Issuu luther magazine spring 2014 by Luther College

SPRING 2014

the food issue + Meet Paula J. Carlson, president elect

Editor Ellen Modersohn Luther Magazine Volume 47, Number 3, Spring 2014

Managing Editor Kate Frentzel

Published by Luther College for alumni, parents, and friends

Designer Michael Bartels Contributors Sherry (Braun) Alcock ’82

Sue (Franzen) Drilling ’78 Alexandra Fitschen ’15 Sara Friedl-Putnam Emily Gehlsen ’16 Kirk Johnson ’82 Paige Lobdell ’16 Aaron Lurth ’08 Karen Martin-Schramm Judy Riha Julie Satre Shockey ’01 Ann Sponberg Peterson

Luther Alumni Magazine welcomes articles and signed letters to the editor; submissions may be edited for style, clarity, or length. Inquiries and submissions may be sent to the Editor, Luther Alumni Magazine, Luther College, 700 College Drive, Decorah, Iowa 52101-1045; magazine@luther.edu; phone (563) 387-1350. Class Notes submissions and changes of address may be sent to the Alumni Office at the address above. Alumni news may be emailed to the Alumni Office at alumni@ luther.edu. Questions and concerns about the magazine may be emailed to magazine@luther.edu.

Contents Features Introducing president-elect Paula Carlson

Exciting flavors, thrills, and cultures

Homegrown desire spurs local foods

Rick Mast ’99 says, “Make it delicious”

Luther’s 10th president is a woman who has been familiar with the college for most of her life. Having led a curriculum transformation at the University of Dubuque and helped students think more deeply about vocation at St. Olaf, she takes office at Luther July 1.

Students share photos from their study-away experiences.

In only five years, Luther has reached its goal to source more than a third of campus food from local growers. The college’s own sustainable foods efforts and dining services internships are in demand as fertile learning grounds for students.

The Mast brothers are in the vanguard of the craft food movement, creating chocolate by hand from organically grown cacao. They’re so mindful of the environment, they bring the beans up from the Caribbean on a three-masted schooner fueled by the wind.

Departments Campus

Development News............................................ 10 Athletics.............................................................. 13

Alumni

Class Notes.........................................................34 Marriages............................................................62 Births/Adoptions................................................63 In Memoriam.......................................................64

AARON ZAUNER ’14

President’s Council

Alumni Office (800) 225-8664; (800) 2 ALUMNI Admissions Office (800) 458-8437; (800) 4 LUTHER Web www.luther.edu www.luthermagazine.com Copyright Luther College 2014

Calendar

67 inside back

Cover: Aaron Lurth ’08 scanned this rhubarb from the Luther gardens on a flatbed scanner. Left: After a year-long commitment from more than 500 people, the first Luther College Dance Marathon raised a total of $38,612.01 to send to the University of Iowa Children’s Hospital. Dance Marathon is a nationwide movement involving college and high school students at more than 150 schools across the country. Luther’s marathon took place in the Luther Main Gym on April 12 from noon to midnight. The public campus fundraising goal was $15,000, but the executive board wanted to raise at least one cent more than the 2013 Wartburg College Dance Marathon goal of $32,000. Watch a video about the marathon in the Web Extras at luthermagazine.com.

Campus News EDITOR’S NOTE

The Luther foodies: Passion, science, business sense, and a whopping dollop of creativity I can smell chocolate as I write this. Sitting next to my computer monitor are five Mast Brothers Chocolate bars—in smoky, earthy, fruity flavors. I ordered them for the magazine so we could photograph them for the Mast Brother profile on page 26, and when we opened one of the bright wrappers the dusky, bittersweet scent came bursting out. The magazine staff (and friends) will have a tasting party after we’re sure we don’t need any more photos of the bars, but the waiting is hard. When we first heard about Rick Mast ’99 and his brother, Michael, we thought their story of creating an eco-friendly craft chocolate business was one we

had to tell. It overlaps with interests of so many Luther students and alumni: creating through green practices, exploring vocation, forging new paths. Plus, who doesn’t like chocolate? Come to think of it, we asked, who doesn’t like food—let’s do a whole food issue to go with our sweet Mast story. Queries in the Luther News e-newsletter and this magazine brought us the names of dozens of alumni who work with food in one way or another, and we’ve included nearly all of them in this issue. Because these alumni have such varied jobs in the industry, you could rightly call this the Career Issue as well.

Luther grads are chefs, they are scientists working to protect our food supply, they are executives for major food retailers and manufacturers, they write about food, and they make the beverages we sip when we finally relax. The Alumni section, starting on page 31, is full of these career stories, in miniprofiles and throughout the Class Notes, where they are marked with an F . Another part of Luther’s food story starts on campus, with the efforts of students and staff to ensure a steady supply of fresh, local foodsfor the college and local community (see page 23). This issue’s feast of stories

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also includes an introduction to Luther’s 10th president—Paula J. Carlson—who was elected by the Board of Regents in February. Read about her life so far on page 15 and, if you can, plan to attend her inauguration on Oct. 10, Homecoming Weekend. The inauguration theme, coincidentally, will draw on the feast described at the beginning of Isaiah 55, an image of a community gathered to taste and share a rich abundance of knowledge and wisdom. (Okay, I just sneaked a corner of that chocolate. Delicious.) —Ellen Modersohn, editor

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Campus News

Student rediscovers ancient Egyptian papyri in Archives THE LUTHER COLLEGE ARCHIVES are home to ma-

terials that reach far and wide, but few expected the archives to house nine 2,000-year-old papyri documents. Yet those are exactly what surfaced this January, when Luther sophomore Brittany Anderson was inventorying the papers of the late Orlando W. Qualley, longtime professor of classics (beginning in 1918), the first vice president of the college (1934), and the first dean of the college (1946–64). Qualley’s letters and journals were donated to the college in the 1980s, and the papyri—one of which is suspected to be an especially rare early Christian libellus—date from the first to the fifth centuries A.D. Qualley came into possession of the papyri during his time as part of a University of Michigan archaeological excavation at Karanis, south of Cairo, 1924–25. The nine papyri, written in ancient Greek, measure from five to 20 cm in length and are in remarkably good shape, though all are fragmentary and quite fragile. Papyrus was the primary writing medium of the ancient world and was made from the interwoven fibers of the papyrus plant, which grows along the banks of the Nile River. The discovery of the documents was actually more of a rediscovery: Luther students were continuing the work of a National Historical Publications and Records Commission grant

aimed at making the Luther Archives collections more accessible to the public by taking more detailed inventories and making those inventories come up on Google searches. It was during this work that the papyri, which had been carefully housed in a standard archival box in a secured, climate-controlled storage space, resurfaced. Upon finding the documents, Anderson contacted the Luther Classics Department faculty, who examined the papyri and in turn contacted the Papyrus Collection staff at the University of Michigan, one of the leading centers of papyrus study in the world, for help in identifying and analyzing the discoveries. Several are accounting documents, but papyrologist Graham Claytor believes that one is a libellus dating from the first great Roman persecution of Christians beginning under Emperor Decius in the year 250. Decius issued a decree that year ordering all inhabitants of the empire to offer a sacrifice to the gods as a show of loyalty. A libellus was a document given to a Roman citizen to confirm the performance of such a sacrifice. Christians were forbidden by their beliefs from performing these sacrifices and were thus subject to arrest, torture, and execution for refusing to obey the emperor’s decree. Pope Fabian was among those who refused to sacrifice and was subsequently killed by the Roman authorities,

explains Philip Freeman, Qualley Chair of Ancient Languages at Luther. The Luther College libellus bears the name of Aurelius Ammon, a servant of the wellattested Aurelius Appianus, a leading citizen of Alexandria, Egypt. It declares that Aurelius Ammon has sacrificed “in accordance with the orders” of the emperor. Early examination of the papyrus suggests it was probably part of an ancient collection from the village of Theadelphia in Egypt’s Fayum region. Only a few of these rare documents have been uncovered, and they are currently housed in research libraries in Hamburg, Berlin, Manchester, Florence, and the University of Michigan. Now Luther College joins the list. Luther plans to work to preserve all the Qualley papyri and make them available online in digital format to scholars and people around the world. Sasha Griffin, interim archivist at Luther, is collecting proposals for ideas on how to best preserve, insure, and make the materials available going forward. Freeman notes that Luther is incredibly fortunate to have the documents in its possession. “As soon as they are properly preserved,” he says, “we hope to display all the papyri in our library for everyone to see. They are a great opportunity for our students to examine a genuine piece of the ancient world.”

Spring 2014 Luther Alumni Magazine

Campus News

Sen. Harkin to give Commencement speech May 25

House in 1974, he represented Iowa’s Fifth Congressional District for 10 years. In 1984, Harkin challenged an incumbent

Harkin, 73, who has announced that he will not seek reelection this year, chairs the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee and the Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies. He has been a member of the Agriculture Committee since his first term in Congress.

ZACHARY STOTTLER ’15

Sen. Tom Harkin will give the Commencement address and receive an honorary degree from Luther on Sunday, May 25, when the class of 2014 graduates. Harkin has represented Iowa in Congress for nearly 40 years. First winning election to the U.S.

senator and won. Iowans returned him to the Senate in 1990, 1996, 2002, and 2008. His signature legislative achievement, the Americans with Disabilities Act, changed the landscape of America by requiring buildings and transportation to be wheelchair accessible. It also legislated changes to provide workplace accommodations for people with disabilities.

Simulation mannequins help bridge the gap in clinical experiences for nurses training at Luther.

New mannequins funded by Carver grant will simulate patients to help train nursing students A $170,000 grant from the Roy J. Carver Charitable Trust this spring will fund the purchase of high-fidelity simulation mannequins to help Luther train future nurses. The equipment, which includes audio-visual components, will be useful in several other academic departments as well. “We are extremely pleased to move forward on our commitment to an educational en-

Luther Alumni Magazine

vironment intent on producing empathetic nurses with practice embedded in safety and quality. Our commitment to simulation is in direct response to the Institute of Medicine’s recommendations for the future of nursing education,” said Jessica Raabe, Luther’s nursing lab and simulation director. “We are thankful to the Roy J. Carver Charitable Trust for recognizing our need and supporting

the future of nursing education at Luther College.” Simulation experiences are bridging the gap left by lack of adequate clinical experiences, and having high-fidelity equipment allows students to gain that technical experience. “Simulation in health care is cutting-edge technology to help prepare clinicians for increasingly complex patient care in the 21st

century. Imagine being able to provide nursing care to a critically ill patient in the Luther College simulation lab without fear of patient injury or harm. Nursing students will have the ability to assess, intervene, and evaluate the actions of their nursing care as if their patient was in a real health care setting,” said Jayme Nelson ’87, Luther associate professor of nursing.

Campus News

Pulitzer Prize finalist Nicholas Carr spoke twice on campus at the opening of spring semester, asking his audiences to consider how computer technology may be affecting the way they think. Carr spoke at the Feb. 6 Convocation and delivered the Farwell Distinguished Lecture, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?,” that same evening. In addition to the two lectures, Carr met in smaller groups with students, faculty, and staff. In those discussions across campus the Luther community debated questions raised in Carr’s talks: What are the consequences of being almost constantly digitally connected—of allowing cell

Carr also writes about technology, culture, and economics on his popular blog, Rough Type. His essay “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” has been the topic of Internet debates and has been collected in varied anthologies, including The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2009, The Best Spiritual Writing 2010, and The Best Technology Writing 2009. Carr’s two-day visit was funded by the Farwell Distinguished Lecture Endowment and presented by the Campus Programming office in partnership with Luther’s Center for Ethics and Public Life.

phones and email to access our attention at will, of spending hours surfing the links, podcasts, videos, and blogs of the Internet rather than deeply concentrating on one line of thought at a time? How can we keep or gain control of our own thoughts under this bombardment, this constant availability of information? Is it possible to learn to use the Internet to gather information yet be able to turn away when it’s time to think deeply about what we have gathered there? His most recent book, The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains, was a 2011 Pulitzer Prize finalist and a New York Times bestseller.

AARON ZAUNER ’14

Nicholas Carr gets campus pondering: Is Google making us stupid?

Nicholas Carr, author of the Pulitzer Prize finalist The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains, speaks at Luther in February.

Black History Symposium focuses on sports, the media, and race searchers, as well as the personal stories of black athletes, raised some other key questions that the conference examined: Is there a race code in sport that reinforces simplistic explanations for black athletic ability? Is the stereotype of natural ability for black athletics exploited by sport media, and if so, how? Does the media portray athletic and intellectual excellence as mutually exclusive? The symposium challenged and

AARON ZAUNER ’14

Luther’s 11th annual Black History Symposium—Sports, Media, and Race—was held Feb. 19–20. It considered how sport and media challenge and reinforce racial assumptions, for example by exploring the popular perception that genetics and cultural background predict the advantages and disadvantages that athletes have in particular sports. Cultural theorists, investigative journalists, and sport re-

David Epstein, senior investigative reporter for Sports Illustrated, kicked off the Black History Symposium with his plenary lecture.

encouraged participants to think beyond the global appetite for sport celebrities and reevaluate common beliefs about the athletic abilities of African-descended people. The symposium began with a plenary lecture by David Epstein, senior investigative reporter for Sports Illustrated magazine and author of The Sports Gene: Inside the Science of Extraordinary Athletic Performance. Other speakers included Douglas Hartmann, professor of sociology at the University of Minnesota; Benny Boyd, assistant football coach at Aurora University and former Luther College assistant football coach; Emerald-Jane Hunter ’03, Emmywinning producer of Windy City LIVE; and Thomas Johnson, Luther assistant professor of communication studies. The symposium honored Wilma Rudolph, who lost the use of her left leg due to polio at age six, but recovered the use of her leg at age 12 and went on to become a world-class sprinter, winning three gold medals at the 1960 Rome Olympics.

