Photo by Deb Gau Dr. Kathy Dantzler-Olson presented a landscape painted by the late poet and SMSU professor Leo Dangel to SMSU professor David Pichaske.

MARSHALL — It all started with an unusual advertisement, Dr. Kathy Dantzler-Olson said.

“I was looking at the Hy-Vee Trader, and it said, ‘For Sale: Leo Dangel painting,'” she said. Dantzler-Olson recognized Dangel’s name — he was a poet, and she had read some of his books.

“I thought, ‘Well, I didn’t know he painted,” she said. Dantzler-Olson answered the ad, and bought the painting.

Now after many years, the painting has a new home at Southwest Minnesota State University, where Dangel taught literature and writing before his retirement in 1993. Last month Dantzler-Olson, who is from the Lac Qui Parle area, visited the SMSU campus to give the painting to the university. SMSU English professor David Pichaske said he plans to have the painting re-framed and displayed in the English department.

Pichaske said he hadn’t known Dangel was a painter, either. He reached out to Dangel’s sister, Rose Hauger, who confirmed that Dangel did paint landscapes.

Dangel was the author of several poetry books, including the Minnesota Book Award-nominated “Hogs and Personals” and “Home From the Field.” His experiences growing up on a farm near Freeman, S.D., inspired much of his writing.

Dangel was paralyzed as a young man after being seriously injured in a car accident in 1961. He used a wheelchair for the rest of his life, Pichaske said. Dangel went on to attend Emporia State University in Kansas, and to teach at SMSU for 25 years.

“Students liked him,” Pichaske said.

Dangel died in 2016 at the age of 75.

Dantzler-Olson said she saw the ad for a painting by Dangel more than 20 years ago. In the 1990s, she was working in Marshall, as a federal veterinarian for the USDA Food Safety Inspection Service.

Dantzler-Olson said she recognized Dangel’s name from his writing, but didn’t know he painted. The person selling the painting said Dangel had originally made it for a caregiver, Dantzler-Olson said.

Dantzler-Olson bought the painting, but never really found the right place to hang it.

“I didn’t have the heart to give it to Goodwill, because I liked (Dangel’s) poetry,” she said.

An opportunity to find the painting a home finally came up this year. Earlier this summer, Dantzler-Olson attended an event in Madison celebrating the work of Minnesota writers Robert and Carol Bly. Pichaske spoke at the event, and Dantzler-Olson had the chance to talk to him about the painting.

Pichaske said Hauger was able to confirm that the painting was likely Dangel’s.

“She said yes, he painted, and he held a paintbrush between his teeth,” Pichaske said.

Hauger, who lives in South Dakota, said painting was one of the things Dangel focused on soon after his accident.

“He thought it was something he could do,” Hauger said. She said Dangel painted a lot of landscapes and scenery. The vistas came from Dangel’s imagination more than from actual places, she said. “They’re all original.”

Dantzler-Olson decided to give the painting to SMSU. Pichaske said that once the painting was in a new frame, he wanted to hang it up in the English department, where people — especially SMSU students — could see it.

“I think it’s important to have this in a place where students could get encouragement from it, in a way,” he said.