RUGBY
Retired Rugby doctor helps others at home and abroad Sue Sitter/PCT
Dr. Hubert Seiler stands next to Queen Victoria’s dress in the gallery at Rugby’s Prairie Village Museum. By SUE SITTER
Staff Writer ssitter@thepiercecountytribune.com
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ive years after retiring from his medical practice in the Rugby area, Dr. Hubert Seiler uses his free time on pursuits ranging from Lewis and Clark to improving the lives of the poor in the U.S. and
abroad. There’s not usually much free time for Seiler. Seiler’s a familiar face in the crowd at the Rugby Lions’ Music in the Park, Village Arts events and the Prairie Village Museum, where he serves as president of the board of directors. One day late in July, Seiler mulled over ways to take advantage of an AARP Community Challenge grant to create an edible park on the museum grounds. “I haven’t seen the plans,” he said of the proposed park. “I know we’ve been trying to work with some landscape people to figure it out. Some of it would actually be right in front of the museum, so we don’t want trees that are too large to hide the museum behind the trees.” “The main problem here of course is it apparently has to be done by the end of the year,” Seiler added. “That only gives us a couple of months to get things planted and this is not the best weather for planting things. I don’t know how that’s going to work.” Seiler said his interest in history goes “way back.”
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“I liked history in high school but I hated it in college,” Seiler said. “I’ve been interested in the railroads most of my life. I belong to the Great Northern Railway Historical Society and we have regular meetings. We’ll have a meeting in the Midwest one year and the West Coast the next year.” Seiler added, “I’ve also become interested in Lewis and Clark. I’ve got a bunch of books about them. And I started going to the historical society meetings here in Rugby and eventually, they asked me to be on the board. Then, I’ve been variously involved in projects out here.” “I was never really a farmer but I’m interested in agricultural history stuff, so that’s another area I’m somewhat interested in and some of my projects have had to do with that,” Seiler said. Seiler said he’s grateful for the number of volunteers who visit the museum grounds to clean and maintain exhibits or work at museum events. “Unfortunately, we have different people who have different interests. The goal is to bring them together,” Seiler said. “We have a lot of space, so we have a lot of buildings that have been on this property for up to 50 years and some of them were old when they were put on this property.” “We wouldn’t survive without the volunteers,” Seiler said. “For years, I was and still am one of those volunteers. I keep trying.” “My problem is I’m involved in so many things,” Seiler added. “That doesn’t even include my international stuff.” “I’m on an international board called Friends of Chimbo-
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te. We have a mission presence in Chimbote, Peru,” Seiler said. “We provide food, shelter, clothing and water for the poor in Chimbote, which is a big city, but it’s really poor.” “All the neighborhoods are poor and COVID has devastated them,” Seiler noted. “We lost some of our employees.” “The priest that founded it was a priest temporarily in Rugby for two months,” Seiler said. “He was in seminary when I was in college. I went to St. John’s University in Minnesota, a small Catholic college. He was in the seminary there and his brother was in my class at St. John’s. I had a cousin there in the seminary at the same time.” Seiler said he graduated from “a little Catholic school in New Rockford. My graduating class had 12 kids. We had all 12 grades there. I went all 12 years of Catholic education.” After graduating from St. John’s University in Collegeville, Minn., Seiler completed his studies in medicine at the University of Iowa. Seiler said he stayed in touch with his friends from St. John’s and became involved with the charity founded by his classmate’s brother, Father Jack Davis. The friendships Seiler cultivated would lead to four trips to Chimbote. “With Friends of Chimbote we send people who pay to go down there,” Seiler said. “They help build a house and work in construction and soup kitchens,” Seiler said. “Most people who go down there fall in love with it and want to go back or want to donate.” See DOC — Page 56