Benny Boyd

Emerald-Jane Hunter ’03

Thomas Johnson

Spring 2014 Luther Alumni Magazine

Campus News

PHOTOS BY AARON ZAUNER ’14

Concert brings in money to help Haiti

Walnes Cangas, of the St. Joseph’s Home for Boys in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, speaks at the benefit concert.

The benefit concert Lespwa fè nou viv, or Hope Makes Us Live, was held Jan. 11, 2014, to celebrate the legacy of Luther alumnus Ben Splichal Larson ’06—one of the many casualties of the 2010 earthquake in Haiti—and the faith, spirit. and hope of the people of Haiti. The concert featured music by Peter Mayer of the Peter Mayer Group and Hans Peterson of Dakota Road Music. It also included offerings on Haitian culture, drumming, dance, and art by Bill Nathan and Walnes Cangas from St. Joseph’s Home for Boys in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

Ticket sales and a freewill offering brought in $4,118.75 to benefit ministries and partnerships in Haiti, including St. Joseph’s Home for Boys, the Community Health Initiative in Haiti, and the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Haiti. Kent Annan, author of After Shock and Following Jesus through the Eye of the Needle, spoke in chapel on Jan. 10, and Nathan and Cangas shared Haitian music and culture in chapel that day as well.

Peter Mayer performs during the Hope Makes Us Live concert in January.

Winter chapel series offers invitations to openness; videos of talks available online The sabbatical project that Amy Zalk Larson ’96 did in 2013— From Busyness to Openness: Holy Invitations for Hurried People*—was extended to the Luther campus this past semester. Small groups in Tuesday and Thursday chapels during January Term first explored what Larson identified as seven holy invitations to become aware of God’s presence

in the midst of busy lives: yearn, pause, empty, attend, stretch, yield, and welcome. Participants in those chapel gatherings were encouraged to quiet their minds to become more open to God through meditation, stretching, and sharing of their thoughts. In February the theme continued for the larger chapel gatherings. Individuals among Luther

Media studio/lab opens in Preus Library Luther’s Digital Media Center, which opened in January on the lower level of Preus Library, provides space and equipment for creating video, audio, and photography projects. The space can also be used as an interactive classroom or meeting site, using such remote technologies as Skype, Google Hangouts, and GoToMeeting. Student workers at Luther’s support desk provide expertise to those working in the space. “As technology changes with time and new and additional usage patterns emerge, we expect to enhance and expand the center’s capabilities with subsequent investment stages,” says Paul Mattson, Luther executive director of Library and Information Services.

Luther Alumni Magazine

faculty and staff spoke on each of the seven themes: Larson gave an introduction on Feb. 5, Sean Burke spoke on yearn on Feb. 7, Doug Knick spoke on empty on Feb. 12., Linda Martin spoke on pause/breathe on Feb. 17, Blake Nellis spoke on stretch on Feb. 19, Mike Blair spoke on yield on Feb. 21, Amy Weldon spoke on attend on Feb. 24, and Sandhya

Purohit-Caton spoke on welcome on Feb. 26. If you’re feeling overbusy yourself and could benefit from these invitations to openness, listen to the archived talks at http://lczine.com/chapeltalks. *See Luther Alumni Magazine Winter 2014 at luthermagazine. com.

Campus News

A tale of Iowa land and food is sprouting into a play, which after two years’ cultivation will debut at Luther in spring 2015. Titled All Recipes Are Home, the play will use theatre, live bluegrass music, and dance to express Iowa’s food and farm heritage. When Tanya Gertz, who directs Luther’s campus programming and Center Stage Series (CSS), heard that the University of Iowa was looking for partners for the show, she thought it was the perfect match for Center Stage. “I am intentionally looking for ways to connect Center Stage with initiatives at Luther,” she says. “There are a lot of really fascinating stories about food in this place.” The resulting production will be a collaboration among Luther’s CSS, the University of Iowa’s Hancher Auditorium, and Grinnell College. Sean Lewis, artistic director of the Iowa City– based Working Group Theatre, is writing the script. Working Group will perform the show. To prepare, Lewis has been talking with farmers and others across Iowa involved with food.

Maren Stumme-Diers ’08, Luther’s sustainable foods educator, helped Lewis make connections in the Decorah area. Lewis visited small and large farms, newly established gardens, and a centuryold homestead. He toured Seed Savers Exchange, learning how seeds are propagated to preserve plant varieties, and got insight at the Vesterheim NorwegianAmerican Museum into the food heritage of the area’s Norwegian immigrants. But the playwright wanted not only to hear northeast Iowa’s farm and food stories, he wanted to glean experiences too, Gertz says. So he helped clean onions at Decorah’s Sweet Earth Farm; he worked the serving line at the Decorah Middle School cafeteria, gauging students’ reaction to locally grown—purple!—potatoes; and he moved sheep at organic Beard Farm, north of Decorah. Along the way, Gertz says, Lewis met with a wide variety of people at Luther. He worked with students in the college gardens and met with people involved in the Northeast Iowa Food & Fitness initiative and in Luther’s

sustainability programs. He also visited with students in the theatre program, who were at the time writing their own play. Talking with Luther’s food service staff and with employees of the Oneota Community Cooperative in town gave him perspective on the professional and business aspects of northeast Iowa’s food industry. With input from these diverse voices, Gertz says, the play began to come into focus for Lewis. The script will likely “look at the way that food and family and our experiences are connected across time,” Gertz says. “It’s a theatrical play that will use live music and dance to help show change of context and passing of time.” The show will be performed first at Luther, on Saturday, April 11, 2015. Lewis will also be in residence on campus that week. Read more about Sean Lewis and Working Group Theatre at workinggrouptheatre.org. —Ellen Modersohn

AARON ZAUNER ’14

Iowa stories of land and food are focus of spring 2015 play

Philip Glass wraps up 2013–14 Center Stage Series World-renowned composer and pianist Philip Glass performed a program of his recent etudes for piano and classics from his repertoire as part of Luther’s Center Stage Series in April. He also met with student composers and others (above).

Luther student volunteers and dining service staff teamed up in fall 2013 to start a program that helps get good food to those who need it by delivering packaged food to the First Lutheran Church Food Pantry. Bekah Schulz ’14, Maren Stumme-Diers ’08, and Wayne Tudor, dining services general manager, worked out the logistics for the program with collaboration from Dave Carlson at the food pantry. Schulz, Parker Beard ’17, and Allison Bansen ’16 have been coordinating volunteers and managing the packing nights. Through Luther’s new Cafeteria to Community program, student volunteers work with dining services staff to package

food into containers that are labeled and then delivered to the food pantry twice weekly. Food donations vary by week but include such items as soup, main entrees, homemade pasta sauce, vegetables, and salads from Luther’s cafeteria. Because Luther is committed to buying food from local farmers, the donations often contain local ingredients. Kitchen staff monitor the temperatures and dates of the donated food. This spring, the program received a $4,880 grant from the Winneshiek County Community Foundation. The funds will be used to transition the program to the use of reusable versus disposable containers.

LUTHER COLLEGE PHOTO BUREAU

New program moves extra food from campus to community

Bekah Schulz ’14 and Maren Stumme-Diers ’08, sustainable foods educator, load packaged food, such as leftover soup, for delivery to the food pantry at First Lutheran Church in Decorah. Spring 2014 Luther Alumni Magazine

Campus News

Newly tenured faculty explain why they teach Six members of Luther’s faculty were granted tenure this year. Here, they write about what’s at the heart of their teaching. JOAN DE ALBUQUERQUE

Director of bands and associate professor of music “My philosophy of teaching is that the process is more important than the product. Since I am in the field of performance, I recognize the importance of putting out an outstanding product, but I still believe the process to the performance is the key to great learning. I am constantly refining my teaching skills to fit the students of today, which seem to change quite a bit from each generation. “I cannot imagine doing anything with my career other than teaching. I am often asked if I would like to conduct a professional band. While that would be intriguing for a moment, I know that I would miss teaching. I love being able to take notes written on a page and bring them to life through music-making with my students. “Making music forms an emotional and spiritual bond

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between my students and me. As I often tell them, when I wave my baton no sound is made. The sound is made from all of us working together to create the music. I appreciate the commitment that Luther College has for music and I love working at Luther because it provides an exceptional environment of dedication to faith and learning.”

interesting activity is an end-ofsemester auction. Supported by my friends, I am able to provide postcards, bookmarks, and other Chinese handicrafts for a 30-minute auction in Chinese. When bidding keeps going up, from 1 fen to 10 yuan, the enthusiasm in the classroom is palpable to every participant.” LAURA PETERSON

HONGMEI YU

Assistant professor of Chinese “Chinese language teaching is the most important part of my work. I try to make a communicationbased classroom where students’ self-generated need will lead them to communicate in the target language, and my role as an instructor is to provide them structured opportunities to talk. For example, at the beginning of Chinese 101, students ask each other for their 10-digit phone numbers, which helps them quickly pick up the numerals in Chinese. In Chinese 102, one

Assistant professor of environmental studies/chemistry “What I like most about teaching is the ability I have as a teacher to empower students through knowledge. In my field of earth science, this knowledge may be related to how to read the geologic history of a landscape, how to understand the environmental consequences of our behaviors, or even how to evaluate world events covered in the news media, but most broadly, I seek to give students the confidence to be able to arrive at their own conclusions and interpretations,

simply by trusting their knowledge and knowing how to apply it in new situations.” REBECCA SULLIVAN ’84

Assistant professor in library and information studies “As a teacher of writing and critical thinking, my goal has been to help students achieve efficacy. Toward that end, I feel that I best serve students by guiding them to realize their potential for analysis and effective communication. When I witness first-year students’ growing confidence in their skills, I see the power of education. “At its best, class discussion prompts genuine inquiry; I like to model for students my discovery of how course topics intersect with real life—whether we’re talking about Plato’s search for wisdom or class and gender in India! In truth, it’s my privilege to wonder about the world with first-year students. It’s exhilarating to hear what young adults

Campus News

Seminars give students skills they need beyond Luther In January 2014, the Luther College Career Center launched the program Beyond the Bubble, a series of seminars designed to equip students personally and professionally for life after college. In the professional development seminars, students gain skills sought by employers and graduate schools, such as problem-solving, initiative, effective communication, and analyzing information. Some of the professional seminar topics include: Good to Great Employees: The Critical First Year on the Job; Communicating: The Key to Success at Work (and Everywhere Else); and How to Plan and Promote an Event. In one of the first seminars

care about and what they aspire to. As it turns out, teaching is the thing I can’t not do.” XIAO HU

Assistant professor of music “Music is a wonderful branch of arts that has been an integral part of human history. Piano is a marvelous instrument that is capable of producing melody, harmony, and conveying many shades of expressions. My aim in teaching is to introduce students to the rich world of piano music by studying master works by Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Debussy, and so many other great composers. It is my hope that my students not only learn to acquire technical mastery of the instrument, but also bond with music, which in turn will enrich their lives. To quote a Paris orchestral association’s slogan: one can live without music, but not as well!”

ANDREW WHITFIELD

Associate professor of music “I believe that teaching is one way to promote the best in others, and I view this undertaking as a significant part of my vocation. Working with students to help them meet their goals, challenging them intellectually, encouraging them to stretch their vision of themselves and the world around them: these are tasks that bring me inspiration and energy. In addition to being a teacher, I am also a musician and an artist. My life has been profoundly shaped by the study, performance, and love of music, and to share this passion with others constitutes another important piece of my vocation. It is the combination of these two loves, though, that brings me the greatest challenge and fulfillment, and this is precisely how I would describe my role and my work at Luther College.”

teaching personal skills, Beyond Spaghetti and Cereal, Johanna Bergan ’09 offered tips on planning a variety of healthy, tasty meals and managing grocery bills. Bergan is the education and outreach coordinator for Decorah’s Oneota Community Co-op. Some other personal skills seminar topics are: Your Money, Your Life; Help! I’m Being Interviewed at a Five-star Restaurant; and Back from Abroad: Marketing Your Study Abroad Experience. The professional-skills seminars are open to all students, and Luther offered to pay students through their work-study assignments to attend up to two of the seminars during January Term or spring semester.

Jeide, Suos named Peace Scholars Anna Jeide ’16 and Imsouchivy “G. V.” Suos ’15 have been selected as Peace Scholars for the 2014–15 academic year. They will spend seven weeks this summer studying peace and conflict resolution in Lillehammer and Oslo, Norway.

and St. Olaf College are selected as Peace Scholars.

“G. V.” Sous ’15

Anna Jeide ’16

The program is designed to deepen students’ understanding of the central issues and theories regarding conflict, war, and peace. Through an application and interview process, students from Augsburg, Augustana (Sioux Falls), Concordia (Moorhead), Luther, Pacific Lutheran,

Jeide, an English and Spanish major, applied for the program in search of an opportunity to shape her future goals in the work of reconciliation and to develop a better understanding between diverse groups of people. Suos, a business management and economics major, said he also was drawn to the idea of understanding peace and conflict resolutions, especially in human rights issues and international development.

Spring 2014 Luther Alumni Magazine

Campus News

Students in the Launching Luther Leaders program discuss postgraduation life with recent alumni.

