Elverda "Butch" Bender, 92, of Cedar Falls, died Saturday, June 25, 2016, at NewAldaya Lifescapes. Butch was born August 19, 1923 at Latimer, Iowa, the daughter of Alfred and Ella (Meyer) Schermer. She married Karl Bender September 9, 1950, in Latimer. He preceded her in death May 4, 1993. Butch was the secretary in the Department of Art at the University of Northern Iowa from 1961 to 1998. She was Past President of the National Association of Education Office Personnel (NAEOP). Survivors include five daughters, Karla Flaherty of Cedar Falls, Karen Bender of Star, Idaho, Kay (Tom) Stoffregen of Waterloo, Kim (Scott) Knapp of Janesville, and Kelly Horstman of Waterloo; her son, Kirk (Marilynn) Bender of Westminster, Colorado; fifteen grandchildren and eight great grandchildren. Butch was preceded in death by her parents, husband, her sister, Bernice Schermer and her brother, Leon Schermer. Services will be 10:30 am Thursday, June 30, 2016 at St. John Lutheran Church in Cedar Falls with burial at 2:00 pm at Hampton Cemetery, Hampton, Iowa. Visitation will be from 4:00 to 7:00 pm Wednesday at Dahl-Van Hove-Schoof Funeral Home and one hour prior to service time at the church. Memorials may be directed to the family.
From an obituary posted at Dahl-Van Hove-Schoof Funeral Home Website; downloaded June 27, 2016.
7/9/82 -- FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: UNI Secretary to National Post
A University of Northern Iowa secretary who has worked long and hard to improve the status of secretaries and raise the standards within the profession will become president-elect of the National Association of Educational Office Personnel (NAEOP) at the group's annual meeting next week in Cincinnati. Elverda "Butch" Bender, 510 Tremont Street, Cedar Falls, a secretary in the UNI Department of Art for twenty-one years, will be installed president-elect at the meeting which begins July 14, 1982, and will become president of the association at its July 1983, convention at the University of Illinois--Champaign. The NAEOP is the only professional association for office personnel in the educational institutions in the United States with some six thousand members. It is dedicated to providing professional growth opportunities for its members and to working toward recognition of educational office employees as members of the professional education team. The UNI Association of Office Personnel (UNI-AOP) is affiliated with NAEOP, and about a dozen UNI clerical employees are NAEOP members. Annual meetings include workshops that may be taken for college or continuing education credit, and reflect the Association's ideals: fellowship, recognition, service, and information.
NAEOP is allied with the American Association of School Administrators and affiliated with the National Association for Public Continuing and Adult Education. Mrs. Bender has been active with the UNI-AOP since coming to UNI in 1961, when she began serving on various committees of the UNI Workshop for Office Personnel for Iowa. She has chaired two of these workshops. She was elected president of the local organization twice, in 1972-73 and in 1980-81, and chaired program, ways and means, continuing education, and the UNI Foundation for Office Personnel committees. She has also been active on campus as a long-time member of the UNI Committee for the Administration of Clerical Personnel, on which she is completing her fourth three-year teem. "I have been blessed with good secretaries during my career," said UNI Art Department head Joseph Ruffo, "but, 'Butch' (as she is known by friends and associates) is the very finest. She helps everybody in the Department and makes the work more pleasant and more interesting." Her service in the Iowa AEOP includes a stint as president in 1974-75, and chairing the group's nominations and elections, retirement and recognition, auditing, and workshop committees.
Mrs. Bender's active national committee involvement spans nearly a decade, during which time she has served on eight committees and chaired five. She was a member of the public relations, membership, NAES (National Association of Educational Secretaries) Task Force, ad hoc salary and fringe benefits, membership, long and short range goals, board budget review, special projects, and policies and procedures review committees. She chaired the 1976 NAES Institute and Conference at UNI, and chaired professional responsibilities, nominations and elections, publications coordination, and historian committees. She was also elected secretary of the national organization, serving from 1977-81. In 1979, she became a charter member of the National's COPE (Chairmen of Past Endeavors), and has been its president since its inception. Mrs. Bender said the organization has its own professional standards and certification program, which is recognized by a number of states in the implementation of their salary schedules. "I do believe that educational office personnel in the various clerical positions are viewed as being more professional than when I first began working," said Mrs. Bender. "And, we have a number of advantages today to improve our professional standing that did not exist in earlier years. A good example is the UNI staff training grant program, which allows some of our members to take courses they might otherwise be unable to complete." Mrs. Bender said the UNI-AOP chapter is required, as a part of its NAEOP affiliation, to hold at least four professional meetings a year. "We have always tried to get speakers in on our programs from a number of areas, providing for broad growth in our education."
Mrs. Bender's involvement with the various levels of the educational office personnel organizations has not curtailed her involvement with family, church, and other organizations, including the Cedar Falls chapter of Business and Professional Women, which she has served as president. A member of St. Paul Lutheran Church, she has twice served on the Church Council and on the Metro Lutheran Parish Life Council, and served on stewardship, property, worship and music, and ministry partnership committees. For the Lutheran Church of America (LCA) Synod, she has served on the budget task force, finance committee, parish life council, Lutheran Center Campus Committee, and chaired the Parish Life and Ministry Development Committee. The Lutheran Home in Cedar Falls has also benefited from Butch's service. She served on the Lutheran Home Auxiliary Board for eight years and the Lutheran Home Board for five years, presently chairing the latter group. Mrs. Bender and her husband, Karl, are the parents of six children.
UNI Public Relations News Release, July 9, 1982.