AT RANDOM: Weih is still a country boy at heart

George Kampling

CLINTON — Thanksgiving is a day to be with family giving thanks for each person’s blessings.

Lenis (Lenny) Weih, retired Clinton High School athletic director and now Business Development Officer at Clinton National Bank, was born at Mercy Hospital in Davenport and raised on a farm near Sunbury.

“Thanksgiving on the farm growing up was actually spent with our extended family on dad's side for a number of years,” said Weih. “Then as we grew older mom and dad would have all of us for a huge meal in the evening on our farm. Of course Sue's (Lenny's wife) parents would have a big meal for us on their farm at noon.

"We always had so much to be thankful for," said Lenny. “Now, with our children gone, Sue and I normally spend a quiet day together, although Sue always fixes a big meal for the two of us. One thing that has not changed — we still have so much to be thankful for!"

He said, “When I leave Clinton National Bank it will be as when I left Clinton High School — I received much more than I gave.”

Lenny is the son of Leo and Minnie Arp Weih, both deceased. He has two sisters, Lorna, five years older than he is, and Ludalle, five years younger.

Lorna and her husband Richard Pahl, both retired, live on an acreage near Wilton (IA). The couple have three children — Colleen, Christa and Susan. Ludalle and her husband, Greg Meyer, live in Milwaukee.

The Weih farm of 160 acres is a "Century Farm,” a farm belonging to the same family over 100 years.

“We have had the Century Farm in our family since 1878," said Weih. "Our son, Doug, is now part owner along with my sister Lorna and myself so we have made the first step in keeping our farm a "Weih" farm for many years to come."

Lenny said, “When I was growing up there were the usual chores — cows that were milked by hand, pigs to feed, sheep and a lot of chickens. My least favorite job to do was cleaning the chicken coop.

Weih said, "I had great parents who had a great family. I wouldn't trade my childhood for anything. I’m still a farm boy at heart.”

The first eight years of his education were spent in a one-room school house in Sunbury (a small Cedar County town of about 100 persons. At one time there were 135 rural schools in the county).

Lenny said, ”There were five students in my class through all eight grades. Our athletic program consisted of softball games with Stockton — one in the fall and one in the spring.

“We rode bikes to school when the weather was nice and stopped for a nickel candy bar and a 10-cent pop (soda) at Petersen’s or Meyer’s grocery store,” he said. “During the summer months they showed movies on the outside wall of Meyer’s store.”

After finishing eighth grade Weih attended Durant High School, graduating in 1963.

“We were bused to school and I could have gone to either Durant or Bennett,” Weih said. “I chose Durant because they had football.”

Lenny participated in football, basketball, track and baseball while at Durant.

"Don Brown who was baseball and basketball coach,” he said. “It was through his (Brown’s) influence that I went into the field of education, he was a great role model.”

Weih played centerfield on the baseball team; defensive back and wide receiver on the football squad; ran the 120-yard high hurdles and 180-yard low hurdles in track; and played guard on the basketball court.

He scored 21 points against North Scott in an Eastern Iowa Hawkeye Conference game his junior year. He also shot free throws underhand with both hands, the only player in the conference who shot them that way.

“I was a starter in basketball my junior year but not my senior season," Lenny said. "Coach said I was spending more time with a young cheerleader (Susan Ehrecke) than on basketball plays.

“(My future wife) Sue lived on a farm south of Durant," said Weih. "She asked me to go to a Sadie Hawkins dance (girl-ask-boy dance) when we were freshmen. We started going together at that time."

In 1963 Sue Ehrecke was homecoming queen and Lenis Weih was homecoming king.

After graduating from Durant High, Weih went to the University of Dubuque where he played baseball and football. His football coach was Owen "Slip" Evan. His career as a defensive back ended when he suffered a kidney injury his freshman year.

He was a four-year starter in baseball as a centerfielder under Coach Jon Davidson and was team captain his junior and senior years.

"Sue and I were married at Our Family Church in Davenport on Aug. 20, 1965," said Weih, “just before my senior year. I was head resident in Severance Hall (a boys dormitory) both my junior and senior years. Sue and I lived together in a Severance Hall apartment my senior year."

