A panel discussion was held to honor John Neihardt in Gardner Hall auditorium Tuesday, Sept. 21.

The panel took place at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday and was the last event. It followed a chamber coffee meeting to discuss the history of Wayne State College, a walking tour of historic downtown Wayne, and a Native American dance that was held in Ley Theater.

A group of people were gathered in Gardner Hall to discuss the life and works of poet and author, John Neihardt. Tim Anderson, Nancy Gillis, Joseph Weixelman and Meena Dalal were the guest speakers and leaders of the panel.

Meena Dalal, a retired faculty member, was the first person to address the audience and talk about some of the former events and more about Neihardt’s life and marriage. Dalal said Neihardt’s wife traveled all the way from France to the Omaha train station to meet him. They wrote letters back and forth but had never met until she showed up to the train station. Neihardt had the marriage license in his hand when he went to meet her.

“John Neihardt was a distinguished alumni whose work and vision, especially with the Native Americans, is now world known,” Dalal said.

Tim Anderson, a retired journalism professor, said John Neihardt’s writing career lasted 72 years and includes, four nonfiction stories, nine poetic works, 20 books and 3,000 book reviews.

“Neihardt’s powerful poetry often makes you feel that you are there as the events are unfolding,” Anderson said.

His first book, “The Divine Enchantment,” was published in 1901 and his last book, “All is but a Beginning,” was published in 1972, a year before he died.

“He was quite simply, a man made of stories,” Anderson said.

Joseph Weixelman, the concluding speaker, said Neihardt’s point was that we need to examine our lives and to take the time to really know who and what we are. The best way he knew how to do that was to study the lives of the great men and women who have lived before us. Weixelman also played a clip of Neihardt reading one of his poems called, “Crazy Horse,” from his book “The Song of the Indian Wars.”

“I wanted you to experience the empathy in his voice as he was reading the poem.” Weixelman said. “Nancy said it best, this book that we are talking about is one of the thousand most important books in the history of the world. That means Wayne State College played a role in creating one of the thousand most important books in history and not every college can say that,” Weixelman said.

“I was fascinated by the history of Neihardt and I really appreciated these presenters coming to show what they know,” audience member Ashly Gunderson said.