Come Join The Celebration! - Wayne State College
Come Join The Celebration! - Wayne State College
Come Join The Celebration! - Wayne State College
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CELEBRATING 100 YEARS<br />
Don and Carol<br />
(Rankin) Bremer<br />
Receive Alumni<br />
Achievement<br />
Award<br />
Don and Carol (Rankin) Bremer<br />
were the recipients of this year’s<br />
Alumni Achievement Award at<br />
spring commencement.<br />
Don and Carol (Rankin)<br />
Bremer were the recipients of<br />
this year’s Alumni Achievement<br />
Award at spring commencement.<br />
Don earned his bachelor’s<br />
degree from <strong>Wayne</strong> <strong>State</strong> in<br />
1958, majoring in education and<br />
industrial arts. Carol graduated<br />
from <strong>Wayne</strong> <strong>State</strong> in 1954<br />
with her two-year teaching<br />
credential. <strong>The</strong> Bremers have<br />
been exemplary educators,<br />
administrators and business<br />
owners, embodying the spirit<br />
that with a <strong>Wayne</strong> <strong>State</strong> degree,<br />
one can go anywhere and do<br />
anything.<br />
Don Bremer was born in<br />
1934 in Sioux City, Iowa. He<br />
moved to Laurel, Neb., and<br />
graduated a year later in 1952.<br />
He enrolled at <strong>Wayne</strong> <strong>State</strong><br />
that fall in the pre-engineering<br />
program. Don was drafted by<br />
the U.S. Army in 1954 during<br />
the Korean War. After training,<br />
he married Carol Rankin, his<br />
college sweetheart. Don and<br />
Carol have been married 54<br />
years. <strong>The</strong>y have three sons and<br />
seven grandchildren.<br />
Don returned to <strong>Wayne</strong><br />
<strong>State</strong> <strong>College</strong> in 1956 where<br />
he continued his education<br />
with majors in education and<br />
industrial arts. After graduating<br />
in 1958, Don, Carol, and<br />
their new son, Doug, moved<br />
to Chino, Calif., where Don<br />
taught math and drafting while<br />
attending Cal Poly University<br />
in Pomona working on a major<br />
in mathematics. He earned<br />
his master of arts degree in<br />
secondary school administration<br />
from California <strong>State</strong><br />
University-Los Angeles in 1962.<br />
Don spent 26 years as a<br />
school administrator, the last<br />
14 as principal of Chino Boys<br />
Republic High School. He is an<br />
Elk, a Mason and a Rotarian.<br />
He has served all offices in his<br />
Rotary Club and several at the<br />
district level. Don was named<br />
Rotarian of the Year in 2005<br />
and received the “Excellence in<br />
Service Award” in 2009. Don<br />
and Carol are major donors to<br />
the Rotary Foundation.<br />
Carol was born in Neligh,<br />
Neb., in 1935. She graduated<br />
from <strong>Wayne</strong> <strong>State</strong> with a<br />
two-year teaching credential<br />
in 1954. Her first teaching<br />
assignment was at a one-room<br />
country school in Antelope<br />
County. Her next assignment<br />
was teaching fifth and sixth<br />
grade in Norfolk, Neb.<br />
During Don’s last two<br />
years at <strong>Wayne</strong> <strong>State</strong>, Carol<br />
taught a seventh and eighth<br />
grade combination class in<br />
Laurel, Neb. Carol earned her<br />
bachelor of arts and master<br />
of arts in education from the<br />
University of California-Los<br />
Angeles. She taught junior high<br />
school English before serving<br />
as the junior high counselor in<br />
the Ontario-Montclair School<br />
District for about 13 years.<br />
She also served two years as<br />
assistant principal of Buena<br />
Vista High School in Ontario,<br />
Calif.<br />
Don left his school<br />
administrative position in<br />
1992 after 35 years in the field<br />
of education to give more<br />
time to their rapidly growing<br />
investment business. Carol<br />
and Don own and manage D<br />
& C Investment Properties, a<br />
partnership that runs their 345<br />
apartment units, nine singlefamily<br />
homes and a medical<br />
complex that houses 18<br />
doctors. One of the Bremers’<br />
redevelopment projects now<br />
serves as a model for the<br />
redevelopment of blighted<br />
apartment areas.<br />
Don and Carol have been<br />
exceptionally charitable to their<br />
community. <strong>The</strong>y have also<br />
created an endowed scholarship<br />
fund at <strong>Wayne</strong> to provide two<br />
student scholarships each year.<br />
During the past three years Don<br />
and Carol have also served on<br />
the <strong>Wayne</strong> <strong>State</strong> Foundation<br />
Board as trusteesand have<br />
hosted a <strong>Wayne</strong> <strong>State</strong> alumni<br />
reunion in their home.<br />
<strong>Wayne</strong> <strong>State</strong> Magazine 5