Gary (left) and Marian Schlaegel will join the Holton/Jackson County Chamber of Commerce Hall of Fame this February.

Gary and Marian Schlaegel to join Chamber Hall of Fame

The end of the year is usually a busy time for Gary and Marian Schlaegel of rural Whiting, as they and members of their family are usually fielding orders for popcorn, raised, flavored and packaged at their farm northwest of Whiting.

In the past, it’s also served as a reminder that tax season is just around the corner, and Gary has made a name for himself as one of the top tax preparers and accountants in the area. But in recent years, he’s been taking it easy after selling his Schlaegel Tax Preparation business, also located at the farm, to his grandson.

“I’d done it for 50 years,” Gary said. “My clients came from a big area, from several states… Colorado, Texas.”

“Most of his clients,” Marian added, “even though they’re far away, they were originally from this area. They would send their tax information back to him to work on.”

But the Schlaegels are known for doing more than just working on taxes and raising and selling popcorn, and that’s why they’ll be joining the Holton/Jackson County Chamber of Commerce Hall of Fame next year.

“When they told us that we were going to be inducted, I thought, we haven’t done anything extra special,” Marian said. “We’re just like other people.”

But to the Schlaegels, who have been married for almost 60 years, it’s a welcome honor.

“We were very humbled to be selected,” says Gary, a native of Nemaha County who grew up near Centralia, where he was active in 4-H, FFA and sports.

After graduating from Centralia High School in 1956, Gary went to work for the First National Bank of Topeka for four years, then took classes at Kansas State and Washburn universities, even though he didn’t graduate. But the experience he got at college was enough to get him a job as a “bank examiner.”

“They needed bank examiners so bad back then that they’d take you after just a couple of accounting classes in college,” he said.

Marian, who grew up on a farm in the Delaware River bottoms south of Ozawkie in the years before the area, including her parents’ farm, was cleared out for the creation of Lake Perry, moved with her parents to the Whiting area after she graduated from Ozawkie High School and moved on to Stormont-Vail Nursing School.

The two of them met one day in the early 1960s after Gary went through knee surgery and Marian, still a student, was taking care of him after the surgery on the night shift. When asked if it was love at first sight, Gary laughs and adds, “For me it was!”

For more on this and other stories, please log in to your holtonrecorder.net account and select “Nov. 23, 2022” under the “E-Editions” tab.

The Holton Recorder

109 W. Fourth St.
Holton, KS 66436
Phone: 785-364-3141
 

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