An Awakening

Jim (’70) and Cheryl (Reiher) (’70) Keyser remember how they started dating in different ways. Cheryl emphasizes that Jim was, at the time, dating her roommate in the NWU Alpha Gamma house.

“They had just broken up and he called me while she was there to make her mad,” she said, still somewhat miffed. “I told him to get lost.”

Jim doesn’t remember that phone call and is quick to remind her that she was dating someone in his Theta Chi house around that time, too.

But most of their stories and memories of their time at Nebraska Wesleyan are in perfect harmony.

They were both first-generation college graduates. Jim came to college to play football; Cheryl came at the urging of her grandmother, who was a rural high school teacher and later a dorm mother at Hastings College. She had wanted Cheryl to come to Hastings but Cheryl wanted to get a little farther away from home.

For a teenager from Red Cloud, Neb., coming to Lincoln “was like going half way around the world,” she remembered.

Jim, who was also from a small town, remembers the initial culture shock of coming to NWU from Dakota City, Neb. He remembers it as “an awakening.”

“I was sleepwalking before,” he said. “All of a sudden, I was awake and there was so much to learn and absorb.”

For both of them, their college experiences were defined by the turmoil and uncertainty of the late 1960’s.

“Vietnam was going on, King and Kennedy were shot, there were the student revolts in Paris,” Jim remembered. “It seemed like the world was falling apart and we were rebelling against it. To us, we were saving the world.”

While the rest of the world seemed as if it were falling apart, at Wesleyan things were coming together for Jim and Cheryl. Through their classes and interactions, they began to see the world’s events in a different light than they had before. They learned about the depths of racism in this country. They were introduced to conflicting ideas and different cultures. There was a sense of rebellion and a desire to shake up the status quo.

“I realized the world isn’t this bubble I grew up in,” Cheryl said. “Things were no longer black or white, right or wrong. At Wesleyan, there was this diversity of ideas and exposure to a broader world and different perspectives. Once you experience that, you can never think the same way ever again. Those years really defined who we are.”

Jim and Cheryl were married by the end of their junior year. Jim graduated with a degree in religion, and Cheryl, a degree in elementary education. They then moved to Dallas, where Jim received a Master of Theology from Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University, and Cheryl received a Master of Education from East Texas State University.

Jim, who admittedly wanted to be a perpetual student, went on to earn a Doctor of Ministry from SMU, and Cheryl became a special education teacher.

They traded in their baby blue Plymouth Satellite convertible for a more respectable grey Nissan Datsun and moved back to Nebraska, where Jim accepted a position as a pastor in the UMC Nebraska Conference.

Cheryl taught elementary special education for almost 20 years and then switched her focus to English Language Learners, working with immigrant children and families.

They have remained connected to Nebraska Wesleyan over the years. Jim taught briefly for NWU and served on the Board of Governors and President’s Council.

Their daughters, Alison (’01) and Mari (‘04), both attended Nebraska Wesleyan and traveled abroad. Jim and Cheryl say that NWU gave their daughters the global mindset that inspired them to live global lives. Alison spent three years in Kenya with the Peace Corps, and Mari studied and worked for four years as a teacher in Spain.

Jim and Cheryl have given back to NWU since they can remember.

“At first it wasn’t much on a pastor’s and a teacher’s salaries,” Jim said. “But we always felt an obligation to give back. We got so much out of our Wesleyan years.”

“It doesn’t matter how much you give at first, just start,” Cheryl advised. “Make it a habit. Every year. A little bit. It’s so important that we, as alumni, give back.”

Jim and Cheryl give to the Archway Fund, support coaching funds and, in 2004, created the Keyser-Reiher Endowed Scholarship. When they started planning for retirement, they realized they could do more with their giving, and started using stocks and their IRA.

And, most recently, they decided to include Nebraska Wesleyan in their wills.

“At our age, you start discerning what’s been important in your life,” Jim said. “Wesleyan has had such an influence on us and our children. It’s so good to know that our scholarship fund and our planned gift will impact students for years to come.”

“There will always be tumultuous times,” he continued, “and we need young people to keep asking questions, shaking things up, and trying to save the world.”