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Kansas Profile – Now That’s Rural: Paul Friedrichs – United Mosquito and Fly Control

Posted on by Mary Lou Peter

Bangkok, Thailand. A German businessman is building a home and wants mosquito control. He is buying an insect control system from an entrepreneur halfway around the globe.

Paul Friedrichs owns United Mosquito and Fly Control.

Paul Friedrichs is the owner of United Mosquito and Fly Control in Mission, Kansas. He is the entrepreneur who took his system to Bangkok.

Paul credits much of his success to his rural upbringing. He grew up on a dairy farm near the unincorporated community of Bremen, Kansas, with a population of perhaps 60 people. Now, that’s rural.

“We grew up among German Lutheran dairy farmers,” Paul said. “It was a very close-knit community. It’s the kind of place where everybody has known everybody for seven generations and everybody has the hymnal memorized.”

Paul’s family, friends and neighbors provided a strong support system for him and his brother and two sisters. During his first eight years of schooling, he was in a class of five at the local Lutheran country grade school. He went on to Marysville High School and then K-State where he studied agricultural economics. Paul credits 4-H, FFA, and the K-State College of Agriculture for providing him tremendous opportunities.

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Kansas Profile – Now That’s Rural: Janet Carman – Cheyenne County Historical Society

Posted on by Mary Lou Peter

“Connecting the dots.” That was a fun game to play when I was a kid.  Today we’ll learn about an initiative in northwest Kansas which used the term “connect the dots” to describe its purpose in preserving the unique family histories in the county. It is bringing together the family stories of people from all ages and all walks of life.

Janet Carman is a volunteer with the Cheyenne County Historical Society and Cheyenne County Museum.  The museum is located in St. Francis, the county seat of Cheyenne County.

Janet has deep roots in Cheyenne County, which is in the very northwest corner of Kansas. Her great-grandfather came west and homesteaded here. His rural location was south of Wheeler, which today is an unincorporated town with a population of perhaps 20 people. Now, that’s rural.

Janet grew up in Cheyenne County and went to K-State where she studied education.  She met her husband and they eventually moved to Dallas where they spent 36 years and Janet taught for 22. A few years ago, they had the opportunity to buy her great-grandfather’s house. They bought the house, moved back, and restored it. “It was a labor of love,” Janet said.

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Kansas Profile – Now That’s Rural: Gary and Glennys Doane – Downs Community Garden

Posted on by Mary Lou Peter

How does your garden grow? Today we’ll learn about a community garden in a rural Kansas community which has grown into more than a resource for produce. It has become a connector for the community.

Gary and Glennys Doane live west of Downs in Osborne County. Gary farms and Glennys is a longtime volunteer in the schools. They are involved with this innovative effort on the community garden.

For three seasons, a small garden had been grown on a volunteer’s lot where vegetables were produced which went to a local food bank. Others in the community became interested in the potential of the garden, so a group of local citizens got involved.

Gary and Glennys Doane joined others in a strategic approach to enhancing the community garden. They formed a committee which adopted the following mission statement: “The Downs Community Garden exists to provide a nutritious food source, an opportunity for a healthy lifestyle, and a path for learning from each other in a setting available to the entire community.”

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Kansas Profile – Now That’s Rural: Russell Disberger – Aspen Business Group

Posted on by Mary Lou Peter

Let’s go to an amusement park in Florida. As the ride begins, some scary music begins to play. Who do you suppose helped create that musical track? It was a business consultant who’s worked on music licensing and other

Russell Disberger

elements of management. But he’s not in Florida. He is now half a continent away in Kansas.

Russell Disberger is the founder and senior partner of management consulting firm Aspen Business Group. Russell has deep roots in Kansas, where his ancestors homesteaded near Council Grove. Russ’s dad taught agriculture at Hutchinson Community College. Russell was the seventh of nine children.

With such a large family, the kids learned to work. The boys ran the family’s custom cutting crew in the summer, traveling from Texas to Montana harvesting wheat. “We were up at dawn and worked until the wheat was too damp to cut,” Russell said. “We learned the importance of hard work and taking care of our customer.”

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Kansas Profile – Now That’s Rural: Omar Knedlik – ICEE

Posted on by Mary Lou Peter

 

When the weather is hot outside, what is as refreshing as a cold, half-frozen, flavorful drink? Those are especially good when they are icy. Today we’ll learn about a company that was so excited about the potential of such drinks that they used the name ICEE. Now generations have enjoyed these tasty, refreshing drinks, but they may not know that the founder came from rural Kansas.

Omar and Doris Knedlik

Omar Knedlik is the founder of what became the ICEE company. Here is his story.  According to the Kansapedia website of the Kansas State Historical Society, Omar Knedlik was born in Barnes, Kansas in 1916 and grew up on a nearby farm. Barnes is located in Washington County southwest of Marysville.

