Discovering The Mature Lifestyle What are your local veterans up to today? See Next Page
Veterans Issue
May 18 & 19, 2017
May 2017
Robbinsdale natives and vets gather at the Historical Society By Sue Webber Contri buting Writer Saturday mornings you’ll find a group of men ga thered at a r ound table at the Robbinsdale Historical Society . All ar e there because they have a strong connection with the city , b ut chances ar e tha t many or most of them are also veterans. Rollie Heywood has lived in New Hope since 1970, but he has vivid memories of growing up in Robbinsdale from the age of 8 and gr aduating fr om Robbinsdale High School in 1949. “We got a real education in the Robbinsdale Schools,” Heywood said. “I had such a great time growing up in Robbinsdale,” he said. “I started w orking for a taxicab company when I was 15. I took flying and driving lessons a t the same time, though I couldn’t get a pilot’s license because I suffered from chronic asthma. I played in the high school band and the Robbinsdale City Band. I’ve had fun all my life. “Before I w ent in the service , I hung around a body shop and built a hot rod. I drove in the first race at New Brighton speedway on Memorial Day 1951.” Heywood enlisted in the U.S. Ar my a week later, on J une 6, 1951, and serv ed as a high-speed radio operator in the 8th Army R adio Compan y in 1952-53, sta tioned in K orea. Heywood was the first person on either side of his famil y to serve in the military. “I w as part of a r adio teletype team that was assigned to the K orean Army,” Heywood said. “I spent a winter in a tent in North Korea eating rations.” “They w ere doing far ming fr om the 18th century then, ” he said. They used oxen and w ooden plo ws. It w as r eally primitive o ver ther e, almost stone a ge stuff.” When he returned to the United States, Heywood w orked as a r adio oper ator
and I got out just as Vietnam got going,” Therrien said. Following the service, he worked as an electrician until he retired. He and his wife ha ve thr ee sons and four granddaughters.
Doug Blumb
Doug Blumb , w ho gr ew up on the north side of Minneapolis, lived in Crystal and no w li ves in R obbinsdale. He served in the Marine Corps , stationed at Camp Lejeune, N.C. Blumb’s lifelong career was in the grocery business, as head of the produce department at the Twin Cities’ 52 Country Club Markets. He retired in 1991. Widowed f or nine y ears, Blumb has three childr en and se ven gr andchildren. His daughter , Lisa J acobson is on the Brooklyn P ark City Council. Her hus band, John Jacobson, is the sports director at Cable Channel 12.
Friday mornings
Robbinsdale natives and veterans who gathered at the Historical Society recently are, from left, Doug Blumb, Gerald Therrien and Rollie Heywood. (Photo by Sue Webber) for the Minnesota Highw ay P atrol, and went to electr onics school to learn ho w to fix TV sets. “The old TV sets had lots of parts tha t needed to be changed or fixed,” said Heyw ood, who also w orked at Cedar Engineers. “I had a couple years of college in political science ,” Heyw ood said. “It w as more political than science. Now I go to University of Minnesota astr ophysics lectures. I’m inter ested in the stars and sun and astronomy.” Heywood and his wife , married in 1955, have three children, two grandchildren, and one great-grandchild. Much of his time is spent working as webmaster at the Robbinsdale Historical Society, digitizing photographs. “When I walk in that door, I’m 20 years old again,”
said Heyw ood, w ho la bels himself the Society’s “resident curmudgeon.” The Robbinsdale Historical Society is open 10 a.m. to 4 p .m. every Friday and Saturday at 4915 42nd Ave. N. “We’ve got a gr eat w ebsite,” he said. “We have 250 members and we’re getting stuff from all over the country.” “Guys my age lived through the worst and the best times,” Heywood said.
