JACKSON -- Minnesota West Community and Technical College instructor Bob Roesler was among 12 University of Minnesota alumni to receive the Alumni Service Award from the University of Minnesota for his long-time service and legacy of volunteerism.
The awards were presented at a celebration hosted by the University of Minnesota Alumni Association in October in Minneapolis.
"Many of the University of Minnesota's 400,000 living graduates support their alma mater in important ways," said Margaret Sughrue Carlson, chief executive officer of the Alumni Association, in a news release. "But there is a unique group of 12 individuals that care deeply about the University of Minnesota, and they devote an incredible amount of time and talent as volunteers. They are often 'unsung' heroes, but they make a huge difference to the vitality and future success of our great university."
Roesler, a Sherburn resident who teaches farm business management in Welcome through the Jackson campus of Minnesota West, is being recognized for his service to the College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resources Sciences (CFANS).
According to the release, Roesler "facilitated stakeholder meetings that brought together community leaders, high school teachers, alumni, students and University of Minnesota representatives to further strengthen agricultural education for undergraduates."
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Roesler's award comes with an important milestone: a former teacher at Martin County West Senior High School, he completed 40 years of teaching in July.
"As cutbacks have occurred in higher education lots of programs have been squeezed and part of that is the Extension service that used to have a large presence in rural Minnesota," he explained. "The number of students wasn't the problem, it was purely a funding problem and the problem the college had in trying to maintain the level of instruction."
Roesler took action, gathering people from businesses in small and large towns alike, university staff and people from philanthropic organizations; a group he called stakeholders.
"We met with the deans and staff to talk about the program and talk about how we really need, in rural Minnesota, to continue to have a program that develops young men and women so we didn't have this lag. ... A small community, even up to the size of Worthington, can't afford to have a lag of people who understand rural communities," he said.
"We spent a lot of time not just lobbying our concerns but trying to involve the undergraduates themselves, to make a better program in the future," he continued.
Roesler, whose three children also graduated from the University of Minnesota, said his education and background in agriculture is not only a privilege, but an obligation to give back to the field.
"We think that now that we have a degree to do something that we can do things we couldn't do before," he said. "But it also adds responsibilities."