Alumni share tips on life after Luther with leadership group Three alumni drove back to Decorah one weekend in early April to share their wisdom about life after Luther with students participating in the Launching Luther Leaders program. Christina Gaard ’07, Adam Bohach ’06, and Matt Richardson ’04 gathered on a Sunday evening at Baker Commons to talk with students, mostly seniors, about navigating life after Luther. The Launching Luther Leaders (L3) program provides opportunities for students to learn about leadership theories and practices, to apply and develop leadership skills, and to reflect on the significance of leadership and service experiences across campus. Three components make up the program: a leadership skill series on topics such as team building, conflict management, philanthropy, using their own strengths, and the power of networking; a certificate program in which students document learning in four leadership areas; and a student leadership and service awards program. On this evening, Gaard, a pharmacist; Bohach, a former Peace Corps teacher and now professional tri-athlete; and Richardson, a group manager at Target, discussed the paths they took in their own careers and fielded wide-ranging questions from the

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students. Here is a sampling of their conversation: • Asked about whether the three would advise taking some time off after college, all said that taking a break between college and further education or a regular job could be a good idea. “Experiences during that time off may change your life, and you may no longer want to take the path you had originally planned,” Gaard said. Bohach said he was able to apply the practical experience and knowledge he gained in the Peace Corps to the graduate studies and teaching he did later. • On the question of how to get to know people on a new job or in a new town, Richardson acknowledged that it may be tempting to fall back on old ties but, he said, “Don’t hold on to Luther so hard that you don’t integrate where you are.” • On how to build a business network in a new community, Bohach recommended joining the chamber of commerce, creating a concept map, and talking to people in person to build trust. Richardson advised taking a “board of directors” approach by determining what is needed to further one’s job and then looking for the people in the community who can help with each point. • Making mistakes—and learning from them—is part of the process, all agreed. Bohach said, “It’s okay if your plan isn’t seamless.” He advised students to always ask themselves, “Is what I’m chasing what I really want?”

DEVELOPMENT

Twin Cities Young Alumni Scholarship crests $100,000 Five years ago, when the Get Down, Give Back scholarship benefit event cofounders, Jim Kowitz ’03 and Sue (Gilbertson) Boxrud ’03, came up with the idea to raise funds for the Twin Cities Young Alumni (TCYA) Scholarship, they had no idea how successful the initiative would be. To their delight, the value of the TCYA Scholarship fund has grown since 2008 to more than $100,000. “It is amazing to see how the Get Down, Give Back event has impacted the Luther students who receive the scholarship and Luther alumni who help plan and

attend the event,” Kowitz says. Last fall’s Get Down, Give Back scholarship benefit event was held Nov. 22, 2013, at A’BULAE in St. Paul, Minn. In this transformative space, Luther alumni, parents, and friends of all ages gathered for a night of dancing and mingling, and to participate in auctions to benefit the TCYA Scholarship Fund. Proceeds from the silent and live auctions, raffle, and Great Gatherings registrations—along with the endowment’s earnings, gifts, and pledges—have increased the total scholarship dollars raised to $100,944. “The education and life experience I am receiving is priceless,” says this year’s TCYA Scholarship recipient, Michelle Strafelda ’14. “Thank you [to the scholarship donors] for the opportunity to learn about psychology, political

Angie (Leonard) Krug ’99 celebrates her winning bid during the live auction.

Campus News

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Luther College

2014

Annual Fund Your Gift. Every Year. Put to work right away, where it is needed most. givenow.luther.edu

science, philosophy, Spanish, and new religions, and for helping me meet my best friends. What you have done for me means so much.”

Kowitz adds: “Gifts of any size to the scholarship show the commitment of this community and their response when being invited to share the Luther experience.”

Gifts can be made at givenow. luther.edu; fill in the designation with “TCYA Scholarship.” —Bethany (Bierman) Krepela ’95, gift planning officer

Special thanks to the 2013 Get Down, Give Back sponsors and underwriters, including: Platinum ($1,000) Air Motion Systems Bleed Blue—Men’s Tennis Alumni Sears Imported Autos Gold ($500) Michelle Monson ’06, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans Angela Sadat ’02, Keller Williams Realty

Andy Ferron ’07, Dana ’07 and Elizabeth Roberts, Ross ’08 and Katie (Lovell) Stedman ’07, and Sonja Timian ’07 pause for a photo.

TCYA Scholarship recipients: 2011–12, Kristina Dudley ’12, St. Paul Park, Minn. 2012–13, Ben Nordquist ’15, Minneapolis, Minn. 2013–14, Michelle Strafelda ’14, St. Paul, Minn.

Spring 2014 Luther Alumni Magazine

Campus News

DONOR SPOTLIGHT

Luther students, faculty, and staff are enlivened and transformed by encounters with one another and by the exchange of ideas. Scott ’89 and Laura (Anderson) Stevens ’92 experienced these intersections and encounters just as much 25 years ago as students do today. “We feel a sense of belonging. When we return to Decorah and the campus, we feel we belong here; there is a deep appreciation for all that we received and experienced during our time at Luther.” Laura recalls that when she first arrived on campus she knew no one. “I had to find all new friends—but on the plus side, this allowed me to change and become the person I wanted to be without worrying about who everyone already thought I was.” A primary force in this transformation was women’s tennis coach Su Oertel ’72. She “taught me to work hard, to commit myself to excellence, and to be a good team player,” Laura says. Scott and Laura treasure the one-on-one encounters with faculty, coaches, and staff that made lasting impressions on their lives, remembering, in particular, Russ Rulon ’58, Phil Reitan, John Tjostem, Randall Robinson, David T. Nelson ’49, Ron Fox, Fred Nyline, Rich Leake, Mark Muggli, John Bale, and Jerry Johnson. Scott writes, “So you are spending time with these individuals on a regular basis, and you learn from them and about them. How they handle success. How they handle failure. What they do to prepare for challenging or stressful situations. How they relate with and respond to other people around them. You end up absorbing all of this in-

Luther Alumni Magazine

ANN SPONBERG PETERSON

Stevenses pay it forward to preserve sense of belonging, exchange of ideas at Luther

formation through the examples they provide on a daily basis.

One of the things that Luther does very well is to place a high value on these types of oneto-one, mentor-mentee relationships and to emphasize the continuity of those relationships.” These transformative encounters have continued to shape the Stevenses’ civic and professional lives and their personal philanthropy as well. The couple lives in Mankato, Minn., where Scott is an orthopaedic surgeon at the Orthopaedic and Fracture Clinic, and Laura works for the United Way and serves on the board of the Children’s Museum of Southern Minnesota. Through charitable donor support, Mankato is developing a permanent, 21,000-square-foot, indoor/ outdoor children’s museum, with interactive exhibits that encourage children to learn through play.

“I’ve been involved in this museum project for a number of years, and we’re excited to see it come to fruition. It feels good to volunteer and to go to work every day knowing what you are working on will impact peoples’ lives for the better,” Laura says. In giving to Luther College, Scott and Laura support the Annual Fund, men’s and women’s tennis through the Norse Athletic Association, the Twin Cities Young Alumni Scholarship through Get Down, Give Back, Sampson Hoffland Laboratories, the Russ Rulon Endowed Chair in Biology, and the Ron Fox Scholarship Fund. Recently the Stevenses have created an endowed fund in music that when fully funded will support annual guest master classes for the (French) horn and brass studios. Laura adds, “I’m impressed with all the amazing things current students are doing, and I’m especially excited about the global experiences students have available to them.” Current students are indeed researching, learning, and encountering cultures new to them, on campus and in distant places that might have been unimaginable even a few years ago. Laura reflects that the costs

for this academic excellence and these global intersections will only continue to rise, and she worries that now, and in the future, such Luther experiences may be out of reach for deserving students. “There is a deep appreciation for all that we received at Luther,” Scott says. “But we also have a reciprocal sense of ownership in and a responsibility for the future of the college, and we desire to pay that forward.” Laura majored in English while at Luther, and after completing his major in biology, Scott went on to earn an M.D. from the University of Illinois, Urbana–Champagne, and complete a sports medicine fellowship at the University of Iowa. This fall Scott will celebrate his 25-year reunion. “This is my much older husband’s year!” Laura smiles. “I have three more years until my celebration.” In the meantime, the couple will continue to return to Decorah for alumni tennis meets, walks on campus, Mabe’s pizza, and Homecoming get-togethers, and they’ll keep up with their diversely talented children—Ben, age 13, and Julia, age 10—and their pursuits in viola, voice, art, and theatre. Most importantly, though, they will continue to lead by example the importance of living generous lives. Thank you, Scott and Laura, for your many gifts and for all you do for Luther College. —Ann Sponberg Peterson Learn more about giving to Luther at (800) 225.8664; or online at www.luther.edu/giving.

Campus News

ATHLETICS

Shari Huber named top IIAC Female Scholar-Athlete

The Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (IIAC) in January named Shari Huber ’13 the Johanna Olson IIAC Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year for the 2012–13 academic year. Huber, who wrapped up her softball career in 2013 as the only player in Luther history to start in four consecutive NCAA III National Championships Finals, became the third Luther female athlete to

be selected for the prestigious award. In December 2013 the Iowa Conference renamed its annual Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year Award in honor and memory of Luther student-athlete Johanna Olson ’01, who died of cancer in January 2013. “What an honor for Shari and her program to be recognized in this way by the Iowa Conference,” Luther softball coach Renae Hartl says. “It is especially significant this year with the award being newly named in Johanna Olson’s honor.” Huber helped lead the Norse to back-to-back Iowa Conference championships (2011, 2012) and three Iowa Conference Tourna-

ment titles (2010, 2011, 2013), while setting Luther career records for batting average (.399), hits (206), and runs scored (167). For her efforts she was named all-Iowa Conference (2012, 2013), first-team All-Region (2012, 2013), and third-team NFCA Division III All-American (2012). Academically, Huber graduated summa cum laude in May 2013 after posting a 3.946 grade point average, while majoring in exercise science with a biology minor. She was named to the dean’s list in seven of eight semesters, earning induction into Phi Beta Kappa as a senior as well as an NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship. Additionally, Huber was a third-team CoSIDA/Capital One

Academic All-American as a junior and an academic all-district selection as a junior and senior. She was also a four-time National Fastpitch Coaches Association Scholar-Athlete and a three-time member of the Iowa Conference All-Academic Team. Huber was also the Iowa Conference’s nominee for the 2013 NCAA Woman of the Year Award. Previous Luther student-athletes who have been named IIAC Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year include Olson (2000–01) and Kelsey (Kittleson) Millonig ’12 (2011–12).

Garcia-Prats ’14 awarded NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship

The National Collegiate Athletic Association awarded Luther soccer player James Garcia-Prats ’14 an NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship. The NCAA awarded onetime, nonrenewable educational

grants of $7,500 to 58 studentathletes—29 men and 29 women—who competed in fall sports. To qualify for the scholarship, a student-athlete must be nominated by his or her athletic department, have an overall minimum grade point average of 3.2 (on a 4.0 scale) or its equivalent, and have performed with distinction as a member of the varsity team in the sport in which the student-athlete was nominated. The student-athlete also must intend to continue academic work beyond the baccalaureate

degree as a full-time or part-time graduate student. During his four years in a Norse uniform, Garcia-Prats helped lead Luther to two Iowa Conference championships and two appearances in the NCAA III National Tournament. He was a two-time National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) All-American, threetime NSCAA All-Region, and three-time first-team all-Iowa Conference honoree. He made 79 appearances, which included 68 starts, and tallied 13 goals and

22 assists for a total of 48 points. A sociology major, GarciaPrats also excelled in the classroom. He was a three-time Iowa Conference Fall Sports Academic honoree, a 2013 College Sports Information Directors of America Capital One Division III Academic All-American, and a 2013 NSCAA Scholar All-American. Garcia-Prats is the 38th student-athlete and the 13th student-athlete in the past eight years at Luther to receive this award.

Women swimmers and divers earn team scholar award The Luther College women’s swimming and diving team earned Scholar All-America honors for the 2013 fall semester from the College Swimming

Coaches Association of America. The Team Scholar All-American award, presented twice a year, includes a team’s complete roster and is presented to college

and university teams that have achieved a cumulative grade point average of 3.0 or higher. The Luther women had a cumulative grade point average of 3.61

and ranked fifth in the NCAA III. This marks the 11th year in a row the Norse have received the honor.

Spring 2014 Luther Alumni Magazine

Campus News

Sports recaps

Hellman, Aaron Weckwerth ’15, Parker Beard ’17, and Donovan, first in the 4 x 800.

Men’s basketball 7-7, 17-11 overall After being seeded sixth, Luther knocked off both Loras College (no. 3) and the University of Dubuque (no. 2) at Dubuque in the first two rounds of the conference tournament in February. The Norse lost a close battle in the finals to no. 1 Central College, 70-74, March 1. John Androus ’14 and Jake Martin ’17 were named to the all-conference team. Androus, who led the Norse in scoring with 487 points, was also recognized for the third time. He was a second-team selection (2011–12), named Defensive Player of the Year (2012–13), and was a first-

Luther Alumni Magazine

Erin Connolly ’14, Lexi Scharmer ’16, Emily Anderson ’17, and Clare Slagel ’16 competed in nationals and earned All-American honors. team honoree this year. His career individual field goal percentage of 56.2 places him fourth on Luther’s career top-10 list. Martin, who joined the Norse from the College of DuPage, finished second on the team in scoring with 337 points and led the team in rebounding with 236. Wrestling 5-2, 16-7 overall The Norse finished the regular season with an impressive shutout over St. Olaf, 48-0, and a thirdplace finish in the NCAA DIII Regional, where two wrestlers qualified for the national championships. Evan Obert ’15 placed second at the regional meet, and Jayden DeVilbiss ’15 was crowned a central regional champion for the second year in a row. Obert finished the season 27-4, and DeVilbiss ended the season 28-9. Five wrestlers were named 2014 National Wrestling Coaches Association Scholar All-Americans: Nick Jazdzewski ’14, Obert, Blake Letney ’16, Tyler Walls ’16, and Conner Herman ’15. The team was also presented with the NWCA Scholar Team Award for 2014. Alumnus Matt Pyle ’07 was inducted into the National Wrestling Coaches Association Hall of Fame on March 13. During his four years in a Norse uniform, he tallied a record of 108-26 that included 50 falls. He is the only Luther wrestler to earn All-American honors four times. He placed third in 2004, fourth in 2006, and won national championships in 2005 and 2007, all at 149.