Gerald Therrien
Gerald Therrien is one of tw o other recent Historical Society attendees who reminisced about growing up in Robbinsdale. Therrien, who now lives in Brooklyn P ark, serv ed in the U .S. Ar my f or two years and the Naval Reserve for five years, from 1961-67. “I went in because of the Cuban Crisis,
A lot of reminiscing and story-telling goes on a t the Historical Society e very Friday morning. As one attendee jokingly put it, “We solve all the w orld’s problems and create three more.” Heywood is cr edited with bringing in the cof fee pots tha t pr ovide necessary fuel for the meetings. “It’s been a r eal bear to get ne w members her e,” Blumb said. Old-timers visit often, including former City Councilmember Wally Johnson. “Vern Gagne even came once in a w hile,” Heyw ood said. According to Heyw ood, “The thing that held us together was the school sys tem. The school district then w ent clear out to Hamel.” Blumb agreed. “We moved here to get a good educa tion for our kids ,” he said. SOCIETY VET S - to NEXT page
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Veterans Issue May 2017
Discovering The Mature Lifestyle
Veterans memorials matter Americans lo ve memorials . erans’ memorials. As soon as a belo ved cele brity Obviously, there is a reason for dies, memorials in man y f orms our love affair with memorials. begin, almost immedia tely, to My dictionary defines a memoappear around the deceased’s home or faGuest column vorite haunt. Likewise, whenever a teena ger ... by Bob is killed in a car ac cident, within hours, Ramsey makeshift memorials spring up along the roadside a t the cr ash site. We have a need to preserve our memory of impor- rial as: “something [mon ument, tant indi viduals and gr oups in holiday, etc.] intended to celsome tangible way. ebrate the memory of a person This is especiall y true of v et- or e vent.” V eterans memorials erans. Memorials f or fallen he - aren’t just ornate edifices named roes of all wars can be f ound in after a war, a battle or a bunch courthouse squar es, par ks and of dead soldiers. Memorials celcemeteries all across the nation. ebrate and honor all v eterans Veterans memorials ar e e very- and serve as constant reminders where; and some sta tes are con- of who and what was lost to war sidering legisla tion to e xpand and w hy. It is important f or us potential sites for even more vet- to remember. If we ever do for-
get, it means we have yet to learn the lesson of the losses and will have to suffer more losses in the future. I’m not a veteran. I never had the privilege of serving. Consequently I sometimes feel lik e a probationary citiz en. I ha ven’t paid m y dues. Others ha ve had to pay them for me. So it’s crucial that I’m periodicall y r eminded of my debt. That’s where memorials come in. Memorials not onl y boost our collective memory, they also have special meaning for each of us individually. For e xample, a high school principal I kno w cherished a “rubbing” of the name of a former student he had tak en from the “w all memorial” in W ashington, D. C. He e xplained that the student w orked har d; b ut still struggled in school and came up a fe w cr edits short a t
the end of the 12th gr ade. For some reason, the principal decided to o ver-ride the rules and graduate the student anyway. Later, the student was killed in action. At his funer al, the bo y’s mother told the principal, “W e are so proud of our son. He was the first person in our family to gr aduate fr om high school.” The principal’s exception to the rule has allo wed tha t famil y to feel a special pride in their son’s memory. That’s just one soldier’ s life narrative. There are other stories behind e very name on the w all that deserve to be r emembered. Memorials help pr eserve these memories. It’s appropriate that w e build memorials to our v eterans and revisit them regularly. But the most significant memorials are the ones w e er ect in our hearts and minds.
May 18 & 19, 2017
I’m reminded of the occasion when our gr anddaughter-in-law left her job teaching 3-4 y ear olds. The little students w ere devastated. Some children cried. Parents w ere distr aught. Then one da y, she dr ew a pictur e of a large heart and wr ote the stu dents’ names inside the pictur e. One little boy beamed as he told his mother, “No w, I will be in Miss Mar’s heart f orever.” That made it all right. It w orks the same w ay with the internal and external memorials we create. They help us keep our “veterans in our hearts forever.” And tha t’s w here they belong. Bob R amsey is a lif elong educator, freelance writer and advocate f or vital aging . He can be contacted at 952-922-9558 or b y email at jo yrammini@comcast. net.
Veteran and wife, both scientists, help area students By Sue Webber Contri buting Writer Paul Bauhahn of F ridley is an Air Force veteran who soaked up knowledge during his military service and just k ept on stud ying and learning after his dis charge. Bauhahn, a r etired Honeywell research scien tist, and his wife , Ruth, a retired Medtr onic human factor scientist in pr oduct development, ha ve de voted their lives to continually educa ting themselv es and helping childr en to cultivate an inter est in math and science. Following gr aduation from the Uni versity of Chicago with a bachelor’ s degree in ph ysics, Bau hahn joined the Air Force as a comm unications officer and learned about electronics. “My last assignment was w orking a t an or ganization supporting a high-level command cen ter using state-of-the-art equipment,” Bauhahn said. “I learned so m uch electronics w hile teaching in the comm unications officer school that I spe cialized in electrical engi neering after I left the Air Force.” He earned a second bachelor’s degr ee at Michigan State University while taking gr aduate courses in ph ysics. Then followed gr aduate school at the University of Michigan, w here he obtained master’s degr ees in both physics and electrical engineering, and a doctorate in electrical engineering. Growing up in Michi gan, w here his fa ther taught mechanical en gineering and an aunt taught biology, it w as just assumed that Bauhahn would go to college , he said. “The money I sa ved
