Kenneth and Lois Siebe met in 1940 while still attending high school in Challis, Idaho. But when Kenneth turned 18, he was shipped out for war during World War II.
“We both put our education on hold,” said Lois, who worked for the U.S. Forest Service while Kenneth was overseas.
Kenneth returned home in 1946. The following summer, he and Lois were married and began their education together at the University of Idaho. The couple has been married 69 years and counting.
Even though some time has passed, the couple made many fond memories while at UI.
There was the time UI football players stole Butch the cougar from Washington State University before the big football game.
The time they sat under the moonlight in the Arboretum and were startled by campus security. The couple even has fond memories of their loyal 1939 Hudson Coupe that went with them everywhere they did.
Kenneth was able to attend college on the GI Bill, and said the university his brother attended before the war was much different. He said UI was a smaller school and it cost only his brother $650 to attend.
“The University of Idaho at the time my brother went was a very small nice little university about four to five hundred students,” Kenneth said. “After the war, of course, all of us were eligible for the GI Bill. So this little university went from about 500 students to about 4,000 in one year.”
David Betts | Argonaut
Kenneth and Lois Siebe made a recent trip to the University of Idaho. They have been married for 69 years.
Kenneth said the sudden growth of population had a significant impact on the university and UI had to adapt as a result.
“They moved temporary barracks buildings in and everything for classrooms,” Kenneth said. “Housing was non-existent so they moved in hundreds of these 17-foot trailers.”
The couple moved into one of those trailers after they got married and were attending school.
Kenneth and Lois said they have many memories while living in the trailer, such as the Moscow winter of 1948 – one of the harshest winters of the time – and how the daily cost of food was just $1.37.
They earned their money from working year round and focused on their studies while slowly spending their earnings.
Lois was an art major, and she remembered all her fun times in the art department, while Kenneth majored in business administration and accounting.
Kenneth said he was fortunate to attend UI in the first place.
“I had no idea what I wanted to take when I came because I just knew that I was so fortunate to have the GI Bill that I could go to college, otherwise I”d have no chance,” Kenneth said. “I expected to learn something that I could make a living with.”
After graduating in 1950, the couple had a few temporary jobs.
Dorothy Worden | Courtesy
Kenneth and Lois Siebe sit on the “I” bench outside the Administration Building on thier graduation day in 1950.
Kenneth was an accountant – a job he said he absolutely hated – and Lois gave art lessons before becoming a secretary and working for the county in Boise. Kenneth later got a different job bidding for building supplies that he enjoyed much more.
Kenneth said one thing he”s learned is that students should enjoy each day to the fullest.
“It took me a whole lifetime to do that,” Kenneth said. “Take something you like, take something you have to, and enjoy what you do.”
Lois said college is a wonderful time in life and students expand their horizons while they are here.
“Learn all you can, try different things and don”t neglect the library,” Lois said. “This is a wonderful moment in your life.”
Their college years here at the University of Idaho were memorable, mostly because they had each other.
Savannah Williams can be reached at [email protected]