Family Bek

This family live in East Hillcrest House 05.

We need more information about this family.

Family Dorpat

David Dorpat, born in [year?]. Pastor at St John Church.

[Wife's name] Dorpat, born in [year?]

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David Dorpat, born in [year?].

Debbie Dorpat.

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They lived in East Hillcrest House 04 from 1967 to [year?].

Family Hans

Parents' names?

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Lynette, born in [year?].

Larry Hans, born in [year?].

Layne Hans, born in [year?].

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The Hans family lived in East Hillcrest House 06.

Family Luebke

Fred Luebke, born in 1927.

Norma Luebke, born in 1930.

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Christina Luebke, born in 1954.

Seikai (John) Luebke, born in 1956.

David Luebke, born in 1960.

Thomas Luebke, born in 1962.

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The Luebke family lived in Hillcrest Avenue House 07 from 1961 to 1962.

Then they lived in Fairlane Avenue (east side) House 06 from 1962 to 1969.

John Luebke Remembers

[John Luebke now is named Seikai Luebke and has the title of Reverend in the Buddhist religion.]

Memory is by turns both fragile and resilient; having a good memory is a mixed blessing —- one remembers a lot of things -- and whether you recall them as good, bad or indifferent is another question. So it is with me, whom anyone reading this blog would remember as John Luebke. As to why a significant portion of my brain’s memory capacity is devoted to my eight years of living in Seward, Nebraska, I can’t say. But as Mike Sylwester has pointed out, those were very formative years for a whole bunch of people: we were baby boomer children growing up in an ethnic-religious enclave —- the German-Lutheran side of a small Nebraska town —- during a poignant era for social change, the late 1950s and 1960s. The homogeneity of that religious enclave, the shared experiences and beliefs, made for indelible memories of a time and place.

My overriding impression of that time and place is of living on an island of uniformity in what is commonly thought of as the Middle of Nowhere (Nebraskans bristle a bit at that perception). We were a chosen people, such as the Israelites in the Christian Bible; and surely this self-identity has much to do with the importance given to religion and Bible-study in the sub-culture. It was a great place for kids to grow up. In talking to a wide variety of people in my life, I have learned that it was, in a word, idyllic. The freedom to roam the streets of a safe, small town, innumerable places to explore, and the relatively high culture of an academic environment, Concordia Teachers College combined to make this a special environment to have spent one’s most open, formative years.

Regardless of whether one leaves the subculture and moves on into a different one, as I did, or the general culture, you retain the impressions, memories, and mental programming of where you grew up. I have chosen to view it all positively, for memory is also malleable and subjective. St. Johns Lutheran School was a good place to get a grade school education, and Concordia was a rung on the career ladder of my father, as it was for many of the families mentioned in the blog. That world delivered us to the next one, that of state-run academia: the University of Nebraska and the city of Lincoln.

The moves my family made -- first from Southern California where my father was a Lutheran grade school teacher and principal, to Concordia, and then to the University of Nebraska -- were typical of many families in that neighborhood, including the Sylwesters, the Schwichs etc. This brings to mind another divide I recall as a kid in school: the one between town folk who were firmly rooted in Seward and its surrounding farmland, and those of us for whom Seward was a stopover. There were what were called “faculty brats” —- generally pretty smart kids from academic families who could also be, at times, well ... bratty. I was certainly one of them.

In my 50s I have a very different perspective, having left the Lutheran Church and Christianity altogether, than some of my peers growing up who have stayed in that religious paradigm. I grew up with it but, by choice, it ended 35 years ago when I embraced a completely different religious path. So what might seem normal to one of my school friends today, might well seem like a distant and strange set of circumstances to me. And although I very definitely went through a period of time in my life in which I was happy to forget all about my childhood environment, as a mature adult I have chosen to embrace it —- and that is why I am writing now.

