Reflections in Time: Interview with Del Weber

Partial Transcript: UNO has always been an expanding University, constantly moving forward. But as we move forward, we must also look back to where we began. Let's go back in time with the people who remember UNO the way it was. Join us, for Reflections in Time.

Segment Synopsis: An introduction to the Reflections in Time Series.

Keywords: Paul Borge; Reflections in Time

Subjects: Oral history; University of Nebraska at Omaha

Partial Transcript: PB: Del, it's nice to have you with us.
DW: Paul, Thank you. It's nice to be here. It's nice to kind of reflect on who you are, and what's happened in 57 years.

Segment Synopsis: Del Weber discusses his family life, and growing up in Columbus, Nebraska.

Keywords: Chancellor Weber; Columbus, Nebraska; Del Weber

Subjects: Childhood and youth; Family histories; Farm life; Weber, Delbert D.

Partial Transcript: DW: And...uh...well... farming, you know? Maybe within a radius of 20 miles; and one of the fond memories I have of that is, almost every Sunday, my five uncles and my father would gather with their children and their wives over at my grandfather's home, in Columbus.

Segment Synopsis: Weber reflects on his religious upbringing, and his childhood memories.

Keywords: Chancellor Weber; Del Weber; Family dinner; Family gatherings

Subjects: Childhood and youth; Extended families; Prayer; Religion; Weber, Delbert D.

Partial Transcript: PB: Sounds like you had family reunions nearly every weekend.
DW: Every weekend; and then of course you really had the extended family once a year. When you met in the park, and everyone came from miles around for an extended family reunion.

Segment Synopsis: Del Weber discusses annual family reunions.

Keywords: Chancellor Weber; Del Weber

Subjects: Extended families; Family reunions; Geneseo (Ill.); Weber, Delbert D.

Partial Transcript: PB: How was it as a young boy, growing up in a modest size town? Any remembrances of that? Good stories? Schools? Start any place you'd like there.

Segment Synopsis: Del Weber discusses how as a child, his family would move to wherever his father could find work through the Work Projects Administration.

Keywords: Chancellor Weber; Common laborers; Del Weber; WPA; Work Projects Administration

Subjects: Childhood and youth; Fathers; Weber, Delbert D.

Partial Transcript: DW: We did other things. I remember one of the things I remember was my dad and my mother, I guess you would look at them today in this experience as itinerant farm workers, because I remember one summer or two summers that we did this, where the peaches were ripening in Grand Junction, Colorado, and Fruita, Colorado and the area...

Segment Synopsis: Weber reminisces about his childhood, and traveling to Colorado to pick peaches.

Keywords: Chancellor Weber; Del Weber; Itinerant farm workers; Picking peaches; Travelling farmers

Subjects: Childhood and youth; Migrant agricultural laborers; Peach--Harvesting; Weber, Delbert D.

Partial Transcript: DW: But my mother was the linchpin. My mother was a...um... my father, I don't wish to be mean to my father, I don't meant that, but my mother was the linchpin.

Segment Synopsis: Del Weber discusses the role of his mother during his childhood, and the work ethic selling her homemade goods instilled in him.

Keywords: "boughten" bread; Chancellor Weber; Del Weber; Home life; Siblings; Soapmaking; Store bought bread

Subjects: Baking; Brothers and sisters; Mothers; Soap; Victory gardens; Weber, Delbert D.; Work ethic

Partial Transcript: PB: How about school? You got going at that.
DW: Yes.
PB: Where you've been much of your life since.
DW: Yes, that's right. Well, I started out, as all youngsters do, in a neighborhood elementary school called Third Ward.

Segment Synopsis: As a child Del Weber had a curious mind, but he was not what he considered an "outstanding student". Here he discusses his time in elementary school, and his past teachers.

Keywords: Chancellor Weber; Del Weber; Ms. Wilkinson; Third Ward

Subjects: Childhood and youth; Education, Elementary; Elementary school teachers; Weber, Delbert D.

Partial Transcript: PB: Did you come out of a family that generally went to college, or how as it you ended up in Midland?
DW: No... um... I did not. It's interesting, because my mother and father both had around a 6th grade education, but they both had a great sensitivity to education.

Segment Synopsis: Del Weber discusses how he chose Midlands Lutheran College, and the importance of education in his family.

Keywords: Chancellor Weber; College selection; Columbus, Nebraska; Del Weber; Fremont, Nebraska

Subjects: College choice; Hitchhiking; Midland Lutheran College (Fremont, Neb.)

Partial Transcript: DW: And so my mother went to work. She had always been in the home, but she went to work at a hotel in Columbus, Hotel Evans, as a cook, in order to save three hundred dollars so I could go to Midland College.

Segment Synopsis: Del Weber discusses working through college, and the various ways he attempted to pay for college.

