MUBG PROFILE

A lifetime spent on MU's campus

 

For more than four decades, Herman Klippel’s daily work destination has been the University of Missouri, and, for much of his life, MU has also been his home. Now a lead groundskeeper with MU Landscape Services and Mizzou Botanic Garden (MUBG), Klippel’s last day on the job after 43 years will be June 9.

 

Klippel grew up on a farm—an MU-owned and operated farm in Weldon Springs where his dad served as a heavy equipment operator.

 

“I just love the outdoors,” he said. “When I think of my years there, I feel like I’m walking those 8,000 acres all over again. And I still remember every one of them.

 

“We lived on the farm in Weldon Springs until it sold in 1978 and dad was hired as the head heavy equipment mechanic at MU’s South Farm,” Klippel said.

 

Klippel moved with his parents to a home located on the South Farm grounds and enrolled in Rock Bridge High School for his junior and senior years.

 

“Fresh out of high school, I started working as a hay crew foreman at MU’s South Farm.

 

“They wanted someone who knew how to harvest, stack and store hay,” Klippel said. “Halfway through the interview, they told me I was hired.”

 

Within three months, the newly married Klippel was hired to work for the MU Horse Farm, located on the South Farm, where he cared for the breeding herd.

 

“I was offered a deal to live there with my wife, for farm security,” he said. “They put a trailer on the farm, and we lived there until we moved to Ashland in 2004.”

 

In 1989, Animal Sciences reduced staffing at the Horse Farm to involve more students in the program, so Klippel was hired to work for what was then the Grounds Department, under the direct supervision of Charles Paxton.

 

“The campus wasn’t in the shape it is now,” he said, referring to the campus beautification initiative championed by Chancellor Barbara Uehling beginning in the mid-1980s. “It didn’t have the beautiful gardens it has now.

 

“I’ve watched a lot of changes in my time here. Where the alumni center is now, there were a lot of small stores,” he noted.

 

Klippel’s farm background again came in handy as a member of the grounds crew.

 

“People said they’d never seen anyone seed fertilize until I was there. And I knew how to run a tractor. I did some pruning. It wasn’t book learning. It was practical skills.

 

“I started out as a floater doing different things before I went to work on the contract crew. We worked doing landscaping and mowing in places that were under maintenance contract [to Landscape Services] like KOMU-TV, Residential Life and the MU Power Plant.”

 

From there, Klippel went to work for the tree crew, then worked as lead on the farm campus—Animal Science and Ag Engineering — before becoming lead grounds person for the Red Campus, which includes the Francis and Carnahan Quads and McAlester/Peace Park.

 

“I’ve also been driving the salt truck for 20 years,” he said. "I know what I’m doing,” he added, “and I stay ahead of the game.”

 

“Herman is just one of the most reliable people I’ve ever worked with and one of the kindest as well,” said Jenna Sommer, MUBG horticulture manager. “He would do anything for anyone, whether at work or outside work. And as evidenced by his tenure here, he is clearly a very loyal employee. We’re going to miss him a lot, and not just for driving the salt truck all winter.”

 

Klippel said one of his favorite parts of his job was mowing the Carnahan and Francis Quads when he could look back and see his mowing lines perfectly aligned. “I take pride in my work,” he said. “And I take pride in precision.”

 

“The thing that resonates with me about Herman is that he perfectly representatives the unsung people who are dedicated to their work with Mizzou Botanic Garden,” said Pete Millier, MUBG director, praising Klippel’s dedication and work ethic. “You have to have people like him to succeed. They are the backbone of what we do.”

 

When asked about his favorite spot on the campus of which he knows every square inch, Klippel responded that it is an unnamed, somewhat wild area: a steep hill behind Geological Sciences he calls wildflower hill. He said each spring he watches for the butterfly milkweed that grows there.

 

As for what’s in store in his future, the soon-to-be retiree said he’s had an offer for part-time landscape maintenance work from a handful of sources, including a local bank.

 

Klippel said he is looking forward to spending more time hunting, fishing and especially trapping, which until the last few months, he hadn’t done since his youth.

 

“My granddad would ask me if, working at MU, I’d gotten my bachelor’s degree yet,” Klippel said. “I told him, yes, I’d gotten my degree in hard knocks. He got such a kick out of that.”

 

 

Story by Jan Wiese-Fales