Clouse carves out a space at the Capitol

Above: An avid golfer, Sen. Stan Clouse said he has played more than 100 Nebraska courses.

Sen. Stan Clouse has no shortage of pictures of his impressive wood carvings to display. What started out as a way to cope with the loss of his young son has turned into a lifelong hobby and creative outlet for the Kearney senator.

Clouse’s only child, Jeremiah, died at age 10 from a brain stem tumor that he’d been diagnosed with only two years before. A fellow member of the freshman senator’s church suggested wood carving as a way to occupy his hands and mind in his grief.

“It was therapy for me,” Clouse said. “It still is. The loss that I’ve experienced gives me the perspective that I need to just keep going. I’m a person of faith, so I believe that there’s a plan, even if I don’t know what it is.”

Clouse believes that plan also brought LaVon to a seat at his table at a Fellowship of Christian Athletes banquet after the death of his first wife. LaVon, whom he married in 2023, was herself a widow.

“It helps that we knew each other’s spouses before they died,” Clouse said. “It makes it easier to accept them as still part of both of our lives.”

The wood carvings that also have become such a part of his life — some done with mallets, others thin reliefs or full-size busts — often are donated as fundraising auction items to the many nonprofits and community organizations that Clouse has been involved in over the years in District 37.

In fact, Clouse said one of the biggest challenges now that he’s in Lincoln serving as a state senator is missing out on the happenings back home in Kearney, where he served on the city council and was mayor for 18 years.

Clouse grew up in the small town of Brady. He graduated in 1975 with a class of 18 — one of the biggest in the school’s history — and got a job at the Nebraska Public Power District just a year later as an ironworker helping build the Gerald Gentleman Station coal plant in Sutherland.

That affinity for small-town life never left Clouse, and getting to visit many of Nebraska’s small towns is one of the side benefits of his other passion: golf.

“My goal is to play every golf course in Nebraska,” Clouse laughed, something he may achieve now that he’s retired from a 40-year career at NPPD.

“I love playing small-town courses,” Clouse said. “I love traveling and seeing the state, stopping in coffee shops or wine shops while I’m there.”

But golf will have to wait for a bit. For now, the senator said he looks forward to bringing his many years of municipal experience to the Capitol.

“A lot of the issues I’m encountering here are things I’m familiar with, it’s just a different approach,” Clouse said. “I’m ready for the challenge.”