Once again it is my pleasure to have reconnected with a fellow classmate and Little Colonel! As soon as she received my request to send interview questions to her, she said she would be glad to participate. We always start at the beginning!

Dagmar was born on November 16, 1946 in Germany near Hamburg. She is the only child born to her parents, and they all came to the USA when she was five years old. She attended E. J. Brown Elementary School. As a kid she was a nice mix of an outdoors kid and an indoors kid—she could entertain herself either place. Her favorite subjects were art, music, science, and English. Mrs. Banta (third-grade teacher) and Mrs. Stichweh (her fifth-grade teacher) were her favorite grade school teachers. Of Mrs. Banta, Dagmar says this:

“She was so very nice to all children, and most of all, let us help and cure
injured pigeons and other animals that we found. She let me keep the class
pigeon at home over Christmas J!”

Of Mrs. Stichweh, she shares this:

“…who helped our family integrate into American society in Dayton when there was still much anti-German sentiment.”

Transitioning from Brown School to Colonel White High School, she found a life-long friend in Mrs. [Martha] Cole who taught Spanish. She gravitated to Mrs. Cole because she was “super nice, incredibly committed to Colonel White and the students in all clubs she lead, no-nonsense, sympathetic, humorous, and passionate about Spanish language and Hispanic culture.” They kept in touch until Mrs. Cole passed away. In a different manner, she appreciated Mrs. Treue in English because “although frustrated, she was ultimately OK with all of the crazy things we did to her in her classes.”

When I asked Dagmar what her major high school activities were, she answered, “You’re kidding, right? Of course, it was the Little Colonels!”

Dagmar was selected as a Little Colonel during the spring of her freshman year, and her senior year she marched as an officer: Drill Captain!

“The Little Colonels affected my life in a huge way. When I entered Colonel White HS I was very frightened and shy. Making the team made me proud, but I still didn’t believe that I could possibly belong. Mr. DeVelbiss was the person who made my life worth living (at that vulnerable teenage time). Through his kindness as well as strictness toward all, equally, and love for his band and marching group, I found friends, companionship and a way out of my shell.”

“You got a D in Algebra? And so you are on probation from the Little Colonels??? You can’t march in the next game?” said my dad. “Well I got through that crisis, and I learned how to avoid math for the rest of my career.” Additional CWHS extracurricular activities included American Field Service, Spanish Club, Senior Y-Teens, and Ducemus.

Not having a clue herself what she wanted to do after high school, she admits her classmates couldn’t have known either. She wanted to travel to foreign countries, and she liked foreign languages. She graduated from Wright State University with a Bachelor of Arts, from the University of Wisconsin, Madison with a Master of Arts, and completed all but her dissertation for her doctorate from Indiana University, Bloomington. By the time she was a senior at Wright State, she knew that foreign languages were her destiny. She also realized that handling a high school classroom would not be her forte. So, loving the theater, she concluded that nothing would suit her better than teaching college and performing every day!

Her teaching career focused on Spanish and secondarily German. When she applied for an instructor position at 75 colleges, over 50 other applicants also posted for the position. Not wanting ever to live or work in Ohio but rather in a place with beautiful mountains and water—her first job was instructor of German and Spanish at Denison University in Granville, Ohio! Others jobs she held were Director of an academic program in Spain for the Experiment in International Living, Spanish instructor at Austin College, Texas, and now, Senior Lecturer in Spanish at the University of Toledo, Ohio…did she say she never wanted to live and work in Ohio?

Through her contacts with students, she and her husband have taken a group of students to Toledo, Spain for the last 11 years. They complete an academic, 4-week program there at the Universidad Castilla La Mancha.

She is exceptionally proud of having received an award three times for being Advisor of one of the top 10 chapters of Sigma Delta Pi, the National Spanish Honor Society. The competition includes 450 chapters nationally, which makes the award quite prestigious. Other honors include several teaching awards and local photography awards.

All of the organizations she has been involved with over the years at various levels are community builders. She has been a long time board member of The Association of Two Toledos, (first Sister City in the world, 1931--Toledo, Spain and Toledo, Ohio), Advisor of The National Spanish College Honor Society that is active in Hispanic events, Toledo Friends of Photography, and other community organizations. She was also very involved with her sons’ school PTA boards, sports, and Scouts. She credits Mr. DeVelbiss and the Little Colonels with establishing the mindset and example of getting involved and helping others…”Thank you, Mr. DeVelbiss, for training us for the future (without wearing our uniforms when soliciting money J!”)

Dagmar has had so many thrilling moments that she admits it’s difficult to name just one. However, she decided to go with the most recent one: standing on top of the ruins of Macchu Pichu, the Inca Ruins in Peru. She continues, “It would be so incredible to soar through the skies over this part of the world without a motor, just with the wind flying through your wings. Life on Earth is amazing!”

Taking us into her more personal life, she tells of meeting her husband, Anthony “Tony,” when they shared a teaching assistant office in the Department of Foreign Languages at IU in Bloomington in 1974. He is from San Francisco, and this year (2010) they celebrated their 34th anniversary. Tony has been Chair of the Department of Foreign Languages at the University of Toledo for the past 8 years AND her boss—a tricky situation! They have two sons, a rescued “American Eskimo dog”, i.e. German Spitz, red, not white, with some blue spots on its tongue, probably a Chow mix!

Reading, photography, a little gardening, piano, and feeding the birds and squirrels rank among her hobbies. She loves just about any dish from Spain (meaning food, not the dish itself), but mostly a fancy Spanish dish her son makes when he visits from Washington U (St. Louis) where he’s a graduate student in German! She loves all shades of green, so the next time you buy a present for Dagmar, make it green!

Finally, words that Dagmar’s best friend would use to describe her: Crazy, always late, always gets everyone to dance, politically engaged, environmentalist. So there you have it! All about Dagmar…if you ever try to find her and can’t, look in La Coruña, Spain amidst the cultural night life or in India studying their culture and history.