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In 1955 the Oklahoma District of the Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod met in Norman. Under the guidance of executive secretary Clarence Knippa, the District authorized the purchase of land and two apartments at 914 Elm Avenue for $22,000. They became home for Lutheran Student ministry at OU for the next nine years.
One garage apartment was remodeled for the student group's use. The group, called Gamma Delta, sponsored Sunday evening suppers, vespers, and business and social events. The two story apartment also provided a kitchen, TV, piano, table tennis, and a lounge area for relaxation and study. Outdoors the yard also provided space for volleyball and games.
University Lutheran Chapel was organized in 1963 with support provided by the Oklahoma District, Pr. William H. Hecht was called from Mt. Vernon, Illinois, to be the first pastor of ULC. He and his wife Susan arrived on a hot summer day three days before his 30th birthday. From the outset it was apparent that pastor Hecht was an arch conservative politically.
The apartment on Elm lacked adequate space for Sunday worship services, and since Trinity was without a Pastor at the time of Hecht's arrival, services for both congregations continued at Trinity. By a vote of 14 to 13 Trinity voters chose to remain at the Alameda and Classen site.
September 1964 saw the first service of the University group at an old fraternity house located at 815 S. Jenkins. 186 persons attended that first service and attendance averaged 141, with average offerings of $150 during the first two months.
In April the Oklahoma District approved building plans for the Chapel, allocating $100,000 and selected Richard Kuhlman of OU's School of Architecture to design the facilities. The new congregation was officially organized and a constitution adopted on December 13, 1964.
The first service in the new Chapel facility was held on April 25, 1965, but dedication was delayed until October 10. An impressive guest list included Dr. Oliver R. Harms, President of the LC--MS, Henry Bellman, Governor of Oklahoma, Dr. George Lynn Cross, President of OU, and Dr. Alfred O. Fuerbringer, President of Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, MO. This celebration bears testimony to Pr. Hecht's political expertise. Dr. Fuerbringer had begun his ministry in Norman and married Carolyn Kuhlman. (He would later retire to Norman and become a member of University Lutheran.)
Of the 125 members who transferred from Trinity to become the nucleus of the Chapel congregation, 14 remain active in 1995. These include: Paul, Dorothy and Marilyn Brinker, Ethen and Wilhelmine Folks, Elaine (Folks) Fast, Janell (Folks) Cannicott, Dorothy and Lloyd Iverson, Marjorie (Robinson) Kiecolt, Herbert and Esther Kuhlman, Joanne (Kuhlman) Klumpp and Sondra Shehab.
The total cost of the Chapel and student center property and facilities was $250,000. During the first 10 years District subsidy helped pay off two/thirds of the Chapel's debt. In the summer of 1967 Pr. Hecht resigned to assume the role of executive secretary for the Republican party of Missouri. In the fall, Pr. David Klumpp, serving St. Stephen Lutheran Church in New Orleans, LA, was called. He accepted and arrived in Norman with his wife, Marian, and two children, Nathan and Karen, on January 1, 1968.
During the first years of his ministry services continued in continuity with past patterns, but with less conservative bias. Membership grew from 85 communicant members in 1965 to 238 in 1975. At the 10 year celebration worship, a new chancel window in faceted glass depicting the Pentecost outpouring of the Spirit was dedicated. Donated by the Herbert Kuhlman family, it made the Chapel much more worshipful. In time memorial nave windows in leaded glass would carry out themes from the Book of Acts. Later, the two side front windows symbolizing the sacraments of Baptism and Lord's Supper were donated by Art and Emily Schultheiss. A pipe organ was installed at the rear of the Chapel in 1970. A 14 rank, tracker action, Walcker, purchased in Germany for $14,000. This necessitated the choir's move to the rear of the Chapel to be near the organ. The south transept was converted to storage.
Many significant events took place in these first ten years as the congregation grew numerically and in spiritual discernment. The most significant development saw the rise of the counter culture with a strong anti-institutional bias that spelled hard times for student ministry. The hey day of campus ministry passed and the focus as well as the locus of ministry shifted toward the congregation.
One of the factors which helped to strengthen our congregation was the organization of COME groups. Here, eight to twelve adults gather in member homes or the church lounge to share themselves and their faith with others. In each meeting nurture, fellowship, witness, service and worship occur. In more recent years we changed the name to CARE groups.
One of the saddest days in ULC history was December 15, 1975 when funeral services were conducted for Ralph Bienfang and Jack Robinson, both of whom died as a result of accidents. These were the first member funerals at which Pastor Klumpp had officiated since his installation in January, 1968.