Men’s swimming and diving 2-1, 3-4 overall After finishing second in the regular season, the Norse persevered at the Iowa Conference Championships, finishing first and earning the title. The men also took second at the Liberal Arts Championships, where Jacob Sund ’17 posted seven top-six finishes. Women’s swimming and diving 3-0, 5-0 overall Clare Slagel ’16 became the first swimmer in Luther history to claim a national championship. In addition to her first-place finish in the 200 backstroke, Slagel also earned All-American honors after placing third in the 100 backstroke. Slagel, along with teammates Erin Connolly ’14, Lexi Scharmer ’16, and Emily Anderson ’17, qualified for nationals in both the 200 medley relay and 400 medley relay. Their seventhplace finish in the 200 earned them All-American honors, and their 10th-place finish in the 400 earned them honorable mention All-American status. (Slagel is now a five-time All-American.) Men’s indoor track and field Sixth in IIAC Indoor Championships The Norse earned several allconference honors, finishing sixth at the IIAC Indoor Championships: Austin Bauer ’14, third in the 5,000; Kurt Hellman ’16, Sam Stokes Cerkvenik ’15, John Donovan ’16, and Scott Mittman ’14, third in the distance medley relay; Joel Clarke ’15, first in the 55 hurdles; Mittman, third in the 3,000;

Women’s indoor track and field Fourth in IIAC Indoor Championships With a second-place finish in the mile and third-place finish in the 3,000, Tricia Serres ’16 earned All-American honors twice in the track and field indoor championships. She now holds three All-American honors. Also, Serres was named the U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association DIII Indoor Central Region Track Athlete of the Year. The Norse finished fourth in the IIAC Indoor Championships, with Serres capturing an individual title in the mile, finishing 10 seconds ahead of the next runner. Jayne Cole ’14 finished second in the 3,000 and third in the 5,000, earning her two all-conference honors. Serres, Maggie Pierson ’14, Mallory Carr ’17, and Nicole Powers ’14 earned all-conference honors with a second-place finish in the 4 x 800. Leah Broderick ’15 earned allconference honors with a secondplace finish in the pentathlon, and the distance medley relay of Pierson, Marea Holkesvik ’16, Kayla Uphoff ’14, and Serres earned all-conference honors with its second-place finish.

COURTESY OF ROB LARSON

Women’s basketball 2-12, 11-14 overall In the 2013–14 campaign, the Norse finished nonconference play at 9-2, the best record since 1986–87, when they finished 9-1. In conference play, the Norse battled, as seven of their 12 losses were decided by single digits. Taylor Johnson ’14 and Nellie Nelson ’14 were honored by the Iowa Conference for their stellar seasons. Johnson was a first-team selection for the second year in a row, making her third appearance on the all-conference team. She finished the conference schedule ranked second in scoring and fourth in both rebounding and field goal percentage. She led the Norse in scoring with 429 points and collected a team high 183 rebounds, for a career finish of 1,463 points (fourth on Luther’s individual career records top-10 list) and 808 rebounds (second on Luther’s individual career records top-10 list). Nelson was an honorable mention selection, finishing second on the team with 271 points and 131 rebounds, and she led the team from the free throw line.

AARON LURTH ’08

For more information on Luther athletics, visit luther.edu/sports.

Tricia Serres ’16 took second- and third-place finishes at the NCAA championships.

Luther’s next president already has close ties to the college Paula J. Carlson was elected Luther’s 10th president in a unanimous vote by the Board of Regents on Feb. 28, but she’s been a part of the community most of her life.

Spring 2014 Luther Alumni Magazine

Paula J. Carlson

aula J. Carlson, Ph.D., who is currently vice president for mission at St. Olaf College, has a strong appreciation for the value and role of a liberal arts education, says John Moeller, a member of the Presidential Search Committee and a professor of political science at Luther. In addition, he says, she brings a wealth of experience with the issues confronting liberal arts colleges in general. “Perhaps the clincher for me is that I think she comes to the job with deep respect for Luther in particular,” Moeller says. The president-elect has been familiar with Luther for most of her life. “My parents have friends on the faculty and staff that go back to their childhoods and college years,” she says, “and so I’ve been visiting the Luther campus since I was a young child. There was a spirit about Luther that I experienced on those visits that I found very engaging.” Two of her three sisters married Luther graduates, and two brothers of her husband, the Rev. Thomas Schattauer, Ph.D., are also Luther alumni.

TIMES OF TRANSITION Carlson’s parents, Lutheran pastor E. Roald and Marjorie Mueller Carlson, lived near Wadena, Minnesota, when Paula was born. When she turned three, the family moved to St. Paul, Minnesota, where Roald became pastor of Immanuel Lutheran Church on Snelling Avenue. In her first experience of a liberal arts college, Carlson walked through the Macalester College campus each day to get to her elementary school on the other side. Pastor Carlson’s next parish call took the family to Brooklyn, New York, the first in a back-and-forth series of moves for Paula from the East Coast to the Midwest. She describes the south Brooklyn neighborhood as a jumping-off place for new immigrants. “It’s had wave after wave of immigrants,” she says. “The Scandinavians and Germans had their moment in the early 20th century, and they started churches, so there’s a collection of Lutheran churches in the neighborhood.” By the time the Carlsons moved to the area, the churches were no longer ethnic enclaves. “We were living there at a time of transition,” Carlson says. “The neighborhood was predominantly Italian immigrants, but also Irish, Syrian, Lebanese, Korean.” From ages nine to 12, she attended public schools in the neighborhood—P.S. 127 and P.S. 170. At seventh grade, the walk to school became a subway ride under the East River to Hunter College High School on Manhattan’s Upper East Side and later in Midtown, across the street from Grand Central Terminal. The lab school for Hunter College drew a global mix of students from all over the city.

Luther Alumni Magazine

A SENSE OF THE WORLD OPENING UP Carlson’s undergraduate years brought her back to the Midwest, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in English from St. Olaf College. Throughout most of her years there, Carlson focused on 19th-century poetry, writing her senior project on William Wordsworth. But on a lark her senior year, she says, she took a seminar in medieval literature. The topic intrigued her enough that she made it one of her two tracks of study, along with 19th-century poetry, when she returned to New York to pursue a master’s degree at Columbia University. When it came time to narrow her focus further for Ph.D. studies, Carlson concentrated on medieval lit. “In some ways,” she says, “the medieval period intrigues me because it’s so like the contemporary era. We talk about waves of immigration and lots of religious controversies and discovery. That sense of the world opening up seemed a lot like the 20th century to me. I was really intrigued by the way poets thought about and responded to these new things.” Carlson describes her specialty as religion and literature with both a medieval and contemporary focus. At her second teaching position, in the English Department at Yale University, Carlson collaborated with Dante scholar Peter Hawkins, at the Yale Divinity School, to create the anthology Listening for God: Contemporary Literature and the Life of Faith (Augsberg Fortress). The book was part of a project funded by Lilly Endowment Inc. that sought ways to enrich theological education by looking deeply at the arts. Carlson and Hawkins explored religious issues in stories by authors who don’t present themselves as having a specific religious perspective.

“If religious questions, issues, beliefs, and values are integrated into our lives, well then we should see them in literature, too,” Carlson says. “And once we started looking, there they are.” The first volume grew into a four-book series that focused on contemporary authors because, Carlson says, “we wanted to think about ways to engage pastors and college students and congregations and really explore in significant ways contemporary art. We wanted it to be unexpected.”

REIMAGINING THE CORE In addition to her teaching and scholarly work, Carlson was also gaining experience as an administrator. “In many ways, I’ve had my foot in the administration world from my first job,” she says. A few years into her first teaching position, as an assistant professor at St. Mary’s College in Notre Dame, Indiana, she took on the directorship of the school’s writing program. She joined the Yale faculty next, and after a few years was asked to take on an administrative role in the English Department. It was at the University of Dubuque, in Iowa, though, that she became a full-time administrator, as associate dean for academic affairs. Carlson says she loved being a professor, but “there was an opportunity to work with a team that I was quite interested in working with and some projects that I was very drawn to, particularly thinking about reimagining the core curriculum of the university.” The university had rethought its mission statement in the late 1990s, re-embracing its tradition as a liberal arts and professional school and as a university of the church, Carlson says. She led a seven-year process to rethink the curriculum, establishing a committee with people from departments across campus and lots of what she calls “thought groups.” “It took three years to do the thinking, and then four years to phase in, so this was a major commitment. It wasn’t anything that happened quickly—though what’s quick in academia?” she smiles. But the fact that such a process takes time is good, Carlson says. “You want to be thoughtful, intentional.” Also at the University of Dubuque, she directed the Wendt Center for Character Education. In that role, her reach was broader yet as the

center focused on values and ethics in all aspects of college life. Her role at St. Olaf has continued that wider scope. As a vice president working in the President’s Office, Carlson’s main responsibilities include moving the college toward the goals outlined in its strategic plan. “A project I’ve worked on for several years,” she explains, “is called our Main Street Project, which helps students think intentionally and comprehensively about how they discern their vocations and prepare for careers.” A similar project helps faculty and staff think about their own vocations, development, and work-life balance.

DRAWN AGAIN AND AGAIN TO THIS MODEL Becoming president of Luther College appeals to Carlson because, she says, “I feel very committed to the residential, liberal arts college of the church—I chose to attend one, and three phases of my career have been in colleges like that. I am drawn again and again to this model. I think it offers students, faculty, and staff the opportunity to grow in mind, body, and spirit.” Her move to Luther will bring Carlson a couple of hours closer to Dubuque, where her husband is a professor of liturgics and dean of the Chapel at Wartburg Theological Seminary. Their children, Anna Schattauer Paille and Peter Schattauer, however, are still beyond an easy commute for visits. Peter is a graduate student at Yale Divinity School, and Anna and her husband, Joe, live in Princeton, New Jersey. Joe is a student at Princeton Seminary. “So we are going to have Lutheran pastors in the next generation, too,” Carlson says. Anna works for a group called Student Achievement Partners, in her mother’s high school haunt, Manhattan, where she’s helping school districts across the United States implement common core standards. Carlson and Schattauer are looking forward to pedaling Decorah’s Trout Run Trail. They used to hike in town when their children came to Dorian summer camps. They enjoy arts events and are attracted by the local creative community. Sports fans as well, they have always rooted for the home team. In New York, that meant the Yankees, so they’re having to be open-minded, Carlson says, with son-in-law Joe, a Red Sox fan. Expect to see the new president at plenty of sporting and arts events on campus starting this fall. —Ellen Modersohn

Oct. 10 inauguration will celebrate feast of knowledge Paula J. Carlson will take office as Luther College president on July 1. Her inauguration will be 3 p.m. Friday, October 10, at the start of Homecoming Weekend. In a bit of serendipity, we announce in this food-focused issue that the theme for the inauguration will draw upon the feast described at the beginning of Isaiah 55, an apt image of a community gathered together to taste and share a rich abundance of knowledge and wisdom.

Spring 2014 Luther Alumni Magazine

d Shelby Steele ’14 says she took this photo at a market in Battambang, Cambodia, because it captured everyday life in Cambodian culture. “We were out getting ingredients for our cooking class, and we stopped to get some veggies. The local women showed us different types of curry to mix into our dishes,” Steele says. She took the January Term 2014 course War, Peace, in Cambodia. 18and Reconciliation Luther Alumni Magazine

World views The camera lens captures what students are learning and experiencing during study away from Luther’s campus, and each year students share those adventures and discoveries in this magazine. This time their images help us imagine flavors they tasted, thrills they felt, and what it was like to meet people of different cultures for the first time.

d Megan Nading ’15 snapped this photo of a Salamancan snack while in Spain, for the January Term 2014 course Language and Culture in the SpanishSpeaking World. The pastries are churros, which diners traditionally dip in the hot chocolate.

d Bailey Mulholland ’15 studied in Salamanca, Spain, through International Studies Abroad in the 2013 fall semester. She was able to travel around Europe as well and came across these pâté varieties in a shop window in Paris. She passed on sampling them.

d Evan Sowder ’15 and Carly Ellefsen ’15 sample pizza varieties near the Duomo in Florence, Italy. Leah Broderick ’15 took the photo. The three were in Italy for the January Term 2014 class Renaissance Drawing in Historical Context, in which students focused on drawing from direct observation of Italian masterworks in museums and special collections across central and northern Italy. Spring 2014 Luther Alumni Magazine

Contest fan favorites Three photos taken by Imsouchivy (G. V.) Suos ’15 during his travels in spring 2013 were Facebook fan favorites in the Associated Colleges of the Midwest 2013–14 Off-Campus Study Photo Contest. Suos participated in Luther’s Malta Study Abroad Program that semester and traveled as well to other countries. The Fans’ Choice Awards honor the photos receiving the most votes on the ACM Facebook page.

s Suos took this photo of a late-night food vendor in Istanbul, Turkey. Suos wrote: “This chestnut seller is enjoying his favorite Turkish music at almost midnight in Istanbul Park. This place was crowded with protestors and police forces a few weeks after this photo was taken.” The photo won the third-place Fans’ Choice Award and first prize in the ACM’s cross-cultural encounter category. g Tannery workers are the subjects of this Suos photo, shot in Morocco. It won the second-place Fans’ Choice Award. “Morocco is known as one of the biggest producers of leather products in the world,” Suos wrote about his photo. “My friend and I were offered mint leaves to use as a gas mask before we entered the tannery since the smell was unbearable. The main materials that are used to dye the leather are camels’ urine and pigeon drops. These three gentlemen have been working there for years, and they didn’t seem to sense the smell as we did.” g This photo of Berber men won the firstplace Fans’ Choice Award. Suos shot it in the Sahara Desert and wrote: “These two men have been living in the Sahara Desert for their whole lives. Their ancestors used to do business in camel trading and made essential crafts for heat/cold gear to survive in the environment they lived in. Today, they make their living by giving tours (the Berber experience) to tourists from around the globe. Their dress is blue, which represents water as the source of life, and the crescent/star represents Islamic religion.”

