A Legacy of Leadership

Husband-wife duo cements spot in FHSU history and sails off into retirement

Dr. Curt Brungardt was the picture of relaxation one cold, snowy day in March. Dressed in casual clothes and wearing a baseball cap, he sat at his office desk in Custer Hall and smiled often while reminiscing about his career at Fort Hays State University.

Custer 207 had taken on a different look the previous weeks as Brungardt cleaned out his office, counting the days toward his retirement.

By the looks of the empty shelves, a visitor unfamiliar with Brungardt’s history wouldn’t be able to tell that he had spent nearly 30 years at Fort Hays State.

One item in particular was still hanging on the otherwise bare walls. A large word, RISK, covered a third of a framed poster, which read “A ship in the harbor is safe … but that’s not what ships were made for.”

Taking risks and sailing are both passions of Brungardt. But he had no idea how the word “risk” would become part of his professional life for nearly three decades after Dr. Edward H. Hammond, then president at FHSU, and Dr. James Dawson, then vice president for student affairs, charged a young and aspiring professor with starting a leadership program at FHSU.

Led by Brungardt and his wife, Dr. Christie Brungardt, Fort Hays State has built a superb leadership department. It has grown from one faculty member and about 10 students to 18 faculty members and 1,600 students. Half of these faculty and 1,200 of the students are at Zhengzhou Sias University in Xinzheng, Henan Province, China, working toward the only undergraduate program of this type in the Republic of China.

“It’s extremely unique,” said Dr. Brett Whitaker, assistant professor of Leadership Studies. “We wouldn’t be offering that kind of degree program if it weren’t for Curt and Christie.”

A key to the Brungardts’ appeal, say faculty and students alike, is their authenticity.

“Curt and Christie are people who are very passionate and very focused,” said Daron Jamison, a 2003 graduate in organizational leadership. “Part of the success they have had with the department is they weren’t just teaching leadership. They were living it, and that’s pretty powerful.”

From that original charge given to Curt Brungardt 27 years ago has grown several related leadership organizations. A Center for Civic Leadership was established, and from that evolved the American Democracy Project, Tigers in Service, the Women’s Leadership Project and the Global Leadership Project.

Omer G. Voss, a 1937 FHSU graduate, donated substantial resources to the Department of Leadership Studies in 2003, establishing the Omer G. Voss Endowed Professorship in Leadership. Two years later, Curt was appointed to the Voss professorship and given the title of director of the Center for Civic Leadership.

After their 25-year-old daughter, Jana Mackey, died in an act of domestic violence in 2008, the Brungardts found a new cause to help make a difference.

In honor of Jana – a devoted advocate for women’s rights – the Brungardts co-founded Jana’s Campaign Inc., a national education and violence prevention organization with the single mission of reducing gender and relationship violence.

It all began with a simple challenge and high expectations so many years before.

“We thought leadership was important from an academic point of view,” said Dr. Larry Gould, provost at the time. “Leaders make the difference in many cases. It’s important to carry that to our students.”

A risk taker by nature, Curt was intrigued by the idea of starting a leadership program.

Still, he was a little skeptical how it would be perceived by the rest of the campus.

“I was puzzled by the whole thing,” he said. “I had a background in political science. How was I going to develop leadership classes?”

One trip to a leadership conference gave him the impetus he needed.

“I came back all fired up,” Curt said. “There were only a handful of schools with leadership majors at that time. We started mailing each other notes – photocopied, handwritten notes. That was back before the Internet. It just grew from there.” leadership course, Introduction to Leadership Concepts, in 1993.

“There were two people in the department,” Curt said. “I was the director, and I had a student secretary.”

“When you’re a pioneer, there’s no road to follow,” he added. “You work through the jungle yourself. It made me tough. I was stubborn anyway, and the more I was criticized, the more I was determined to be successful.”

Gould knew that the uniqueness and interdisciplinary nature would overlap with other established disciplines.

“There was a perception of ‘What are you going to do with a leadership degree?’ ” Gould said. “I came from the point of civic engagement, and President Hammond’s perception was that there are things you can teach which can imply that leaders can be taught.”

“If it wasn’t for Hammond and Larry Gould, it would never have happened,” Curt said. “The great thing is that we started getting large enrollments.”

After earning her Master of Liberal Studies with an emphasis in organizational leadership in 2001, Christie joined the leadership faculty later that year, and the program continued to flourish.

“Christie became an intervening variable,” Gould said. “She had been in business and had a different perspective. Curt has a lot of energy, and Christie channels it in good ways.”

Curt had already been involved in community work during his career at FHSU, and with Christie by his side, the leadership programs flourished even more.

“I have been involved in community for the vast majority of my life,” Christie said. “My mother was a believer in giving back to the community. She got me involved in my home community, and then when I moved to Hays, it just seemed like the thing to do.”

Over the years, more programs were added in the department, and more and more students expressed interest in learning about organizational leadership.

“Because we were such a young discipline, we were constantly tweaking it,” Curt said. “It was selflearn and self-reflect. That culture still exists in the Leadership Department today.”

Maybe no one can speak to that better than Dr. Brett Whitaker, who came to Fort Hays State as a geoscience major in 2003 and changed to leadership studies by the second semester of his sophomore year.

Whitaker is an advisor in the Global Leadership Project and coordinator of the international program for the Department of Leadership Studies.

“I wanted a career field that was going to give me the opportunity for creating positive change in the world,” he said. “The best way to do that was to major and study in a field to be effective working with people and organizations.”

He found that in the Department of Leadership Studies.

So, too, did Dr. Jill Arensdorf, who was hired by the Brungardts as an instructor in 2002 and was named chair of the department in 2010. This spring, Arensdorf was selected as FHSU’s provost.

“I appreciate them taking a chance on me,” Arensdorf said, “and they have continued to mentor and be very supportive of me. At the time, I had no idea what this would turn into. This is a spectacular place to work.”

The Brungardts say they will never forget their time at Fort Hays State.

“Having the opportunity to teach at FHSU has been one of the greatest gifts of my life,” Christie said. “Being given the ability to build relationships with hundreds of amazing young people has definitely blessed my life in multiple ways.”

“The greatest joy I have received in my career has been the eagerness of students in my classrooms willing to let me challenge their belief systems,” Curt said. “They were willing to view the world through multiple lenses and were open to different ways of thinking. That’s been the coolest thing about all of it.”

While Curt and Christie will be missed at Fort Hays State, they have left a clear path for those following in their footsteps. And they will continue to help students in perpetuity.

Friends, family and colleagues established an endowed fund through the FHSU Foundation to be used for scholarships and necessities for the leadership programs. Voss will match donations for that fund up to $10,000.

The leadership programs the Brungardts’ built are as strong as ever, and a new team is looking forward to carrying on the Brungardts’ legacy.

“They poured their hearts and souls into this program in building it from the ground up,” Arensdorf said. “It has a massively strong foundation that we can enjoy for many, many years.”

The Brungardts bought a house at Council Grove City Lake in eastern Kansas about 16 years ago and have been renovating it to their liking ever since – waiting for this time to come.

“It’s like the phrase, ‘If you love something, let it go,’ ” Whitaker said. “Curt and Christie invested so much into this program and other related programs that they aren’t going to go away when the Brungardts leave. They have set the foundation for long-term success. That’s a tremendous legacy.”