Nov. 4, 2026

The Rev. Dr. Robert L. Vogel ’56 — fondly remembered by many students as “Daddy Vogs” — was Wartburg College’s 15^th president, serving from 1980 to 1998. He died Friday, July 24, surrounded by his family, including his wife, Sally ’57, and children, Kirk ’83 and Susan.

“My dad loved Wartburg because, as a college of the ELCA, students could combine their spirituality with education to prepare for lives of service to others,” said Kirk. “Wartburg loved him because he was focused on the overall student experience and not just the classroom element. He was very engaged with them as a partner in their journey. Always as Daddy Vogs or Bob, never the Rev. Dr. Robert Vogel.
They sensed he cared deeply about them as individuals.”

Bob was a Lutheran pastor and church executive — and great-grandson of Otto Kraushaar, one of the presidents at Wartburg’s former Clinton campus. Bob’s tenure is remembered for his contagious excitement, animated by his vision for what Wartburg College could be and his passion for students. 

“I remember him helping the incoming freshmen move boxes and furniture into their dorm rooms,” said Marty Barclay ’99. “I can recall my parents being very impressed by him right away by that humble service. Such a class act.”

Many still recall one of Bob’s favorite phrases of encouragement: “No matter how good you think you are, you’re probably even better.”

It was during his tenure that the college’s oft-recited mission statement came to be: Wartburg College is dedicated to challenging and nurturing students for lives of leadership and service as a spirited expression of their faith and learning. Bob frequently expressed that the Wartburg experience enabled students to make connections in their lives, “to put it all together” and “discover and claim their callings.”

“I am honored to have served with Bob for six years as dean of the faculty,” said James Pence, who was at Wartburg from 1990 to 1996. “He understood, lived, and promoted the values of Lutheran higher education as exemplified by the ‘college of our brightest days.’”

At a time when many colleges were focusing on off-campus attendance centers and evening programs for adult learners, Bob committed to keeping Wartburg a residential liberal arts institution where undergraduates would live and learn together.

Wartburg is “a place that helps spark a fire, a passion, in the hearts of students and challenges them to lead and serve,” Bob said. “Sometimes I think we do our students a disservice with the quality of community here. Will they ever experience a place like this when they leave?”

That choice was informed by his own experience as a student at Wartburg. Because he had participated in traditions like Outfly as an undergraduate, he honored and zealously guarded them as president. Any attendee of a basketball game in Knights Gym knew to look for him seated behind the scorer’s table, often rising to get the crowd fired up.

“When we stand and cheer ‘We are Wartburg,’ there’s a depth to that,” he said. “I still get choked up joining in the chant.”

“President Vogel was everywhere on campus: athletic events, fine arts events, student events, The Den, strolling across campus. He always had time to chat with you,” said Paul Everding ’94. “One of my fondest memories was playing Frisbee golf on the old campus course, and President Vogel happened to be leaving Luther Hall when we were getting ready to putt at the hole there. He told us to play through and waited until we were done. Afterward, he asked us what our scores were.”

Bob championed diversity on campus through the college’s first minority awareness organization, the Waterloo Teachers Project, and intentional international student recruitment. He pushed for internships and off-campus experiences, leading to the creation of Wartburg West in Denver, Colo., and increased international travel courses. He also reforged links with the college’s roots in Neuendettelsau, Eisenach, and the Wartburg Castle after the reunification of Germany.

In his 18 years as president, enrollment grew from more than 1,000 students to more than 1,500, then an all-time high. Combined with successful fundraising efforts that increased the college’s endowment tenfold, this opened the door for new possibilities under his “Decade of Opportunity” banner. That decade came to fruition in just seven years, establishing 10 endowed chairs and professorships and enabling numerous physical improvements to campus.

Bob oversaw the construction of the Whitehouse Business Center, the first Wartburg Bookstore, the former Visitors Center, an addition to the former P.E. Center, the Bachman Fine Arts Center, the McElroy Communication Arts Center, the Wartburg Chapel, the new Grossmann Hall, the Rada-Aleff Classroom Technology Center, and the skywalk system; the renovations of Old Main, the third floor of Luther Hall, and what is now Founders Hall; and the conversion of the president’s house into The Residence student hall.

“Dr. Vogel was a true visionary and deeply devoted to Wartburg as an alumnus,” said Jon Nelson ’90. “The 1980s and 1990s were some of the most transformative years in Wartburg’s history, and so much of what was accomplished during that time can be traced back to his leadership and vision.”

The Wartburg Chapel was a special project for Bob. As a man of the church, he greatly valued Wartburg’s role as a college of the church.

“Students who speak at chapel can be so honest and articulate about darkness and light in their lives,” he said. “They share sincere testimonies to God’s grace in their lives and the importance of community.”

“It’s hard to think of someone who loved and cared for Wartburg more than Bob Vogel,” said Dr. Karen Black, the Rudi Inselmann Endowed Professor in Organ. “He w as president when I started and responsible for so many things that made the college what it is, including buildingthe Chapel and installing the organ. He was in on — and took great delight in — a surprise announcement of Dan and my engagement at a spring faculty dinner.”

The Vogels were the first presidential couple to live in Greenwood after its acquisition in 1986. Ground was broken on a new library on the occasion of Bob’s retirement, and the finished building was dedicated in the couple’s honor as the Robert and Sally Vogel Library.

“When I picture my years at Wartburg, they include ‘Daddy Vogel.’ He was a great cheerleader for the school, but more importantly, a great cheerleader for the people,” said Ann Guetzlaff Kirchner ’95. “He welcomed students into his home and greeted every one of us by name. As a teacher myself, I’ll never understand how he met us one time and remembered every one of us afterward.”

As Ron Matthias ’54 put it in Still on the Move: “By the time of his retirement in 1998, Wartburg College — for the first time in its history — had become a bold and confident place, more than ready to take on the challenges of a new millennium.”

“We don’t reinvent the college or the Wartburg community every year,” Bob once observed. “We stand on the shoulders of those who came before.”

We’re all standing on your shoulders now, Bob. Thank you for your vision and your service. You will be missed.