Luther Alumni Magazine

Spring 2014 Luther Alumni Magazine

f Lindsey Pielage ’16 and Lauren Maze ’14 bungee jump off of the original A. J. Hackett bridge in Queenstown, New Zealand, where they were taking the January Term 2014 course Wellness and Fitness Abroad. The course gives students a unique opportunity to explore wellness concepts and participate in fitness activities in an international setting. The photo is courtesy of A. J. Hackett Bungee.

d That’s a deep-fried tarantula hanging from the mouth of Shelby Steele ’14. She sampled the delicacy at a roadside market in Cambodia as Katie Switzer ’14 got the shot. “The spider didn’t taste the best,” she says, “but the crickets [also fried] weren’t that bad.” Steele took the January Term 2014 course War, Peace, and Reconciliation in Cambodia.

f Kirk Larsen, Luther professor of biology, took this photo of students in his January Term 2014 course, Subtropical and Marine Biology, taking the organism identification field exam at the Gerace Research Centre in the Bahamas. The students went out in small groups to take the exam, and the professors, who gave the exam six times, put in about three straight hours of snorkeling. Larsen says that to the best of his knowledge, it’s Luther’s only underwater exam.

d Abby Carpenter ’16 bonds with a bluntspined brittle star while in the Bahamas in January 2014 for the Subtropical and Marine Biology course.

Luther Alumni Magazine

Planting and buying with purpose

by Kate Frentzel scans by Aaron Lurth

er junior year at Luther, Maren Stumme-Diers ’08 boycotted her board plan. “I worked so hard in the summers at a country club that I hated in order to make money to pay for room and board. So when I was in Jon Jensen’s Environmental Philosophy class, learning about the food system and all the things that are wrong with it and how we should support local producers, and then I’d go to the Caf and not see any local food, I felt this total disconnect. And it just made me really mad when there’s a great farmers’ market right down the street.”

Stumme-Diers wrote a letter to the dean of student life and eventually met with then President Rick Torgerson. “The meeting ended up with me in his office in tears trying to explain what I wanted,” she recalls. “It was this really powerful moment. I remember that he came over and sat right next to me. . . . He talked about—I’ll never forget this—he talked about how opting out of the system isn’t always the best way to create change, how you need to sometimes find ways to work within the system to change it and make it better for everyone.” Stumme-Diers took Torgerson’s words to heart. Things changed little while she was a student, but small strides did begin to procure local foods for the cafeteria. A year after graduating, however, Stumme-Diers returned to work for Luther’s sustainability program. Her fifth year in, and through the efforts of many campus constituents, the campus food landscape looks very different, in large part owing to a number pulled out of thin air.

Is 35 percent local loco? “I think Jon Jensen”—Luther professor of philosophy and environmental studies and director of the college’s Center for Sustainable Communities—“just kind of pulled a number out of the air and said, ‘35 percent sounds great,’” recalls Stumme-Diers, referring to the college’s 2008 goal to source more food locally (at the time, Luther’s local purchases were at less than 10 percent). “We were self-operated at the time; we didn’t contract with Sodexo yet—we had no idea whether we’d be able to achieve that. No analysis had been done, no projections as to how we might meet that.” When asked about his initial response to the 35 percent goal, Wayne Tudor, Sodexo general manager of dining services at Luther, gives a

deep belly laugh. The number was set before Tudor started working for Luther in 2010, but after hiring him, Torgerson asked Tudor if he thought the goal was realistic. Around the same time, Tudor started attending local conferences and sitting on panels as an institutional buyer. Soon, phone calls started rolling in from local vendors wanting to do business. “We never really did finish that conversation about whether it was realistic or not,” Tudor says. Last year Luther, in partnership with Sodexo, sourced 36.3 percent of campus food locally (the percentage is calculated in terms of dollars). “Clearly there’s so much nitty-gritty you can get into with that 35 percent number,” Stumme-Diers says. “But I do think it’s a number that has integrity. For instance, we get eggs that come from within 20 miles of campus, but they’re industrially produced and don’t at all fit the concept or feeling of ‘local,’ so they’re not counted.” Among the local vendors that are counted: WW Homestead Dairy; K’uun Coffee; Grass Run Farms, a supplier of 100 percent grass-fed beef; and Grown Locally, a small-farms cooperative in northeast Iowa that meets most of Luther’s produce needs. When Stumme-Diers encounters skepticism about buying local without a big budget, she says, “Last time I checked, we had the lowest board plan of any of our peer institutions. We actually don’t have a lot of money to spend on local food. Part of our success is having personal relationships and being able to buy direct and have things packaged differently. It doesn’t always have to be more expensive.” Diane Tacke, vice president for finance and administration, echoes this sentiment. “If Luther is the only one buying locally, it’s a little more difficult to get the supply at a price point we can afford. So Maren, Sodexo, and I have worked hard to market this to other food providers in the region.” Examples include Northeast Iowa Community College, Upper Iowa University, Winneshiek Medical Center, and Gundersen Health System. She continues, “Our measure on all of this has been to keep locally grown prices similar to those of non-locally grown

Spring 2014 Luther Alumni Magazine

Right: a leek from Luther’s production gardens

Below top: Luther student gardeners in the summer of 2013 greet the day with smiles. Below bottom: Emily Neal, Luther director of school outreach, educates the next generation both in local schools and through programs such as Discovery Camp.

providers”—particularly Sysco, through which Luther continues to purchase the majority of its food—“and the more institutions buying locally, the more it keeps the costs down.” Working directly with farmers to anticipate Luther’s food needs and plan crops accordingly is another way to make the arrangement work. And since contracting with Sodexo in 2009, the cafeteria makes more food from scratch, which also cuts down on waste and keeps overhead lower. About all of these measures, Tacke says, “It makes economical sense, it tastes better, and it’s the right thing to do.”

How does Luther’s garden grow? Just how local does Luther get? As it turns out, very. In addition to residence hall gardens, a faculty-staff community garden, and two edible landscapes, Luther maintains its own production garden, selling the fruits—well, technically vegetables—of its labor to Sodexo for campus eating. The campus gardens are still relatively low-volume—last year they sold about $8,500 worth of produce, while other local food purchases amount to about $500,000— but they fill an important niche. “In the fall or winter, I get together with Wayne and Curtis Raddatz [who handles food purchasing] and ask what to grow next year,” StummeDiers says. “This past season we grew 300 pounds of rutabagas for their Christmas at Luther dinner because they weren’t able to procure that locally the year before, and they really wanted to make sure it was a local product. So we grew rutabagas and multicolor heirloom cherry tomatoes. We did hot peppers and sweet peppers, eggplants, basil, mixed greens, spinach, asparagus, sweet potatoes. We tend to grow things that we can’t procure in the local market because of cost or because they’re just not available. That’s an interesting thing for us to balance—we don’t want to step on the toes of local producers and take business away from them. We try to build up the local food economy.”

Embracing the dirt

Read about WW Homestead Dairy and K’uun Coffee in the Web Extras for this issue at luthermagazine.com.

Luther Alumni Magazine

The gardens serve a second valuable function. Stumme-Diers explains, “Every year I have about five times the applications for garden positions than I can hire for” (she’s able to hire six full-time summer and six part-time fall gardeners). Students, she says, are longing for hands-on food experiences. Luther’s sustainability program employs about 40 students total, and in addition to the gardeners, several students focus on food-specific projects. For example, some are using a type of food calculator that allows them to enter all of Luther’s food purchases from the past year. It calculates a rating based on whether the purchases are environmentally sound, humane, locally based, and fair. Luther will use the ratings to advise future buying. Of her student workers, Stumme-Diers says, “They’re super dedicated, and they really take ownership. What I’m seeing is that a lot of them who have done work for me are leaving Luther wanting to do this stuff and seeking out similar opportunities. The students really see value in it.” Phil Marty ’13 is one of those former students. Like Stumme-Diers, he was underwhelmed as a student by the slim selection of local food on campus. “In the classroom, people were telling me to do things that I wasn’t allowed to practice in life,” Marty recalls. Before long he was involved with Luther’s sustainability initiatives, helping to pilot a farm-assessment program in which student workers audited local farms from which Luther was procuring or was considering procuring. Marty graduated last May to do nearly the same thing in an internship with Organic Valley in La Farge, Wis. “I spent the whole summer on the road, visiting farmers and being an outreach tool. It was very similar to college.... It landed me my title now, in farmer relations with Organic Valley,” he says. Jensen’s Environmental Philosophy classes also regularly visit farms that sell to Luther, and the college has even coordinated a local foods immersion trip for incoming first-year students. The weeklong experience includes trips

to Seed Savers, the Oneota Food Co-op, the Decorah farmers’ market, and local farms and orchards. Ellen Badger ’16, who participated in the trip as a first-year and returned as a rising sophomore to co-lead it, says, “It was a really fun team-bonding experience. We were pulling out pigweed as tall as us. All the girls on my trip were super into that. Our motto became ‘Embrace the dirt!’”

Leaving a smaller footprint Sourcing food locally is just one way that Luther conserves resources and limits food-related waste. In fall 2013, the college launched the Caf to Community program, which packages unused food from Luther’s cafeteria and donates it to the Food Pantry at First Lutheran Church in Decorah, which serves more than 500 individuals and families each month (read more about this program on page 7). Also this fall, a group of Environmental Philosophy students wrote a proposal aimed at reducing waste from the Simply-to-Go window, a dining option that allows students to grab a takeout meal. The students worked with Sodexo to develop nondisposable containers that can be turned in— dirty, no less!—for a wooden token to be traded later for a clean container. Another possible collaboration, this time with the city of Decorah, could see the college actually composting less. Luther and the city are investigating whether methane capture from the city’s wastewater treatment plant could generate power, in which case, Tudor says, it would make sense for Luther to use its garbage disposals more than its compost bins. Not that Luther gardening would fall by the wayside. In fact, says Stumme-Diers, the sustainability program plans to build a moveable high tunnel, which would allow year-round greens production.

Growing future foodies “Luther is a model of sustainability, and we want to be a good steward, and part of that is figuring out how to share the knowledge that we have with the rest of the region,” says Emily Neal, director of school outreach at Luther’s Center for Sustainable Communities. Luther’s food and wellness outreach program works with private and governmental entities to get into local public schools and help students and teachers take better charge of their health and, in turn, the health of the environment. “Food and wellness are what I would call the entry points into schools. They’re the aspects of sustainability that are really tangible to school systems,” Neal says. Luther is a core partner of the Northeast Iowa Food and Fitness Initiative, a project funded in part through a grant by the W. K. Kellogg Foundation. The Food and Fitness program, which funds nine sites nationwide, strives “to create vibrant communities that support access to locally grown, healthy, affordable food.” As the school outreach partner for the northeast Iowa site, Luther works with 16 school districts to help them make healthy, sustainable choices—whether that means improving school lunches, providing nutritional information, building school gardens, creating curricular connections, or starting programs to help kids bike or walk to school. Neal and her staff also bring the message of sustainability to schoolaged children through Discovery Camp and Discovery Club, and they run a Kindernature program for pre-K kids. She describes a poignant experience with one of her campers: “This kid, he was jolly. He was walking along holding my hand, and he said to me, ‘This camp is so great. I just cannot wait until my grandkids come to this camp.’ He skipped his kids and went to straight to his grandkids! He just wants this to be a legacy.” She continues, “All of the work we do involves the question of how we work together to shape the world we want to have. And we shape it for our kids, because even if you don’t have kids, it’s still the legacy of what you leave behind, the stewards, the people who will take care of you when you’re older. Whether it’s directly or indirectly, investing in them is investing in us.”

Natalie Sims ’14 combines work study and love of baking Dining Services is the largest student employer on Luther’s campus, providing work for up to 700 students each fall. It’s where many young Norse get their first dose of real-world work experience—and where some even get a taste of their future careers, like aspiring pastry chef Natalie Sims ’14. Sims was interested in food early on. “I remember rolling up a chair to the stove and watching my parents cook,” says the Iowa native. Her love affair with pastry began while watching a Food Network television show on which contestants bake wedding cakes and create fantastic sugar showpieces and chocolate concoctions. “I was blown away that it was all edible, and I knew that I needed to figure out how to do that,” Sims says. “I love working with my hands, and I was always bummed that you grow up and don’t get playtime anymore. Being a pastry chef is kind of like playtime as an adult.” While Sims came to Luther knowing that she wanted to attend culinary school, spending her childhood in a college town made an impression. “I grew up in Grinnell, and my dad works at the college there. I grew up around higher ed and wanted that experience for myself, so that when I went to culinary school I’d have more of a grasp and focus and could push myself harder.” And, says the management major, “I wanted the business management background in the hopes of opening my own bakery someday.” Sims has garnered the perfect mix of work-study experience to help her do that. She spent her junior year working in the Luther bakery and her senior year as one of two marketing interns for Sodexo, the company that Luther contracts to provide food and food-related services. Of her work in the bakery, Sims says, “I really liked the hands-on experience. I got to see a lot of what it takes to scale a recipe in terms of proportions, and I learned what kind of a routine you need to maintain on a day-to-day basis.” Regarding her marketing internship, in which she designs marketing campaigns and creates promotional videos, Sims says, “It was nice to take the experience from the kitchen into the office, because I understand the needs that the kitchen has in terms of how I present information and what I communicate to the student body.” Sims is pursuing culinary studies this fall at Kirkwood Community College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

Spring 2014 Luther Alumni Magazine

Luther Alumni Magazine

COOL BEANS Rick Mast ’99 and Michael Mast are pioneering the craft food movement, one chocolate bar at a time by Timothy Harper photographs by Tuukka Koski

ick Mast ’99 says it on the floor of his chocolate factory in Brooklyn, N.Y. He says it in casual conversation with friends. He says it in business meetings. “Make everything delicious,” he says. And when he says it, the word actually sounds delicious. It begins with a little bite, sloshes across the palate, and then finishes on the tongue, soft and sweet. “Make everything delicious” has become the mantra for Mast, 37, and his younger brother, Michael. They are the unofficial poster boys for what some call slow food or craft food or the real food movement. Whatever you call it, their dark chocolate is redefining good chocolate, and their company, Mast Brothers Chocolate, is helping inspire a generation of foodies to pay more for high quality, natural ingredients, and artisanal production, from farm to table—or in the Masts’ case, from bean to bar. The Mast Brothers Chocolate factory has become a tourist destination in Williamsburg, the heart of hipster Brooklyn, and the brothers have become media darlings on the Food Network and in dozens of foodie blogs and print publications. The New York Times said the Masts, with their lush beards, “look more like prairie settlers than urban food pioneers” but are “on the cutting edge of the craft food movement.” Rick Mast has even been parodied on The Simpsons, where he offered Mr. Burns tips on handmade nuclear power.

