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A Hillsboro farmer who cultivated meaningful legislation at the State Capitol, a teacher who pioneered special education in Traill County and a bandmaster who made music in the halls of Hillsboro High School 90 years ago are being inducted into the Hillsboro Public School Hall of Fame.

Ralph Diehl, Beulah Koering and Leif Christianson were elected to the Hillsboro hall of fame this week.

The 2008 induction ceremony will be held at St. John Lutheran Church, Hillsboro, Friday, June 20, 2008. 

Diehl, Koering and Christianson will be the sixth group entering the Hillsboro Public School Hall of Fame.

Don Halverson, retired Army Colonel and former Hillsboro High School athlete, Pat Woods, longtime elementary music teacher, and Buck Holo, Hillsboro’s legendary high school music instructor, were inducted into the hall of fame last year.

This year’s three inductees will join a hall of fame that includes, in addition to Halverson, Holo and Woods, Lars Grant, George “Jug” Newgard, Bruce Moen, Hazel Howard, Robert Tonn, Doug Falconer, Joseph Gadberry, Duane “Grut” Anderson, Dr. Don Breen, Clarence Anderson, Ed Beyer and Ron Gadberry.

Hall of fame committee members went outside the athletic arena of competition this year in selecting Diehl, Koering and Christianson.

Ralph Diehl is a HHS graduate. Koering was associated with the Hillsboro School for 25 years and Christianson is recognized as being the first in a succession of talented bandmasters in Hillsboro. In fact, he was handed the school’s music department in the early 1920s, even though he didn’t have a diploma at the time.

The Hillsboro hall of fame recognizes alumni, school staff and individuals in the community.

Ralph Diehl is a 1925 HHS graduate.

Early in his career, Diehl was a teacher and coach at Castlewood, S.D. He began his farming career just outside Hillsboro in 1931.

The sugarbeet farmer, who raised Holstein dairy cattle, was recognized across the state and region for his work and leadership in agriculture.

A Republican, he served Traill County and the area in the state Legislature for five terms.

He was instrumental in the organization of the Nodak Rural Electric Cooperative in the 1940s.

“Not only was Ralph Diehl well-respected and well-liked in the Hillsboro community and Traill County, but he was a man who was admired across the state and especially in Bismarck at the State Capitol,” said Neil Nelson, Hillsboro Banner editor and member of the hall of fame committee.

As the saying goes, Nelson continued, “When Ralph spoke, people listened.”

It should be noted, Nelson said, that Ralph Diehl had a vision: rural North Dakota needed farmer-owned electric cooperatives. His quiet tenacity, energy and enthusiasm 70 years ago led to the organization of the Red River Valley Electric Cooperative at Hillsboro, which later merged with three other rural electric cooperatives to form Nodak Rural Electric.

“Ralph Diehl was convinced electricity could and should reach every farm, not only in the valley but in northeast North Dakota.”

He threw the switch, as friends say.

Ralph Diehl’s many papers and documents are on file at the Institute for Regional Studies at North Dakota State University Library.

Ralph Diehl died May 1993.
Beulah Koering is recognized as a pioneer in the field of special education.

A high school graduate of Esmond, N.D., Beulah could only speak Norwegian when she started school. She walked over a mile to and from school for 12 years.

After graduating from college at Mayville with a two-year teaching certificate, Beulah became the Mayville Township Country School teacher for grades 1-8. She had eight students. She later taught grades 7-8 at Caledonia.

In 1940, Beulah Gunderson married Herman Koering of Hillsboro.

For 17 years, Beulah was the special education teacher in Hillsboro. She worked with special needs children from Hillsboro, Mayville, Hunter, Buxton and Hatton.

Working with the handicapped students — all in one classroom ‑ would be difficult challenge, school administrators in the Red River Valley acknowledged.

They didn’t have to worry, teachers who knew Beulah Koering were convinced.

Koering’s high standards and unfailing faith in children proved to be a model for programs outside Traill County.

She retired as a full-time teacher in 1975 and continued to work in the Hillsboro School system as an aide for eight more years.

Beulah Koering’s story is not unlike many in that era, the Depression years of the 1930s, said her son, Bill Koering of Hesperia, California.

Her determination, work ethic and drive for success, in addition to her love of life, was found everywhere in her classroom and in her home for her students and her six children, said Bill Koering.

“The desire to succeed was evident in her grandparents, parents and siblings. She passed this along to her family and students.”

She was a shining example for all those who taught with her, longtime Hillsboro teachers tell today.

Beulah Koering is currently a resident of the Hillsboro Medical Center nursing home.
Leif Christianson first appeared on stage in Hillsboro around 1912 as part of the “Christianson Family Quintet.”

The Christianson family had just arrived from Norway.

The one-time apprentice bookkeeper at Valley Lumber Company, Leif Christianson would later become the bandmaster in Hillsboro, Moorhead and eventually at Concordia College.

His Hillsboro Public School orchestra was a John Phillip Sousa competition winner.

In fact, the famed John Philip Sousa presented Christianson and his band with the first place trophy at the conclusion of the 1925 competition.

His 13 years in the Moorhead school system opened doors at Concordia College, where in 1948 he was named director of the Concordia concert band. Christianson was a professor at Concordia for 17 years.

In 1973, Leif Christianson received the Order of Saint Olaf from the King of Norway for his work in spreading knowledge of Norwegian music and culture in the Midwest.

“The boy from Kongsvinger (Norway) was a part of the Concordia dream,” said former college president Paul Dovre.

He also encouraged Hillsboro school students to dream.

When Christianson first organized the Hillsboro Community Band, anyone who could “toot” a horn was “recruited to play at public gatherings,” according to Margaret (Henning) Enloe of St. Paul, Minn.

His school bands were performing concerts by 1923.

“Leif’s love and promotion of community and school instrumental music is what put Hillsboro on the map as a site of excellence in organized music,” said Enloe.

Leif always had a special place in his heart for Hillsboro, Margaret Enloe tells.

Leif  Christianson’s impact on the community was significant, said Georgine (Engel) of Karlstad, Minn. “Leif put Hillsboro on the musical map of North Dakota.”

Leif Christianson, who was Hillsboro’s bandmaster for 15 years, died at age 80 in July 1979. He was the fourth generation of band directors in his family.