Jeff Dieker is proud to have graduated from Allen Community College, which he intends to emphasize when he speaks at ACC’s commencement exercises at 10:30 a.m. Saturday.
Dieker was selected as ACC’s distinguished alumnus this year, which includes delivering the keynote speak at graduation.
“It was a good transition for me,” between Garnett High School and the University of Kansas School of Pharmacy, Dieker told the Register. “I had 80 hours at Allen and 79 of them transferred to KU. The only one that didn’t was an hour of freshman orientation.”
Dieker grew up on a farm near Westphalia and as high school graduation approached in the spring of 1983, he had a decision to make, either go into farming or pursue another career.
Farming then wasn’t too attractive; with interest rates at 17 percent many farmers were not surviving. High school career day at ACC helped the farm lad decide on pharmacy.
The college had courses that appealed to him — anatomy, biology and chemistry, all staples in preparation for pharmacy school.
“I decided that day I wanted to go into pharmacy,” Dieker said, and never wavered.
With Bob Barclay his advisor, Dieker found the right course work. On graduation from ACC in 1985, Barclay, a fixture in the science department, helped Dieker gain entrance to KU’s pharmacy program.
He graduated from ACC in 1985, and yet today looks back on nothing but good experiences.
“I had good instructors and it was close enough I could live at home,” although that did require a daily commute of 40 miles.
When ACC sophomores settle in for Saturday’s ceremonies, Dieker will preface their meander across the stage to accept diplomas with an admonition to have perseverance in whatever comes in their lives.
“Thomas Edison failed 10,000 times before inventing the light bulb, and Michael Jordan got cut from his high school basketball team,” Dieker said, but by remaining steadfast in their goals they became legends.
He also will recite a favorite poem by Linda Ellis, about the dash that is engraved between birth and death dates on a tombstone. The dash is person’s life compressed to a simple line, and what that line means is up to the individual, Dieker said.
DIEKER HAS been at Iola Pharmacy, 109 E. Madison Ave., since graduating from KU in 1988, and worked there part time three years while still in school. He is one of four owners; others are Bill Walden, Jim Bauer and Travis Coffield.
