Luther H. Buchele papers, 1935-2008 (majority within 1950-1970)

Summary

Creator:

Buchele, Luther H., 1920-

Abstract:

Papers of Luther H. Buchele, first general manager of the Inter-Cooperative Council (ICC), the governing body of student cooperatives in Ann Arbor, Mich., who served the ICC for 34 years. Collection includes Buchele's personal and professional correspondence and biographical material. Material related to national and regional student cooperative organizations, as well as the cooperative movement, includes surveys, reports, conference material and publications. Also included material related to Buchele's political activism and interests.

Extent:

3 linear feet

Language:

English

Call Number:

2013165 Aa 2

Authors:

Finding aid created by Olga Virakhovskaya in December 2013

Background

Scope and Content:

The Luther H. Bucheles collection consists of personal and professional correspondence, biographical materia, material related to national and regional student cooperative organizations, as well as the cooperative movement, including surveys, reports, conference material and publications. Also included is material related to Buchele's political activism and interests The collection is organized into two series: Personal and Biographical Material and Cooperatives. The Cooperatives series is divided into three subseries: Student Cooperatives, Cooperative Movement, and Visual Materials.

Biographical / Historical:

Raised during the Great Depression in Cedar Vale in southeastern rural Kansas, Buchele was first exposed to farming cooperatives and saw them as a way for people to work together to overcome financial difficulties. Buchele's father died in 1932 when Luther was in 5th grade. There were seven boys in Buchele family and they learned cooperation by doing farm chores and helping their mother to save the mortgaged farm. Early on cooperatives were a big part of Buchele's life, for he shopped at the co-ops, delivered grain to the elevators, herded livestock to the shipping yards, and attended the various co-ops' annual meetings with members of his family. As a Cedar Vale High School junior in 1937, he won a cooperative marketing contest sponsored by the Kansas 4-H clubs. He won a trip to a five-day cooperative marketing camp at 4-H Encampment Building on the state fairgrounds in Hutchinson, Kansas. There he met the leaders of the Consumer Cooperative Association (CCA, later Farmland Cooperatives).

When he enrolled at the University of Kansas in Lawrence in 1939, Buchele joined the newly organized Jayhawk co-op which offered the only integrated housing on campus. Buchele received his A.B. in Zoology in 1946 and M.A. in Bacteriology in 1948. Starting in 1946 he worked on a Bacteriological warfare project under Dr. Cora Downs at the University of Kansas on tularemia (rabbit fever) and used part of the material for his Master's thesis, "The Pathogenesis of Bacterium Tularense." The war project was to experiment with Tulerense to see if mass populations could be infected by spraying the germ over troops in the field, stadiums or theaters. Buchele also taught microbiology for the period of 2 years.

At the University he helped organize the Student Housing Association, the Central League of Campus Cooperatives (CLCC), and six additional student co-ops. He helped to establish the North American Student Cooperative League (NASCL), in 1946 and served for two years as its executive secretary. In 1949 Buchele accepted a part-time job as the Executive Secretary of the NASCL, working out of a clothes closet in Don Henry Co-op at the University of Kansas. He also was twice elected president of the University of Kansas YMCA. In 1950 he ran as a Democrat for 3rd Ward Councilman in Lawrence.

In Spring 1951 the Inter-Cooperative Council (ICC) in Ann Arbor advertised in Co-ops on Campus that it needed an Executive Secretary. Buchele applied and was hired in September 1951. He later became the ICC's General Manager. When he took the job, he lived in Nakamura House, then one of five co-ops on campus.

In 1968 the North American Student Cooperative Organization (NASCO) was formed. NASCO grew out of a conference promoting loans for student co-op houses from the U.S. Department of Urban Development. The University of Michigan Government Council granted NASCO an office down the hall from the ICC on the fourth floor of the Michigan Union. Buchele was asked to advise new NASCO staff members on many matters. As Buchele noted in his autobiographical writing, having NASCO Office so nearby made the ICC a more vital organization on campus.

Buchele, worked with more than 15,000 residents over his 34 years at the ICC. At the start of each school year, Buchele brought new dishes and silverware to each house, a visit he used as an opportunity to meet students and encourage members to have pride in their houses. He served as a liaison between co-op members and University of Michigan administrators who were often at odds with the co-ops during the fifties and sixties. For a number of years Buchele recruited the University of Michigan students to help edit NASCL magazine and plan yearly nation-wide conferences.

In the 1960s, Buchele successfully argued to the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development that cooperative housing qualified as affordable housing. As a result the ICC was able to secure a million-dollar, low-interest loan to build the North Campus co-op houses was opened in 1970. A tireless advocate for students, Buchele also convinced legislators that co-op members, who don't rent their rooms, but rather own a share of the house, should qualify for a renter's tax credit.

Buchele is hailed by many as the 'father of the student cooperative movement' because the cooperatives he built served as models for those at other universities. He served as a coach and trainer for generations of college cooperators, many of who have become leaders in today's cooperatives. Even after retirement Buchele was a fixture at the ICC's Winter Annual Meeting for many years. One of the ICC houses, located at 1510 Hill Street, is named after Luther Buchele. In 1987 Buchele was inducted into the Cooperative Hall of Fame of the National Cooperative Business Association in Washington, D.C., and in 1991 he was nominated to the NASCO Hall of Fame. He was also recognized as a "Cooperative Pioneer" by the Michigan Association of Cooperatives.

Luther Buchele married Joan Alison Bross in February 1961. They had four children: Royd Stefan, Theresa Allison, Libbie Ann, and Heidi Lynn. Buchele died in a car accident on August 1, 2008 at the age of 88.

Acquisition Information:

Donated by Joan Allison Buchele (donor no. 5052 ) in July 2011.

Accruals:

No further additions to the records are expected.

Rules or Conventions:

Finding aid prepared using Describing Archives: A Content Standard (DACS)

Related

Additional Descriptive Data:

Related Collections at the Bentley Historical Library

1. Amy S. Clark collection, 1991-1994. Collection includes oral history interviews.
2. Inter-Cooperative Council records, 1932-2012 and publications. Finding aid available online
3. North American Student Cooperative League records, 1936-1977. Finding aid available online
4. Housing Division (University of Michigan) records, beginning 1923. Finding aid available online

Subjects

Click on terms below to find any related finding aids on this site.

Subjects:

Cooperative societies -- United States.
Housing cooperatives -- Michigan -- Ann Arbor.
Housing cooperatives -- United States.
Socialism.
Student housing -- United States.

Formats:

Color slides.
Photographs.

Names:

Central League of Campus Cooperatives.
North American Student Cooperative League.
North American Student Cooperative Organization.
University of Kansas -- Students -- Social life and customs.
University of Michigan -- Students -- Social life and customs.
Buchele, Luther H., 1920-