Keywords: Chancellor Weber; Columbus, Nebraska; Del Weber; Elmer Sasse; Hotel Evans; Paying for college; Wagner mills; Wheelbarrowing cement

Subjects: Bursars; Grain elevators; Hormel Foods Corporation; Jewel Tea Company; Scholarships; Weber, Delbert D.

Partial Transcript: PB: Where in the world did you find time to have any social life at all with all that activity?
DW: I didn't really have a great deal of social life at Midland. I was in a fraternity, which was a local, not national fraternity, there. I was a debater, we had an excellent debate team.

Segment Synopsis: Del Weber discusses his lack of social life during college, and marrying his high school sweetheart.

Keywords: Chancellor Weber; Del Weber; Fraternities; High school sweethearts; Lou Ann Weber; Social life; wife

Subjects: College fraternity members; Weber, Delbert D.; Wives

Partial Transcript: PB: Now, our college sounds like a good, but rather difficult experience in terms of long hard hours off campus and on, but you evidently like school, and decided as life went on as I looked over you vitae to keep at it.

Segment Synopsis: Del Weber discusses completing college, signing up for the draft, and working for counter intelligence during the Korean War.

Keywords: Chancellor Weber; Del Weber; Draft postponements; Dundalk, Maryland

Subjects: Draft; Fort Bliss (Tex.); Fort Holabird (Md.); Intelligence service; Korean War, 1950-1953; Weber, Delbert D.

Partial Transcript: DW: I came out of the service, and I came back to Nebraska. And I went to Midland College, told them I want to be in Nebraska and I want to do something. And a man at Midland College put me in touch with Howard Buffet.

Segment Synopsis: Del Weber discusses leaving the military, and looking for a job in Nebraska.

Keywords: Behlen Manufacturing Company; Chancellor Weber; Del Weber; Omaha National Bank; Walter Behlen

Subjects: Buffett, Howard, 1903-1964; Midland Lutheran College (Fremont, Neb.); Northwestern Bell Telephone Company; Swift & Company; Weber, Delbert D.

Partial Transcript: DW: But I had this feeling that I wanted to teach, and that's what I eventually did. I went to a small town 20 miles north of Columbus, and began teaching.

Segment Synopsis: Del Weber discusses his first teaching job, where he was also the principal of a small school.

Keywords: Chancellor Weber; Del Weber

Subjects: School principals; Teachers; Teaching; Weber, Delbert D.

Partial Transcript: DW: But the problem was that at 3600, and the second year 3800 dollars, we were taking money out of the bank rather than putting it in. Money that we had saved earlier.

Segment Synopsis: Del Weber reflects on his time as a Graduate and Doctoral student for the University of Nebraska.

Keywords: Chancellor Weber; Del Weber; Docotorate; GI Bill; Huskerville; Lab School; Lincoln Air Force hospital barracks; PhD; Stipends

Subjects: Doctoral students; Graduate teaching assistants; Master of education degree; School principals; University of Nebraska (Lincoln campus); Weber, Delbert D.

Partial Transcript: PB: [inaudible] the rest of your family, one son by now.
DW: Yes
PB: You headed off to...
DW: Well, we had now a daughter also.

Segment Synopsis: Del Weber discusses the birth of his daughter, and how he struggled to find the money for her hospital bill.

Keywords: Behlen Manufacturing Company; Beth Weber; Chancellor Weber; Del Weber

Subjects: Daughters; Religion; Weber, Delbert D.

Partial Transcript: DW: Well...um...so after that, uh, we packed up those two children and we moved to Arizona. I might talk about that for a moment, because it tells you difference between the system then, and the system now.

Segment Synopsis: Del Weber discusses his move to Arizona State University, and his mentor-ship with Harry Newburn.

Keywords: Center for Higher Education; Chancellor Weber; Del Weber; President of public television

Subjects: Affirmative action programs; Arizona State University; Mentoring in education; Newburn, Harry Kenneth, 1906-; Teachers; Teaching; Weber, Delbert D.

Partial Transcript: DW: After he had been at Arizona for about 2 or 3 years, he was offered the...he was doing some consulting at a new University in Cleveland Ohio, called Cleveland State University.

Segment Synopsis: Del Weber discusses moving to Ohio as an Assistant to Harry Newburn, where he stayed and and continued to be an assistant for the next president of Cleveland State University. Eventually he accepted a position to move back to Arizona State University and work in the Center for Higher Education.

Keywords: Chancellor Weber; Cleveland, Ohio; Del Weber; Interim dean

Subjects: Arizona State University; Cleveland State University; Enarson, Harold L., 1919-2006; Mentoring in education; Newburn, Harry Kenneth, 1906-; Teachers; Teaching; Weber, Delbert D.

Partial Transcript: PB: Well now, you were well settled. You had a fine position there at the University of Arizona State; and...uh...settled in you had your family, and a good place, and a good salary as you were describing as you began. What on earth caused you to make another move?

Keywords: Dale Tolkowsky

Subjects: University of Nebraska at Omaha