Ruth meets with a group of fourth-grade girls at Stevenson Elementary School in Friday twice a week. (Submitted photo) from my time in the service nometry. and benefits paid for quite “I started looking a t a bit of my education,” what I could do in the he said. “I w as also a r e- schools to fix the probsearch assistant in gr adu- lem,” Bauhahn said. ate school w hile w orking He f ound tha t Daryl on my Ph.D.” Vossler, principal a t Ste Paul met R uth w hile venson Elementary School they w ere students in in Fridley, was “very open graduate school. Ruth was to trying new things.” pursuing a master’s degree “He’s a great guy, and in educa tion. “R uth w as he has a gr eat staff,” Baua fa bulous pianist; tha t’s hahn said. what attracted me to her,” What followed has been Paul said. “We had similar an e xciting v enture f or taste in music. She has lots Bauhahn and his wife , of ener gy. She’ s har d to as w ell as f or the F ridley keep up with.” Schools. Following the couple’ s The Bauhahns have promarriage in 1971, R uth vided financial support taught eighth-gr ade ma th to suppl y Bedtime Ma th before she and Paul moved material, including tablets, to Minnesota. They ha ve to the school. Bedtime lived in Fridley since 1977. Math is a non-profit orgaIn his w ork as an engi - nization focused on mathneer a t Honeyw ell, Bau - ematics educa tion for hahn developed micr o- young childr en. The on wave, millimeter w ave and line venture was launched micromechanical de vices, in F ebruary 2012 with a and w orked with lasers daily email tha t pr ovides for diverse a pplications. a playful daily math probHe retired in 2011 with 13 lem f or kids to do with patents. their par ents, m uch like a Ruth, w ho gr ew up in bedtime story. Gary, Indiana, retired Then R uth got into from Medtr onic with five math competitions involvpatents related to the de- ing tough math word probsign of medical devices for lems, and began w orking spinal cord stimulation. on them with a gr oup of six girls at Stevenson. After retirement, BauEach Tuesday and hahn taught ph ysics with Thursday since last fall, calculus a t Nor mandale Ruth has met with six girls Community College . He at Ste venson Elementary discovered then tha t some School to w ork on pr obof the students didn ’t lem solving. know alge bra or trigo At the same time , P aul
meets with six f ourthgrade boys at the school to work on algebra. Sometimes he stops teaching algebra and talks a bout physics. “The kids lo ve that,” he said. “I want kids to learn to think.” Fridley School of ficials have high pr aise f or the Bauhahns’ contributions. “They’ve done some things for us w e w ouldn’t be a ble to do without them,” Stevenson Elementary School Principal Da ryl Vossler said. “They’ ve just been gr eat to ha ve around. They ar e pas sionate a bout educa tion. Math and science are what they’re about.” Veronica W esterman Mathison, Primary Years Programme coor dinator thr ough the F ridley Schools IB curriculum and also the district’ s math coordinator, said she met the Bauhahns in 2015. “Tha t fall they a pproached us a bout w anting to w ork with kids on Bedtime Math. We kicked it off in January 2016.” The small-gr oup w ork followed. “Ruth is mentoring the girls; she’s inspiring them,” Mathison said. “She’s getting them to think out side the bo x, a bout jobs or careers. Ruth reads so many books. It’s amazing that someone w ho taught so tr aditionally [in ear lier years] is k eeping up with research and how to apply math with kids.” The girls do small group work, r esearch and in vestigative studies , and com plete action projects at the end of fourth grade. “The Bauhahns are modest and shun r ecognition, Mathison said. “They’ve helped us with resources and professional development for teachers,” she said. “They’ve done so much a t Ste venson. They are quite the couple; they
Paul works with a group of fourth-grade boys each Tuesday and Thursday. (Submitted photo) are fa bulous. W e ar e be yond fortunate.” Paul is al ways stri ving for mor e. He and R uth have pur chased er ector sets to help students w ho weren’t doing w ell. And he’s adamant tha t “TV is a disaster” because it dissuades students fr om working hands on to dis cover the world. “It still amaz es me ho w much tr ouble kids ha ve with ma th,” P aul said. “Something’s ha ywire.
Part of the problem is that kids don’t work hands on. That’s frustrating to me. “A lot of kids don’t realize how much they’re missing. I’d like them to understand ther e’s a gr eat big world out ther e. Ther e’s so much to learn. I’m still studying. I’m just curious . It’s fun. If w e could just get kids to realize the huge benefit of working hard in school. They don ’t realize how important it is. We’ve got to get things fixed.”
SOCIETY VET S - FRO M PRE VIoUS page “My wife gr ew up on 42nd A venue North, acr oss the street from Jerry Therrian.” Replied Heywood, “I grew up in the next block.” Therrian recalls his mother shopping at Blumb’s stores. “She shopped Robbinsdale all the time,” he said. And he r ecalls the bo ys in the Do ver family, all of whom eventually became pilots , babysitting with him when he was 2 or 3 y ears old. Heywood r emembers the Do ver famil y w ell. “Irving worked as a gas boy and was a starter a t the airport,” he said. Left: Rollie Heywood, was a high-speed radio operator in the 8th Army Radio Company in Korea, in 1953. (Submitted photo)
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