Senior Kaity Kusler watches her drive during a golf meet last season. Kusler is one of three seniors who earned all-Wright County Conference honors last season and will be counted on to lead Litchfield this year.
Well-known Hutchinson musician Lester Schuft was inducted into the Minnesota Music Hall of Fame on Friday, April 22.
Making music is something Lester Schuft has done since he was a youngster growing up on a farm near Brownton. His dad played drums with local bands and young Lester followed in his footsteps, picking up a pair of drumsticks at age 7 and the trumpet three years later.
Fast forward 74 years. Schuft will be recognized for his lifelong love of and commitment to music April 22 when he was inducted into the Minnesota Music Hall of Fame.
“It means rewarding for all the years in my life and my making many families happy with music,” Schuft said of the honor.
Joining Schuft as this year’s inductees are Mollie Busta-Lange (Mollie B), Paul Diethelm, Jay Earnest Kalk/Church of Cash, Minnesota Brass and Moore By Four. The longtime Hutchinson resident is in stellar company, joining past recipients including Bob Dylan, Judy Garland and Garrison Keillor, as well as local musicians Mike Shaw, Wally Pikal, Mike Glieden, Jerry Schuft, Jerry Kadlec, Bruce Bradley and Tom Ginkel.
“I don’t know if there is any town that has produced more bands than Hutchinson and New Ulm,” he said. “I remember there were 22 bands booking out of New Ulm during 1950s and ’60s. I could spend 10 hours and talk music.”
Schuft is the first to say he’s lucky to be here and he readily admits he’s gone through a lot with his health.
“Why does God keep me alive?” he asked. “Because he wanted to see me get this award. I spent 15 years dealing with heart issues. I had four bypasses, a pacemaker, a defibrillator and a valve replaced. I’m doing good. The only slight problem is my breathing. Breathing affects my ability to play. I have no trouble walking, but steps can be challenging.”
Schuft’s enthusiasm for life, music and family makes up for any physical shortcoming. For more than 63 years, he has been the owner and operator of the Lester Schuft and The Country Dutchmen Band. The band continues to play today, although the members have changed through the years.
“Thirty-one members of the band have passed away,” he said. “They were all great musicians and great friends.”
During his tenure, he is proud to say he never fired anyone.
“I only had three rules: no drinking, no fooling around and no swearing,” he said.
While he has made plenty of music through the years, Schuft always comes back to polkas. Among his favorites is the “Guido Polka” because he likes the rhythmic patterns and instrumentation.
“It’s a really good polka,” he said. “Almost every musician knows it’s my favorite. I also like the ‘Nebraska Polka.’ It honors the state of Nebraska where I have a lot of followers. It has a tremendous beat.”
Among his recent achievements is the release of a new CD titled “Classic Cars and Classic Songs” featuring a 12-piece band that includes his granddaughter, Eavan McCormick. She is a sophomore at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, where she is majoring in instrumental music education. The CD is available from Schuft or can be picked up at Dostal Electronics in downtown Hutchinson.
IN THE BEGINNING
“I was a farm kid,” Schuft recalled. “I pitched a lot of manure.”
Fortunately, that’s not all he did. He started playing drums when he was 7 and followed it up with the trumpet in 1948. His first horn was purchased at the Brown and Meidl Music Store in New Ulm. The two bonded from the beginning. He played the instrument through grade school, high school and pep band at Brownton and later as a student at Gustavus Adolphus College, where he participated in the symphony band and pep band. He also used music to pay his way through dental school at the University of Minnesota.
When it comes to music achievements, Schuft has many. Among them: He played at the Minneapolis Aquatennial Queen’s dance for many years. He’s made 16 records in a variety of formats including vinyl, 8-track tapes, cassettes, CDs and DVDs. He played for Hubert H. Humphrey when he ran for president. He was in the pep band that played for the Minnesota North Stars hockey team. He played for more than 40 years on KEYC-TV Bandwagon show and RFDTV. He had his own Country Dutchmen show for 54 years, and he hosted Musicians Round-Up for 26 years, both on KDUZ Radio. He also owned Red Rose Records and was part owner of Little Crow Record Company in Hutchinson. The list goes on and on.
Looking back, Schuft said, he appreciates all the friendships he’s made through the years. Every once in awhile someone comes up to him and says, “You played at our wedding dance 50 years ago.” Schuft wishes he had written down the thousands of wedding dances he played.
