David Louis Bente Wetzel - September 26, 1934 - July 11, 2022

David Louis Bente Wetzel, loving family man and pioneering analytical chemist, passed away on Monday, July 11, surrounded by loving family while listening to a Schubert lullaby. He was born in the blue-collar town of Rock Island, Illinois, and was proud to have worked construction for Langman & Sons and Farmall, and for John Deere on the assembly line building tractors. After graduating from “Rocky High,” he headed west to Kansas, where his great-grandfather homesteaded in 1861. Dave attended St. John’s College in Winfield and then completed his BA in Chemistry at Augustana College in Rock Island in 1956. At Winfield, he fell in love with an Arkansas girl named Connie Gerdes, whom he later married and loved dearly for 67 years.

Dave’s first teaching positions were at Concordia College in Seward, Nebraska, and at Kansas State Teacher’s College in Emporia, Kansas, where he won a National Science Foundation Award. This allowed him to complete his Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry at Kansas State University in 1972. He then joined the faculty of the Department of Grain Science and Industry at KSU and pioneered the use of modern analytical techniques such as HPLC and Near-Infrared Spectroscopy in the study of wheat, grains and flour. He was a prolific researcher, publishing over 120 scientific articles in 40 different journals, giving over 300 oral presentations worldwide and serving as editor for numerous journals. He published many invited articles, and his NIR photomicrograph of the layers of the retina was chosen for the cover of Science magazine in August 1999. He recently co-patented an analytical technique to improve the efficiency of milling for flour production, which he hoped would someday help improve the global food supply.

Dave loved life, and whatever he pursued, he did so with intensity and passion. He loved to travel, especially to scientific meetings around the world, discussing new techniques with colleagues during the day and then going to Karaoke bars with them at night — “King of the Road” was his favorite. He loved summers doing research at Brookhaven National Lab on Long Island, where he also relished eating lobster, sailing, and jumping waves on nearby Fire Island. He served as an academic mentor and loved seeing his graduate students succeed, including one who went on to train 35 graduate students of his own at Harvard Medical School.

Dave loved his family and loved family escapades, whether burning the pasture on the old Wetzel homestead near Junction City or driving night and day to Banff National Park to hike the magnificent Canadian Rockies. He loved any time with his grandkids or great-grandkids. He was always ready for a tough job, a new idea, a new friend or a new adventure.
Dave was also a man of great faith who was proud of his rich Lutheran heritage. The first Lutheran church service in Kansas was held in his great-grandfather Christian Wetzel’s log cabin, now preserved at the Spring Valley Historic Site in Junction City. His father, Herman, was the longtime minister at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Rock Island. His mother, Lois, was the daughter of Friedrich Bente, a theologian and scholar who edited the 1922 Book of Concord, the doctrinal standard of the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod.

Dave is preceded in death by his parents, Rev. Herman F.C. Wetzel and Lois (Bente) of Bloomington, Illinois.

He is survived by his beloved wife, Constance (Gerdes) of Manhattan and dear sister Rhoda Schirmer of Joliet, Illinois. He leaves sons, Louis and wife Jane (Bichelmeyer) of Westwood, Kansas, and Mark and wife Rita (Kelley) of Roeland Park, Kansas. Grandchildren are Lucas (Jennifer Brothers), David (Kate Naramore), Peter, James (Ariella Miller), Laura (Gage Brummer), Lois, Anna (Dallas Artz), Katie (Wade Ostdiek), Heidi (Josh Hafner), and Paul (Renee Jennings). Great-grandchildren are Ruby, Emil, Abel, Gizela, Margaret, Grace, Hazel, and Eileen.

A Celebration will be held at St. Luke’s Lutheran Church, 4801 Anderson Avenue, Manhattan, Kansas, 66503 on Friday, July 22: Visitation 9:30 a.m., Service 10:30, light luncheon 11:30. Interment at St. Paul Lutheran Church, 9719 Clarks Creek Road 1:30 p.m.

Memorial gifts may be made to the St. Luke’s Building Fund at stlukesmanhattan.org. Funeral arrangements, tributes, and flowers by Yorgensen-Meloan-Londeen of Manhattan.