A significant change in our second decade was the adoption in 1977 of the Lutheran Book of Worship which was the culmination of several years of work by the LCA, ALC and LCMS, although the LCMS withdrew at the end. Offering a variety of musical styles, this book of worship has been instrumental in invigorating and enriching the worship life of our congregation.
Although student work had declined we continued with the group called Singles Plus. The school year would begin with a retreat. Students would meet on Sunday evenings for a cost supper prepared by members taking turns. The meal was followed by films, discussions or activities. In 1979 we changed the name of the group to SOUL (Students of University Lutheran).
ULC has attempted to involve students in all aspects of our programs, serve on boards and committees, teach, sing in the choir, serve as elders, trustees, etc.
An exciting weekend occurred in April, 1979 when Dr. Walter Pelz of Bethany Lutheran College, Lindsborg, Kansas conducted a Hymn Festival in our church. Our congregation commissioned Dr. Pelz to compose a short work which was performed by our choir at this festival. Guest artists from O.U. also participated in this event.
In October 1979 a Planning Workshop was conducted to help us to set our priorities to best utilize our limited resources. One of the outcomes was to conduct two worship services when we began to average 200 in attendance per Sunday.
In 1979 our budget totaled $82,500, an increase of $5,000 over the previous year. Of this amount a subsidy of $28,000 was received from the Oklahoma District. This was the last year for aid since we became self-supporting in 1980.
In a special ceremony at the Thanksgiving Banquet, 1980, our members participated in a burning of the mortgage on our sanctuary and parish activity center. Leather-bound copies of the new Lutheran Book of Worship were presented to the charter members still active in our congregation. Also in 1980 we authorized a Christian pre-school to be held on Mondays under the direction of Karen Carlson and Ann Lohmann.
In October, 1980 we had grown to 299 communicant and 398 baptized members.
In 1981 ULC honored Pastor and Marian Klumpp with a tour of Israel and Greece.
After several months of construction by Ken Malmberg, Don Ekonen and Orel Lee, our harpsichord was dedicated in September, 1982.
During the years 1982-83 Paul Kleine served as the chapel's educational consultant. From the planning workshop that he conducted came the conclusion that there was an urgent desire for a professional staff member to focus on the congregation's educational needs. This resulted in the installation of Diane Baker as our first full time Director of Christian Education in August, 1983.
Traditionally all of the business of the congregation had been conducted in a Voter's Assembly which met monthly. In 1983 this was changed to a 12 member Chapel Council with representation from the following committees: Worship, Property, Education and Youth, Outreach, Stewardship, and Finance.
On October 21, 1984 we celebrated the 20th anniversary of our congregation with Dr. Clarence Knippa as the principal speaker. We continued the celebration in November with a slide show history presented by Dennis Holm at our annual Thanksgiving Banquet. On September 30, 1984 we first used the "ULC Folk Worship," composed by one of our students, Lans Rothfusz. We continue to use this service at selected times even today.
An interesting side light with regard to our staff is that all four daughters of Herbert and Esther Kuhlman - Marian, Carolyn, Joanne, and Kathy - have been secretaries in our church office, one following the other beginning in 1969.
Two major themes seem to dominate the last decade of our church history: Building acquisition and synodical affiliation. Each set of events required a great deal of prayerful effort and congregational planning and the effect of each set of events will probably continue to be felt when the next chapter of history is written about University Lutheran Church.
The physical expansion has occurred at different times throughout the decade and each purchase was a response to a particular opportunity presented to our members. The change in church affiliation was one of those events which may occur only once in our lifetime. The decision to affiliate with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) represented a culmination of gradual steps which may have appeared small and rather routine at the time but which may serve as a major milestone when we look back from the vantage point of history.
Let's take a look year by year at both the milestone and the cobblestones which make up our path leading to the 21st century. In 1985 we were holding reasonably steady at 410 baptized members with 293 communicants. The year was highlighted by the celebration of blessings accruing to Pastor and Marian Klumpp on the 25th anniversary of PK's ordination in the Lutheran ministry.
In 1986, our voting members were presented with the following small scrap of paper on which they were to cast their ballots after an extended period of discussion, debate and deliberation.
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I want the Chapel to reactivate its membership in the Lutheran
Church-Missouri Synod (LCMS).
I want the Chapel to affiliate with the AELC preparatory to joining
in the merger of the new Lutheran Church to be known as the Evangelical
Lutheran Church in America.
