From front row from left – Colleen Appel, Rick Doll, Gayle (Appel) Doll, Marla Ullom-Minnich, Paul Ullom-Minnich and back row from left – Bruce Appel, Rick Brindle, Mark Appel. Not pictured are Lori Appel-Flores and Joelle (Neher) Appel.
The McPherson College Citation of Merit award recipients for 2025 are Richard Brindle ’72, Paul ’89 and Marla ’87 Ullom-Minnich, and the Appel family, including Colleen Appel ’74, Gayle Appel Doll ’76 and Rick Doll ’76, Mark Appel ’78 and Kathy Burkholder ’82 (posthumously), Bruce Appel ’83 and Joelle Neher Appel ’84, and Lori Appel-Flores ’85.
These recipients exemplify the college’s mission of Scholarship, Participation, and Service through their lifelong commitment to the values they developed as students at McPherson College. The college honored this year’s recipients at the Evening of Recognition banquet hosted by the Advancement Office on April 25 at the McPherson Community Building.
The McPherson College Citation of Merit is the highest award recognizing the most distinguished alumni for lifetime accomplishments in service to profession, community, church, and to McPherson College. The recipients are recommended by the Alumni Awards Committee and are approved by the College Board of Trustees.
Richard Brindle ‘72
Richard Brindle graduated from McPherson College in 1972 with a bachelor’s degree in history. While a student at McPherson College, Rick participated in varsity basketball and student government, serving as president of his senior class. Following graduation, he served in the Colorado and Connecticut Air National Guard from 1972 to 1978 as a staff sergeant.
Rick’s professional career was in oil production, retiring from Texaco after 22 years and more recently working as a consultant. He focused on streamlining and reducing horizontal drilling costs, supervising over 150 horizontal wells over the past 27 years. He was recognized many times for his work and was part of the first team sent to Russia to repair wells and stimulate production in Siberia.
He has dedicated much of his life to helping others. Rick volunteers with Healing Waters International, assembling water purification units that are sent to Africa and Central America. He regularly assists the Orphan Grain Train, which distributes clothing and supplies to mission sites in the former Soviet Bloc. The Brindles are long-time members of Epiphany Lutheran Church in Castle Rock, CO, where Rick served as president for five years.
The Brindles have supported McPherson College in many ways. They have hosted staff in their home, contacted fellow alumni about attending Colorado gatherings, and have been loyal members of the President’s Giving Club for over 30 years.
Rick and his wife, Kristine, have three sons and live in Castle Rock.
Paul ’89 and Marla ’87 Ullom-Minnich
For more than 30 years, Drs. Paul and Marla Ullom-Minnich have been serving the rural health needs of McPherson County. The practice they founded with two other physicians, Partners in Family Care, also offers McPherson College students, faculty, and staff convenient on-campus access to health care.
In addition to their busy medical practice, Paul and Marla are involved in their community, church, college, and international organizations. Paul is a Network Site Coordinator for the Office of Rural Medicine and a preceptor for medical students and residents for the Kansas University School of Medicine, and Marla is a clinic assistant professor volunteer in the Department of Family and Community Medicine and co-director of the South-Central Kansas Medical Education Network at the Kansas University School of Medicine in Wichita. Paul also serves as the medical director for the McPherson County Health Department.
In 2010, Paul helped start the Haiti Medical Project and continues to raise funds, and is the chair of the working group that manages the project. Both are active in the McPherson Church of the Brethren. Marla was a leadership chair and served on the pastoral search committee, and Paul serves on the Youth Team. Marla was a member and chair of the Outdoor Ministries Team for the Western Plains District, and Paul served on the Association of Brethren Caregivers Board and the Church of the Brethren Mission Advisory Board.
Both have also given their time to mentor McPherson College students interested in health care careers, hosting shadowing experiences, participating in mock interviews, and speaking on panels. Paul also served on the college’s Board of Trustees for 20 years, and both were recognized with the Young Alumni Award in 2002.
Appel family
The Appel family was recognized collectively as active and generous alumni. The Appel siblings and their spouses remain connected to McPherson College through their engagement and philanthropy. Their parents, Hans and Gwenna Appel, immigrated to the Unites States from Denmark and cultivated Appel Farm in Iowa. While none of their children took on the family business, the siblings have been intentional about stewarding and transitioning their inheritance and legacy in ways that align with their shared values and generosity.
Colleen Appel McVeigh ‘74
The eldest of the Appel siblings attended McPherson College for two years and graduated from a Minnesota university with a degree in elementary education. Throughout her life, Colleen has passed on her talent and love of writing to students during her 21 years as a public school teacher, and she has used it to focus her work and life on service learning and community involvement. Colleen is an active volunteer in her church and community organizations dealing with grief, providing shelter, and ensuring affordable housing.
Gayle Appel Doll ’76 and Rick Doll ‘76
Gayle is a retired associate professor at Kansas State University. She directed the Center of Aging and is currently the part-time Associate Dean for Academic and Faculty Affairs for the College of Health and Human Sciences at KSU. Recently, she has shared her considerable experience with McPherson College, consulting with the new Health Science program. Gayle is also an accomplished artist and the Manhattan Watercolor Studio group president. She and her husband, Rick, are active leaders in their church. Rick is the executive director of the Kansas Leadership Institute, a mentoring program for new school administrators at Kansas State University. He is the former superintendent of Lawrence Public Schools where he was recognized as the Kansas Superintendent of the Year in 2014. He was honored by the college in 1996 with the Young Alumni Award and currently serves on the McPherson College Board of Trustees.
Mark Appel ’78 and Kathy Burkholder ’82 (posthumously)
Mark graduated from McPherson College with a bachelor’s degree in animal science and studied plant pathology at Kansas State University. He worked at the Appel family farm before starting a career in construction. Before he retired, he was a design engineer for a national company. His wife, Kathy, worked as a director of program development and management at Kansas State University before her passing in 2021. Mark is active in his church and the president of his homeowners’ association.
Bruce Appel ’83 and Joelle Neher Appel ‘84
Bruce is a professor and head of the Section of Developmental Biology in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, and the Diane G. Wallach Chair of Pediatric Stem Cell Biology. In 2021, He was awarded the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Strokes Outstanding Investigator Award. It is an eight-year grant to fund his lab’s research on nervous system development. Mark volunteers for Habitat for Humanity and the Northern Plains Brethren Disaster Ministries Rebuild. After two decades of nursing, Joelle earned a master’s degree in acupuncture at the Colorado School of Traditional Chinese Medicine and treats patients at her clinic in Denver. She has been an active community volunteer with the Denver School of Science and Technology and Stand for Children in Denver.
Lori Appel-Flores ‘85
After receiving a master’s degree in professional counseling, Lori has spent 30 years working in family preservation, foster care/adoption, and as a case worker for individuals with developmental disabilities, and as a clinical care reviewer, the first in the state of Kansas and Arkansas, where she worked. She and her husband now live in Florida, where she volunteers for the Women’s Club of Pensacola, donating food and helping with fundraisers.
A recording of the Evening of Recognition Awards dinner and program can be found here.