Rick Mast ’99, left, and Michael Mast

“make everything delicious”

Spring 2014 Luther Alumni Magazine

Sailing the beans and wrapping by hand The brothers are from tiny Primghar, Iowa— the only Primghar in the world, they note— but grew up in Iowa City with an older sister and their mother, a single mom who worked as an administrative assistant. Rick Mast was both a music geek and a jock at West High, but after a severe leg injury during a soccer game his junior year, he focused more on music. He played piano, sang, and composed. Drawn by Luther’s renowned musical tradition, Mast never considered going to college anywhere else. In Decorah, he majored in music, ran Luther’s Student Activities Council, and became obsessed—his word— with popularizing new opera for the masses. “Opera was impenetrable to most people,” Mast says. “It was something that needed to be reintroduced.” Looking back, his obsession with opera paved the way for his devotion to the craft food movement. “I love the challenge of opening someone’s eyes,” he says. A particularly important person to him at Luther was an adjunct professor, Jon Curtis Spong, an acclaimed choirmaster, opera accompanist, and composer of sacred music. Mast never had a class with Spong but sought him out for advice, and they had long discussions about a life in music. Mast says he owes a great debt to Luther and to Spong, who died in 2006. “The most important role of a mentor,” Mast says, “is making things seem possible.” After graduation, Mast worked with opera companies in New York and California, then

took a job in a Los Angeles record store that sold vinyl records only—again reintroducing people to a past culture, this time classic rock music. For fun, he helped friends prepare ambitious dinner parties, and found that he loved cooking. He moved to New York in 2005 to attend the Institute for Culinary Education, where he could lose himself for hours practicing simple knife skills. “I liked the feel of cooking,” he says. “It’s an escape from everything.” In class, Mast showed early signs of being a good chocolatier—the person who transforms raw chocolate into recipes or presentations. “But I realized I didn’t even know how chocolate is made,” he says, surrounded by tons of chocolate he has made at the Mast Brothers factory. After cooking school, Mast worked as a line cook in upscale Manhattan restaurants— Gramercy Tavern, Soho House—and shared a small apartment in Brooklyn with Michael, who had moved to New York to work in financial services. They often hosted dinner parties and shared their neighbors’ microbrewed beer, pickles, cheese, and homemade delicacies. The brothers decided to make their own chocolate the rustic way—using only organic cocoa beans and cane sugar. They found a purveyor who delivered raw cocoa beans, and hefted the 150-pound bag up to their third-floor walkup. They knew the beans had to be roasted, so they tried an air popper, a sauté pan, a coffee bean roaster, and a wok. The coffee bean roaster worked best.

They used a rolling pin to crush the roasted shells, a hair dryer to dry the crushed beans, and a juicer to liquefy them. “It was so good,” Rick Mast recalls. “So complex. It actually tasted like cocoa beans, with a vinegary, winey aroma, buttery, nutty, and a slight but appealing acidic finish. It was stimulation overload.” Rick got a job in the chocolate boutique run by master pastry chef and chocolatier Jacques “Mr. Chocolate” Torres. The brothers kept experimenting with chocolate, serving it at dinner parties and swapping it for beer. They began hand-wrapping 2.5-ounce bars and selling them at flea markets for $7. The Masts realized that chocolate could be a business. In 2007, they quit their jobs, maxed out their credit cards, and incorporated Mast Brothers Chocolate. They traded a small raft of chocolate for a used commercial oven. They rented a former woodworking shop in nearby Greenpoint, set up a tiny kitchen, and vowed not to shave until they sold 1,000 chocolate bars. When that happened very quickly, they agreed it would be bad luck to cut off their whiskers. The brothers soon expanded to North 3rd Street in a then-moribund, nowgentrifying area of Williamsburg, where the Mast Brothers complex has

become a regular stop for tour buses. During a recent private tour, Rick Mast’s reddish beard is touching his breastbone and he is wearing his favorite wool vest from a sheep farm on Martha’s Vineyard. Walking through the showroom, he nods toward the huge bags of cocoa beans marked Dominican Republic, Peru, Madagascar, Brazil, Venezuela, and Papua New Guinea. Inside the factory, rows of flour-grinding machines from India—they look like desktop cement mixers—heat and grind the raw beans, which are 50 percent butter once liquefied. The ground cocoa is cooled into bullion-sized, 30-pound bricks. Factory workers in white lab coats wrap the blocks in butcher paper and stack them in tall metal racks to age for 30 days. The room looks and smells like the Fort Knox of dark chocolate. After aging, the bulk chocolate is melted at 118 degrees, and ingredients such as chocolate nibs, coffee beans, chiles, and sea salt are stirred into the dark goo. The bars are molded, cooled, and hand-

PHOTO COURTESY OF KAREN MARTIN-SCHRAMM

In 2011 the brothers hired a 70-foot, three-masted wooden schooner, the Black Seal, to sail to the Dominican Republic and bring back 20 metric tons of raw cocoa beans in an eco-friendly way.

wrapped in colorful paper designed in-house. Each bar is numbered. “Make everything delicious,” Rick Mast repeats. “Taste, of course. But pleasing to the eye, too. The packaging. Aroma. Mouthfeel. So much is in the mind, the idea of delicious.” He likes to talk about the ethos of the company for its more than 50 workers. The Masts recruit and retrain experienced kitchen staff, pay above-market rates, and allow employees time at work for their own projects and ideas. In 2011 the brothers hired a 70-foot, three-masted wooden schooner, the Black Seal, to sail to the Dominican Republic and bring back 20 metric tons of raw cocoa beans. The Wall Street Journal reported it was the first cargo delivery by sailboat to New York Harbor since 1939. The Masts said the sailboat was not only environmentally friendly, but didn’t cost any more than a modern freighter delivery. “A big container ship,” Rick Mast notes, “is not delicious.” The brothers are planning another Black Seal Caribbean trip this year. Michael Mast helped crew the boat in 2011; this time Rick is going. (When a brother is aboard, it’s a four-masted schooner.) They also sent a filmmaker on the Black Seal, and he is using space at the factory to produce a documentary.

Opposite: Very much a craft operation, at Mast Brothers, most tasks are done by hand. Left: Colorful candy bar wrappers are designed in-house.

Business sense balances all the sweet ideas At one point during the tour, Michael Mast strolls past. Rick, a little taller and leaner, ribs his little brother about not attending Luther but instead staying close to home and going to the University of Iowa. The brothers, two and a half years apart, say Rick usually devises the creative strategies for sales—and, yes, sails—while Michael brings a practical approach to the business—the dollars and sense. “I wake up every morning with 1,000 new ideas,” Rick says. “My brother makes measured decisions. We balance each other. Sure, it can be tough sometimes working with family. But there’s no one who will fight harder with you, and no one who will fight harder for you.” The tour ends back in the storefront showroom, where bars of Mast Brothers Chocolate are on sale. Remarkably, the bars are still priced at $7—but that’s wholesale. Upscale retailers typically charge up to $12, compared with $1 or less in supermarkets for similarly sized brand-name chocolate bars that list many more ingredients—soy, lecithin, emulsifiers, lactose, milk fat, various butters, artificial vanilla, and more. The big companies, Mast says, produce more chocolate in an afternoon than he does in a year. The centerpiece of the showroom is a long tasting table piled high with free samples. Finally, it’s time to eat some chocolate. The first sample, made of beans from the Dominican Republic, is rich and intense— probably too bitter for supermarket

Spring 2014 Luther Alumni Magazine

“Chocolate,” Mast declares, “is a culinary art form, not just a candy bar.” milk-chocolate fans. “Earthy,” Mast announces. He nibbles another sample made with Madagascar beans. “Hints of citrus first,” he says. “Then the finish—the big show, like wine.” He encourages the wine vocabulary to describe chocolate. “Chocolate,” Mast declares, “is a culinary art form, not just a candy bar.”

The baby’s named for Bach A few days later, and a few blocks away, the sun is setting softly over the Brooklyn waterfront as guests, many with beards and tattoos, gather at the Wythe Hotel. They drink cocktails and graze on appetizers labeled Cocoa-Rubbed Carpaccio, Candied Beet Puff Pastry, and Pecan Cocoa Nib Graham Crackers. Amid the cool crowd, a tall, slender, middle-aged woman’s Midwestern warmth stands. Caroline Mast is in from Iowa City to celebrate the publication of her sons’ $40 book, Mast Brothers Chocolate: A Family Cookbook. (See the wacky trailer: vimeo.com/76641274.)

“It’s all so exciting,” Mom Mast says. Now retired, she spends more time in Brooklyn since Ricky—to her he’s still Ricky—and his wife, Natasha, had their son, Sebastian (named after J. S. Bach) three years ago. Unprompted, she recalls her first hint that her eldest son had any interest in food; she was visiting Luther during Rick’s senior year, when he lived with 11 other guys in Vanaheim, just off campus. “They cooked up a feast,” she said. “I was so impressed.” Rick Mast doesn’t remember that meal. “Vanaheim? It was probably a lot of meat,” he says.

Staying ahead of the curve After seven years, Mast Brothers Chocolate is no longer a startup. Rick Mast won’t talk about profits but says the business has grown 50 percent a year. The company is building a second, bigger factory in the old Brooklyn Navy Yards to meet demand beyond its current 600 retail outlets, mostly high-end specialty shops and restaurants, in eight countries.

“When we started in 2007, we were one of five or six companies in the world making chocolate this way,” Mast says. “Now there are probably 50 in the United States alone.” But he rejects the suggestion that other chocolate makers are catching up. “A lot of people are trying to do what we do, but we’re pretty far ahead of the curve,” he says. “We always want to stay on the forefront and be a couple of years ahead of everyone else. We don’t want to lose that feeling of exploration. We’re always looking for ways to make chocolate better— and make better chocolate.” And that, he says, is what he will wake up thinking about tomorrow. He’ll have a cup of coffee and a piece of chocolate. And it will be delicious. Timothy Harper, based at www.timharper.com, is a journalist, author, and editorial/publishing consultant.

Chocolate Sauce Makes 1 pint The simplicity of this recipe demands great chocolate. No vanilla, mask poor ingredients, no corn syrup to so get the best! Serve warm over ice cream. 1 ½ cups heavy cream 1 tablespoon sugar 5 oz. dark chocolate, chopped 1. In a saucepan, bring cream and sugar to a boil. 2. Pour over chopped chocolate in a heatproo f bowl and let melt. 3. Using a spatula, stir in tight circles to emuls ify. — Reprinted from Ma st Brothers Chocolate: A Family Cookbook with permissio

Luther Alumni Magazine

Alumni News Gourmet tour guide Daniel Moss ’10 kept tourists tastefully on track in Tasmania

PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE MARIA ISLAND WALK

This spring, we caught up with Daniel Moss ’10, who spent last year working as a bushwalking guide for the Maria Island Walk, a four-day tour that explores a remote island off the coast of Tasmania, part of Australia. Tour guides not only lead the walking portion of the experience but also cook daily three-course gourmet meals for guests. The tour, Moss says, won the Australian Gourmet Traveller Awards in 2007, 2008, and 2010. Moss was sea kayaking near Crete when we sent our questions and didn’t want to exhaust his phone battery by typing out long responses—“It’s a critical piece of safety equipment,” he says—so he answered by writing everything out in longhand, then taking photos of his answers and emailing them. —Kate Frentzel

KF: You were a management major at Luther. How did you end up in Tasmania? DM: Though I grew up in northwest Iowa, I was originally born in Geelong, Australia. While spending part of my senior year at Luther in Australia, I fell in love with Tasmania: the incredible wilderness, the laidback people, and the island lifestyle . . . it cannot be beat! Shortly after graduating, I decided to move back to Tasmania, and though my travels have taken me many more places, I think I will always end up back there. KF: Did you have much of a cooking background before becoming a guide and cook? DM: While I was always a big

fan of eating and trying different types of food, I was never a wizard in the kitchen until after college. Making great food takes time and effort, and during college most of my free time went into all Decorah has to offer: hiking, Frisbee golf, Caf tray sledding, etc. However, I was always very fortunate to be surrounded by friends who were passionate in the kitchen. Luther friends Lauren Wettach ’10 and Anna (Wikan) Olson ’10 and a housemate in Tasmania, Ivor, who was a chef in Bahrain, finally got me interested in cooking. KF: What kind of cooking and serving gear did you have to haul with you? How did you do it? DM: At Maria Island, the company has built a number of basic

Moss and fellow guides prepared gourmet local fare, such as Tasmanian salmon.

but very stylish cabins, each with a specially built kitchen for cooking in the wilderness. Being unpowered, the cooking is done on a three-pot cast-iron stove (gas powered). Everything you could possibly need to cook is in this kitchen—it puts any home kitchen to shame! Because each day you are moving to a new wilderness base camp, all the dry goods needed are kept there. The guides are responsible for carrying in their backpacks all fresh fruits, vegetables, meats, and dairy for the groups of 10–12 for the four days. At the start of the trip, it is about 25–30 pounds per guide of just food. You have to be careful with the eggs!