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The tallying of these slips of paper on October 5, 1986 yielded an overwhelming 93% of the congregation had voted to affiliate first with the AELC which would merge the following year with two other Lutheran synods to become the fourth largest protestant church body in America.
In that same year of 1986 the Dale property was purchased and a loan of $59,000 at 10% interest provided a financial challenge to the congregation and the first of several property acquisitions.
The budget of $132,500 in 1987 showed a rather sharp increase over the rather flat years of 1985 ($113,900) and 1986 ($119,600) which contrasted with a rather modest increase in baptized members of 461 with 332 communicants in 1988,. Nineteen eighty-eight also saw a change in the DCE as Diane Baker left the office but not our area as she began pursuit of a Masters degree in Business Administration. Steve Tretheway also left his post as Peer Minister to concentrate on his studies as well.
In 1989 we featured more anniversary celebrations as University Lutheran Church reached the 25 year milestone. In September, Bishop Robert Studtmann was present at both worship services to give thanks to God for a quarter century of blessings on our congregation. That evening we enjoyed the talents of musician/dramatist Harriet Larsen in the performance of "Lazarus."
This same year of 1989 saw the beginning of Sammie Olkinetzky's 25th year of dedicated service as choir director of ULC and the hiring of Jack Schultz as part-time DCE to replace Diane Baker.
In 1990 the congregation approved a budget of $140,000 and added another purchase as the triplex property at 1015 College Avenue became available. In 1991, the congregation honored Sammie Olkinetzky for 35 years of music ministry in a Lutheran context. The revision of the Contemporary Lutheran Worship Service by Lans Rothfusz in 1993 renewed his labor of love for our congregation and our membership totals grew to 510 baptized members with 381 communicants. In 1994, we saw the budget approach the $200,000 range which doubled the figure we had for 1982.
Events too numerous to mention trip past our mind's eye as we recall youth meetings and Sunday School/Bible Class sessions, CARE group meetings, Council meetings, baptisms and confirmations, births and deaths; all of which make up the warp and woof of God's tapestry we call University Lutheran. Our wet and dry Church in the Park services, softball games won and lost, children's sermons with their potential for insight and humor, Christmas Eve services and yard cleanups, pancake suppers and mortgage burnings, choir renditions and thought provoking sermons; all these and more blend into our spiritual vision of ULC. We wonder what God has in store for us in the remainder of the 20th century. We extend our humble thanks to God for the blessings of the past and ask His continued guidance for even greater challenges which lie ahead.
Below is a list of those who have served the Chapel in the office as pastor, vicar (intern), DCE, parish assistant/secretary, without any specifics. Sammie has done a thorough job recording organists, but these names are listed lest they be forgotten by the time we celebrate the 50th anniversary.
Pastor: William H. Hecht, John Singh (asst. part-time), David J. Klumpp
Vicar: Gerald Iverson, Stephen Krueger
Director of Christian Education: Jeannie Hummel (asst. part-time), Diane Baker, Jack Schultz (asst. part-time)
Secretary/Parish Assistant: Katherine Franzen, Glenda Tiemann, Beverly Hamilton, Marian Kuhlman McFarland, Eileen Jacobson, Rita Cain, Linda Henke, Carolyn Kuhlman, Denise Plowman, Joanne Kuhlman, Donna Reynolds, Cathy Kuhlman, Betsy Riggs, Marti Hunnicutt
The following two sections entitled "University Lutheran Chapel Choir - A Family Affair" and "Pedal Notes" have been written by Sammie Olkinetzky, our choir director for the past 30 years and before that time at Trinity Lutheran, Norman. For those of us who have had the privilege of singing in this choir, we truly feel part of her family. We thank Sammie for all of her faithful years of service and for sharing this complete history that no one knows as well as she does.
Making music together forms a bond like no other, and I sometimes imagine that the choir is my real family. Over the years, I've taken great pleasure in watching them grow--physically, as well as musically. Choir members have married other choir members on more than one occasion, and we've always had several husband and wife teams, as well as parent/child combinations in the group. Many of our members have progressed from junior to adult choir, and it was marvelous this summer to have within our ranks both Kristin and John Lohmann, who quite literally have grown up attending choir rehearsals with their parents.
