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By Jan Schultz
The Imperial Republican
On Monday Nov. 7, 2011, an estimated
400 people gathered for the funeral of Charlie Leibbrandt of Imperial, who at
age 62, died last Thursday Nov. 3, 2011 following a fall.
Leibbrandt was well-known in the community. After all, he was involved in
business here for 30 years, in addition to nine years in education at Chase
County High School as both a teacher and principal.
Emergency responders were summoned last Thursday about 6:15 p.m. to the
Leibbrandt home, where his wife, Merrilyn, found him at the bottom of the
water meter pit on their property.
He apparently was attempting to turn off the water after a broken pipe in the
sprinkler system was sending water into their basement.
Whether he lost his balance or slipped, no one knows. There were no
witnesses. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
As Merrilyn recalled the past week, she said she has been humbled by the
response of so many people and by the large attendance at his funeral at Zion
Evangelical Lutheran Church, where he was a member and served as a Trustee
for several terms.
After visiting with a lot of people since her husband’s death, she
agreed—everyone had a story about Charlie.
One of the favorites occurred while he was Principal/Activities Director at
Chase County High School (1974-79).
He often went with the students on out-of-town activities, and sometimes even
went as the bus driver. On one occasion, he was along on the trip, but not
driving, and it was one of those “wild snow storms,” Merrilyn said.
Charlie stood in the steps of the bus, with the door open watching the side
of the road for the white line, giving directions to the driver so they
didn’t go off into the ditch.
She said he had a lot of fond memories of CCHS school secretary Irene
Gestring, who apparently sat the newly-hired, 25-year-old principal down on his
first day on the job, making it clear in no uncertain terms that she
had been there a lot longer than him.
They became good friends, Merrilyn said, and Charlie didn’t forget that Irene
took him to the hospital on occasion to deal with his migraine headaches.
Another special memory during Charlie’s years in education was 1977 CCHS
commencement, when he was on stage as Principal and shook hands with his
younger brother, Tim, who was a member of the graduating class.
He taught industrial arts at CCHS from 1970-74, prior to his hiring as
Principal. Several of his fellow teachers here served as pallbearers Monday.
He took great pride, she said, in some of his design of buildings or
involvement in their design, some of which include the Evangelical Zion Lutheran
Church, First State Bank’s expansion (now First Bank & Trust) and the new
Imperial Super 8 Motel the Leibbrandts opened in May 2000 at the corner of
Highway 61 and East 12th St., now Imperial Inn.
Frenchman Valley Coop (FVC) was also part of his life for 14 years.
Most recently, from 2009-11, he was petroleum technology services coordinator
in Imperial after serving two years, from 2008-10, as the petroleum
operations manager in the coop’s west region, headquartered at the Kimball
branch.
He also had a 10-year stint with FVC, 1979-89, as General Manager for the
newly-formed farm crop transportation cooperative known as Far Port. The
business had 172 jumbo grain hopper rail cars, 26 semi tractors and 40
assorted semi-trailers that transported grain, fuel, fertilizers and gasoline
to other area coops.
Anyone who was involved in baseball or softball in Imperial also knew
Charlie. He was a Legion-certified umpire and also umpired softball and
Little League games, as well, for nearly 40 years in Imperial.
He was also an Imperial city council member eight years, half of them as
council president, and was active in the Rotary Club.
While she misses him, Merrilyn said she’s also happy he doesn’t have to be in
pain. In addition to migraines, he also suffered from shoulder, neck and leg
chronic pain over the years.
“It’s such a relief that he doesn’t have to hurt anymore,” she said.
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