JOHN KOEGEL PEACE GARDEN
Back in my old routine I went to church in the Warren Wilson Presbyterian Church on the Warren Wilson campus where for years and years Kathe was in the choir and heavily involved in committees of women who enabled the social life of the church. Unknown to me on this Sunday a Peace Garden on one side of the church with a few benches and a small garden was being dedicated to John Koegel who was a student when I first arrived at Warren Wilson College in 1965. He was also a good friend of the Ohler family and an enormously talented artist and play director, returning to Warren Wilson for brief stints over the years. On one of his visits I got a grant using Fulbright money to take a group of eight to India for six weeks to collect materials to build an India exhibit of a village with a house and well and a multiple slide show to which a classroom of seventh graders at a time were invited for a morning of introduction to India. We dressed them all in Indian clothes, they heard a brief concert, carried water on their heads, wrote their names in Hindi, played kabbadi, an Indian tag like game and had an Indian meal. John was the artistic direct and chose Indian village pieces in India which we shipped back and created a beautiful set for the visit. Bev Ohler says that John inspired the idea of the week long festivals we had at the college every spring, festivals that were wonderful community events for years.
He died earlier this year of cancer and this is the churches way of remembering him.
After church I went with women church members out to lunch at Panera’s which they do every Sunday with me making the 40 minute ride from Marshall and joining them when I can.
BILLYBABA’S WANDERING 