Omar served in World War II and returned to Kansas. He used his military pay to purchase an ice cream shop. He tried various other business ventures such as hotels and in the late 1950s, bought a Dairy Queen franchise in Coffeyville.

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Kansas Profile – Now That’s Rural: Greg Buser – KNZA FM

Posted on by Mary Lou Peter

“Many signals.” That describes today’s radio airwaves which have multiple sources and stations. Today we’ll meet a radio industry leader who has enhanced his stations’ service to the region and earned the Boy Scout honor camping society nickname, Many Signals.

Greg Buser is co-owner of KNZA FM radio in Hiawatha and other stations serving northeast Kansas, western Missouri, and southeast Nebraska. The Kansas stations are sometimes called Kanzaland radio from the name of the Native American Indian tribe, the Kansa Indians.

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Kansas Profile – Now That’s Rural: Ryan Semmel – Geocaching – Part 2

Posted on by Mary Lou Peter

Let’s go hunting. No, not for deer or turkey. Today we are going hunting for a geocache, a hidden container which we can find with the aid of GPS technology. The practice of finding geocaches is not only attracting visitors to Kansas, it is bringing a major gathering of geocachers to our state in spring 2017.

Last week we met geocaching enthusiast Ryan Semmel. He is a leader of the effort to bring a major geocaching event to Kansas. After serving in the Army overseas and most recently at Fort Riley, he retired in Manhattan. Ryan and his wife have two daughters and a son.

Ryan enjoys geocaching, the practice of finding hidden caches outdoors through the use of GPS technology. The caches are small containers containing a logbook and, in some cases, trinkets for exchange. Someone will hide the cache and then post the location on the geocaching.com website for people to find. When a cache is found, the finder enters his or her user name in the logbook, exchanges gifts if desired, and then posts about it on the website.

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Kansas Profile – Now That’s Rural: Ryan Semmel – Geocaching – Part 1

Posted on by Mary Lou Peter

A group of Australians is visiting the U.S. They will likely tour various U.S. landmarks and tourist locations, but one of their stops is at a rural location on the High Plains of Kansas. Why? The answer is that they are not just touring, they are geocaching.  Geocaching has become a worldwide practice. One of the very first geocache locations was in rural Kansas.

Ryan Semmel is the person who told me about geocaching. Ryan is a military retiree, having served around the U.S. and overseas. He was stationed at Fort Leavenworth and then in Germany before coming to Kansas again. After serving at Fort Riley, he retired in Manhattan. “We love it here,” Ryan said.

“I’ve always liked adventure,” Ryan said. While serving previously at Fort Leavenworth, he heard about an outdoor scavenger hunt in Missouri. “I did it with one of my soldiers,” Ryan said. “It was so much fun that another soldier gave me a brochure about geocaching.” When he was subsequently stationed in Germany, Ryan did geocaching with his family.

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Kansas Profile – Now That’s Rural: John G. Montgomery – Daily Union

Posted on by Mary Lou Peter

“Terrorists attack U.S.” “Nixon to resign.” “Hope speeds search for Amelia Earhart.”  “Fiery explosion claims shuttle crew.” “Eisenhower dies.” “Steamer Lusitania torpedoed.”  These are actual headlines about pivotal moments of crisis in American history, as they appeared in the Junction City Daily Union newspaper through the decades. For four generations, John Montgomery and his family have been leaders in the newspaper industry in Junction City and beyond.

John G. Montgomery

John G. Montgomery is the retired publisher of the Junction City Daily Union and other community newspapers in the region. His family has deep roots in the newspaper business, beginning with great-grandfather John Montgomery who worked as an apprentice at a newspaper office in Iowa. One day in 1865, young John received word by telegraph that President Lincoln had been assassinated. He set the type to print the story in the newspaper and then delivered the papers himself.

After the Civil War, the young newspaperman came west to Kansas. In 1888, he bought the Weekly Union newspaper in Junction City. Four years later, it became a daily. The Daily Union is now believed to be the third oldest continuously published newspaper in Kansas.

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Kansas Profile – Now That’s Rural: Dane Hansen – Part 2

Posted on by Mary Lou Peter

 From scholarships to strategies, from volunteers to entrepreneurs, from rural health care to community betterment: All those elements are being supported by the Dane G. Hansen Foundation which is investing deeply and strategically in northwest Kansas.

Betsy Wearing is coordinator of programs, communications, and new initiatives for the Dane G. Hansen Foundation. Betsy was a long-time director of the Greater Salina Community Foundation before joining Hansen.

Last week we learned about successful entrepreneur Dane Hansen. His estate plan provided part of his assets for a foundation in his hometown of Logan to benefit northwest Kansas. A group of excellent trustees has grown those assets through the years.

For decades, the Hansen Foundation has been known for the scholarships it provides to students in northwest Kansas. There are several categories of these renewable college scholarships which can provide a student up to $10,000 per year. Last year 280 total scholarships were made available.

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