When Richard L. “Dick” Kuss ’45 talks about his late wife, Barbara Deer Kuss, a sweet, loving smile always crosses his face. They met at Springfield High School back in 1939. He rode his bike to her house for their first date on April 12 of that year, and the two eventually married in 1944.

Barbara found the good in every single person, he said. She held the hands of patients as they were wheeled into surgery during her 30 years of volunteer service at Community Hospital. She listened to anyone and everyone with attentive, caring ears. She visited her mother every single day. She loved her family, her children, her grandchildren and the Wittenberg community. She committed herself to serving others, and she devoted her life to making a difference.

By the late nineties, however, Barbara noticed some physical weaknesses in her body, which forced her to undergo test after test at leading medical facilities, including the Mayo Clinic, the Cleveland Clinic and The Ohio State Medical Center. Doctors eventually discovered that Barbara had an unidentified neuromuscular disease, and she passed away on Dec. 5, 1999.

Three years later, Dick Kuss decided to honor Barbara, the woman who still makes him smile, in a way that she would have appreciated. The result is the new Barbara Deer Kuss Science Center. It is Kuss’ hope that thousands of Wittenberg students will use this facility to conduct innovative research, learn from esteemed faculty, work with state-of-the-art equipment and make a difference just like Barbara did. He also hopes that someday one of those students may even go on to find the cause and the cure for the disease that ended their 55 years together.

“She was really special,” Kuss said, and “she would have been happy that we supported this facility.”