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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

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