Thoughts About Waldorf in Celebrating Its Centennial, October 2003, As I Remember It
I’ve always loved Waldorf. Seventy-five years ago, I was present at Waldorf’s 25th Anniversary. It was Odvin Hagen’s first year. He sang “Silver Threads Among the Gold,” as only he could sing it. I think he could almost be heard out at Pilot Knob…ALMOST!
I was at Waldorf from the fall of 1937 until August 1940, when I married a student, Irwin Hyland, Radcliffe, Iowa, in the college chapel. My first year at Waldorf, I was a Business major and because of my clerical experience, I was promoted immediately to the second-year level of the program. I then worked at the college until my marriage to “Irv.” Myrtle Rendahl and Muggie Hagen had a bridal shower for me. We then moved to St. Paul where “Irv” was a student at Luther Seminary and I worked at the former ELC national headquarters downtown Minneapolis. We served parishes in South Dakota, Minnesota and Iowa. We were at Rock Creek Lutheran Church, rural Osage, Iowa, when Irv died as a 45-year-old pastor, Sept., 1959. Shortly thereafter, I moved the family to Forest City where I was able to work as parish secretary at Immanuel Lutheran for the next two years. In 1962, President Sig Fauske asked if I would be interested in being the manager of Waldorf’s bookstore. I said, “Yes, I’d love that.” So, I was manager of the bookstore for 12 years until my retirement and subsequent marriage to Hugh Drentlaw of Northfield, Minn. My years at Waldorf were wonderful years: I could never think of any place that I’d rather be!
While I was at Waldorf as a student, I committed to memory a couple of things that I’d like to share with you. The first is a description of a true friend. I had many during my years at Waldorf. I feel it’s typical of Waldorf students and alumni to be genuine friends:
“Oh, the joy, the inexpressible joy, of feeling safe with someone, having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but pouring them all out, chaff and grain together—knowing that a faithful hand will take and sift them: keep what is worth keeping, and, with a breath of kindness, blow the rest away."
The second one is this:
Once in my childhood days, long gone and dead, I watched a supper table being spread by busy hands, and eagerly i said, wishing to help, “Please, may I bring the bread?” A kind voice said, “Are your hands clean?"
Oft now, when I see the multitudes unfed, waiting, hungry for the living bread, I ask, “Please, may I bring the bread?” A kind voice says, even as a voice once said, “Are your hands clean?” I only bow my head.
Waldorf has had many great people on its faculty/staff roster. God has truly blessed Waldorf! I’ve known some great Presidents: J.L. Rendahl, Sidney Rand, Sig Faust, Paul Mork, Bill Hamm and the current president, Tom Jolivette. (I hope he stays for many more years!)