If you think Schuft is slowing down, you would be wrong. He continues to work at KDUZ/KARP as an ad salesman, a job he started after he retired in 1969 from a 30-year career as a dentist.
His best advice: Live by the three Fs: Faith, family and friends.
“God helps me,” he said. “Certain relatives help me and I have friends who are close to me who I can talk to if I have a problem.”
The square and compass insignia, often worn on a ring or lapel pin but in this case sewn on a cap, identifies members of the Masons.
Dave Lindberg and Jim Curry are among the 92 current members of the Masons Golden Fleece Lodge No. 89 in Litchfield. Both have served as Master of the Lodge, a position similar to a club president, during their time as members. For Lindberg, that’s 50 years, while Curry has been a member for 33 years.
Golden Fleece Masonic Lodge No. 89 members posed with the mayor’s proclamation celebrating the lodge’s 150th anniversary. Masons pictured include, front row from left, Bill Hicks, Dave Lindberg, Josh Sorenson, Rick Beecroft; back, Jim Ellingson, Jim Curry, Kurt Gregorson, Bill Yungk, and Ed Cowley.
Robert V. Anderson, who turned 100 years old in March, is the oldest living member of the Golden Fleece Lodge No. 89. Anderson was elevated to Master Mason in 1949, following in the footsteps of his father, John V. Anderson, who became a Master Mason in 1919 in Litchfield.
A special insignia celebrates to Golden Fleece Lodge’s 150th anniversary.
Nearly everywhere he goes, Jim Curry feels like he’s among family.
On vacation in Hawaii several years ago, he ran into and chatted up a brother. Working as a member of a pit crew at a drag race in Topeka, Kansas? Another brother struck up a conversation with him.
Such are the benefits of being a member of the oldest and largest fraternal organization in the world.
“You know, it’s just really neat,” Curry said. “Almost anywhere you go, you’re gonna run into somebody, into a brother.”
“Brothers” are fellow members of the Freemasons, or simply Masons, an international organization whose roots stretch back to the 13th century. While an international organization with an estimated 1.5 million members worldwide, the Masons are governed more locally, with a Grand Lodge of Minnesota being the parent of the local Golden Fleece Lodge based in Litchfield.
Golden Fleece Lodge No. 89 and its current roster of 92 members is marking its 150th anniversary this year. Recognized with a mayor’s proclamation during a Litchfield City Council meeting in January, local lodge members are planning other events throughout the year to celebrate the Golden Fleece Lodge’s contributions to Litchfield and surrounding area during the past century and a half.
Movies and novels about the secretive nature of the Masons notwithstanding, the Golden Fleece Lodge has operated outside the public spotlight throughout its history.
“The way it was always explained to me is that … the Masons are not a secret organization,” Curry said with a smile. “We’re an organization that has some secrets.”
Not the deep, foreboding secrets that make great plot twists, but the kind that involve initiation and advancement in a club.
What isn’t a secret is the organization’s history and its members’ contributions to local – and larger – society.
The Golden Fleece Lodge was chartered Jan. 11, 1872. Among its past members are some well-known names, including Dr. Noah Ripley, W.H. Greenleaf, B.B. Meeker, John Brandt, Frank Daggett, N.Y. Taylor and H.A. Jewett. In addition, local lodge member J.C. Braden rose to Grand Master of the Minnesota Masons.
The local lodge, through its association with the Grand Lodge of Minnesota, has made enormous impacts in the state’s medical programs.
Masons in Minnesota raised $2.1 million between 1955 and 1966 to fund construction of Masonic Memorial Hospital, now known as the University of Minnesota Masonic Cancer Center.
Since then, Minnesota Masonic Charities has become the largest donor to the University of Minnesota, with more than $125 million given to cancer and children’s health research and outcome at the university, including a $35 million donation in 2020 that helped establish the Masonic Institute for the Developing Brain.
Closer to home, the Golden Fleece Lodge members hold a number of fundraising events throughout the year, including the Masonic pancake breakfast, Shrine french toast breakfast, Masonic onion sale, and bean bag board rental to support charitable organizations and efforts. Among donations are an annual scholarship program, a children’s identification program, local Boy Scouts troop, Meeker County Dairy Association, Watercade, and angel dress program, in addition to contributions to Minnesota Masonic Charities, and to Masonic “brothers, widows and orphans in need.”
