The Class of 1945

Betty Allen, Alice Anderson,

Phyllis Baird, Paul Bamberg, Karl Bardell, Donald Bauch, Robert Belk, Charlene Bender, Elaine Bishop, Kenneth Boslough, Rodney Bowers, Virgil Bowers, Robert Brobst, Patricia Brokhausen, Peggy Brown, Ramona Brown, Milton Bruce, Pearlie Bruce, Barbara Bruckart, Lisas Bucher,

Dorothy Carstedt, George Chiamopoulos, Irene Christen, Gerald Clock, Richard cramer, La Verne Cummins,

Karl Dame, Marilou Deaner, Robert De Gan, Elsie Deike, Betty Dietmeier, Robert Dietmeier, Samuel De Maggio, Phyllis Dirksen, Virginia Doerr, George Dorst, Alice Downing, Marcella Drewelon, James Dreyer, Mary Dunn, Ireda Dyslin,

Eleanor Eilders, Ethel Eilders, Christine Eklund, Edward Enzler, Jean Erdmier,

Ronald Fickert, Jeanne Finley, Lyman Fishburn, Shirlee Fisher, Lester Fouke, Barbara Foy, Miles Frankenfield, John Franz, Floyd Freerksen, Alvin Fricke,

Athanas Georgalas, Donna George, Betty Gilbert, Paul Gitz, Joseph Graham, Ellen Greene, Jack Greier, Donald Griswold, Dwain Grell, Barbara Guffey, Julius Guhl, Mary Gushart,

Henry Haberkamp, Lois Hart, John Hartog, Leonard Hasse, Natalie Heard, Maxine Heitz, Leah Held, Jeanne Hermsmeier, Donovan Hershberger, James Higley, Gloria Hill, John Hill, Jeanette Hird, Dorothy Holtum, William Howard,

Theodore Jacobs, Theron Jordan,

Roger Kaney, Harriette Kaufman, Loretta Keppen, Thomas Kerr, Robert KIimes, Neysa Kirchberg, Roger Kish, Richard Klaus, Roger Klipping, Robert Knipschild, James Koeller, Joyce Koym, Don Kraft, Jane Kruse, Paul Kutzke,

John Lawver, Evedene Loewe, William Lorey, Alice Love, Audrey Luedeking,

Vernon Marsh, Lyle Mathiot, Shirley Mayer, Dixon McCool, Francis Meier, Marilyn Meinzer, John Messing Paul Meyers, Roberta Meyers, Betty Miller, Donald Miller, Elton Miller Jr., William Moogk, Delbert Moore, Robert Morrow, Fanny Mullins, John Myers,

Betty Nesemeier, Ruth Nesemeyer, Arlene North,

Joe Oblander, Robert Olson, Louise Ousley,

Mary Lou Palmer, Jack Parriott, Stanley Pash, Robert Paugels, John Pearson, Stanley Penticoff, Mary Perkins, Meredith Pettepiece, Mary Pierce, Frances Potter,

Margery Rahn, Adolph Rampenthal, Catherine Reining, Jane Rideout, Robert Rinehart, Ruth Rosenstiel, Wilbur Rosenstiel, Edna Ross, Pauline Ross, Jean Rowen, William Rundall, William Ruthe,

Niles Sager, Ralph Sandstrom, Chester Sargent, Ruth Saxby, Genevieve Scheffner, William Schirmer, Lois Schmitt, Martha Seitz, Alfred Shay, Keith Shay, Dolores Shivers, James Shuey, Lucille Sicher, Mary Slaght, Lois Smith, Patricia Smith, William Snook, Lester Snyder, Joan Sokup, Miranda Staver, Marilyn Stees, Carl Stenzhorn, Donald Stephens, Vivian Stewart, Robert Stickle, Jean Stimpert, Shirley Strobel, Lila Strohecker, Erma Stukenberg, Donald Sturtevant, John Sturtevant,

Daniel Teare, Evelyn Thiel, John Thompson, Robert Tilkemeier, Joan Tippetts, Audrey Trepus, John Trevillian,

Eleanor Uden,

Jack Vaupel, Valeria Vore, Lamoine Voss,

Eleanor Wachlin, Richard Wardell, Marian Watkins, James Wheat, Maxine Whitacre, Phyllis Wichman, James Winter, Dexter Witt, Harold Witte, Walter Wohlford, Norma Wolfe, Calvin Wunsch,

Lorraine Young, Robert Young,

James Zanoni, Harvey Zartman Jr.

Robert Leon Knipschild was born in 1927 in Freeport, Illinois, and graduated in the Class of 1945.

Bob Knipschild studied at the University of Wisconsin and at Cranbrook Academy of Art where he worked under Zoltan Sepeshy.

In 1950, at the age of twenty-three, his work was selected for the Metropolitan Museum of Art's widely acclaimed exhibition "American Painting Today."

In 1951 Edith Halpert added him to her Downtown Gallery in Manhattan. In 1952, Life magazine ran a story on Halpert's "new discoveries." Knipschild appeared in a photograph with several other young artists. Another Knipschild painting is reproduced with the story.

Since then he has received wide recognition, with many one-man shows and several prizes in important competitive exhibits world-wide.

Knipschild moved to Cincinnati in 1966 to become a professor of art at the University of Cincinnati and later became director of graduate studies in fine arts. He remained at UC until his retirement in 1991.

Knipschild was "a landscape artist, but the landscapes in question are so filtered through his own sensibility that, at first glance, they seem wholly abstract. This isn't so at all. A horizon line, usually in the lower half of the work, is frequent. Uneven terrain is suggested, as well as buildings and sometimes roads. People do not inhabit Knipschild's artistic concepts. He shows where they live and something of what they do to their environments, but the people themselves have taken cover. Deep within each work, under many, many further layers of oil paint, is a base coat of what he calls "British Red," a shade that runs close to -- but isn't quite -- terra cotta. The mostly invisible red covers a linen ground and gives weight and richness to everything above." - Jane Durrell

Robert Knipschild died in 2004.

Adolph Rampenthal, serving with the armed forces, died of wounds suffered in action at Iwo Jima on February 23, 1945.

Valeria M. Vore was born Oct. 21, 1927, in Freeport to Claude and Mable (Boyles) Vore. Valeria's father, Claude Vore, was the mailman in the Arcade when I was born. My father also worked at the Post Office.

Valeria married Ken Wiegand on Oct. 5, 1946. They met in the spring of 1946 on the Read Park tennis court and played tennis the rest of their lives. Valeria was Freeport tennis champion for 10 years, winning trophies for doubles and mixed doubles. She served on the boards of the YWCA, Highland Community College, Malcolm Eaton Enterprises, and Provena St. Joseph St. Vincent. She was a member of the committee to save the old Stephenson County Court House. She planted the Mary Ousley Garden at the Stephenson County Nursing Center and tended it for 27 years. Valeria was a founder of Pretzel City USA. She earned an Associate Degree from Highland Community College in 1968 and a Bachelor of Science Degree in 1973 from Rockford College, graduating Magna Cum Laude.

She worked as a manager for World Book Encyclopedia and won 10 trips abroad. Valeria visited 40 countries. She wrote and produced an educational coloring book, “Color Chicago Pretty,” used by Chicago area schools for teaching materials on Chicago.

Valeria Wiegand died Friday, March 27, 2009.