KF: Describe some memorable or extravagant dishes you prepared in the wilderness. DM: One of the things that makes the Maria Island food so great (besides the fact you’ve earned it by walking 10–15 miles per day) is that it is all prepared with the best and freshest local Tasmanian produce. Dinners are generally the most extravagant, with three courses of delicious food matched with local Tasmanian wines. For example: • Appetizer: fresh shitake mushroom and wakame [seaweed] soup with local ginger and garlic • Entrée: hand-stirred risotto with fresh greens and a hint of saffron beneath scallops from

Spring 2014 Luther Alumni Magazine

Alumni News

As a bushwalking guide for an upscale tour of a remote Tasmanian island, Moss led guests on a four-day hike that included daily three-course meals prepared at outposts with fully equipped kitchens.

a local bay that guests have just been escorted past on the boat ride to the island •Dessert: locally made lemon tart or a summer berry pudding and King Island cream KF: What challenges were involved in cooking in the wilderness? DM: The biggest challenge is probably being completely on show to the guests while cooking. The main dining cabin is also used as a relaxing area for the guests to drink a glass of wine and converse or kick back and read a bit about the beautiful nature and history around them. They will oftentimes come over for a look at what is emitting a tasty smell or you may have to be attending to their needs with a homemade hot chocolate while trying to prepare dinner as well. Being flexible and multitasking is a must!

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KF: Was cleanup a nightmare? DM: Cleaning up a gourmet three-course meal for 12 people at the end of the night can sometimes seem a bit overwhelming. Especially because you sit down, eat, converse, sip on a glass of wine, and share a few laughs with the guests because you all eat together. Being on a remote island, there is no dishwasher either. However, with two guides and sometimes a helpful guest, you are usually in bed well before midnight. Because the trip/camps are all set up to be extremely eco friendly, you used to have to shake, then filter, all the dirty dishwater as well (a very good workout!), but evidently they have a new greywater system in place now. KF: When did you start working as a bushwalking guide? DM: In late 2011 after taking a one-year-long outdoor adventure course in Tassie. I still work as a

bushwalking guide as my main occupation, but I have now worked for several guiding companies in addition to working as a sea kayaking guide in several locations. Next year I will work as a chef/lodge coordinator at another amazing hiking company in Tasmania, Freycinet Experience. KF: Why did you decide to move on from Maria Island and what have been some highlights since leaving? DM: Guiding is a very transient occupation by nature, with there generally only being work in one location for about six months at a time. Because of this, you get the chance to work in and explore many different locations around Australia or the globe. It also gives you the opportunity, if you have enough funds in the bank, to go traveling, a very big passion of mine. . . . I have also worked in the Great Barrier Reef as a sea kayak guide. I have undertaken another year of education in outdoor adventure, and

I have traveled. Here are some highlights: • I spent 30 days trekking in Nepal near Mount Everest. • I walked 1,000 miles from Paris, France, to Santiago, Spain, on the Camino. • I whitewater kayaked down the Franklin River. • I am currently sea kayaking around Crete. KF: What have you been cooking and eating on your recent travels? DM: I try to eat the local cuisine or specialties wherever I am in the world. Lots of times street food is one of the best ways to try real local food. I especially love the food in southeast Asia (Laos especially) because of all the amazing spices and herbs they have, and in Europe real Italian pasta and Greek food in general have been my favorites. I will always have a soft spot in my heart for a PB&J, though!

COURTESY OF SHERRY (BRAUN) ALCOCK ’82

Alumni News

Gathered at the retreat in Carefree, Ariz., were, left to right: Richard Gunderson, Wayne Paulson ’65, Sue Blair, Lynne (Chase) Paulson ’67, Mike Blair, Joyce Bash, Ken Bash, Joan (Ehlers) Mork ’59, John Mork, Glen Johnson ’70, Kathy (Selzer) Johnson ’71, Rick Theiler ’72, Ruth Kath, David Tiede, Joan (Catlin) Totten ’63, Sherry (Braun) Alcock ’82, David Totten, Muffy Tiede, and Paul Campbell, executive director of the Spirit in the Desert Retreat Center.

Blessed to Be a Blessing retreat in Arizona explores callings in “third chapter” of life In mid-January, Luther hosted a retreat for 19 alumni and friends interested in exploring God’s callings in the “third chapter” of their lives. The gathering, called Blessed to Be a Blessing, was held at Spirit in the Desert Retreat Center in Carefree, Ariz. The retreat will be offered again, Feb. 11–12, 2015, also at Spirit in the Desert. Interim president David Tiede proposed the idea in rec-

ognition of the rich tradition Luther College has in helping students discern their vocational callings during the first chapter of their lives. In chapter two, Luther graduates live out their callings in their work places, homes and families, public engagements, and faith communities. Then chapter three arrives, when the nest is empty and full-time employment has ended. The retreat was aimed at helping

alumni and friends reflect on the shape of their callings at this time of their lives. Tiede led Bible studies focused on God’s calling to “third chapter” men and women such as Abraham, Sarah, Simeon, and Anna. Campus pastor Mike Blair and his wife, Sue, led worship and music. Professor Ruth Kath presented a session on Martin Luther’s vision of vocation and how it finds expression in the

mission of Luther College. The retreat was so well received that plans are under way to make it a regular offering through the Alumni and Campus Ministries offices. For more information on the 2015 gathering, contact Sherry Alcock, executive director of alumni relations and development services, at alumni@luther. edu, (800) 255-8664.

Weston Noble ’43, Luther professor emeritus of music, has been inducted into the American Classical Music Hall of Fame (ACMHF). He was honored during a surprise reception in March in Des Moines during the North Central-American Choral Directors Association (NCACDA) Conference in March. Vance Wolverton, a board member of the ACMHF, presented the award to Noble on behalf of the organization, which is based in Cincinnati, Ohio. Woverton cited Noble’s 57-year tenure as a conductor at Luther. Noble will be honored also with an engraved brick at the ACMHF Walk of Fame in Washington Park, downtown Cincinnati. Noble’s fellow Hall of Fame inductees include Andre Watts, composer Aaron J. Kernis, the Guarneri Quartet, and the American Guild of Organists. Luther alumni who presented or conducted at the NCACDA conference included Jennaya Robison ’96, Greg Douma ’98, Mark Potvin ’01, Ryan Person ’05, and Jason Rausch ’98.

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE AMERICAN CLASSICAL MUSIC HALL OF FAME

Weston Noble inducted into American Classical Music Hall of Fame

Vance Wolverton, of the American Classical Music Hall of Fame, presented a medallion to Weston Noble ’43 at a reception in March.

Spring 2014 Luther Alumni Magazine

Alumni News

in 2000, and in 2011 they were recognized by the Wisconsin State Assembly as Hometown Heroes for their work in the community.

CLASS NOTES Class Notes as of April 1. The deadline for Class Notes for the fall 2014 issue is July 28; alumni@luther.edu.

JUDY (REAM) DAVIS is a consultant for nonprofits in Winona, Minn. She also supervises student teachers for Luther College and Winona State University and scores teacher performance assessments. She was recently elected to the Hospital Foundation Board and serves as the chair of the Winona Community Foundation Board.

F This symbol denotes alumni with food-industry careers.

1934 BORGIE (MYHRE)

TUECKE celebrated her 100th birthday on Aug. 9, 2013. A family dinner celebration was held that Friday evening, followed by an open house in her honor on Sunday at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Guttenberg, Iowa, where she regularly attends church services. She lives in her own home and enjoys spending time with family and friends.

1949 JUDGE VEGLAHN was

one of 10 inductees into the first St. James Athletic Hall of Fame and was co–grand marshal of the St. James (Minn.) Railroad Days Parade in June.

1950 DALE PETERSON is a

retired pastor in Lakota, N.D. He was recognized in 2012 at the commemoration of the 60th anniversary of World War II and received a prestigious World War II honor from the 60th Commemoration Committee and VFW Post 3457, Saipan, Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands. Peterson fought in many Japanese battles during the war and worked to free those in prisoner-of-war camps in Japan. He earned nine campaign stars and fought in several ports across the Pacific war zone. The medallion he was presented consists of the World War II in the Pacific emblem on one side and the official seals of the participating branches of service on the other side. Also inscribed on the medallion is the phrase “Our Grateful Islands Remember.”

Class agent Patti (McCullough) Edwards ’63 shared a photo from Palm Springs, Calif., taken in February 2014. Left to right (back): George Wallman ’63, Joyce (Behrens) Wallman ’65, Patti and Dick Edwards ’64. Front: Curt Reiso ’54.

1953 Professor emeritus

of religion RICHARD SIMON HANSON is a Safe Routes to School volunteer for the Decorah Walking School Bus. He says he volunteers with helping children walk to school “to celebrate good health while it lasts.” He also is a daily volunteer at Aase Haugen Senior Services. BONNIE (BRAA) WARRINGTON published the book Serendipity Doesn’t Knock. The book takes readers through the unexpected events of her life, including her time as a child at army posts during World War II; meeting her husband, Hal; and taking on many careers traveling the world.

retired from his position as Elva B. Lovell Professor of Old Testament at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minn., after 40 years of teaching. Smyth & Helwys recently published his 24th book, Reading Hosea-Micah: A Literary and Theological Commentary. DEAN RAMSAY of Anoka, Minn., is retired.

Luther Alumni Magazine

1960 JOHN ELLINGSON

retired from his plant engineering position at St. Joseph Hospital in Ann Arbor, Mich. He leads a monthly worship service with wheelchair patients at St. Joseph Hospital and is a volunteer for the No One Dies Alone ministry at St. Mary Hospital, where he sits with dying patients.

1961 DICK LARSON of Castle

1956 TERENCE FRETHEIM

LARRY FOGDALL of Brevard, N.C., served as interim president of the Brevard Music Center (BMC) since 2011. He had volunteered to guide the center until a permanent president was selected last August. He was recognized for his “servant leadership” role during the transition by Phillip Jerome, the chair of the BMC Board of Trustees.

JOHN HELGELAND directs the online Northern Plains Ethics Journal for North Dakota State University. It is published by the Northern Plains Ethics Institution and is the first peer-reviewed ethics and philosophy journal in N.D. His work on the development of the nature of the Roman Imperial Army religion is summarized in Companion to the Roman Army, published by Blackwell’s in Oxford, England.

Rock, Colo., retired after 16 seasons as the director of Kantorei at Augustana Lutheran Church in Denver. In honor of the mark he has made on the ensemble, he was given the title Kantorei artistic director and conductor emeritus.

1962 F MARY LOU

(GREENHECK) BARYENBRUCH owns and operates a supermarket in Spring Green, Wis., with her husband, Jerry. The market offers a full line of groceries, meat, produce, and deli foods and offers catering. The couple was honored as the Wisconsin Grocers of the Year

1963 DAVE NUESSE of Eau

Claire, Wis., is professor emeritus of mathematics and computer science at the University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire and a regular volunteer with the American Red Cross. He was recently selected to receive the Jefferson Award for public service by the Red Cross. The award is a

Alumni News

JO (WILLIAMS) TREADWELL of Tipton, Iowa, was inducted into the Iowa High School Speech Association Hall of Fame. It is the highest honor the IHSSA may confer on an individual. She continues to work as contest manager and certified judge for the IHSSA. She became an IHSSA judge during her first year at Luther, over 50 years ago. CHRISTINA (VIGNEC) WINCH is the president and CEO of Winch Financial in Appleton, Wis.

1964 DUANE OSHEIM of

Charlottesville, Va., retired from the History Department at the University of Virginia.

1965 MARGIE KRUSE is a

social services counselor for North East Florida State Hospital in Macclenny, Fla.

MARCUS SAEGROVE retired from Viterbo University after teaching math, statistics, and computer science for almost 45 years. He lives in Gays Mills, Wis., where he keeps busy by pulling antique tractors and maintaining a small antique tractor collection.

1966 MARY (JOHNSON)

JORGENSEN earned certification as a health and wellness coach by Wellcoaches, which is affiliated with Harvard University’s American College of Sports Medicine. She is a life coach and owns Rising Sun Life Coaching in Decorah.

John Lavender ’65 uncovered the market data necessary to help Supervalu food retailer grow

F DAVE NESHEIM is the co-owner and a wine consultant at Vinifera Wines and Ales in Plymouth, Minn. RUTH ANN (PIEPER) WILLIUS wrote Go Daisy Go, a book about gardening that was illustrated by the sixth graders at Scandia (Minn.) Elementary School. The children’s whimsical drawings bring alive Ann’s story, which was inspired by her years of working with children and parents, gardening, and her volunteer experiences in Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Peru.

1968 MYRON HEATON

created the Myron Heaton Chorale after he moved to Las Vegas in 1984.

MIKE MARKEE

GLADYS (FENNER) ROBERTS of Rochester, Minn., is serving a two-

year term as conference convener of Zumbro River Conference, Southeast Minnesota Synodical Women’s Organization, Women of the ELCA.

COURTESY OF JOHN LAVENDER ’65

prestigious national recognition honoring community and public service in America. He was cited for his study and acquired skills in “catastrophe evaluation” and for training other volunteers. He is often called to immediately leave for some part of the country where a disaster has just occurred. On site, he assesses property damage and needs for emergency housing, food, etc. In the past three years, he has logged over 4,130 miles and visited disaster sites in nine states.

Vince Wixon ’66 and William Stafford in 1993. Wixon of Ashland, Ore., is coeditor of Oregon poet William Stafford’s Sound of the Ax, a collection of over 400 aphorisms and 26 aphoristic poems, published recently by the University of Pittsburgh Press as part of the Stafford Centenary.

