Gillett Recreation Center, 1990s.

The Gillett Wellness Center first opened its doors in Dec. 1989 and offered a broad range of services and programming to meet the recreational needs of the campus community. Today, the Gillett Wellness Center is open for informal or open recreation seven days a week during the academic school year and through its varied activities, campus fitness and recreation as an integral part of university life.

The building was dedicated to the late President Dr. Lowell Reno “Ted” Gillett on May 5, 1995. Gillett was born on February 23, 1925 in Minneapolis, Minn. He attended and graduated from Gustavus Adolphus College in 1947 and began his career as a teacher and coach at Amboy Public Schools. Later he taught at Sherburn Public Schools for two years before becoming a teacher and assistant principal at Austin Public Schools in 1951, where he taught for 11 years.

In 1962, Gillett decided he wanted to further his education at the University of North Dakota after which he served at St. Cloud University in several different fields, from professor of educational psychology to serving to vice president for academic affairs and the university’s interim president.

On August 1, 1982 Ted Gillett became Bemidji State’s sixth president. His time as president was highlighted by student-centered construction and renovation projects. One of his constructions was the building of what is now the Gillett Recreation and Fitness Center, which is named in his honor, and considered by some as: “perhaps the single most significant physical improvement in making the campus more attractive to students.” Gillett was also successful in renovating Pine Hall into apartments for students who were single parents in 1990. Today, Pine Hall houses university freshmen and Cedar Hall offers apartment housing for students who are single parents. The Alumni Arch outside of Deputy Hall was also established during Gillett’s presidency and, serving as the unofficial gateway to campus, has become the university’s most distinguished landmark. Dr. Ted Gillett was considered a very public man, he attended all campus events and many that happened in the Bemidji community. Gillett retired as president in 1990 and passed away 21 years later on October 9, 2011 at age 86.