Who makes our mission possible?
Heroes like you.
Being a hero doesn’t require rushing into a burning building to save lives. The definition is a bit broader
than that and requires only the selfless attempt (and intent) to benefit others through some amount of
personal sacrifice. When you give your assets to support our work in the community, you become a
hero—at least to all those who benefit from our grants, scholarships, initiatives, and programs.
What does a hero look like? Here are just a few of the supporters who have helped us change lives.
LESTER A. WALKER
Truth, hard work, character, and community. These were the ideals valued by longtime Fremont benefactor Lester A. Walker, former owner and publisher of the Fremont Tribune for nearly 30 years.
Always a champion for community needs and improvements, Les oftentimes took the initiative to get important projects going. The impacts of his visionary thinking live on today. In 1947, he spearheaded the development of the Fremont Pack to provide returning veterans a job after the war. Within a year, it was sold to the George A. Hormel & Company. When Fremont’s old sewer line collapsed in 1952, Lester championed the creation of a modern sewage disposal plant—a facility that has served the Fremont area for over 60 years. And in the early 1950s, he helped establish the Community Chest, known today as the Fremont Area United Way.
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“He was very smart and quick about things,” said daughter Jane Walker. “He could analyze anything and put it together and say, 'This is what needs to be done.’”
Les found a solution to furthering his lifelong philanthropy by establishing the Lester Walker Fund at FACF through his will. The Fund was created to augment the Foundation’s grant-making and, since its inception over 20 years ago, it has generated 267 grants totaling more than $1.5 million to over 100 nonprofit organizations throughout Dodge, Cuming, Colfax, and Washington Counties and beyond.
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DOROTHY R. STANGEL
Born in 1925, Dorothy Stangel was an only child raised in Columbus, Nebraska. She graduated in 1943 from Columbus High School and worked for her uncles in the Gass Haney Funeral Home and later for the Department of Labor in Columbus.
In 1965, Dorothy met and married Wilfred J. “Casey” Stangel in Dodge, and the couple made their home in Fremont. Dorothy worked for CF Industries until retiring in 1993 and was a member of Business and Professional Women and Daughters of Union Veterans. She was also a member of First United Methodist Church for nearly 50 years, an office volunteer, and a member of Mary Circle.
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Preceded in death by her husband, Dorothy remained very close to her many nieces and nephews and their families.
Upon her passing in 2012, Dorothy included the Fremont Area Community Foundation among her heirs, directing that a percentage of her estate be used for unrestricted purposes. Her generous provision was added to the Fremont Forever Fund, to grow and generate much-needed funds for grant-making.
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Audrey Hoegermeyer
Audrey was born on the family farm in rural Hooper. She was baptized and confirmed at Immanuel Lutheran Church and graduated from Hooper High School in 1935. Audrey was active in her church and became an accredited Braille translator. She never married but continued to live with and care for her family.
When her brother, Allen, a World War II veteran, took over the family farm, Audrey continued to help him. They remained on the farm for over 95 years. Allen passed away in March, 2014, and Audrey followed him two years later.
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Audrey is remembered as a kind, Christian woman who “lived her life in exactly that manner,” according to a friend. Her caring disposition is reflected in the generous bequest Audrey left to the community foundation’s Social Services Field of Interest Fund. Her legacy of kindness and care-taking will benefit countless individuals throughout the Fremont area for generations to come.
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Hazel Keene
Behind the scenes benefactor. Dear friend. A queen. These are just a few of the monikers bestowed upon the late Hazel Rice Keene by friends and family. And though she passed away more than 30 years ago, her charitable legacy is evident throughout the Fremont area today.
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Hazel was born in Ainsworth, Nebraska in 1887. She first came to Fremont to attend Fremont Normal College where she completed her teacher training. She taught at Beebe and East Schools in Fremont before marrying Charles Albert (“Bert”) Keene in 1909. Bert, a member of one of Fremont’s founding families, was an investor in farming and real estate. Hazel loved her adopted town of Fremont and became very involved in the local social life and in many organizations, such as Daughters of the Nile, Ladies Charity Club, The Great Use of a Life: A Tribune to Hazel Keene Fremont Art Association, and the Presbyterian Church Circle. During the summers, she would go out to their farm near Fremont and enjoy horseback rides. Bert, who had been chairman of the board of Fremont National Bank, died in 1949.
A warm-hearted and generous soul, Hazel continued to support many area organizations, such as Midland University (successor to her alma mater), the Dodge County Agricultural Society, 4-H, the YMCA, the Fremont Area Art Association and Dodge County Historical Society, just to name just a few. A significant project was Fremont’s Keene Memorial Library. In addition to donating a large sum for the building, she was also active in the fund drive that eventually raised the balance of funds needed.
Hazel believed in the importance of investing for the future of her community and was one of the first four major donors to the Fremont Area Community Foundation, providing a $10,000 gift to help establish the organization.
When she died in 1985 at the age of 97, Hazel’s will established a 20-year trust to benefit Dodge County charities. Grants were made from the income of her farmland east of Fremont. During that time, the trust distributed more than $3.4 million to nearly 70 charitable projects and organizations throughout Dodge County.
At the close of the trust in 2005, the farmland was sold and the proceeds used to establish the Hazel R. Keene Donor-Advised Fund at the Fremont Area Community Foundation. During the next decade, the fund grew by 5 percent and generated nearly $4.3 million in grants, which were awarded to charitable projects and nonprofit organizations throughout the Fremont area.
Earlier this year, the Hazel R. Keene Donor-Advised Fund reached its sunset and made its final grant disbursements to 10 charitable organizations. But Hazel’s legacy will live on through the organizations her philanthropy has strengthened and the projects it has made possible.
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