Where Have We Been?
Where Are We Going?
. . . When Immanuel congregation in 1959 took up the matter of Christian higher education and gave its blessing to the beginning of a high school, college, and seminary, the North Chapel was put back into use. The owners offered it to Immanuel Lutheran College Board of Control for school use, rent-free. Considerable work had to be done to put it into school shape. Members of the congregation gave their evenings and weekends to partition the inside, plaster walls, etc., so that it was ready for use in September.
At the May 25, 1959 special meeting of Immanuel Congregation, the voters not only gave their blessing to this effort, the use of their name, Immanuel, set up a Board of Control, but they adopted a slate of candidates from which that board could call its first teachers. . . . Tuitions were set at $75 per semester. The members of that first Board of Control were A. Affolter, W. Affolter, W. Briggs, E. Busse, W. Doring, M. Garbrecht, A. Hanel, D. Hoffmann, W. Klammer, C. Kuehne, E. Neubert, R. Rehm, R. Schreyer, A. Timm, A. Weigt. Advisory members: G. Radtke, E. Reim, R. Dommer. Many of these men had served on the fact-finding committee that met for the first time on April 22, 1959. The four men who held title to the North Chapel were: A. Affolter, W. Affolter, W. Klammer, and E. Neubert.
The Lord moved the hearts and hands of these men and of many other people to begin this school, and the Lord filled those hands with material blessings beyond the actual needs. He did this so that His Word would be upheld in its purity and His name be glorified among us.
When the Board of Control called Edmund Reim as Dean of the seminary, Robert Dommer as Principal of the high school, and Mrs. Adelgunde Schaller to teach, the faculty was deemed complete. Only the seminary and the high school were to be initiated in the new school. But these preliminary efforts soon changed so that with an expanded faculty the school was involved in teaching college subjects, and students were obtaining some of their courses at Mankato State College.
–From “OUR ANNIVERSARY MEMORIAL TO THE LORD” (Pastor Egbert Albrecht, 1984)