Charles and Helene Anderson Honorary Scholarship
Helene (Henke) Anderson was raised on a dairy farm on Grayson Road in the town of New Hope. (The farm was homesteaded by her grandparents in 1881 and is still owned by a Henke.) Helene graduated from Amherst High in 1938 and moved to Chicago after graduation to seek employment.
Charles Anderson was a 1937 graduate of the Rosholt school system, but all of his ancestors were early settlers in Tomorrow River country dating back to the 1850s. Charlie’s drive toward making a success of his life became apparent in early adulthood.
It was in Chicago that Helene met Charlie and they were married in 1939 and started their life together. The family moved to Nelsonville in 1941.
By the middle of the 1950s, Charles had served in the military and undertaken several small businesses, including operating the feed mill in Nelsonville. Before the age of 30, he was president of the Village of Nelsonville, held the office of Portage County Treasurer and served on the Portage County Board, eventually becoming vice chairman of the board. He was even a member of the Tomorrow River School Board. In 1951, at the age of 32, Charles started a career in banking as cashier of the Security State Bank (now Citizens Bank). In 1955, he left the bank and established an insurance and real estate agency and auction service which he operated out of the family’s home in Nelsonville. During this time, he worked with contacts in the Lions Club organization to help the Wisconsin Lions purchase what is now known as the Lions Camp in Rosholt.
Charles’s service and financial business experiences would prove to be his niche for his future business career. In 1961, the Anderson family of four left Nelsonville and moved to Wausau so Charles could start a new bank for a group of investors who had determined that Wausau could use another bank.
Wherever he was, and wherever he went, Charles told people about his love for Nelsonville. The family came back frequently to visit, and Charles always yearned to return.
In 1981, Charles retired as President of the Peoples State Bank of Wausau due to declining health and passed away in 1989 at the age of 69 from complications of Parkinson’s disease.
Charlie had no formal education beyond high school. When asked what college he had graduated from, he always responded that he got his college education from “the school of hard knocks”. But both of Charles and Helene’s sons have bachelor’s degrees and pursued careers in banking.