Vernon Siekmann, ’54 – Siekmann earned his B.S. in education with an emphasis in social science in 1954. He earned his M.A. in administration from Concordia in 1967.
Siekmann attended Concordia after serving a two-year term in the United States Navy at the end of World War II, much of it spent in the Pacific. He enrolled at Concordia in 1951 and completed the four-year program within three years.
Siekmann lettered in football and baseball for three years each, serving as team captain in both sports. He holds the unique distinction in Cougar baseball history of hitting four homers in three games in April of 1952. Upon graduation, he would continue to play and coach baseball and softball in the semi-pro and amateur leagues in Illinois and Wisconsin.
Siekmann taught, coached and served as athletic director from 1954 to 1966 at St. Paul in Rockford, Illinois. He coached five sports and led his teams to a combined 29 championships. While at St. Paul, Siekmann was instrumental in starting up an inter-school athletic program which soon had a conference of its own. He went on to coach at Rockford Lutheran High School for 10 years, where his basketball teams won four titles and his baseball teams five successive championships.
Siekmann was involved with the beginnings of both Rockford Lutheran, where he also served as assistant principal and athletic director, and NEW Lutheran in Green Bay (the first LCMS high school in the North Wisconsin District), where he served as principal.
Siekmann has served in many different capacities in the community, from scoutmaster with the Boy Scouts of America to chaplain for his Navy Seabee unit. He has served as a delegate and committee member within the church community, an advisor for both Scholarships Incorporated and the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, and a director of Kirby-Smith Associates Stewardship program.
