Ambassadors Council recognizes local leaders

June 15, 2016 – West Bend, WI –  Recognition this week at the City/County Luncheon at UW-Washington County as Norbert Dettmann, Margaret Nielsen and Allan Kieckhafer were honored.

Recognition this week at the City/County Luncheon at UW-Washington County as Norbert Dettmann, Margaret Nielsen and Allan Kieckhafer were honored.

The Ambassador Council hosted the annual event and recognized Dettmann, Nielsen and Kieckhafer for their vision and tenacity as they worked to make the two-year campus at UW-WC a reality.

Jane Maley, a member of the Ambassador Council, credited the three local leaders for their support. “These wonderful people embody the quote, ‘what we pay for, invest time in and volunteer for speaks volumes about what we value,'” she said.

“So much of what the Ambassadors have accomplished has been an outgrowth of their original ideas for this campus. They have modeled what it means to be goodwill ambassadors. They have also shown us what it means to be wholeheartedly courageous in the pursuit of a common good. They knew that students, especially those from smaller, rural areas would benefit from the chance to start college at a two-year campus.”

Nielsen, 94, started with the Ambassadors in the early 1970s when Dean Thompson was at the helm. “It has been a pleasure being an ambassador,” said Nielsen. “Working in different programs like the Festival of Arts and Fish Fry Frenzy and the other wonderful social programs help keep people interested in the University.”

Kieckhafer, 92, has also been on board since the early 1970s. “I remember lobbying the city council and the county board for things like a library and gymnasium,” he said. “Part of our responsibility was the public relations for the University.”

Dettmann, who has contributed towards an endowed scholarship for Farmington students, has served on the University Ambassador Council since 1968 and was an integral part of establishing the UW-WC campus in West Bend.

“I’ve been on the Ambassadors even before they were the Ambassadors,” Dettmann said recalling the head of the committee at the time was Reuben Schmahl.

A former Washington County Board Supervisor for 23 years, Dettmann has four scholarships in his name that are awarded ever year.  “This goes back to my religious background where if you want everlasting life, Jesus taught us to give away all our possessions to the poor,” he said. “That is my goal in helping the local University and continuing to provide students the opportunity of education.”