Giving & Volunteering

The metal wall sculpture in Madonna’s east garden moves gracefully in the breeze. The sculpture, entitled “Into the Wind,” is a fitting tribute to a young man whose sense of adventure took him to the skies of America’s western frontiers as a private pilot.

Dick Hitz recalls how his wife, Marilyn, commissioned the piece in 1994 in memory of their youngest son, John, whose life was cut short when a truck hit his snowmobile in the wilds of Alaska.

The sculpture also serves as a permanent remembrance of the Hitz family’s ties to Madonna — ties that run deep. John Hitz volunteered at Madonna part-time while he was in college. His sister, Doris Hitz Lewis, worked at Madonna after earning her degree in recreation therapy from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL). Upon her graduation in 1979, she joined the therapy staff and has worked at Madonna ever since, today serving as the clinical supervisor of therapeutic recreation.

The Hitz family also experienced Madonna from a patient care perspective. Dick said he was most grateful that Madonna had a place for his mother, Edith, when she could no longer live on her own in 1995.

“She really adapted to life at Madonna and became a part of the community there,” he recalls, adding that she often played the piano for the patients in the Alzheimer’s unit. “She was a natural-born musician.” Dick said his mother was a woman ahead of her time. Even though her business schooling took place in the 1920s, Dick said his mother would have really embraced all the computer technology of today.

Yet, Dick credits another special woman with every success he’s had in his adult life.
“My wife, Marilyn, was the driving force of my life,” he says. Dick and Marilyn Hitz knew each other for most of their lives, attending the same church as children. “I even had a crush on her then,” he recalls. They both attended Lincoln High and since Marilyn was planning to attend Nebraska Wesleyan University, Dick made sure he was enrolled too. They married in 1950. Dick transferred to UNL, graduated in 1952, and reported to Army basic training in Fort Riley Kansas. It was Korean War time for Americans.

Army officials noticed that Dick had played the trombone in high school and quickly plucked him out of Kansas for a stateside Army band stationed in Massachusetts. In addition to his army duties, he worked part-time as a mechanic at a truck garage in Milford, Massachusetts.

Upon completion of his military service, he returned to Nebraska to put his business administration degree to work in the banking industry and raise his growing family which ultimately numbered two daughters and three sons.

His fascination with real estate led him to the mortgage department of First Trust Company. Following that early experience, Dick and a colleague opened the mortgage department at First National Bank. He completed his banking career at Lincoln Federal Savings where he worked for 32 years. He has continued serving on the board of directors following his retirement.

Once Dick and Marilyn both retired from their careers, they had more time to explore the world, traveling to fascinating places, such as Russia, the Czech Republic, the Baltic Sea and Scandinavia to a name a few. They also pursued a favorite pastime — dancing.

Dick reluctantly agreed to six weeks of dance lessons. The couple learned to waltz, jitterbug, and fox trot. Their instructor warned them that the last dance they would learn had actually caused other dance students to injure themselves. “It was the polka and once I mastered it, I had found my place in life,” Dick recalls. With dance lessons under their belt, Dick and Marilyn were active in a dance club for years.
The couple’s active life came to a halt in 2004 when Marilyn was diagnosed with a brain tumor. Dick once again turned to Madonna where Marilyn spent the remainder of her days. “Her care was magnificent,” he recalls.

Dick has continued the tradition of memorial gifts his wife started with the beautiful garden sculpture. He believes his special connection to Madonna has inspired these gifts and he knows others will benefit from his support. “It has truly been a labor of love for us because of our connection to Madonna.”