The original Lutheran choir in Norman was begun at Trinity, our parent congregation, in 1938. Dorothy Brinker, in her wonderful history of that congregation written for their 60th anniversary, quotes Pastor Herman Heuer:
During the 1933-34 school year, Rev. A. O. Fuerbringer made various attempts to organize a choir, but singers were lacking. He concentrated on the school children, hoping to establish a long-range program. In 1938, a graduate student at the University of Oklahoma, Bernice Brevik, a graduate of Concordia College, Morehead, Minnesota, offered to serve as choir director. Under her consecrated leadership a choir was organized which greatly enhanced the worship services.
Having no music library and no budget, the choir sang from the hymnal in four-part harmony, which they learned by rote. Few people could afford music lessons in those depression days, and Wilhelmine Folks tells of learning to read music by memorizing the sounds at choir rehearsals, then locating those sounds on a piano by trial and error.
Miss Brevik left OU in 1939, so the choir was leaderless until the 40/41 school year, when a teacher in the day school, Ben Eggers, served as director. During the next six years, the choir apparently got by solely with the encouragement from Pastor Maleske. They were very fortunate when a Lutheran professor, Walter Haderer, came to teach at OU's music school in January of 1947. Dr. Haderer had a profound effect in his seven years as director, and is remembered fondly, even today.
The next three directors were OU students, and served one year, each: Naomi Reissetter - 54/55; Pauline Lewis - 55/56; John Norman - 56/57. John and I were classmates in Mildred Andrews' course in church music (which Pastor Knippel always referred to as "sitting at the feet of Mildred"), and he asked me to be soprano soloist in the choir's Christmas and Easter cantatas. In those days, OU did not offer a doctorate in music, so when John left in 1957 to continue his studies in California, he recommended me as his successor. This has proven to be the happiest coincidence of my life.
That year, there were 14 members in the choir, and 12 of them were related. Fred Kuhlman was the patriarch. His sister, Helen, also sang, along with his four children--Herbert, Wilhelmine, Ernest, and Pauline--and his son-in-law, Ethen Folks. Fred's wife, Pauline Hansmeyer Kuhlman, had been the church organist until her death in 1932, and five of her nieces--Pauline Mappes Hartman, Nancy and Carolyn Mappes, Marilyn and Kathryn Hansmeyer--completed the dozen. The two families of nieces were related on both sides of their families, but each side was a different generation, so their relationship could be as cousins or as aunt/niece. To further confuse a newcomer, a 13th member, William Bauer, was a close family friend, and was always referred to as "Uncle Bill." The only name and face of which I was relatively certain was that of Bess Bienfang, the only member for whom there was no family connection or resemblance.
In the succeeding 38 years, this family's children and their children's children have maintained this tradition, always finding a way to praise God with their voices or with instruments. And though separated from us until recently, another branch of the family tree--Fred's sister, Carolyn Kuhlman Fuerbringer--has also produced several generations who continue to reveal their musical heredity. The Kuhlman/Hansmeyer family is now scattered to the farthest corners of the land, so I've no idea how many have participated in the music programs of their church, but I count at least 33 members of four generations who have sung in a choir under my direction. Ethen, who recently retired from the choir because of progressive hearing loss, had 45 years of service; his wife, Wilhelmine, was one of the original members, but spent two years in Oregon after marrying this Oregonian, so her tenure is 55 years and counting. Herbert has been a faithful member for all of the choir's 57 years. Truly remarkable statistics for an even more remarkable family!
Organists have played an important role in our congregation's history, as well as our worship, and we wish to acknowledge the contributions of these very gifted musicians during our anniversary celebration. Since most were connected to the university, their tenures tend to be in academic years. Beryl Nash, a piano major at OU, was both organist and choir director during the congregation's first year (64/65) when services were held in the old fraternity house on Jenkins. Beryl had the talent and temperament of a concert artist, and would have been perfectly at ease on a concert stage. Instead, she continued to serve as our organist until the spring of '67, when she accepted a full-time position at the United Methodist church in Tulsa.
Though here for only a year (67/68), David Johns served with Pastors Hecht and Klumpp, as well as Assistant Pastor, John Singh. After earning a DMA in Organ Performance, Dr. Johns went back to school to become a Lutheran minister, and for a time was pastor at Trinity Lutheran in Norman. Many of us remember how David would drop out and allow the congregation to sing unaccompanied. Do you also remember Pastor Klumpp's installation service, when he chose to let us sing alone on the one verse in which the typist had omitted a line of the hymn text?
Loretta Kaser, a faculty wife and member of our congregation, was organist the next year (68/69). Unfortunately, her husband accepted a position at another university at the end of that year.