It is those efforts that Curry and fellow member Dave Lindberg are most proud of when it comes to their Masonic participation.
“There’s a lot of things in society that have Masonic connections or Masonic history,” Curry said. “The organization and individual Masons, we do so much good stuff.”
Both Litchfield natives, Curry and Lindberg have served as masters — similar to presidents in other clubs — more than once since their initiations decades ago. Both attribute their involvement to a kind of family tradition.
Curry’s grandfather was a 50-year Mason, his father was a Mason. His daughters both joined Job’s Daughters, an organization for relatives of Masons. In order to assist with the Job’s Daughters program, Curry needed to become a Master Mason, which he did. He’s been an active member of the local lodge the past 33 years.
Lindberg had a similar family connection to the Masonic order, his uncle being a member in Jamestown, North Dakota. While working in Jamestown in 1970, he entered the order, and when he returned to Litchfield in the 1980s began to work through the “chairs,” or leadership positions, eventually reaching Master of the Lodge.
They’ve seen the Golden Fleece Lodge go through cycles of growth and decline during their time, but say they’ve always remained committed to its survival – even if it means serving as the Master of the Lodge four times, as Curry has.
“When the need arises, you step up to the plate,” Curry said. “Back in the days when we were having a real hard time with membership and stuff, Chuck Anderson, who just passed away, he and I would (agree), ‘OK, you take Master this year. I’ll take it next year.’ It went back and forth for a couple years, just to keep the lodge open.”
Golden Fleece Lodge was the 89th chartered by the Grand Lodge of Minnesota, which lists 351 lodges throughout its 169-year existence, according to Jim Ellingson, secretary of the Litchfield lodge. The local lodge exemplifies changes in the state organization through the years, he said, as lodges that previously existed in Paynesville, Dassel and Cokato all have merged with the Golden Fleece Lodge.
Records kept by Golden Fleece Lodge show a roster of 217 deceased members going back to the early 1890s, Ellingson said. Also in the records is another illustration of the family lineages the organization promotes, with Jaren Winings of Litchfield being a fifth-generation Mason of the Golden Fleece Lodge, including his father, Brad, and grandfather, Ron, who are also current members.
Many who are counted among the lodge’s current members — including its oldest living member, Robert V. Anderson — no longer live in the area. But they maintain their membership in the local lodge, contributing to its fundraising activities. Anderson, who turned 100 in March and currently lives in Colorado, was elevated to a Master Mason on April 27, 1949, during a ceremony at Honolulu Lodge 409 in Honolulu, Hawaii. He was following his father, John V. Anderson, who was elevated to a Master Mason on Feb. 28, 1919, in Litchfield.
As Curry has experienced, whether actual blood relatives or Masonic “brothers,” the reach of the organization is wide. They recognize their Masonic relatives by the square-and-compass insignias – as in the encounters Curry described in Hawaii and Kansas.
“You look at people’s hands, you look at lapels, you see if they have the square and compass (on rings or pins),” Curry said. “If you see somebody with that, you can be assured that you could walk up to him and start talking to him. You are brothers right away.”
The impact of those Masonic brothers and the various branch groups such as Shriners, Scottish Rite, York Rite, and associated groups like Job’s Daughters and Order of the Eastern Star is great.
“We could go on for a while about our charitable side,” Curry said.
“It’s a measurable sum” donated by the Golden Fleece Lodge to various local organizations, Ellingson said. “We would like to, and probably will, as a local lodge do more. But I don’t think we’ve missed giving to the (Litchfield) Rescue Squad, food shelf or Toys for Tots. There are lot of things we’ve supported through the years.”
Litchfield City Hall is the place to go for information abtout city ordinances, to apply for a permit, or even to pay your utility bill. City Hall is located at 126 Marshall Ave. N.Litchfield City Hall
The effort to turn vacant lots into housing brought questions and some frustration from Litchfield City Council members and a local contractor last week.
In the end, Council members voted to have the city’s administrative team develop a request for proposals and to do initial vetting of the proposals for the city-owned property.
“We’ve been kicking this around, adding things to it,” at-large Council member Ron Dingmann said of the housing creation effort. “That’s why we never get things done. This is why nothing ever gets done … we’re just constantly bouncing things back and forth, back and forth.”
