Dayle Fitzke

By VICKI RICE
Hub Staff Writer

KEARNEY - Volunteering gives Dayle Fitzke of Kearney a sense of purpose, but he said he wouldn't be happy volunteering in a position that doesn't involve people.

After a stroke six years ago, Fitzke, 73, retired from the University of Nebraska at Kearney, where he taught math for 40 years. Following his retirement, a friend, Elinor Hardin, told him it was time to volunteer.

He has been volunteering for five years at the Museum of Nebraska Art, where his duties include being a clerk in the gift shop and an alternate security person. He has been treasurer of the MONA Guild and has kept records of the funds for the guild and the gift shop.

"We have a professional mathematician doing things that really need doing well," said Fran Lane, who has volunteered at MONA since it opened and has been a docent there for 11 years.

"He is a great asset." Being a great asset earned Fitzke this year's Freedom Award in Arts & Entertainment Category.

After volunteering for 30 years at Campus Lutheran at UNK, Fitzke retired a year ago. He was on the organizing committee for that group.

"It gives me something to do. It gives me a sense of usefulness," he said of volunteering. "It is the reason I get up in the morning."

Fitzke said he goes to MONA almost every day, especially weekdays, to check the mail and do bookwork. He checks the calendar and fills in when others can't work.

Hardin, who has also volunteered at MONA for many years, said in addition to liking people, Fitzke fills a need with his math skills at the museum. "Some people might think he's paid because he is there so much."

He especially enjoys talking with former students who visit MONA. He joked that he may not be a very good worker in the gift shop because, "I talk too much."

In her nomination letter, Mary Henning of Kearney said, "Dayle always has a welcoming smile to greet visitors to the museum. "He has always been willing to volunteer to help others and always does so with a smile and a few kind words," she wrote.

Although Fitzke said he isn't an artist himself, he enjoys the art at MONA. He tries to attend the docents' presentations about the pieces of art.

Art classes he had when he was younger consisted mainly of drawing and soap carving. "It was the only thing I got a D in in school," he said.

Fitzke is originally from Glenville, southeast of Hastings. He came to Kearney as a student and earned a bachelor's degree at Nebraska State Teacher's College.

He was the superintendent of schools in Roseland, east of Minden, before starting to teach in the UNK math department in 1956.

He and his wife, Carol, have three children, Daylene of Cincinnati, Pamela of Bellevue and Terry of Sioux Falls, S.D., and seven grandchildren, ranging in age from 10 to 18.

Volunteering at MONA has become second nature to him and is something he wants to keep doing.

"I enjoy meeting the people," he said.

Lane said Fitzke's nice disposition and sense of humor help him relate well with people.

"I don't know what we would do without him."

The day MONA got Fitzke, she said, "was a good day for the staff, volunteers and the public."

e-mail to:

vicki.rice@kearneyhub.com