Marian Kuhlman, daughter of founding members, Herbert and Esther Kuhlman, shared secretarial as well as organist's duties with her friend, Eileen Jacobsen, during the 69/70 year. Both had been students of David Johns at St. John's College in Winfield, Kansas. Marian was already quite an experienced organist, having filled in for our three previous organists when OU was not in session. Esther tells of insisting that Marian eat breakfast before beginning her Sunday routine of playing two services--one in Moore, followed by our service in Norman, which was quite a responsibility for a young high school student. She stopped insisting when even a glass of milk refused to stay down on those mornings. Marriage to Larry McFarland took Marian away from Norman in July of 1970, but Eileen remained in school here, living in one of the apartments recently razed. She continued to serve as our organist until her own marriage in March of 1974.
Fortunately for our congregation, there were several very capable organists in the choir at that time, and Roland Lohmann was able to take over the duties of organist the very next Sunday. Roland enjoyed entrepreneurial skills as well as musical talent, and used his prodigious energies to promote the choir's first Service of Lessons and Carols, a multi-media Lenten service, a performance of Bach's Cantata #106, "God's Time is Best," and a Hymn Festival with Walter Pelz. He had become interested in physical therapy while working to finance his musical studies at OU, and eventually left to devote full time to his many P.T. clinics. During his last year (79/80), Roland shared organ duties with Ed Soehnlen, Visiting Professor of Organ at OU. Ed then stayed another year before returning to Michigan for an Organist/Choir Director position with a Catholic church.
The summer of 1981 brought the sparkling personality of Mary Doezema into our midst. Mary's great gift was hymn playing, and she always managed to elicit the congregation's finest efforts in this area. Though a skilled keyboard player, Mary's degree was actually in Education. In her typically straight-forward manner, she decided that "if this is what I'm going to do, I should learn to do it properly," and enrolled in a graduate music degree program at OU. She served as accompanist for several recitals while there, and probably taught the faculty quite as much as they taught her! It was a sad day for us when she left in 1985 to accompany her physicist husband to the east coast for a research project.
The congregation had begun having two Sunday morning services during Mary's tenure, and since she was already committed to playing the early service at the Presbyterian church (deemed closest to her own Dutch Reformed faith), Ann Smith began playing for the early service, here. After Mary's departure, Ann played for both services. Though an excellent organist, she quickly found that juggling a full-time nursing career with family responsibilities and organ duties was taking too great a toll, so she enlisted the aid of another organist, Grace Seamon.
Grace was working on a master's in Piano Pedagogy at OU, but had spent her teenage years playing the organ for services conducted by her father, a Lutheran minister in Minnesota. She met another "preacher's kid," Phil Kopitske, while here, and the choir was honored to sing at their wedding. Grace continued to play for our services until the eminent birth of their first son, Martin, prevented her from reaching the organ pedals!
Our own "Miss Palmer," Ann Smith, again filled in very graciously and ably until another graduate student in piano happened to move next door to the Brinkers. Linda Wilds became our organist in the spring of '87, and stayed until the end of '88, when she married one of our choir members, Don Beckman. She then became the choir director at St. John's Episcopal Church in Norman, where she naturally needed basses, so we lost a choir member as well as an organist.
Once again, we relied on "Miss Palmer" to fill the void until someone heard that a very active teacher and accompanist in the Norman area was free on Sunday mornings. Cynthia Pullin arrived just before Holy Week in 1989. I recall having to introduce myself to her three times at our first choir rehearsal, but all she remembers is her absolute terror at being faced with three totally different settings of an unfamiliar liturgy, a hymnal with hundreds of unfamiliar hymns (some with very unexpected Baroque rhythms!) and a veritable sea of new faces--all remarkably Teutonic! Obviously, she survived this baptism of fire, for Cindy has already served more years than any previous organist, and we hope that the past 6 1/2 years are but a prelude of things to come!
In addition to the 12 named above, we have also been blessed with many other organists who worshiped with us and shared their talents when called upon. Among them: Sondra Sleizer Shehab, Karen Theimer, Diane Sleizer Hardersen, Jannene Schroeder, Nancy Redshaw, Paula Kitt Busking, Susan Turner, Karen Carlson, and ("déjà vu all over again") Cathy Cook. I'm very grateful that God chose these people to facilitate our worship. They have been dear friends, and have enriched all our lives with their music, their humor, and their beautiful spirits.
October 8, 1995: History - University Lutheran Chapel and Student Center
Submitted by Dorothy Brinker, Lloyd Iverson, Paul Kleine, Sammie Olkinetzky, and David Klumpp