One incident which is both funny and emblematic of what I am writing about occurred in 1979. I had made my first visit home to my family over a year after having been ordained a Buddhist monk, and was about to get on a plane back to California. So I was with my family in the Lincoln airport —- not an unlikely place to encounter someone from Seward —- and as it turned out, lo and behold, we met the Blomenbergs. I was dressed in a black clerical shirt with the white tab, and slacks at the time and looked for all the world like a Catholic priest. Mrs. Blomenberg cast a critical eye on me and inquired whether I had become a priest or a monk, to which I answered affirmatively. Not wanting to provide any information that was not immediately sought after, I added nothing else, but she kept at it and asked if I were, as it appeared, a Catholic priest? Nope, I said, I’m a Buddhist monk. At that point her jaw literally dropped, and she gasped while Mr. Blomenberg smiled weakly. My parents were embarrassed; I thought it was supremely funny, but fought back the temptation to laugh. These things happen in small world.

I have visited Seward one or twice per decade since leaving in 1969. I am always surprised by how little it changes, at least by comparison to California, but also at the rapid evolution of my old neighborhood from a windy, edge-of-town place with lots of new houses and construction, to an established neighborhood with the softening effects of trees, landscaping, and time. And of course things seem smaller than they did growing up; as a kid everything is enormous to your small, plastic body that you hurl at the world.

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History, Geography & Specific Memories:

In 1961 my family moved from the greater L.A. area to Seward —- a huge change of environment. We settled into a house on the northeast corner of Columbia Avenue and Hillcrest Drive, which I understood was the old Schlueter farm house. The college had bought it and we lived there one year. The barns and horse corrals were gone, but I have vivid memories of the railroad tracks that abutted the back of the property; this was a Chicago & Northwestern line, if memory serves me, which was later abandoned in the mid-60s, but played a role in the adventures of boyhood.

The Hans family lived next door (Lanny, Lane and Lynette were the first kids I met in Seward) on Hillcrest. To the west, where there are now houses, was an empty field where some years later our vacation Bible school class, taught by Rupert Gieselman, would attempt to cut sod with a funky old rented sod cutter in an effort to build a sod house. Catty-corner was an empty St. John’s school yard where I can remember high jumping during track season before the new church was ultimately built in about 1968.

Meanwhile, like many families then, we had a house built in the same neighborhood, no more than a quarter mile away on Fairlane Ave. As one travels east on Hillcrest, the streets one passes are: Kolterman, Fairlane, Plainview, Sunrise, and Eastridge. To this day I love the prosaic street names Fairlane and Plainview —- how perfect for Nebraska!

So we moved to 1150 Fairlane, which was then a gravel road. Helping my father paint the house was my introduction to hard work, which has been the incurable addiction of my life. I remember watching with utter fascination a street paving crew of largely Black men, obviously from an Omaha or Lincoln-based construction company, coming in to pave Fairlane. One Black man had a mouth full of gold teeth and, being six or so, I was amazed to learn that Black people had gold teeth! Wow. And there was always a house under construction somewhere, with the attendant dirt piles. Dirt piles were an endless source of adventure back then, and dirt clods the perfect projectile and offensive weapon. A house under construction was a great place to play: think of it —- a huge jungle gym! The distinctive smell of newly milled construction lumber. Those metal electrical box knock-outs that were just about exactly the size of a quarter. Mud puddles. For a seven-year-old, this was heaven. Street projects, with the assemblage of huge concrete storm drain sections, it was the same deal.

The Lemkes moved in right about the same time that we did; Mark quickly became my closest friend. I have a vivid memory of Bob Lemke, who owned two “bugs” at the time —- small, black, sort of beetle-shaped cars -— driving out into the field behind our row of houses, tying the barbed fire fence to the bumper of one bug, and proceeding to rip the fence from its posts by driving headlong out into the field. That field, now a street with houses on each side, was our baseball and football field throughout the decade of the 60s, and kids from all over our part of town would come over to participate in pick-up games—baseball in the spring and early summer, football in late summer and fall.

Just on Fairlane, there were five kids my age: Brad Peter, Debbie Fischer, Mark Lemke, John Streufert and me. Obviously, if you go there now, none of those people are still there and houses have long ago been built to fill out the street, but at the time, Fairlane was a virtual dormitory for St. John’s Lutheran School and Concordia Teachers College.

