Volunteers needed to decorate downtown for fall

Autumn is here and the City of Forest City is looking for volunteers to help decorate the downtown area for the new season.
Waldorf College students, staffers and faculty are encouraged to participate. The event is 5 p.m.Thursday. Participants will meet in front of the tank in the courthouse square. Fifteen volunteers are needed.

To volunteer, contact Jason Eck, Waldorf College communications specialist, at Jason.eck@Waldorf.edu or call 641-585-8268.

Speakers announced for chapel services

Chapel is held Wednesday morning in the Atrium.

Vickie Zobel, administrative assistant for the Waldorf College Education Department, will lead the chapel service on Wednesday morning.


Chapel begins at 10:30 a.m. in the Atrium and is conducted each Wednesday.

At Sunday night's worship service, Jeremy Padilla, Waldorf College's student body vice president, will deliver the message. Sunday worship is at 7 p.m. in the Odvin Hagen Music Center Recital Hall.

Chapel speakers vary each week and are volunteers, said assistant professor of religion Steve Smith.

Students, staffers and faculty are encouraged to attend chapel services.

For more information, contact Smith at 641-585-8253.

‘The Glass Menagerie’ kicks off four-night run on Wednesday

The Waldorf College Theater Department opens its mainstage production season on Wednesday night with Tennessee Williams’ “The Glass Menagerie.”

The show begins at 7:30 p.m. in Smith Theatre. It will run through Saturday beginning at the same time each night.

Tickets are still available and may be purchased at the box office, which is open from 1-3 p.m. weekdays, or at 7 p.m. each night of the show.

Tickets can be reserved online at www.waldorf.edu/Residential/Fine-Arts/Theatre/2010-11-Season.

Cost is $10 for adults, $10 for seniors and students, and $2 for Waldorf students.

Season tickets are available at $28 for adults and $20 for seniors and students. A season ticket allows the recipient to attend four of the mainstage shows (at a savings of $12), as well as preferred seating and a reservation calling service.

For information on buying a season ticket, call Bob AuFrance, associate professor of theater, at (641) 585-8288 or e-mail him at aufrancer@waldorf.edu.

Students can strike up some fun bowling

Students are invited to bowl Saturday night at Super Bowl in Forest City.


The event, sponsored by the Social Warrior Activities Team (S.W.A.T.), is from 9 to 11 p.m.

Students can sign up at the Campus Center information desk.

S.W.A.T. seeks to provide entertainment for the Waldorf College community. The group brings events such as comedy acts, coffeehouse artists, day programming, formal dances, novelty acts, speakers and artists to the Waldorf campus.

S.W.A.T. encourages students to attend each event and become involved with planning future events. The club conducts meetings for general members every other week. The next meeting is 5 p.m. Wednesday in the Anna Marie Mitchell Meeting Room.

Students can get involved in many ways with S.W.A.T. including hospitality, advertising and attending the programs.

For information about S.W.A.T., call Christina Watkinson at (563) 543-4605 or e-mail her at watkinsoc@waldorf.edu.

Flag football sign-ups due Wednesday

Are you ready for some football?


Registration for 4-on-4 intramural flag football is by 4 p.m. Wednesday at the Campus Center information desk.

Men’s and women’s divisions will be offered and split into competitive and less competitive groups depending on how many teams sign up.

Championship T-shirts will go to the winners.

For information about other intramural sports, contact Zach Van Cleave, director of intramurals and recreation, at Ext. 8490 or e-mail zach.vancleave@waldorf.edu. To see all the intramural offerings for fall, go to www.waldorf.edu/intramurals.

The following is a schedule of upcoming intramural sports and other recreational opportunities:

Today

Intramural slow-pitch softball: Pammel Park fields, 6:50 pm


October

• First week: 4-on-4 intramural flag football (date to be announced)  
• Second week: Ultimate Frisbee
• Oct. 16: Outdoor recreation canoe trip on the Des Moines River. To sign up, e-mail zach.vancleave@waldorf.edu. 
• Oct. 22: Des Moines Buccaneers hockey game. Trip is full.
• Oct. 23: Texas Hold’em poker tournament, 7 p.m., Gatsby’s. Sign up at Campus Center or show up at Gatsby’s at 6:45 p.m.
• Fourth week: 3-on-3 basketball sign-ups due by 4 p.m. Oct. 27, at Campus Center information desk.
• Oct. 29: Iowa State University hockey game. Sign up at the Campus Center information desk or e-mail zach.vancleave@waldorf.edu. Group will leave at 5:30 p.m. from Campus Center.

New issue of Waldorf Magazine available online

The fall issue of The Waldorf Magazine is available to read online at www.waldorf.edu/Residential/Alumni/Waldorf-Magazine.

Waldorf Magazine is published for alumni and friends of Waldorf College. It is published twice a year, in the fall and in the spring.

Clinic set Saturday to certify judges for high school speech events

Waldorf College will host an Iowa High School Speech Association judges’ certification clinic on Saturday.

