Hansen leaves a legacy - Pipestone County Star

Dennis Hansen, shown here in 2022, died Wednesday, Jan. 22 at the age of 86. He was a founder, managing director, board member, performer and much more at the Pipestone Performing Arts Center.
Contributed photo

The Pipestone Performing Arts Center (PPAC) has been a fixture on Pipestone’s Main Street for over three decades. Thousands of people from southwest Minnesota and beyond have passed through its doors, many to take the stage and even more to fill the seats. In either case, they have had the opportunity to do so thanks in large part to the vision of Dennis Hansen, who died Jan. 22 at the age of 86.

Hansen had an appreciation for the performing arts early on in life. He became a member of the Pipestone Male Chorus, which later became the Al Opland Singers, in 1955 when he was a sophomore in high school. Many years later, he became interested in finding a consistent space for that group and others to perform.

“I remember going through all the buildings, stepping them off to see if it was big enough, high enough and all that kind of stuff,” said Mick Myers, a long time friend of Hansen’s.

Hansen wrote in the spring 2019 issue of the PPAC’s quarterly newsletter that the search for a location ended when he received a call from Mike Morgan in the early 1990s.

“He asked if I recalled our talks about a performing arts center in Pipestone,” Hansen wrote. “He said Dave Logan was with him and wondered if I would join them for a visit. YES!…and so it began.”

He credited Logan and Morgan, who were the Pipestone City Administrator and First National Bank president, respectively, at the time, with bringing his vision to fruition.

“While much, maybe all of it, was my idea to get going, the people that really made it work was Mike Morgan and Dave Logan,” Hansen said during a 2019 interview. “Had it not been for them, this would never have happened.”

Logan said in an email to the Pipestone County Star that search settled on the old S&L store, which was sitting empty at the time.

“The building of course, was an integral part of the downtown historic district and as such the city council did not want it to remain vacant,” Logan wrote. “Nor did the Masons [who owned the building].”

A task force was formed, funds were raised, an architect was hired and plans were drawn. Dennis was involved all along.

“Dennis was a great part of instilling that sense in all who were involved that this was something big that was going to last for a long time and that it was going to make Pipestone special and add to the quality of life for the residents of the community,” Logan wrote.

The PPAC opened in 1993 and Hansen was pleased with the way it turned out.

“As far as theaters are concerned, in southwest Minnesota this is pretty much the premiere theater that is technically what everybody wishes they had,” he said in 2019.

Ed Carducci was the first managing director of the PPAC, but that lasted only a matter of months. Hansen then took on the role and held it until he retired in 2019. During that time, he did everything and anything at the PPAC from scrubbing the floors and cleaning the toilets to applying for grants and booking shows. His was the face of the PPAC.
Years before his retirement, Hansen was already preparing his replacement, Mark Thode, who the PPAC Board of Directors hired as managing director in 2019.

“Dennis was a father figure to me,” Thode said. “He was one of very few people who had either nurtured or encouraged a path in the arts.”

This painting of Dennis Hansen was created by Tammy Grubbs for the 30th anniversary of the Pipestone Performing Arts Center in 2023. It now sits in the front window of the theater. Photo by Kyle Kuphal

In 2023, the PPAC kicked off its 30th anniversary with a celebratory tribute titled “A Night to Remember” that Thode said was intended to pay tribute to the “imagineers and pioneers” who made the PPAC what it is, the volunteers who had helped and especially Hansen.

“I’m so happy that we were able to produce that 30th anniversary event while he was here,” Thode said. “I wanted to do it at the 25th. It just didn’t happen, but it was really really important to me to make sure that he was here and that he was able to sit back and to watch all that he had contributed to, and for him to be publicly recognized and publicly thanked for his service.”

Hansen continued that service even after he retired as managing director and remained a member of the PPAC Board of Directors until the end of his life. The organization must now, for the first time, carry on without him.

“None of us have ever known an arts center without Dennis,” Thode said. “There’s going to be a void there where we’re going to have to figure out what it is that we do to continue that drive and that fire that he had, so that we can usher in the next 30 years.”

That drive and that fire were not only reserved for the art center, according to those closest to Hansen.

“In all the things that he did, he was very extreme, like my older brother,” said Hansen’s son Mark. “He would get done with work while he was still here, before he went to the Army, and he had a boat and he would drive up to Lake Benton with whoever — he had a trailer up there — and he would water ski after work for like two or three hours.”
Mark said his father had a standard of excellence in all he did that has influenced him in his career. He developed a saying based on his father’s example: “Do anything the way you do everything and that will carry through your life,” Mark said. He said he and his brother, Pete, were shown that example early on as their father involved them in his activities, like sidekicks. He described their family as “very tight.”

That family began to take shape on Dec. 27, 1969 when Dennis and his wife of 55 years, Diane, were married. The two grew up in the same Pipestone neighborhood. Life took them in different directions, but their paths crossed again when Diane needed some printing done for her work with the College of Saint Benedict and she went to Hansen’s business, Nicollet Press. Hansen asked her out to dinner, they began dating and they were married in a matter of months.

She described their marriage as “an extreme partnership” in which they supported each other and could each be themselves.

“To me that’s probably the greatest gift you can give a marriage partner is to let them be themselves,” Diane said.
She described her husband as family oriented, dedicated, a wonderful father, someone who cherished friendships and would drop everything to go help others, and a Christian man, albeit one who didn’t attend church regularly. He loved to cook, was good at it and made it look easy. Diane said he had dreams for big things and appreciation for small things.

Mark said his father was a great storyteller and communicator. He was easy to talk to. That’s how he and Myers became friends. Myers said he needed some printing done and went to Nicollet Press.
“I walked in there and shook his hand and sat down and talked, and I think we talked for 45 minutes to an hour, and we’ve been friends ever since,” Myers said.

Myers described Hansen as community minded. It was one of many commonalities between the two men. They both worked in the newspaper business. They were both involved in the Song of Hiawatha Pageant. Hansen portrayed Pau-Puk-Keewis, who at one point in the play was pushed off the cliff into the water below.
“He just had a fantastic number of jumps,” Myers said.

Myers and Hansen also attended trade shows together to promote the pageant, the arts center and the community, and they were both involved in the Pipestone Area Chamber of Commerce and the Kiwanis.
“I’m sorry to see that he’s left us,” Myers said. “I really am.”

A celebration of life is planned for Hansen at the PPAC on Saturday, Feb. 22 at 2 p.m.