By John Kubal | The Brookings Register
BROOKINGS — When it comes to being an advocate for a pair of his favorite causes, Mark Sternhagen, 70 and retired since 2013 after teaching full–time and part-time for 33 years at South Dakota State University, brings credibility to what he espouses: he’s been there, done that.
He contracted polio when he was 18 months old and since then he has lived with a disability that could have been prevented by immunization. Today he advocates for people who, whatever the cause or results, live with a disability; and he advocates for childhood immunizations that prevent diseases such as the one that he contracted.
Sternhagen was born in Scotland (South Dakota) in 1956. There had been major testing of a polio vaccine 1954. Two million children were part of the testing and on April 12, 1955, the Salk vaccine was certified to be safe; however, it was in short supply.
“We (in Scotland) were not high on the priority list,” Sternhagen said. “The vaccine was available in December 1956. If I could have been vaccinated, I would have been. My siblings were. But I wasn’t, because I was running a temp.” (Protocol at the time advised not giving the vaccine to someone who was running a fever.)
In August 1957, at 18 months old, he contracted polio. His three brothers and those around him did not. He noted that polio is a neuromuscular disease that affects your motor neurons and starts at your spinal cord and moves out. Polio is a summer virus, predictable around July and August. Hot and humid weather is polio weather.
“Polio is typically right around that age, 2,3, 4 years old,” Sternhagen explained. He spent time in an iron lung, but he does not remember that. From 18 months to 2 ½ years old he lived in a polio ward in Omaha.
Wearing braces and walking with crutches, he attended public school in Scotland through third grade. He then attended a school in Sioux Falls for “crippled children” — the Crippled Children’s Hospital and School. The program was superseded by Lifescape, which now provides education and services for people who have disabilities. Sternhagen would later serve on the board of directors until he was “term-limited off a couple years ago.”
“I’m still active with Lifescape,” he added. “They’re putting up a new building and I’m working with them on some projects with that.”
Following high school graduation from Crippled Children’s Hospital and School in Sioux Falls in 1973, Sternhagen began college at the University of South Dakota (Springfield), Now the facility houses a minimum-security prison. In 1986, he would graduate from SDSU on a Saturday, with a bachelor’s degree in electronics; the next day, Sunday, he graduated from Dakota State University (Madison) with a bachelor’s degree in education.
He would then attend graduate school at SDSU and earn a master’s degree and continue teaching there for a total of 33 years. He still does some computer consulting for people he has known for years.
Teacher, author, advocate, public servant
“I embraced online teaching as soon as it came out,” Sternhagen said, adding that much of his teaching was done online. “I know that it’s part of the future. The courses I taught were perfect online. The courses I ended up teaching were general engineering courses. They were more in the social sciences: Intro to engineering. And I taught an interesting one: Intro to engineering for non-traditional students. I didn’t teach it like you’re an incoming freshman just off the farm.”
Regardless of the courses taught, Sternhagen prided himself on teaching all his courses at a philosophical level, making his students think for themselves, think about both sides of an issue, and come up with their own answers. He urged them to find “a compromising middle ground.”
In retirement he has authored three books: an autobiography, “Normal for Me”; a children’s book, “Sandy and Me,” about the dog he grew up with; and “Understanding Rythm,” about vaccinations. And shots, or the lack of them, are something Sternhagen can relate to up close and personal in his defense of the need for childhood immunization.
He’s right upfront in his pro-vaccination stance: “I say that loud and clear every chance I get.” He’s especially critical of the claim — now pretty much debunked by scientific and medical experts — that some cases of autism can be attributed to some immunizations.
“I’m in a group called ‘Immunize South Dakota.’ It’s mostly medical professionals,” he explained. “They have a thing, a big deal down in Sioux Falls in April. It’s in the convention center. We meet every couple months online: a lot of medical doctors and nurses.”
“Back in COVID time, early December 2020, a couple of doctors from Watertown were just exhausted with patients coming in and noting some YouTube video telling them they shouldn’t vaccinate their children and trying to explain to them this (COVID) is a dangerous thing and vaccination is important and why they should not pay much attention to these (videos).”
“What we need is to pull at the heart strings with the truth, with facts and look at it from a child’ perspective. But look at the thing and say what really happens when you don’t vaccinate. And I’m a testament to that.”
As a public servant, Sternhagen is chairman of the City of Brookings Disability Awareness Committee; additionally, he is president of the Brookings Area Transit Authority board of directors.
“I felt like I brought something to that board like no one possibly could. I was the only disabled person they’ve ever had on the board and certainly the only person who ever attended the school there.
“BATA has been a godsend for people like me, without a doubt,” he said. “And I think Brookings isn’t really aware of what we have with BATA. … BATA does bend over backwards for everyone.”
“We’re in a really challenging time,” Sternhagen said, referring to the potential for budgetary cuts that could affect both disability issues and BATA. “(Both) could be trimmed back some.”
As chairman and as president, Sternhagen brings to the jobs a been-there-done-that reality: “I bring reality … rather than just statistics. … I try to humanize it.”
“I really try to stay busy. The computer stuff keeps me sharp with where technology is. I really, strongly believe right now, with the way the world is going right now that humanizing the disabled is extremely important. There’s a lot of dehumanizing going on out there right — I believe.
Bottom line: In retirement, Mark Sternhagen is indeed staying busy — doing something for his community.
— Contact John Kubal at [email protected].
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