Former South Middle School teacher tells what’s in time capsule

The time capsule buried in Victory Park on May 22, 1987 by students from South Middle School (now Owen Intermediate) was planned to be opened on Memorial Day week end in 50 years –2037.
Van Buren Township Trustee Paul White had shared a newspaper clipping about the time capsule that he had tucked away in a box and the Independent published the clipping in its Jan. 24 issue.
Richard Kiessel, 79, the teacher who put the whole event together, saw the clipping in a newspaper brought to him and his wife at their Roscommon-area home. It was brought to him by his daughter-in-law Diane Kiessel, the current athletic secretary at Belleville High School, during a visit.
Kiessel, who retired at the age of 55 after teaching industrial arts at South Middle School for 30 years, said he set up the time capsule event for 2 p.m. that day, since school would be out at 3 p.m.
He said Jim Richendollar was principal at the time and Principal Richendollar had his Clydesdales there to pull a wagon holding the school band. Belleville Police closed Sumpter Road and the whole school marched to Victory Park.
He said a state representative made a speech and they all sang the Star Spangled Banner.
The items put into the 2’x14”x14” time capsule box included: mint coins, samples of all the stamps available, sports cards (one worth $300 at the time), letters from the supervisors of Van Buren and Sumpter township describing what they thought Belleville would look like in 2037, color pictures of cars being sold by local car dealerships, letters from kids, and photographs collected by a woman who was very active in the community.
There was a flyover of the event which was recorded on VCR, Kiessel said.
David C. Brown Funeral Home donated a cement baby vault to protect the items and a special sealer sealed it all up.
It was buried just a couple of feet down, he said, noting after the kids left, the city used big machinery to dig the hole deeper to make it more secure.
It’s in the park behind Victory Station, probably under the playscape, but the exact location has been turned over to city officials for their information in the years to come.
Kiessel said the stamps, coins, and sports cards will have value when they are dug up in 2037, so he has put it in his will that the city will get 25% of the proceeds of the sale of the items, the school district will get 25%, and half will go to his family, to help pay for what he invested in the project.
His daughter-in-law Diane has all the paperwork on the project, he said.
He said he did recognize some of the names in the news story on the event. He said, at another time, one of his classes had a candy sale to earn money to construct six oak and steel seats around the lake. He said those are gone now, replaced by newer benches.