By A.M. Kelley
Superior Catholic Herald

Lake Nebagamon secretary makes move to the Soo

LAKE NEBAGAMON -- St. Anthony Parish in Lake Nebagamon posted a help wanted sign when its secretary Colleen Klein announced that she was leaving. Klein and her husband, Alvin, are moving to Sault Ste. Marie, Mich., but they aren't burning any bridges.

"We're not selling our house in the woods and we're definitely coming back," she said. "It's going to be like a three-year vacation."

The "vacation" is courtesy of the United States Army Corps of Engineers. Alvin Klein has worked for the Corps for 31 years, the last 18 of those as the area engineer in Duluth, Minn. But instead of coasting to retirement at that post, he's accepted a more challenging position at the Soo Locks.

The work in Duluth slowed a lot during his tenure. There used to be 80 Corps employees needed on site but now the number is down to 20 at peak times in the summer. Automation eliminated the need for some workers and many more lost footing when jobs began to be contracted out. The same rate of attrition occurred at the Soo Locks where Klein supervises more than 90 people.

"But 20 years ago there used to be 400 (Corps workers at the Soo)," he said.

As area engineer at the Soo he overseas the operation of the locks between lakes Superior and Huron, and is in charge of a power plant.

While the Kleins feel solidly rooted in Douglas County, they are looking forward to the coming adventure. When they met and married 28 years ago in St. Paul, Minn., Colleen's hometown, they moved to northern Wisconsin to a hobby farm with horses, dogs and cats. But that was not plan A.

"With the Corps of Engineers you can go all over the world," she said, "Originally we thought about traveling the world. But we wanted our kids to be born in the United States."

So in 1979 they settled in Poplar and have been members of the nearby Lake Nebagamon parish ever since.

Colleen Klein first worked as a legal secretary in St. Paul and then for two years in Duluth. After that she was a stay-at-home mom with their daughter Angeline until going to work for St. Anthony's about eight years ago.

Alvin Klein was raised in Michigan's Upper Peninsula in the Houghton/Hancock area.

"My husband always wants to go where there's more snow," Colleen said. "He's used to big snow."

And referring to the similarity of his name to the famous clothing designer Calvin Klein, she said, "He always says he should do a Yooper line of orange clothing."

At home in the U.P. and no strangers to the Soo, the Kleins have been on assignments there several times for four months at a time.

"I love it up there," Colleen Klein said. "It's gorgeous."

And they're both looking forward to a new view.

"We live in the woods (in Poplar) and we want to live on the water there," she said. "It will give us a chance to have some water living."

They will buy or rent a home on Lake Superior or the St. Mary's River.

The Klein's daughter, now 25, has been living and studying in New Mexico and in the fall she'll move to Tucson, Arizona to work on a Ph.D. in music.

"She wants to get into the opera field," Colleen Klein said. "She was our accompanist at church and she cantors. God blessed her with musical talents."

Alvin Klein is already on the job in the Soo. Colleen is finding homes for their horses, packing the dogs and one fluffy cat and expects to join her husband there soon.

She's also training her successor. When Klein was first hired she was the parish's secretary as well as the bookkeeper. A few years ago the bookkeeping duties were passed on to parishioner Kathleen Mock. Mock will now combine Klein's secretarial duties into hers and once again the two part-time positions will belong to one person.

Mock's office hours will be Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday from noon to 5 p.m.

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© Superior Catholic Herald, 2006