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Just try keeping up with this chemistry graduate

Wendell Dilling ’58 may be retired from his first chemistry career, but he didn’t retire from life.

The North Manchester, Ind., native never thought about going anywhere else for college. “Manchester had a good science department,” says Wendell, 78. “I was interested in being a chemist from 7th or 8th grade so Manchester seemed like the place.” The chemistry department at Manchester, he says, had a profound influence on his life.

After completing his Ph.D. in organic chemistry at Purdue in 1962, Wendell went on to an impressive 30-year career at The Dow Chemical Co. After taking early retirement, he landed a job at Central Michigan University through his contacts in the American Chemical Society, an organization in which he has been extremely active since 1959. At CMU for 23 years now, he has taught chemistry courses, led seminars, conducted chemistry research and written chemistry review articles. “I just never lost an interest in chemistry,” he says.

But chemistry is only one of Wendell’s interests.

A four-year thrower on Manchester’s track team, Wendell attended the Michigan Senior Olympics in 2001 in Midland, Mich., where he lives. He went as a spectator, but figured he could do as well or better than some of the competitors. He entered the next year, and took home the silver medal in the discus. “That whetted my appetite for getting more medals,” he says. Since 2004, after missing the 2003 games because of a surgery, Wendell has competed in every Senior Olympics track and field event. He has amassed 103 medals, qualified for the national games (held every two years) each time, and taken home five ribbons, which are awarded at the national games for 4th – 8th place.

“It’s a lot of fun, and it’s a great way to stay physically fit,” he says.

Wendell is also an avid bicyclist. He has participated in a cross-country trip, bike races and several 24-hour bicycle challenges. His daughter, Robin, joined him in one of the challenges, and they won the father-daughter category. “I have the plaque up on the wall,” he says, “and that is my favorite item on the wall.”

Wendell has been a generous donor to Manchester for decades and provides two named scholarships at the University: The Wendell L. and Marcia Dilling Chemistry Scholarship Fund and the Mary Ruth Dilling Butterbaugh Elementary Education Scholarship Fund. He provides chemistry and accounting scholarships at CMU, and is in the process of establishing a chemistry scholarship at Purdue. “The people who went before us, helped us,” he says. “It makes you feel good to be able to help somebody else.”

By Ben Ogden ’12