The clinic is 10 a.m. in the second floor conference room of Luise V. Hanson Library. It is open to anyone interested in obtaining certification or recertification for judging IHSSA individual and large group speech contests.

The clinic will take approximately 90 minutes. People who are interested in obtaining certification should bring a pencil and a $5 certification fee.

Dan Putz, a member of the IHSSA certification committee, will conduct the workshop.

Waldorf College will host the IHSSA State Speech Contest for individual events in March 2012.

For information, contact Ken Hansen, associate professor of speech and English, at ext. 8223 or at hansenk@waldorf.edu.

Waldorf welcomes new biology professor

Gary Coombs recently joined the faculty at Waldorf College, a four-year liberal arts college in Forest City, Iowa. He will teach freshman majors biology, biochemistry, a senior seminar in the fall and genetics and developmental biology during the spring.

“I am interested in developing my teaching skills in order to play a larger role in guiding the careers and aspirations of new scientists,” Coombs said. His past experience includes teaching reading and writing skills as an undergraduate student and mentoring graduate students in both studies and research. He also taught a course on metastasis at the University of Utah.

Coombs, 43, holds a bachelor’s degree from Brigham Young University and a doctorate degree in molecular biophysics from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas.

Coombs, who hails from Colorado Springs, Colo., is moving to Waldorf after working three years as a senior research fellow in the lab of Dr. David Virshup, director of the Cancer and Stem Cell Biology program at Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School in Singapore.” I have never lived in the Midwest, but I like small communities. I also liked the idea of beginning a teaching career with class sizes that don’t require an auditorium,” he added.

Coombs is married with two sons. He looks forward to enjoying canoeing and other outdoor activities in and around Forest City.

As for teaching, “I hope to become proficient as quickly as possible at teaching, and have the time and energy to build an undergraduate driven research program focusing initially on Wnt signaling and iron metabolism,” Coombs said. Wnt signaling refers to a network of protein hormones which act as “morphogens” or determinants of body shape and size during pre- and post-natal development.

Coombs’ interest in biology stems from accomplishments and teaching skills of the professor who taught my freshman biology course at BYU. “He developed live culture vaccines for bacterial pneumonia in domestic turkeys, and taught the processes of inflammation in several lectures focused on the life cycle of the zit. I remain interested because I am always learning something new,” Coombs explained.

Christian music group to play concert Tuesday night in Atrium

Waldorf College Campus Ministry invites students and staffers to a free concert at 8 p.m. Tuesday night in the Atrium.

CTI Music Ministries, a contemporary Christian music group that travels internationally spreading God’s word through song, testimonials and dramas, will visit campus.

A free-will donation will be taken, but an offering is not required.

The musicians will deliver the message at chapel from 10:30-10:50 a.m. Wednesday in the Atrium.

For information, call Trudy Pommerening at 641-585-8221.

Former Waldorf academic dean dies at age 85



Dale Hanke

Dale Hanke, a former academic dean at Waldorf College, died Monday. He was 85 years old.

Visitation for Mr. Hanke was to be held from 5-7 p.m., Friday, at Christ the King Lutheran Church in Mankato, Minn. A prayer service led by pastor John Petersen was set to begin at 7 p.m. A service celebrating Mr. Hanke's life will be held at 11 a.m., Sept. 27, at Zion Evangelical Church in Brownsville, Minn. Visitation will be held one hour before the service at the church with burial following at Brownsville Cemetery.

Chess club to kick off Sunday afternoon

The first Waldorf College Chess Club meeting will be held Sunday, Sept. 19, from 4-5 p.m. in the Mitchell Conference Room in the Campus Center. Bring a chess set with you if you own one. We will have group instruction and play some friendly matches.

The second meeting is an opportunity to play some speed chess games on Monday morning, Sept. 20, starting at 10:30 a.m., also in the Mitchell Conference Room. All students, faculty and staffers are welcome to participate.

For information, call Cynthia Ryder, Chess Club faculty adviser, at 641-585-8495.

Waldorf to Launch Hockey Team

Douglas G. Ross

Waldorf College announces the start of its men’s hockey program to be lead by famed collegiate hockey coach Douglas G. Ross, a four-time national championship coach. The program will begin recruiting immediately in preparation for its inaugural 2011-2012 season.

“I know there is a lot of good hockey here in Iowa -- over in Des Moines and Mason City and in Minnesota,” Ross said. “There are some people who want to play hockey and get their education. This program is a good opportunity for high school students, college transfers and junior hockey players.

The team will start playing a club schedule and hopefully join a conference and play approximately 24 to 28 games at a nearby city ice arena in Albert Lea, Minn.  

“This might be really good marriage for Waldorf College and the youth hockey in Albert Lea because our boys will be good role models for the younger players. We will work with them at clinics and we hope that the Albert Lea community comes out and watches us play,” Ross said. Doug has over thirty-five years of hockey camp and clinic experience.   “We would love to get lots of players from Minnesota and Iowa that are dedicated to earning their degree and have a passion to play hockey for Waldorf.”

