxicity. He was the first recipient of the Outstanding Young Scientist Award from the Southern Section of ASAS, was named Alumni Professor by the Auburn University Alumni Association, and twice received the annual Outstanding Research Award from the Director of the Alabama Experiment Station.
Dr. Marple is past President of American Society of Animal Science (ASAS), a past President of the Southern Section of ASAS, a former member of the Boards of Directors of ASAS and Council for Agricultural Science and Technology (CAST), and serves as Treasurer of the Federation of Animal Science Societies (FASS). He served as Secretary and Chair of North Central Animal Science Administrators (NCA-6). While an officer of ASAS, he helped place ASAS among the leading scientific societies in publication technology. As Chair of the Publications Committee and a member of Editor's Advisory Operations Committee, he facilitated development of the electronic version of Journal of Animal Science and encouraged acceptance of publications and abstracts via electronic format.
As Head of the Department of Animal Science at Iowa State University for nine years, Dr. Marple led with vigor and his accomplishments were myriad. Monthly faculty meetings were established. He initiated development of a strategic plan for the department. Eleven faculty members were hired. He organized the faculty into four key discipline groups with master projects developed and established in each area. With great interest Dr. Marple watched the computer world explode beginning in the early Nineties and moved quickly to implement e-mail and network use within the department and established computer support staff for the department. A new undergraduate curriculum was established. Dr. Marple enhanced the Animal Breeding and Genetics group to become a Program of Excellence with national and international prominence. Realizing the importance of communicating with alumni, he established and published a newsletter twice annually.
In 1994, he coordinated a highly successful departmental CSRS review. The Mid-States DRPC, in 1996, was merged with DRPC (Dairy Records Processing Center) at Raleigh, North Carolina, to form the Dairy Records Management System (DRMS) headquartered in Kildee Hall. He coordinated planning and renovation of several facilities, including the Swine Teaching Farm, Bilsland Farm, and Ruminant Nutrition Farm. He served as liaison to the planning committee for the National Swine Research Information Center that opened in 1999.
Two landmark events were celebrated during Dr. Marple's tenure as Department Head. In April 1996, the Department of Animal Science celebrated its first 100 years with appropriate ceremony. He instigated a departmental history to record the many noteworthy events and people in Animal Science at Iowa State, "A Heritage of Leadership" (R. L. Willham).
 In October 1996, groundbreaking ceremonies were held for a new state-of-the-art $21-million Kildee Addition. The addition was ceremoniously dedicated in November 1998. He also coordinated establishment of the Ensminger Chair with former Dean of Agriculture David G. Topel as the first Chair.
During his years as Head of the Department of Animal Science at Iowa State University, international travel included Russia, the Czech Republic, Ukraine, China and India. Dr. Marple was Co-leader of the Ensminger Ag Tech School in Ukraine in 1996, and Leader of the Ensminger Ag Tech School in China in 1998.
Dr. Marple was elected as a Fellow-Administration to ASAS at the 2000 annual meeting. He was named an Honorary Master Pork Producer by the Iowa Pork Producers Association at the Iowa Pork Congress held in 2000 in Des Moines. He is a member of the Endocrine Society, the American Physiological Society, and the American Society for the Advancement of Science.
 He is also a member of the Agricultural Advisory Committee of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources and serves as an ex-officio member on the Boards of Directors of the Iowa Pork Producer's Association and the Iowa Cattlemen's Association. He is the author or co-author of 57 journal papers and 73 abstracts of presentations at scientific meetings, and has made invited presentations at numerous professional meetings in the US and seven foreign countries. In 1966, he married Jan Mason, of Early, Iowa. They have two children, Mary Lynne and David.
Dennis was nominated by one of his classmates for this award. In high school Dennis applied himself to his studies so his success in the academic world was no surprise to anyone who attended school with him. He has returned to the Auburn, Alabama area where his grown children are living
and where he has close ties with Auburn Univ.