For Mark Lemke and me, Plum Creek was perhaps the ultimate destination, particularly in the winter when it was possible to walk directly on the ice above the water. Times when the ice was thin and one could punch holes in it had the attraction of added risk. One time I stepped in an animal trap someone had set; neither Mark nor I could undo the thing, so it required an embarrassing trip home to ask Bob Lemke to come and liberate me. I remember sledding down that delightfully long East Hill towards Plum Creek, and also trips to 5th Street, which was a drag strip for kids using those narrow-runner sleds.

Paper routes, meanwhile, were a year-round occupation for kids my age (I had two paper routes); we were told that this was a way to learn to run a business and be responsible. I cannot argue with that even now, and learning to get up early day after day was something that has served me well in life.

Growing up in small-town Nebraska, sports could almost be described as the meaning of life, and football as a religion. I rarely missed a Concordia College or High School home football game. Whatever the season, there was a sport: football, basketball, track and baseball —- autumn, winter, spring and summer. In winter you could go swimming at Concordia and in summer at the famous round Seward municipal pool. In summer there was Little League baseball, and in winter Little League basketball. One autumn I won two levels of Ford Punt, Pass & Kick competition, which was a big deal back then.

On two occasions when my mother was in the hospital, women from the community would bring over cooked food to our house in the evening for dinner —- that was impressive. I have gratitude for Seward and to the neighborhood and the people who lived there at the time. No environment is “perfect”, but anywhere that people are basically loving and caring of each other, human beings will grow up in a healthy way that affords them opportunities to be successful in their adult lives.

East Hillcrest Drive Added to Blog

Ronda Kirch gave me the initial information to add some houses and families that lived on East Hillcrest Drive. She remembers a time when a series of houses was occupied by the Maehr, Erxleben, Heinicke, Langevin, Kirch, Adam, Fenster and Bye families. On this website's right margin you now should see those families and some East Hillcrest houses. Thanks Ronda!

Ronda sent me these initial memories:

My oldest sister Sandra was already attending CTC by 1960 and married in 62. My second oldest sister Marcia was attending Seward High and married in 61. My sister Carla was killed in a car accident in 63 before her junior year at CHS. My sister Tonya was, I believe, a year ahead of you. I was in Steve's class.

Hillcrest kids (this usually involved Kirches, Langevins, Heinickes, and Jenny Mueller) rarely left our own yards without permission. With permission we could play pretty freely in the Heinicke or Kirch yards -- sometimes Langevins. It was easy to get permission to roam onto campus or go play in the school yard.

Going to Plum Creek wasn't too difficult -- often my mother would lead expeditions that led to fishing, "bridge and fort building" that we often could go back to and continue on our own.

It was more difficult for us little kids to get permission to head north of Hillcrest when that was still fields (before all the houses were built) though the teens and almost teens went there in the late 50s and early 60s. In summer there was an almost daily run to the Seward swimming pool.

I do recall finding a dead dog in the bushes that ran along the side of your house (a little hilltop that dropped to a parking lot???) and I'm pretty sure that was when you lived there.

(Mike:) I don't remember a dead dog being in the bushes along the side of our house! I do, however, have a memory about a dog that followed me around and then disappeared. I was thinking about writing an article about that dog. Hmm ...

Family Bye

This family lived in East Hillcrest House 01 from [year?] to [year?].

Parents' names?

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Kevin Bye, born in [year?]

Kandyce Bye, born in [year?]

Family Heinicke

Iddo Heinicke Sr (former pastor of St. John's Church in Seward) and Elizabeth Heinicke had eight children -- Gary, Ed, Iddo Jr., Martin, Ted, Victor, Bill and Betsy.