Lenny graduated from the University of Dubuque in 1966 with a Bachelor of Arts Degree majoring in physical education with a minor in history.

"After graduation we went to Durant where I taught my first two years as physical education (P.E.) instructor for kindergarten through 12th grade, coached wrestling, baseball and I was an assistant football coach. While we were in Durant our son Doug was born in Davenport. While we were in Durant Sue worked in Wilton for REC (Rural Electric Cooperative).”

“I left Durant to get my Master's Degree at the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley where our oldest daughter Jodi was born,” said Weih.

“We were attracted to the Rockies (mountains) and go back quite often,” said Lenny. “While we were there we both developed a taste for chicken pot pie."

Lenny earned his Master's Degree in Health Education then later earned an Administrative Endorsement from Western Illinois at the Quad Cities’ graduate center.

The Weihs moved to Clinton in the fall of 1970 living first in an apartment east of Clinton High School before moving to their present address.

All four Weih children graduated from Clinton High School and the University of Iowa.

Doug and his wife Kristin (Schuster) live in Cedar Rapids. Doug works at Aegon and Kristin is a homemaker. They have two children, Anna and Matthew. Jodi, a stay-at-home mom, is married to Pat Reid, a manager at Hagemeyer in the Quad Cities. The couple live in Eldridge with their children Ryan, Emerson, Brennan and Jordan.

Lori, an employee of Volunteer Hospital Association, and her husband, Ben Wickum, who works for Gardiner-Thomsen Accounting, live in Des Moines with their son Josiah and daughter Maija, who was born last Friday. Julie and her husband Pat Lonergan live in Clinton. Both are employed with JPL Investments. The couple have a daughter, Elle, with another child due early in December.

That leaves grandparents Lenny and Sue with a motto of, “10 (grandchildren) under 10 by Christmas Day.”

Bill Holmstrom (deceased) was the Clinton High athletic director when Weih came to Clinton.

"Bill hired me and became my mentor and my friend," he said. "Skip Weber was CHS principal and what a great person he was.

"I was hired as physical education and health education instructor.

“They also gave me a class on Human Physiology but I got out of that as soon as I could. I was sophomore baseball coach until 1974 when I was named head (varsity coach).

"I was an assistant football coach until I became head baseball coach, a position I held for 16 years," Weih said. "I continued as an assistant track coach a number of years under Bill Holsclaw. Clinton won the first Mississippi Athletic Conference baseball championship in 1980 and the school won several district titles while I was coaching."

Lenny was head of the Physical Education Department a number of years before becoming Athletic Director in the summer of 1992. He was elected into the Iowa Baseball Coaches Hall of Fame in 1993 and was president of the Iowa Baseball Coaches Association (IBCA) in 1992.”

Weih became an official working both football and basketball.

"I started working football first in the Mississippi Valley and Mississippi Athletic conferences," Lenny said. "I worked with Dick Sundblad, Don Gruenwald and Dan Reed (all former Clinton High coaches).

“Bill Holsclaw talked me into officiating basketball games," said Weih. "I worked with Bill and I worked 16 years with Gerald Kramer. Gerald and I worked the first ever girls' five-on-five state (basketball) tournament. We worked back-to-back state championship games in 1989 and 1990. I also worked Iowa boys' state tournament games with Gerald and others.”

Weih was inducted into the Iowa Girls' High School Association’s Officials Hall of Fame in 2004 and into the Iowa High School Athletic Association's Officials Hall of Fame in 2006.

“In 1993 the Booster Club came into being as a corporate formation,” said Weih. “Dick Farwell, Ken Kroemer and Tom Kelly were very instrumental in getting it off the ground. I enjoyed most what I now miss the most — and that is the wonderful relationships with the students and staff of CHS, It was a great place to work.”

Weih has been a member of the Clinton Community School District Education Foundation, a YMCA board member, is in his sixth year as a member of the Prince of Peace Parish Council and for five years was with the St. Mary’s Cemetery Board.

He was an executive board member of the Iowa High School Athletic Directors Association and for several years was the chairperson for the Iowa Girls’ Basketball Advisory Committee.

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