At age 85, Dayle Besemer has accomplished more than most senior citizens and he’s not slowing down yet.

NEW ULM — Soldier, railroad worker, farmer, bar/restaurant owner, event caterer and President of the Minnesota Music Hall of Fame (MMFH).

These are not a random assortment of titles, but actual roles that Dayle Besemer has served over his 85 years, and he’s not done yet.

In 2022, Besemer would receive New Ulm’s Tourism Person of the Year Award for his work with the MMHF, former Chamber of Commerce board member and a founding member of the Convention & Visitors Bureau (CVB).

“I was born ambitious you might say,” Besemer said.

Besemer graduated from New Ulm High School in 1958. During his time in high school, Besemer was heavily involved with agriculture classes and 4H. He grew up on a dairy farm. His father had around 100 dairy cows, which was a lot back then.

“We were probably the largest dairy farm in the county,” he said.

Besemer liked showing dairy cows and was pretty good at it, winning awards at the State Fair. However, after graduating he did not go directly into farming.

Instead, he signed up for the military. Besemer told his recruiter he would join on the condition he could attend school. The Army sent him to school to train as as a stenographer and court reporter. That meant writing in shorthand. Besemer said back in those days only girls took shorthand.

For military training he was first sent to Fort Harrison Indiana before Fort Hood, Texas. Besemer said as luck would have it he arrived at Fort Hood just after Elvis Presley left in 1959.

Besemer remembers the Army told him that if he graduated from classes with high marks, he would receive one of the better duty tours in the service. He ended up being sent to Korea. Besemer said the good news was the war was long over by then and because of his administrative skills, he was stationed in Seoul, Korea.

During his time in Korea he was stationed at a postal site for the U.S. government. His duty involved mailing documents from the Korean HQ to other locations.

Besemer returned home in 1961 and was stationed outside of Chicago for the last of his three year hitch. Besemer’s time in the Army was extended another six months because of the Berlin crisis. By the time his tour was over, his younger sister graduated from high school and moved to Omaha, Nebraska to work in insurance.

Besemer decided to move to Omaha as well and began working for railroads as an office manager. His time in the military made him an attractive hire for railroads. However, after a few years he was promoted. The railroad was going to send him east.

“I didn’t want to go to the east coast,” Besemer said. “So I came home and began working on the family farm.”

By the time he returned to the New Ulm area, his father was planning to retire and gave his cows to his boys. Besemer and his brother farmed together for about seven years. In 1970 Besemer got a unique offer to buy Carl’s Corner in Essig.

Besemer took the offer, he sold his cows and began running Carl’s Corner for 10 years. During his time running the restaurant/bar Besemer also took the opportunity to expand into the catering business, operating the Wagon Wheel West catering business.

Besemer said in the beginning he used a converted school bus for his catering vehicle. His first job was catering a 3M event.

“After that, I was extreme ly busy,” he said.

Besemer tenure of Carl’s Corner ended in 1980 after the restaurant burned down.

Looking at the insurance, Besemer realized he couldn’t rebuild. He sold the property back to the original owner, who built a new building on the site.

Besemer decided to open a new restaurant/bar near the Glockenspiel in New Ulm. The business was called the Glockenspiel Haus Restaurant.

He would run this business for 15 years, closing in 1995 after his lease was up.

However, Besemer was not ready to stop. He decided to move onto his next career — pest control. He worked with Orkin for a few years before going into business for himself with Dairyland Pest Control.

Besemer said he remembered there were many people wondering why a guy would move from the restaurant business to pest control.

“I grew up on a farm so I was already familiar with the business,” Besemer said.

Most of his pest control clients were farmers.

“I knew how to talk to them,” he said. “I could convince them to spray.”

The pest control work sent Besemer all around the state. He even did some business in South Dakota. One of the larger farms he worked was on the South Dakota/Minnesota boarder.

“I was on the road three to four nights a week,” Besemer said. This was one of the reasons he decided to retire.

At the time he retired from pest control, Besemer was 82.

In addition to many professional careers, Besemer volunteered in the community. He is best known for his work with the Minnesota Music Hall of Fame (MMHF). For over 35 years Besemer has served as president of the MMHF. He became involved with the board during his time running the Glockenspiel Haus, then Besemer became involved with the Minnesota Music Hall of Fame.

He said a lot of people came in the restaurant and he learned there was a group of people trying to start a hall of fame in New Ulm, but there was trouble getting it started.

“I was interested in the tourism,” Besemer said. As an owner of the restaurant he was interested new ways to bring people into the community. Besemer joined the hall of fame board.

“One of the reasons the hall never got started was because New Ulm was only thinking of Polka,” he said.

Besemer believed the only way to get a music hall of fame going in New Ulm was to induct people from every type of music background. The board agreed and in 1989 they inducted the first six members into a Minnesota Music Hall Fame (MMHF). Not long after the MMHF was founded Besemer was named president, a title he still holds to this day.

Besemer said the ironic part is he is the only member of the board who is not a musician.

At age 85, Besemer said he feels pretty lucky and has no plans to slow down anytime soon.

“It is important to keep working,” Besemer said.

He has no major goals, but he is always interested in pursing different things.