The Heinicke family lived in the St.John's Church parsonage located on the northwest corner of the North 3rd Street and Highway 34 intersection while Iddo Sr served as pastor. After Iddo Heinicke Sr died tragically in an accident, the family moved to the house on the southeast corner of Columbia Avenue and Lincoln Street. Long after her children had grown up, Elizabeth Heinicke finally sold the house, and then moved to North 3rd Street to live with her daughter Betsy Schmidt and her granddaughter Carolyn Schmidt. (Though her sons strongly encouraged her to profit from her years of home ownership, Elizabeth adamantly refused to do so; she sold the house to Reinhold and Dorris Marxhausens for the same price she had paid for it years earlier. Reinhold Marxhausen said years later that his family never would have been able to buy the house if Elizabeth Heinicke had not been so generous.)

Four of those Heinicke children — Gary, Iddo Jr, Bill, and Betsy — raised their own families in Seward for many years, as did the widow of Victor.

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Family of Gerhard "Gary" Heinicke

Gary Heinicke, born in [year?], died in [year?]

Gary had two careers.

First, he was a career U.S. Air Force pilot. His military career began during World War II when he served in the European Theater as a bomber pilot. During WWII, Gary was shot down behind enemy lines in Czechoslovakia, and successfully escaped capture with the help of the Serbian Resistance underground. During his military career, Gary's family lived in Germany, Spain, and Japan among other places. (Son Gary "G.B." was born in Kansas City, Missouri; son Ronald was born in Denver, Colorado; and son Tim was born in Tokyo, Japan.)

After retiring from the U.S. Air Force at the rank of colonel in the mid-1960s, Gary began his second career as the director of both student financial aid and college personnel at Concordia Teachers College in Seward. He was the first president of the Nebraska Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators in 1971-72, and was chairman of the first organizing committee of that association in 1967.

Eleanor (Kolterman) Heinicke, born in [year?]. (Sister of Don Kolterman, who owned the Ben Franklin's store in downtown Seward).

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Gary Heinicke, born in [year?]

Ron Heinicke, born in [year?]

Tim Heinicke, born in 1950, died in 2008. (Obituary post)

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Family of Iddo Heinicke, Jr.

Iddo Heinicke Jr, born in 1923.

Iddo Jr returned to Seward after serving in the U.S. Army in Europe during and after WWII. He ended his military service as a member of The Rainbow Division. He worked full-time at Jones Bank in Seward while also working part-time as treasurer for the Nebraska District of The Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, and then became a full-time financial officer for the LCMS Nebraska District. Iddo Jr was instrumental in the beginnings of what is now known as The Lutheran Church Extension Fund (LCEF) and is honored by that LCMS organization as a "Silver Eagle." He served on The Board of Regents at Concordia University Nebraska, and also served in the local Seward government.

Joyce (Muhl) Heinicke, born in 1929.

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Stephanie Heinicke, born in 1953.

Kathie "Koe" Heinicke, born in 1954.

David Heinicke, born in 1956.

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They lived in East Hillcrest House 03 from 1954 to 1967.

Then they then moved to a new house that they had built on North 1st Street in Seward.

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Family of Bill Heinicke

Bill Heinicke, born in [year?].

Bill returned to Seward in the mid-1960s to teach at Concordia Teachers College after he had taught in Denver Lutheran schools for many years. His family moved from Seward to Montana in 1971, and has moved to different places since then.

Pat Heinicke, born in [year?].

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Bill Heinicke, born in [year?].

Eric Heinicke, born in [year?].

Patricia "Patty", born in [year?].

Pamela "Pam", born in [year?].

Jennifer, born in [year?].

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Bill Heinicke's family lived in Faculty Lane House 7 from [year?] to [year].

This family then bought the Sylwester's house on remote Columbia Avenue (former Faculty Lane House 1) and lived there from 1968 to 1971.

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Family of Betsy (Heinicke) Schmidt

Robert "Bob" Heinicke, born in [year?], died in [year?].

Elizabeth "Betsy" Heinicke, born in [year?].

Betsy lived in different places, including foreign countries, until her husband Bob died. She then returned to Seward in the mid-1960s and has remained there since. For decades, she served as the Concordia president's executive secretary, beginning with President Janzow's tenure.

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Carolyn Heinicke, born in [year?].

