Lindeman, who is one of four award winners, will get his award on Thursday, Sept. 19, in Brooklyn Park. The awards that the four doctors will receive are for nonmedical service to the community.
Lindeman has served Paynesville for many years as a physician, and continues to serve and help the community through other projects. Although he has been involved with many projects and organizations through the years, Lindeman has been a Lions Club member for the past 47 years.
The Lions is Lindeman's favorite service organization. The club doesn't spend the money it earns on club members. All the money is donated to the cause it was raised for.
"I'm kind of proud of that," Lindeman said.
He joined the Lions the first year he lived in Paynesville. Lindeman is from South Dakota. He graduated from Parkston High School, and went to college at the University of South Dakota, the University of Tennessee and Stratford University.
He interned at what is now Ramsey Medical Center in St. Paul. He came to Paynesville in 1949 and stayed here.
The "size of the town," and the predominance of Germans in Paynesville reminded Lindeman of Parkston.
"I was very comfortable" with Paynesville, Lindeman said. "I would do it all over again the same way."
Lindeman's patients were also his friends. This was only possible in a small town like Paynesville, he said. Doctors in the Twin Cities don't and can't have the same relationship with their patients, he said.
"That's when you realize, hey, you've got to give something back to a community that's that good to you," he said. "It's fun and easy to give something back."
Lindeman's years of service to the community as a physician and as a layman came to a "climax" two summers ago when he retired. After church, he got thousands of hugs and thank yous. The thank yous went both ways, he said. The first baby he delivered and the last baby he delivered were both there.
"My cheeks and shoulders were wet," he said. There was a "tremendous feeling of support and love · where you just wanted to collapse on the spot from all that beautiful feeling."
Lindeman doesn't consider himself really retired. Every time he walks around downtown Paynesville, he sees old patients who will "bend his ear" and ask for advice.
One time, Lindeman and his wife, Connie, were in Minneapolis. A young man approached Lindeman on the street. He said,
"You don't remember me, do you?" Lindeman replied that he didn't, and the young man said,
"You delivered me 22 years ago!"
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