Dingmann offered the resolution to pursue a request for proposals after a lengthy discussion that followed City Administrator David Cziok’s suggestion that the city should consider offers for two lots beyond those submitted by developer Gregg Schilling of Litchfield.
Schilling emerged as the initial suitor for the property after the City Council discussed selling lots during its first meeting of March. He was unable to attend the March 21 City Council meeting to discuss his offer to purchase lots at East Second Street and North Gorman Avenue, and East Nelson Street and Meadow Road. Cziok said staff would review Schilling’s offer and report to the Council at the April 4 meeting.
In the time between that March 21 meeting and last week, the city had received two additional developer proposals for the Second-Gorman location, Cziok told the City Council last wee. And though Schilling was present for last week’s meeting, Cziok suggested a request for proposal and point system be created to assist in deciding how to proceed.
City Council member Darlene Kotelnicki, the lone dissenter to Dingmann’s resolution for a request for proposals, said she was uncomfortable with and RFP and assigning a point system. Instead, the lots should be put up for public auction, she said.
That process would leave the city with few options in terms of how, or even if, the lots would be developed, Cziok said.
“The apprehension we have is that once we sell it, and they own it, you guys lose a little control as to expectations for the property,” Cziok said, adding that the city should at least seek a developer agreement before going through with a sale.
“Granted, there are some things we can’t control,” Kotelnicki responded, but there are safeguards in place, because any building project would have to go through the Planning Commission process.
Meanwhile, Schilling told the City Council he wasn’t surprised that other offers had arrived for the Gorman Avenue lot.
“I’d take Gorman only,” he said, but in offering to buy both lots, “mainly because I can take the good with the bad.”
The Gorman Avenue lot is significantly more valuable than the Nelson Street lot, he said. But he could use fill from Gorman to help offset some of the site-preparation negatives of the Nelson location.
His proposal included drawings and photos of what he proposed for housing on the two lots, similar to other properties he has developed in the city.
“We appreciate your drawings,” Mayor Keith Johnson said. “With other parties (interested) we want to see what’s going on there too.”
Schilling said during a telephone interview Friday that he understood the city’s stance, but it also left him disappointed.
“My complaint is that they’re willing to give it to someone out of town after I spend hundreds of thousands of dollars a year locally,” Schilling said. “They’re considering an out-of-town investor. At least I want my fair shot at the darn thing.”
Schilling said he owns 82 rental units in Litchfield and his plan would bring another 13 rental units, along with an estimated $10,000 to $12,000 in property taxes, to town, and to have his proposal dismissed was disheartening.
“There’s millions of dollars that are borrowed from local banks, and some local investors, of course,” Schilling said. “Utilities, insurance through local agents, local contractors … if I get it, it’s all local. These guys get it, it all goes out of town.”
Dave Keeling
Dave Keeling’s phone was uncharacteristically silent on April 1.
After nearly 50 years in the heating and air conditioning profession — during which the phone might ring at all hours of the day and night, and weekends and holidays — the sound of silence is going to take some getting used to.
But Keeling, who retired March 31 when he sold the heating and air conditioning portion of his Meeker Mechanical business, said he will adapt to the phone ringing less frequently. After all, it will mean more time to do other things he enjoys, especially spending more time with family.
“It has been a privilege to serve my customers in Litchfield and the surrounding area,” Keeling said. “I truly appreciate the patronage, trust and support (they) have given me.”
He’s comfortable with his retirement decision and said his body will appreciate the break. But leaving the business that provided a good living for him and his family also comes with a bit of melancholy.
“I am kind of sad,” Keeling said last week as he reminisced about his career, the last 40 years of which were spent owning and operating his own business in Litchfield. “Some of those customers are like family. I mean, some of them, I did their first house they built, I did their second house they built, and now you’re doing their son’s house …. You know the kids; you know the grandkids. Over 40 years … some of them are like family.”
A native of Devil’s Lake, North Dakota, Keeling started in the HVAC business when he was still in high school. A friend’s dad had a heating business, and Keeling began helping there when he was a junior.
He discovered he enjoyed working with his hands and decided it might be a good career to pursue. He attended a trade school, North Dakota State School of Science in Wahpeton, and graduated in 1976, following an 18-month program in sheet metal and heating and air-conditioning equipment service.