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Family of Victor Heinicke

Victor Heinicke, born in [year?], died in [year?]

Victor was a Lutheran missionary in New Guinea when he had a heart attack. He then returned to the United States with his family, and died soon thereafter.

Norma Heinicke, born in [year?].

After Victor's death, his widow Norma moved to Seward in the mid-1970s with their children, where she remained until moving away in 2007.

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(Children's names being obtained.)

Family Hellwege

They lived in Faculty Lane House 6 from [year?] to [year?].

Then they lived in East Hillcrest House 08 from [year?] to [year?].

We need information about the family's members.

Family Kirch

Martin, born in [year?]. He was Dean of Students and held other such top administrative positions at the college.

Irene, born in [year?]

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Sandra, born in [year?].

Marcia, born in [year?].

Carla, born in [year?]. Died in 1963.

Tonya, born in [year?].

Ronda, born in [year?].

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This family lived in East Hillcrest House 02 from [year?] to [year?].

Family Langevin

Tom Langevin, born in [year?]. Taught history. Served as the college's acting president.

[Mother's name?] Langevin, born in [year?].

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Dennis Langevin, born in [year?].

Tim Langevin, born in [year?].

They lived in East Hillcrest House 03 from [year?] to [year?].

Family Schlueter

[Father's name] Schlueter, born in [year?].

[Mother's name] Schlueter, born in [year?].

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Jane Schlueter, born in [year?].

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The Schlueter family lived in East Hillcrest House 07 from [year?] to [1961?].

Then the Schlueter family moved out farther east, into the country, on East Hillcrest Drive.

Family Schwich

Luther Schwich, born in [year?].

Mildred Schwich, born in [year?].

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Jody Schwich, born in 1950.

Bill Schwich, born in 1952.

Dan Schwich, born in 1955.

Rob Schwich, born in 1956.

Andrew Schwich, born in 1958.

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Family dog: Dunder

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The Schwich family lived in Faculty House 2 from 1955 to 1958.

Then they lived in Faculty Lane House 3 from 1958 to 1961.

Then they moved to California and returned to Seward in 1964-67.

Jody Schwich: We lived in two of the four big white frame houses from 1955 through the summer of 1961. We lived in California for three years and returned to Seward in 1964 and lived in a new faculty house across from Jenny Mueller on Plainview from 1964-1966. We lived with Lavonne Riemer across from the gym on South Columbia [East Hillcrest Drive?] in 1966-67. Then we moved to Utah.

They lived in East Hillcrest Drive House 03 from 1966 to 1967..

East Hillcrest House 08

Postal address: ??? East Hillcrest Drive

This house stood on the south side of East Hillcrest Drive.

This house was occupied by the Hellwege family from [year?] to [year?].

East Hillcrest House 07

Postal address: 116 East Hillcrest Drive

This house was occupied by the Schlueter family from [year?] to [year?].

Then this house was occupied by the family of Fred Luebke from [year?] to [year?].

East Hillcrest House 06

Postal address: 158 East Hillcrest Drive

This house was occupied by the family of Bud Hans from [year?] to [year?].

East Hillcrest House 05

Postal address: 302 East Hillcrest Drive

This house was occupied by the Erxleben family from [year?] to [year?].

This house was occupied by the Bek family from [year?] to [year?].

East Hillcrest House 04

Postal address: 326 East Hillcrest Drive

This house was occupied by the family of Iddo Heinicke from 1954 to 1967.

Then this house was occupied by the family of David Dorpat from [1967?] to [year?].

East Hillcrest House 03

Postal address: 410 East Hillcrest Drive

This house was occupied by the family of Thomas Langevin from [year?] to [year?].

Then this house was occupied by Lavonne Riemer from [year?] to [year?]. During that time the family of Luther Schwich lived there too as tenants from 1966 to 1967.

Then this house was occupied by the family of David Heinicke from [year?] to [year?].

East Hillcrest House 02

Postal address: 436 East Hillcrest Drive

This house was occupied by the family of Martin Kirch from [year?] to [year?].