Birth: February 5, 1924
Death: August 31, 2005
Location: Lot 96, Section 6, New Addition
Son of George & Ina Moseman.
Married to: 1. Lois Ehlers on 2-20-1945 near Lincoln, NE.
2. Kathryn Hartman on 8-23-1981 at Grand
Island, NE.
From the Grand Island, NE. “Independent” Newspaper:
Verne Moseman was called a “visionary” leader who was one of a handful of people who helped create Nebraska’s community college system.
LaVern Franzen, president of the Central Community College area, said that in the 1960s, the Milford Campus was the only two-year vocational technical school in the state.
“There were long waits to get in,” Franzen said. “It couldn’t meet the needs of the state’s employers.”
He said the idea for the community college system started with community leaders in Grand Island, Hastings and Aurora. Moseman was one of those people.
Milford was a state-supported school.
Moseman and people like the late Ken Wortman of Aurora came up with the idea of a community college system, Franzen said, supported by state aid and local property taxes.
He said the push for that type of system came from Central Nebraska, not Lincoln.
Supporters of the community college system worked to get enabling legislation through the Nebraska Legislature, Franzen said. They also worked from 1963 through 1965 to generate support for the two-year college system from other Central Nebraska communities and chambers of commerce.
A vote to approve the system and the local property taxes to support it was held in 1966.
“It passed with an 83-vote approval,” Franzen said. “The turnout for the vote was quite high.”
In 1966, the Hastings Campus of what was then called Central Nebraska Technical College opened as the first campus of its type in Nebraska.
Central Community College now has campuses in Hastings, Grand Island and Columbus, as well as other learning centers, including one in Kearney.
Franzen said the system has survived with relatively few changes through the years. It provides trained, skilled employees for local employers.
“Central Community College serves people of all ages, full-time students, part-time students, working students — what we refer to as nontraditional students,” Franzen said.
Central Community College now serves 25,000 to 26,000 part-time and full-time students, Franzen said, while the statewide community college system serves 160,000 part-time and full-time students.
Moseman served on the Central Community College Board of Governors from 1966 through 1982, including a period of time as chairman, Franzen said.
Moseman’s civic contributions to Grand Island also included serving on the boards for the Grand Island Chamber of Commerce, the Grand Island Industrial Foundation and Community Chest, which is now the United Way.
He served on statewide organizations including the Nebraska Area Vocational Council and the Nebraska Community College Trustee Association.
Moseman was a longtime managing partner of Contryman Associates, a Grand Island accounting firm. He served in a number of state and national accounting associations.
“I think Verne was a visionary before we knew what that word meant,” Franzen said.
He recalled talking to Chester Gausman, the first president of Central Community College, when he came back to visit the campuses about five years ago.
“I asked him, ‘Did you and the others envision what we have now?'” said Franzen, noting the excellent facilities at each campus and the thousands of students served each year. “He paused for a while and answered, ‘Yes, I think we did.'”