Dr. Wayne Rodehorst, founding president in 1967 of Lakeland Community College, died June 27 at the Rootstown home of his son, Morgan. He was 94. “Dr. Rodehorst’s contributions to Lakeland’s growth paved the way for generations of students to pursue their dreams,” said Morris Beverage Jr., the college’s recently retired president. “He and Will Kern were able to pull it together from nothing to create the only community college in the country founded and funded by the county’s voters.” Mary Lou and Wayne Rodehorst pause during a walk on the beach near their home in Hampton, Va. in about 2020. (Photo courtesy Damon Rodehorst) The school’s grassroots origins were a major reason Rodehorst was persuaded to come to Lake County from the Detroit-area community college where he’d been. Those origins appealed to the pragmatic nature that contributed to his success. He  served the college until 1981 when he took an early retirement to sail with his wife Mary Lou on their 27-foot boat to the Bahamas in winter and Canada’s Maritime provinces in summer. They did that for nearly 10 years, which Rodehorst often called the best years of their lives. Mary Lou credited their active, outdoors life and eating fresh foods in a small boat without refrigeration for saving her life from the lymphoma she had when they first went to sea. After she died in 2022, Rodehorst moved from the condo they’d shared in Hampton, Va., to Parker Place Independent Living in Mentor to be closer to their sons. “She’d lived with lymphoma since she was in her 50s and died at 90,” son Morgan said. Both Rodehorsts were lifelong educators who grew up on neighboring farms in Nebraska and earned their teaching degrees at Nebraska State Teachers College college. To his Parker Place colleagues, he often recalled his early life spent on a farm without indoor plumbing during the poverty-stricken years of the dust bowl. He always wanted to be a teacher and had his first experience teaching while he was still in high school. From an early age Rodehorst  knew he would go to college and worked hard at a variety of jobs to make that happen. “In fact he was pumping gas at a Nebraska gas station when he met my mother,” recalled his son, Damon. After they married and began their family in Nebraska, Wayne and Mary Lou accepted jobs at the same rural school district in Michigan where he was the superintendent  and she was a teacher. “It was in the 1950s and the area had just begun to get indoor plumbing,” Damon said. He was 2, Morgan was 4 and their older brother Rhett was 6. “There was a terrible encephalitis epidemic and Rhett was one of the few who survived,” he said. His older brother suffered the after-effects of the disease for the rest of his life, but Mary Lou then began her long life of social activism, first making sure sewers were installed to eliminate the encephalitis-carrying mosquitoes. Later both Rodehorsts became involved in the March of Dimes to assure that a son born with a foot problem would walk. Streets at the new Vitalia senior community in Mentor have been named after presidents at Lakeland Community College, and some of them were there for the dedication. Shown from left are Morris Beverage Jr., Wayne W. Rodehorst and James Catanzaro. (Kerry Jonke — Lakeland Community College) When they came to Lake County, Mary Lou worked while staying out of the limelight with organizations such as the Western Reserve Junior Service League, the Council on Aging, Meals on Wheels  and the Fine Arts Association while Wayne was active with groups such as Boy Scouts  and Lakeland’s efforts to get levies approved to support education. When political maneuvering resulted in Rodehorst being fired, another president served for a short time. Wayne then took a position with Lake Erie College and signed on as a consultant with the Perry Nuclear Power Plant to train workers. His pragmatic approach saved money and won the day when he suggested the plant hire Navy personnel who had already been trained in nuclear power. Public outrage over his firing soon resulted in Lakeland trustees reversing their decision and hiring him back. He stayed at Lakeland a few more years before retiring. After their decade-long sojourn at sea, he and Mary Lou moved to a condo near the Atlantic in Hampton, Va. where Wayne began volunteering at the Maritime Museum. There he painstakingly read and transcribed ship captains’ logs dating back to the time of Darwin. “Those logs allowed them to find lost paintings and many other pieces of maritime history,” said Damon. “It’s amazing what he was able to do there.” Rodehorst saved his own daily logs, kept while he and Mary Lou sailed between the Bahamas and Canada. “They’re still in my basement,” Damon said. The elder Rodehorst had just returned to Morgan’s home in Rootstown after rehabilitation for a hip fracture when he died. “He died at home in his own bed, the same bed where my mother had died,” said Morgan. His sons agreed he’d lived a long and rewarding life, but his joy was gone after losing his beloved Mary Lou. Rodehorst often told Parker Place friends about his happy marriage, claiming they never argued in their 70 years together. He told his sons he was done and they engaged hospice. “Just a week later he died,” Morgan said. In addition to their two sons, the Rodehorsts are survived by nine grandchildren, 18 great-grandchildren and two great-great-grandchildren with two more on the way. Memorial services will be announced.