Happel served as athletics communications director at Central College from 1979-2024 before retiring. He served an additional year on a part-time basis as athletics senior editor and now is in that role on a voluntary basis. A 1981 Central graduate, he’s handled multiple additional roles, including twice serving as the college’s communications director for a combined 15 years. Happel handled full-time duties for 45 years, surpassing Iowa State University Hall of Famer Harry Burrell as the longest-serving college or university sports information director in state history.
A Waverly, Iowa native, he was inducted into the College Sports Communicators (formerly CoSIDA) Hall of Fame in 2010 and received the Warren Berg Award for outstanding achievement in the college division sports information field in 2006. He received the CSC Lifetime Achievement Award in 2025. He has received 22 CSC national publications awards and 18 CSC writing awards as well as four writing awards from the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE). Happel has twice received the National Story of the Year Award in the CSC Fred Stabley Sr. Writing Contest . In 2017, his feature on former homeless youth Jaime Miranda, a Central wrestler, was cited.and in 2025 his feature on Central baseball outfielder Colton DeRocher, who set the school's career home runs record with only one fully formed hand, was chosen.  Happel also received the Division III Sports Information Directors of America Recognition Award for that story, which was featured on the NCAA website.Â
He served a three-year term on the CSC board of directors and also spent six years on the D3SIDA board, including a two-year term as president. He was the first to serve as the organization’s vice president. He spent three years on CSC's College Division Management Advisory Committee, served on the organization’s Writing Contest Committee, Allied Organizations Committee and Membership Services Committee, and has been a member of the CSC Special Awards Committee since 1999. He was on the Hewlett-Packard Division III Football All-America Team Selection Committee from 1991-2000, the Host Communications-NCAA Championships Program Advisory Committee from 2005-09 and has served on the D3hoops.com Women’s Basketball Ranking Committee since 2006.
Following the expansion of P.H. Kuyper Gymnasium, Central’s national champions trophy case was named in his honor in 2019. He received the college’s Presidential Service Standard Award for Energy in 2009.
While on a sabbatical from Central in 2003-04, Happel spent more than 10 months as a visiting assistant in the men's athletics media relations office at the University of Tennessee. He’s also served on the media relations staff for multiple NCAA Division I and Division III Championships events as well as for Southeastern Conference and Missouri Valley Conference championships.
Happel served on the board for the Pella CROP Walk for world hunger for 15 years and spent five years as board chair. He also was a three-year board member for Habitat for Humanity of Marion County and was the adviser for Habitat’s campus chapter at Central for 14 years. Since 1981, he’s been a member of Pella’s Second Reformed Church, where he served two three-year terms as Deacon and another as Elder, including a year as the congregation’s First Vice President of the Consistory.
