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UW-RF Garden Dedicated to Bloomer Native
[Photos]
NOV. 5, 2004--A reflective garden that eclipses all other combined gardens
on the campus of UW-River Falls was recently dedicated to a Bloomer native.
The Dahlka Garden adjacent to the Kleinpell Fine Arts Building was dedicated
Oct. 16 to the late Dennis Dahlka, who graduated from UW-RF in 1977 with
a degree in agricultural education. He was employed in the gardening division
of Home Depot in Atlanta at the time of his death.
The underwriting for the garden was part of a gift of $562,495 that Dahlka
left to the University, which will go to endowed scholarships for Wisconsin
students.
During the dedication ceremony, Interim Chancellor Virgil Nylander likened
Dahlka’s career at the University to the blossoming of the garden.
He noted that Dahlka came to the campus as the first in his family to
attend a four-year college, like 60 percent of the University’s
current students. While pursuing his academic career, UW-RF’s benefactor
also joined the campus choir and toured Europe to perform, where he also
enjoyed discovering and experiencing theatre and art.
"The garden is a living memorial to Dennis, conceptualized by Dennis’
sister, Diane Hoag," Nylander said. "Dennis loved growing things;
the gardens are a wonderful reflection of his love of nature, beauty and
art. The garden is already a place where students, faculty, staff and
visitors sit, relax, reflect and ‘soak up’ the colors, scents
and sounds of this special place. And I know this will be true for future
generations of the campus community."
Dozens of family members and friends of Dahlka attended the dedication
ceremony. Some 12 former UW-RF friends he made during his college days
while residing in McMillan Hall also were on hand to lay red roses, one
of Dahlka’s favorite flowers, at the garden’s cornerstone.
Hoag, Dahlka’s sister who worked on the garden’s design with
Bill Rost, assistant chancellor for University advancement and UW-RF Foundation
president, spoke on behalf of the family. Dennis’s parents, Gilbert
and Joan Dahlka of Bloomer were among family members, friends, faculty
and students at the ceremony.
She told the assembly, "When I saw the garden I immediately felt
Dennis’s presence."
She noted that Dennis’s family was struck by the University’s
long-standing wish to build a reflection garden on the campus. "Our
family felt it was important to share Dennis’ love of nature by
establishing a memorial garden on campus. It is our family’s desire
that the Dahlka garden become a quiet place for others to relax, tread,
contemplate, to appreciate the gifts that nature bestows on us."
Hoag, of Osceola, added that the garden, as did her brother’s bequest
for the endowed scholarships, made sense because he found his years at
UW-RF so meaningful. She pointed out that he was the first in his family
to graduate from college.
"This was a time of self-discovery for him and the realization of
his dreams and aspirations. Dennis followed his heart. He loved nature,
and he had a talent for nurturing life."
She described her brother as possessing "a kind and gentle heart"
who explored much more than his academic pursuits. Hoag shared with pride
some of the remembrances his friends wrote in a memorial book to her brother
that demonstrated "he had an obviously profound effect on his friends."
The garden was constructed by Dennis and Catherine Caliva of Earthworks
Landscape Architects and Contractors, Inc., of River Falls.
Dennis Caliva related that the intent was to create a reflective sculpture
garden populated primarily by native flowers that would bloom in the spring
and the fall when students are on campus.
The garden, which adjoins the south side of Kleinpell, features walking
paths, numerous limestone slabs that each weigh more than two tons, and
six benches in small patios shaded by Imperial Honey Locust trees.
The plantings include a variety of dwarf trees such as conifers; Siberian,
Norway and North Star spruces; and Japanese white pine. Native flowers
include Blazing Star, Black-eyed Susans, Wild Quinine, Great Cone Flower,
Indian Grass, Switch Grass and Karl Foerster Reed Grass. It also features
such native shrubs as Airwwood and Emerald Triumph Viburnum.
"The whole project went really well," said Caliva. "It
was a perfect spot for native species. It really looks neat and will look
great as the flowers mature over the next several years."
Rost said at the dedication ceremony that the garden is a reflection of
Dahlka’s appreciation for life.
"The Dahlka Gardens are a tribute to his passion. This garden will
change. It will mature. It will blossom. It will be cultivated and develop
into something more than what it started as. This process also reflects
the relationship Dennis had with his University. A student, like the garden,
has the opportunity to develop here, just as Dennis did. His garden does
not represent the limitations placed by its boundaries--instead it represents
the diversity of growth, the blossoming of intellect and the cultivation
of opportunity."
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Last updated:
Tuesday, 30-Nov-2004 10:13:09 CST
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