Noel Nienstedt has served as chairman of the Gillett Civic Club Fourth of July Committee for the past six years, and this year accepted a new title. Noel and his wife, Wanda, also an avid community volunteer, will be grand marshals of the Fourth of July parade.
It was six years ago that the Gillett Jaycees dissolved, and the Jaycees asked the Civic Club to take over the Independence Day event.
“We looked at it closely and said, ‘Boy, if we lose the Fourth of July in Gillett, we’d never get it back,’ ” Noel said. “It’s a very nice event for the city of Gillett and the surrounding community. It pulls people into the community and brings people home every year.”
The celebration includes a parade on Main Street, fireworks and live entertainment, a car show and a truck/tractor pull at Zippel Park. New this year is a lumberjack show in the grandstand.
Noel said putting on a celebration of this type involves months of planning, financial support from the community and plenty of volunteers.
“It’s been a very, very rewarding and successful endeavor for the last six years,” he said.
The Fourth of July Committee selects the parade marshals and parade theme (“United We Stand-Proudly We Serve” is this year’s slogan), and committee members conspired to select Noel and Wanda without Noel knowing in advance.
“I was sort of blindsided by it,” he said. “I didn’t think it was appropriate, but they wouldn’t take no for an answer.”
“I was surprised,” Wanda said. “I told him no, but it is a wonderful honor.”
Wanda has long supported the local library through her volunteer work. In 1997 she worked with Milly Wichman, who recently passed away, to establish the Friends of the Gillett Public Library as a fundraising vehicle. She has served on the county library board and the Gillett Library Board.
“My goal is to keep the library going and expanding,” she said.
Wanda is also a master gardener, and she and her sister, Jane Frederick, care for the flowers at the Memorial Lot in Gillett.
She is a member and a past officer of the Northern Gardeners gardening club and plays in three bridge clubs. She loves to swim, read and visit the family cottage on Bass Lake. The Nienstedts are members of the Gillett Historical Society, and Noel enjoys fishing, hunting and following the Badgers and Packers.
Both are Gillett High School graduates and business administration graduates of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. They started dating when they were high school seniors and were married in 1969.
Wanda said the best job of her career was her first job out of college. She was one of only two female securities examiners in the country for the Wisconsin Securities Commission. The Vietnam War and a draft notice for Noel quickly ended that career.
“I gave that job up to go with Noel,” she said.
Noel was assigned to the Pentagon’s Office of Compassionate Reassignments. It was the height of the Vietnam War, and the office had the ability to reassign service men stationed overseas to a base near home due to emergency situations. Noel said it was interesting work.
“I worked with a lot of congressmen who sent their cases over for their constituents and their families,” he said.
By the time of Noel’s discharge in 1972, Wanda was employed in the Administrative Office of the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C. She started as a statistician and was later promoted to supervisor of the statistical division.
“We loved it out there,” Noel said. “We wanted to stay out there, so I began interviewing for a job.”
He was hired as an account representative for the Gillette Company, known for its razors, and the couple moved to Maryland. In 1975, the couple moved to Cleveland when Noel was promoted. Wanda earned a real estate license and worked in sales.
“I didn’t feel like driving in downtown Cleveland,” she said. “I was sick of the commute, because in Washington, D.C. I commuted three hours a day.”
Noel said they “got tired of Cleveland real fast” and decided to move back to Wisconsin.
They returned to Gillett in July 1977 and built a home near the farm where Wanda was raised. The Nienstedts partnered with Wanda’s brother, Gary Frank, and his wife, Jean, to run the family dairy farm.
It was a first-time experience for Noel and something Wanda wasn’t keen about.
“I married him because he wasn’t a dairy farmer,” she said.
The partnership lasted less than a year.
Wanda then secured work as an insurance agent with Rural Insurance and sold real estate with Hilgenberg Realtors, and Noel returned to the Gillette Company as the northern Wisconsin representative.
“I had my office here at home, and it worked out fantastic. I ended up with a 30-year career with the Gillette Company and retired in 2001. It was a fantastic company to work for,” Noel said.
The couple’s daughter, Lindsey, followed her parents’ path, first to UW-Madison, then to Washington D.C., where she is a staff member for U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, of Minnesota. She previously worked for Rep. Steve Kagen and Sen. Herb Kohl.
It was during his retirement that Noel became more involved in the Civic Club.
“I really enjoy … doing things for the community,” he said.
Categories
