Columbia College Dr. Ruthenberg Dr. Keeney Dr. Brouder Making a Difference

Most people consider the Columbia College – Lake of the Ozarks campus in Osage Beach one of the crown jewels in the area. But few know that the project may never have happened except for the audacity and vision of one man: Dr. Donald Ruthenberg, former president of Columbia College in Columbia. And now with foresight and persistence, Dr. Brouder as current Columbia College president and Dr. Keeney as the director of the Lake campus are continuing the legacy and growth.

A little more than 20 years ago, the Lake was just beginning its metamorphosis from a summer destination to the year-round vibrant community it is now. Back then, there were two major resorts anchoring the area, Tan-Tar-A and The Lodge of Four Seasons. A newly opened outlet mall held great expectations for future growth, and a small hospital was in the midst of a growth spurt. The local Rotary Club conducted a survey concerning infrastructure in the area. They found that with only 26 percent of local high school graduates continuing on to higher education, there was a great need for an area college. Dr. Donald Ruthenberg was approached by Al Fish, Executive Director of the Lake Area Chamber of Commerce, who asked for his help. “No one at the Lake knew how to take it to the next level,” says Ruthenberg, who was president of Columbia College at the time. The first concern was the “supposed” dearth of professors living at the Lake with the proper credentials to teach at the college level.

After reading an article about professors in Michigan and Wisconsin wanting a place to retire yet teach part-time, Ruthenberg was convinced that the area could support a college. So he and Fish scouted out possible locations in which to hold classes. They looked at property at Crown Point, and although it would have made a stunning campus, the college needed a more central location. The two looked at Stonecrest Mall and the space where the original Walmart was located. Then they found 114 acres of unincorporated property that was owned by Jack Daniels, owner of the Factory Merchant Mall, who lived in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. Daniels had purchased the property to build the outlet mall, but changed his mind and moved the project a few miles down Highway 54.

Two big buildings and a large house sat on the property. One building had once housed the World Wide Church of God, whose Festival of the Tabernacle drew thousands each year. The other building was a metal structure measuring just less than 100,000 square feet. “The builder found out that if the building was 100,000 feet or more, he would be in a different tax bracket,” Ruthenberg says. “So there’s one corner that’s a little off.”

The parcel had a price tag of $1.6 million. In addition to the Columbia College main campus in Columbia, in the 1970s the college began to focus on the idea of creating extended campuses, not only on military bases but nationwide. At that time the college didn’t own any of the real estate. Buying or building a structure outside of Boone County was a new idea, and the Columbia College Board of Trustees would have nothing to do with it.

They gave Ruthenberg a firm thumbs-down to the notion of buying the parcel. “I didn’t know how to purchase the property and keep my job,” Ruthenberg says. Undaunted, however, Ruthenberg formed the Lake University Corporation and appointed his administrative staff as board members. He then went to Jack Daniel’s agent, Mike Channel, and told him he couldn’t afford $1.6 million and suggested a $400,000 gift in kind. After a lot of finagling, he sold 40 acres to Tom Otke for the purpose of building 100 homes, and another parcel to build a nursing home. Ruthenberg was able to keep the project afloat.

In the summer of 1990, Ruthenberg instructed Frazier Moon, who ran the Extended Studies Division from Columbia, and Chuck Bobbitt, Director of Facilities, to hire a director for “the Lake campus.” Dr. John Keeney was hired in August. He thought the school would open sometime in 1991, but was told by Ruthenberg that the first day of classes would be October 23, 1990. Keeney’s first worry was recruiting qualified faculty in the area. “I underestimated,” Keeney says. “I thought I would have to reach into Jefferson City.” As it turned out, all of the faculty he has hired are local. And although his job description only involved the academic side of the college, he also found himself ordering furniture and other necessities. The college opened on time in the empty church with four instructors and 51 students, who were able to choose from four classes. The second semester, which began in January, saw 110 students enrolled in classes.

“At 100, we were able to pay the bills,” Keeney says. He credits the success of the school to community support. “People could have been cynical, but they weren’t,” he says. Upon Ruthenberg’s retirement in 1995, Dr. Gerald Brouder became president of Columbia College. For the past 15 years he has continued the mission that Ruthenberg began at the Lake. “If I can show reasonable justification for a project, he’ll support it,” Keeney says of Brouder. Over the years, Brouder has watched the number of students increase. What has been unique is the number of day students. The old church quickly ran out of space, and the need to build a facility took over board discussions. At about the same time, Keeney was approached by Mike Henze, CEO of Lake Regional Hospital Systems, regarding adding a nursing program at the Lake. More than 90 percent of the nurses working at the hospital were LPNs, and there was a definite need for RNs. The hospital was willing to help finance equipment for a nursing lab, and to offer internships and an annual nursing camp.

Because all of Brouder’s degrees were in nursing, one of the first programs he changed at the Columbia campus was to upgrade the practical nurse degree to a registered nurse degree. He quickly agreed that a two-year nursing program made sense at the Lake. In 2005, the first nursing program classes began, which coordinated with the opening of the new building that Keeney says looks like a “real” college. There currently are 60 students—each armed with 60 hours of previous college credit—enrolled in the program, which takes 14 months to complete. “What I really enjoy about the program is seeing kids from small towns such as Tuscumbia and Iberia come here and receive their nursing degree,” Keeney says. “Then they are able to stay here and have productive careers.”

In 2010, the college saw an 18 percent growth, with more than 750 students enrolled and 44 faculty working full- and part-time. There are about 1,000 graduates of the college still living in the area. With that kind of success, the college is looking to the future. “We don’t build hoping they will come,” Brouder says. “We build to accommodate needs.” Although he says there is no timeline, adding on to meet increasing enrollment is playing a key role in expansion. Keeney says any new structure is at least three years out. The concept that Ruthenburg envisioned and handed into the care of Keeney with the continued support and foresight of Brouder has become a national model for the Nationwide campuses. Brouder sums up their amazing achievements: “We set the pace.”

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