A message from Dr. Dines, who, along with his wife, celebrate their 75th wedding anniversary with a donation to the Charter House Employee Appreciation Fund.

A message from Dr. Dines (I ’57), who, along with his wife, celebrate their 75th wedding anniversary with a donation to the Charter House Employee Appreciation Fund.

“Bette and I will celebrate our 75-year anniversary August 27, 2022. This I feel is a true accomplishment and celebration.

“We have had good times and bad times. We lost an adopted daughter, whom we adopted at one day old. She died at the age of 42 to metastatic breast cancer. She was an RN in Denver.

“We have two children: David, married to Margie Krumme, and Carol, married to Jack Zipes. We have four grandchildren: Davey, married to Keri Ferguson-Smith, Hanna, married to Mike Basel, Ginny, married to Mark Norton (doctors at Mayo, LaCrosse Hospital) and Andy. We have our great-grandchildren: Margaret, Emily, Anya, and Jack. How fortunate we are to have this great family.

“I enlisted at age 17 in 1943 in the U.S. Marine Corps. I fought on Guam and on Iwo Jima in the 3rd Marine Division in a Marine Gunfire Forward Observer Team. I lost my two best friends on Iwo Jima. My commanding officer received the Navy Cross that should have been presented to the team. I fought with him thirty-six days and thirty-six nights with Banzi attacks each night. I made Corporal.

“I prayed that if I could live through the campaign, and survived, I would dedicate my life to taking care of people. This I have accomplished.

“After the war in 1946, the bad times started. I enrolled in pre-med at Colorado College, a fine pre-med school in Colorado Springs. This was followed by medical school at the University of Colorado, followed by an internship at Denver General and residency at Mayo in Rochester, Minnesota.

“Disagreements in the family grew as I was seeing a great deal of Bette Lee Harvey, and her father, EL Harvey MD, who became a true lifelong mentor. I had dated Bette Lee before my enlistment. In 1947, Bette and I decided to marry against the wishes of my mother and father. I had four years of education credit with the GI Bill. We had no money and my family, who had the means, decided they would not help us. This meant we had no support through pre-med, medical school, internship, and residency (a total of thirteen years).

“We were in love, but poor as church mice. We made out barely with the biggest paper route in Colorado Springs (Rocky Mountain News). These were bad years for both of us. We have enjoyed our loving family. We have stuck together since the bad years to practice in Rochester, University of Nebraska in Omaha, and back to Rochester until retirement.

“We love Rochester, and we love Mayo. We have been pleased to contribute to Mayo Development for lasting support that will survive long after our death. We have lived in Charter House for 14 years, and Charter House has taken care of us through the pandemic and provided loving support. There are not many retirement Homes more qualified than Charter House.

“We know very few of the new people moving in so we decided as a celebration of our 75-year anniversary, we would donate $3,000 to the Charter House Employee Appreciation Fund, thanking all the great people who have been so kind and loving to us. We remain thankful to all.”