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Crestland Reunion Hall of Fame for 2006
Vara (Bones) Groot, Class of 1960
 Vara Groot has made a name for herself as a distinguished public speaker on a variety of subjects. Her favorite topic centers on a humorous look at her life on the farm.
Vara started doing public speaking about the time her children were out of elementary School. She had heard a Toastmasters club member present a program for an annual meeting. It caused her to think that perhaps she would enjoy sharing some of her experiences in life, so she joined Toastmasters for a few years. The most entertaining and vivid stories grew naturally from her major adjustments to living on the farm!
 Vara has been doing public speaking across the state since then with a favorite as keynote speaker at the first "Women in Denim" Conference in Storm Lake in 2005. This event was intended to educate and empower rural women. You will find parts of that speech in the Crestland Reunion Stories section. Vara has also presented speeches on a variety of other requested topics.
Vara used her Bachelors of Music Education degree from Morningside College to also teach music with the last three years of teaching in Manson where she met her husband-to-be, Merlyn Groot, a native of the Manson area. They married in 1969 and became parents of three daughters who are now grown with families of their own.
Vara has experienced tragedy with the sudden loss of her husband a year ago yet she has an upbeat personality that has kept her going. She continued with her scheduled speaking engagements and is still very much involved with her family and community.
The community of Manson is fortunate to have Vara as a member for so many years. Church involvement has been considerable. She participates in the women's group, singing in choir and remains active in committee activities. In earlier years she also sang in the Ft. Dodge Civic Glee Club and in Manson's Meridian Singers.
Vara has also volunteered in the community by being a member of the Manson Centennial and Quasquicentennial boards for the celebrations.
 When Vara enters a room, people seem to assemble around her. It doesn't matter if they know her or not - her smile and kind words seem to pull people in her direction. She has not gone unnoticed by those she meets as she was named "Friend of Education" in the Manson-Northwest Webster school and was named a Wallace's Farmer Iowa Master Farm Homemaker in 2000.
 Those who knew Vara in high school know she has always been well-liked and is very talented. She participated in music and sports in school and has continued learning and participating in activities as an adult. Some of these pastimes include art classes, accompanying students on the piano for music contests, and playing the French horn in the community band. She also walks for health and for fun.
The Crestland Reunion Association is honored to add Vara (Bones) Groot to the Hall of Fame for 2006.
You may read more about this complex gal, her family, and her thoughts in the
Crestland Reunion Biography/Profile Class of 1960 section.
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Crestland Reunion Hall of Fame for 2005
Russ Davis, Class of 1972
 Russ Davis farms near Nemaha and lives a couple of miles from where he grew up. He is involved in a variety of volunteer activities in the community and offers help and support to anyone in need.
Russ is a volunteer fireman and a first responder. He uses his Nurse's training in local emergencies and also works parttime at Park View Care Center in Sac City.
He is a volunteer Lay Speaker with the United Methodist Church of Nemaha but also volunteers at any local church who needs a temporary speaker.
Russ donates his musical talents whenever requested and has performed for many funerals with short notice. He also participates with the Community Crooners singing group.
Iowa Farm Bureau uses his speaking talents in sharing agriculture stories with communities and the media as a member of the 2005 Iowa Farm Bureau Speaker Corps.
Russ visits and offers help to people struggling with illnesses and other tragedies and is quick to nominate others for volunteer distinction.
Nathaniel Schiltz, a 2005 graduate with high honors from Schaller Crestland listed Russ Davis as his role model: "He has many talents but has come back to a small town to use them when he could have gone any place he wanted. I really admire him."
While most people would bend under the load of full-time farming, volunteering, working parttime off the farm, and raising two daughters (with the help of his wife Liz) - Russ has participated in the Farmall Promenade since 1999 as one of the 'lady' tractor square-dancers, an activity that involves a lot of weekend performances and frequent overnight travel.
 In summation: Russ is a man with a smile
and a kind word for everyone.
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Disclaimer: This award is from the "Crestland Reunion
Association" and is not associated with
nor endorsed by the Schaller-Crestland School.
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