After receiving his diploma, he took a job at Chappel Central Inc. in Willmar. He traveled the five-state area doing sheet metal and duct work for a few years. Among the jobs he did was duct work on new homes in the southeast section of Litchfield. That work led Keeling, who said he grew tired of the constant travel with Chappel, to join B&G Plumbing and Heating in 1979. Four years later, Keeling started his own business.
“April Fool’s Day 1983,” he says with a laugh. “If it didn’t work, it was an April Fool’s joke. April 1, 1983, is when I started Dave’s Heating and Air Conditioning. And then, of course, I sell it on March 31 (this year).”
It was no April Fool’s Day joke. The business thrived, thanks in large part to a couple of partners he had over the years — Jim Otremba and Al Lendt, each being partners for about 11 years. But most important to the success, Keeling said, was the support, understanding and business acumen of his wife, Barb, who went to school for bookkeeping and through the years handled the company’s billing and financial records.
“I went to school for sheet metal. I didn’t know anything about running a business or anything like that,” Keeling said. “You learn the hard way.
“But hats off to her,” Keeling said of his wife. “I was gone a lot. We decided early on, if I could work harder, more hours, and she could stay home and raise our girls, that was important to us, so we didn’t have to daycare ’em, you know. But she still … I’d bring the bookwork home, and she’d work on it during the day, and when she got it done, she’d bring it back to the shop.”
In addition to the business, Keeling spent 20 years as a volunteer with the Litchfield Fire Department, serving many years as assistant fire chief and receiving firefighter of the year recognition at least once. He also was an active volunteer at Church of St. Philip, as well as a Knights of Columbus member.
It made for a busy family partnership that worked well, as the Keelings raised three daughters — Lorenda, Anna and Mary Rose — all of whom are grown. Lorenda and Mary Rose both are married and live in Minnesota, while Anna and her husband and two children live in Oregon.
It’s spending time with those children and grandchildren that Keeling said he’s most excited about in retirement. Sure, he and Barb have traveled to visit their daughters in the past, but it’s often been with one eye on the phone, and visits cut short by a customer in need.
“It’s been a good career,” Keeling said. “But it’s almost like dairy farming, I mean, you got all those furnaces out there, and you know … I sold Amana for many, many years. I was the only Amana dealer in Meeker County, and so if a furnace went down, you almost had to go. I just felt obligated.”
Inevitably, those obligations came at inopportune times, like Thanksgiving or Christmas Day, or when Keeling was at one of his daughters’ homes helping with an improvement project.
Though difficult at times, Keeling said it wasn’t all drudgery. He enjoyed the work and the people. And there were times that even the difficult days were made better by the stories behind them.
“A lot of funny stories,” he said. “Like Grandpa and Grandma would call and they had no heat, and they had the grandkids there all day, so you’d go over there and (find) the grandkids turned the switch off on the furnace, because it’s this high (knee-high), they could reach it. You know how grandkids are, you can’t keep up with them. They see adults turn those light switches on and off, and here’s this one really close to the furnace, and they turn it off. About 10 o’clock at night, Grandma or Grandpa calls, they have no heat. So, you just go over, turn the switch on and you go home.”
There was also the time Keeling received a panicked call on the weekend from a mother, whose son’s pet iguana had escaped its cage and made its way into the ductwork.
“She’s panicked, because the kid’s panicked,” Keeling said with a chuckle. “You have to go to help them out, get that iguana out. There’s lots of funny stories. They’ll have a bat stuck in the duct, and they want you to come over and get the bat or the rodents out of the ducts. And you always find dead rodents and birds … that’s just part of the trade.”
But after nearly half a century, when customers are like family, you answer the call. Because your wife understands and supports you.
This April Fool’s Day, though, Keeling’s phone was quiet. And no one was playing a prank on him. The next chapter of his life had arrived. The chapter where a ringing phone will be replaced by family visits, vacations and free time.
But he’s not likely to just sit around. He’ll find other things to occupy his time.
“My doctor asked me if I was going to retire, and I said, ‘Well, I’ve got to keep working.’ He goes, ‘Good, because most people when they sell a business and retire, they’re not my patients in five years.’ He said, ‘Keep going. Stay active.’ So, I’ll find something to do. It’ll just be different.”