While recruiting is important to Ross, he does stress the importance of morals, academics, and being the best citizen you can be both on and off the ice. “The most important goal is to build a team that will play with a lot of passion, character and sportsmanship and develop a good reputation. We want them to achieve academically, too. I would love to have a bunch of honor roll students,” Ross said. “I will work with them and give them 30 years of coaching and some 20 years of playing experience.”

And that experience started when Ross played outdoor hockey as child and won several outdoor state hockey championships on the Sunnyside Hockey Team. He transitioned to indoor leagues at age 14 and later played for the Detroit Junior a Red Wings, Southern Ontario Hockey Association champions.  Ross continued his pursuit of hockey at Lake Superior State College in Michigan where he played on the NAIA National Championship winning team in 1972.

Ross transferred and earned his bachelor’s degree in education from Bowling Green State University in 1975 becoming the highest scoring right wing in the nation. While there, Ross played hockey under the legendary coach Ron Mason and went on to play the right wing position for the U.S. National Hockey Team in 1975. Ross then played for the 1976 U.S. Olympic team competing in the XII Winter Olympic games which was coached by the legendary Bob Johnson.

Ross earned his master’s degree in education at Western Michigan University in 1979 while coaching Kalamazoo Central High School where he worked for two years. Then Ross went on to coach hockey for two years at Kent State University before transferring to the University of Alabama-Huntsville. 

“Everybody would say for years they didn’t know we had a hockey program in Huntsville, Alabama,” Ross explained. “But we grew it up.  We grew it up with a lot of support from the Huntsville community, especially the Huntsville Amateur Hockey Association, UAH, and the players from the 1982 Championship Club Team. Together we moved the program forward.”  The hockey program grew and thrived under his leadership from 1982 to 2006. The team won two club league national championships and later two NCAA Division II championships. During 2006, the UAH Chargers competed in the NCAA Division I Hockey tournament. Ross’ college hockey win-loss record is 510-294-43.

A top ranked Division I hockey coach, Ross chose to take a break from hockey to spend time with family and watch one of his sons, Jared, grow to become a NHL Philadelphia Flyers player. Jared now plays for the Atlanta Thrashers in the NHL.

After talking with Waldorf College President Dr. Joe Manjone, a former University of Alabama colleague, Ross “kinda’ got hungry again and wanted to “get back in the game.”  A year of talks with Manjone and visits to Waldorf finally lead to Ross’ return to men’s collegiate hockey and another opportunity to build a program into a national contender.

 “The growth of hockey continues to rise in the U.S.  Just about every state has hockey programs right now.  I look forward to growing a team from the ground up at Waldorf just as I did at University of Alabama, Huntsville.  There will be a lot of national recognition for Waldorf with the addition of the hockey team.”

Waldorf coach redirects efforts

Denny Jerome announced recently that he will now focus his attention on his efforts as head coach of the Waldorf College women’s basketball team. Jerome will step aside from his joint duties as the college’s athletic director to prepare the women’s team for a stellar season.

Under Jerome, the Warriors won their first Midwest Collegiate Conference title in 2004-2005 after finishing second in 2004. Jerome was named the 2004 MCC Coach-of-the-Year. Jerome hopes to push the team to another conference title this year.

“I am encouraged by a strong returning and incoming class and am confident that we can compete at a high level,” said Jerome. “I welcome the opportunity to focus on the basketball program that has always been such a big part of my life.”

Jerome graduated from Waldorf College in 1970 while competing in basketball and football. He earned his bachelor’s from Concordia College in Moorhead, Minn., where he continued his football career and earned All-MIAC and All-Lutheran honors. He holds a master’s degree from the University of Northern Iowa.

Waldorf announces new women's wrestling program

On Aug.6, 2010, Waldorf College officials announced that the 2010/2011 school year will begin with a new Women’s Wrestling Program. Waldorf will be the first College in the state of Iowa to offer women’s wrestling.

The women’s program will be fully funded and attending many of the nation’s top international events culminating with the World Team Trials. As the program grows, Waldorf will expand its schedule to include all the nation’s best events for women.

“Only 60 colleges offer women’s wrestling nationwide,” commented Waldorf Athletic Director Denny Jerome. “We are proud to offer another option to accommodate the growing demand among female athletes to compete in this popular sport.”

Men’s wrestling has been one of the most successful sports teams at Waldorf College for the past 30 years.

“It only makes sense that the state of Iowa has a women’s wrestling program and we are proud that Waldorf College has made the decision to lead the way,” said Waldorf Head Men’s Wrestling Coach Tyler Brandt. “With over 50 wrestler’s in the men’s program and an invitation to the National Duals, it is our expectation to grow the women’s program into an Elite Level Program just like we have done with the men’s program.”

Waldorf is now conducting a nationwide search for a women’s wrestling coach. Tyler Brandt, current men’s wrestling coach, was named interim women’s wrestling coach and will lead the current women wrestlers until a permanent coach is selected.