John Lavender ’65 was a senior market analyst, but he describes his job in a much shorter way. “Spy” is the word Lavender, a born conversationalist, utters time and again when discussing his 30-year career with Supervalu, among the largest food retailers and suppliers in the United States. (Grocery chains currently owned and operated by the company include Cub Foods, Farm Fresh, Hornbacher’s, Shop ’n Save, and Shoppers.) “You could accurately call me a market analyst or a spy,” he says of his work with the Eden Prairie, Minn.-based company. “I located existing grocery stores in cities across the country, found out their volume of sales, and then predicted how Supervalu might fare in the market based on the population and its projected grocery expenditures per week.” As a market analyst, his primary mission was to help Supervalu make informed decisions about expanding into new communities—decisions that concerned everything from where to open a new store to the price charged for a given product in it. His ability to accurately communicate relevant socioeconomic data—a skill honed during more than 10 years as a city planner in Waterloo, Iowa—helped Supervalu grow from about 20 stores to more than 1,000 during his tenure with the company. “It felt good to help Supervalu make sound financial decisions,” he says. Five years after retiring, Lavender still marvels at the sheer volume of information he was able to glean from market competitors simply by engaging them in conversation. “It’s amazing what people will tell you if you just ask,” he says. As for what the future holds for food retailers across the country, Lavender offers a few predictions mixed with a bit of sage advice. “The big players will continue to get bigger—you don’t tell Walmart what to do—and home delivery of groceries will continue to struggle because it’s not an easy thing to do well,” he says. “In the end, the survival of any grocer today depends on clearly identifying the wants and needs of the customers being served.”

—Sara Friedl-Putnam

Spring 2014 Luther Alumni Magazine

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PHOTO COURTESY OF ORNESS DESIGN GROUP

Since then, the group has performed internationally, in China, Europe, and Mexico. WARREN LUCKNER of Lincoln, Neb., is a professor of practice for the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. LAWRENCE PAULSON retired from the U.S. Agency for International Development in Washington, D.C.

1969 JUDITH (GWINN)

ADRIAN published the book In Warm Blood: Prison and Privilege, Hurt and Heart, with coauthor DarRen Morris. As a reviewer wrote, the book “plumbs the depths, even with brave humor, of our correctional system and all the lost talent. It awakens us to systems which fail everyone and makes a compelling argument for change.” Adrian teaches in the COR Program/Graduate and Professional Studies at Edgewood College in Madison, Wis. KAROL (BRUE) AESCHLIMANN retired as an instructor for Southeast Technical School in Sioux Falls, S.D. GRACIA (KRAABEL) BLANCHARD is a sales representative for Lifetouch in Williamsburg, Iowa.

F George Orness ’67 has had a career as a foodservice designer in the commercial foodservice industry. He has his own consulting firm, Orness Design Group, in San Diego. Shown here is a design his firm did for the restaurant Cucina Enoteca in Irvine, Calif.

sublime sunset in Minnesota to dancing with a snake on an Arkansas sandbar. In addition to painting a kaleidoscope of vivid word pictures of river scenery, Ellingson writes movingly about the “interior landscapes” of solitude, silence, prayer, and communion with creation. The book is available through local bookstores, Amazon, and in digital format.

1970 HARRY HINDSON

DAVID ELLINGSON is author of the book Paddle Pilgrim: An Adventure of Spirit and Learning Kayaking the Mississippi River, which recounts his 2,300-mile kayak journey down the Mississippi River in 2012. The book, expanded from Ellingson’s real-time PaddlePilgrim blog, chronicles his “adventure of a lifetime” and recounts experiences from basking in a

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of La Crosse, Wis., is a teacher of woodwinds at St. Mary’s University of Minnesota, Winona (Minn.) State University, University of Wisconsin– La Crosse, and Cotton High School. He also plays bassoon with the La Crosse Symphony, saxophone with the La Crosse Jazz Orchestra, and is the principal clarinet for the La Crosse Concert Band. ROGER KRUEGER is a financial systems administrator for the Defense Finance and Accounting Service in Columbus, Ohio.

1971 F PAUL ERICKSON

had a 30-year career with Cargill Inc., which began immediately after his graduation from Luther with a major in business administration. Erickson says: “For the first 20 years, I held agricultural trading and management positions in various U.S. and Canadian locations. The primary commodities traded were wheat, barley, oats, canola, and flaxseed. The customers were primarily offshore processors. The activity included supplying customers and risk management/speculation. In my last 10 years, I managed Cargill’s sunflower, flax, and canola processing operations in the U.S. and Canada (making vegetable oils and meals from raw seed). Risk management/speculation remained a core activity. Our customers were primarily domestic food processors, paint manufacturers, animal feed manufacturers, and bottled vegetable oil retailers.” He retired in 2001. ANN (FURMAN) ESSE is an elementary teacher for Akiba Schechter Jewish Day School in Chicago.

ELAINE (MYHRE) HEGG of Calmar, Iowa, wrote Death in a OneRoom Country School. It is a historical account of the life and 1921 murder of a teacher, Inga Magnusson, from rural Allamakee County, Iowa. Hegg researched and worked on the book for 15 years. “Inga’s death affected people in the small towns of northeast Iowa and southeast Minnesota,” Hegg says. “I wanted Inga’s story preserved because I think it is an important part of local history.” F JIM MCCAFFREY signed copies of his newest book, Mississippi Mirth, at the Luther Book Shop last fall. The book is a natural complement to his

Alumni News

1974 KATHLEEN GAARE-

previous recipe book, Midwest Corn Infusion, and is a collection of his humorous food columns from Tapestry and Inspire[d] magazines. In the columns, he presents ideas for holiday entertaining, recipes, and stories of his recipe-gathering travels.

GARY O’MALLEY is superintendent for the Mount Vernon (Iowa) Community School District.

1972 RICK FROMM of

BARBARA SCHULTZ is a telephone support officer for United Christian Broadcasters in Staffordshire, United Kingdom.

Decorah, Iowa, is the managing editor of the Decorah Newspapers. He earned the top prize in the master columnist category in the annual Iowa Newspaper Association’s better newspaper contest.

1975 MARK PETERSEN

PAUL NELSON of Waverly, Iowa, retired from full-time pastoral ministry.

is manager of patient accounts for Rogers Memorial Hospital in Oconomowoc, Wis.

JAN (FERGUSON) WELLER is the head of the General Education Department at McNally Smith College of Music in St. Paul, Minn. She recently completed an Ed.D. degree at the University of St. Thomas.

JACQUI (PAUL) SHANDA is director of discipleship for Bethel Lutheran Church in Madison, Wis.

1976 RICH BRANDT of Sioux

1973 XAVIER RAY is the

Falls, S.D., is territory sales manager for Valspar Paint.

DONNIS (ROSHOLT) TOLLE is a claims manager for Cigna in Greenwood Village, Colo.

JULIE (NYLUND) CADALBERT is author of One Wondrous Christmas, published by Guideposts. She is also the author of Have No Fear, Little Flock and God’s Beautiful Heaven, published by Tate Publishing.

president and a certified financial planner for Retirement Strategies and Investments LLC in Los Angeles.

PAUL TORGERSON is chief administrative officer for Healtheast Care System in St. Paul, Minn., and chair of Luther’s Board of Regents.

DAVE HENDERSON is a safety and compliance officer for Eldon C. Stutsman Inc. in Hills, Iowa. JIM RIXEN is an optometrist at the Gundersen Eye Clinic in Waukon, Iowa. He was certified by the American Board of Optometry and earned the title of Diplomate, American Board of Optometry.

COURTESY SHERRY (BRAUN) ALCOCK ’82

JOHN SHENK of Chaska, Minn., is a retired general surgeon.

Minnesota Supreme Court associate justice David Lillehaug, left, talks with U.S. federal district judge Donovan Frank ’73 at the Luther College Lunch Connection event in Minneapolis on Feb. 28, 2014.

COURTESY OF JOYCE JOHNSON

WIESE of Creal Springs, Ill., retired as a teacher from the Marion (Ill.) Community Unit School District No. 2.

HOLLY THOMASON ’76 and her sister, JANE (THOMASON) DONOVAN ’86, wrote a humorous middle-grade novel called Esme Dooley. Set in Minnesota in 1904, the book received a gold medal in the Moonbeam Children’s Book Awards. SUSAN TJORNEHOJ is senior pastor at Christ Lutheran Church in Baltimore. She is also a member of the Gettysburg Seminary Board.

1977 TED JACOBSEN of

Joyce Johnson ’73, left, volunteered as Project Hope’s medical director during relief and recovery efforts in the Philippines after Typhoon Haiyan hit the islands in November 2013.

Joyce Johnson ’73, who has worked all over the globe, sees food as a bridge between cultures Few people can claim to have worked on all seven continents. Joyce Johnson ’73 of Chevy Chase, Md., is one of them. Johnson, a physician, has provided health care and consultation around the globe, most recently serving as volunteer medical director with Project Hope in the Philippines after Typhoon Haiyan ravaged the Southeast Asian country in November 2013. There, as she had so many places before, she experienced the power of food to bridge cultural gaps. “Food is a major part of every culture in the world, and it plays a vital role in bringing people together,” she says simply. “I’ve swapped recipes and cooked with people all around the world—I even learned how to cook flying fox, complete with its fur, while in Papua, New Guinea.” Johnson’s interest in food—specifically, its preparation— dates back to childhood. “I remember coming home from school and experimenting with different recipes for pastries and desserts,” she says. “My mother’s only rule was that I had to clean up the kitchen when I was done.” Later, as a graduate student at the University of Iowa, she used her culinary talents to earn a little extra income teaching cooking classes at a local community college. That experience would come in handy when, in 1997, she began a six-year stint with the U.S. Coast Guard overseeing all its galleys—those both ashore and afloat—as well as its culinary institute in Petaluma, Calif. “I tried to expand healthy food choices and find solutions to challenging food management issues,” says Johnson, who attained the rank of rear admiral before retiring in 2003. Today Johnson regularly taps into her vast medical, culinary, and nutritional expertise as a columnist for Military Office Magazine and the Uniformed Services Journal. “I enjoy writing about food because it’s both fun and creative,” she says. “I like to take things that are complicated and simplify them so that others aren’t afraid to try them.”

—Sara Friedl-Putnam

Coralville, Iowa, is a realtor/broker with Prime Realty, Iowa, and is team leader/CEO at Keller Williams Realty in the Dallas/Fort Worth area.

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Gillogly, Nordstrom named to hall of fame

JEANENE (KLATT) PRINCE is a library technology teacher for the Salt Lake City School District. ALICE REUTER is president of Back to Work Connection in Yorba Linda, Calif.

1978 PHIL CRABB is principal consultant for Pfizer Corporation in Princeton, N.J.

Brian Gillogly ’82

Brian Gillogly ’82 and Carl Randy “Kip” Nordstrom ’81 were inducted into the Wisconsin Baseball Coaches Association (WBCA) Hall of Fame on Feb. 8. Gillogly has been one of the most successful collegiate coaches in the country, according to the WBCA. He has spent 22 seasons coaching, mostly at Marian College and at Luther, where he was head baseball coach from 2002 to 2011. Gillogly was named Coach of the Year nine times. He led the Norse to Iowa Conference titles in 2007 and 2009 and to the NCAA III National Tournament in 2007. His record at Luther was 218-174. The Marian Sabers had 11 seasons with 20 or more wins, including six straight seasons with 30 wins. In 1995, he was named NAIA National Coach of the Year.

Carl Randy “Kip” Nordstrom ’81

Nordstrom won Wisconsin state championships with two teams, winning in 1994 at Spencer High School and in 2013 at Lodi High School. A varsity coach for 28 years, he has a 396183 record. His teams have won nine regional championships and three sectional championships. Nordstrom has worked baseball clinics throughout Wisconsin and Minnesota.

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RON EVANS is head of school at Traders Point Christian Academy in Whitestown, Ind. KAREN HANSON is spiritual health services manager for Mayo Clinic Health System–Red Wing (Minn.). DAN JORDET is administrative services director for the city of Otsego, Minn. He is also the president of the Minnesota Government Finance Officers Association for 2014. F ANDRA OLSON works at Northern Illinois University as one of a dozen cooks for the dorms on campus. “Working with food is physical, always changing, and always interesting,” she says.

Life and Annuity in Des Moines, Iowa.

ing faculty at Clarke University in Dubuque, Iowa.

DAN NELSON is a professor and director of the Office of Human Research Ethics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

CAROL (THOMPSON) VANCE earned a doctor of physical therapy and rehabilitation science degree from the University of Iowa. She teaches in the Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Science Department at the University of Iowa. She is also the TENS coordinator for a National Institutes of Health–funded multicenter trial investigating the effectiveness of transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation in patients diagnosed with fibromyalgia.

GARY RASSO is a manager courier in client service, lab sales, and marketing for Metropolitan Medical Laboratory PLC in Moline, Ill. He is also a private pilot for Airplane Single Engine Land. CAROL TOMER celebrated 25 years of ordained ministry at Pilgrim Lutheran Church in St. Paul, Minn.

1980 BILL CRIST is vice

president of Figi’s Integration at Ascena Retail Group in Wausau, Wis. TERRY (LARSON) KUNTZ owns Papa Murphy’s Pizza in Oskaloosa and Pella, Iowa.

JIM LABELLE is patron services manager for the Bel Canto Chorus in Milwaukee and a weekly guest on the Philcast with Phil Cianciola on WHBY Radio in Appleton, Wis.

1981 F KRISTIN WEEKS

DUNCANSON is a partner/ owner of Duncanson Growers, a diversified family farm in southern Minnesota. She is also chair of the Minnesota Agri-Growth Council and serves on the board of Feeding Our Communities Partners. Duncanson says: “We raise corn, soybean, canning peas, hogs, pumpkins, and children on about 4,000 acres near Mapleton. After graduating from Luther, I went to work in

BARB (PERRY) LUTZ is director of life underwriting at CUNA Mutual Life Insurance Company in Waverly, Iowa. She was recently elected to the Waverly Health Center Board of Trustees.

LARRY REIS of Calmar, Iowa, is a naturalist and an author of two books: Noting Nature: Observations and Lessons from the Midwest’s Metamorphosing Landscape, which follows a year in the landscape and draws upon his more than 25 years as a naturalist to track the lives of plants, animals, and humans in northeast Iowa, and Once a Trapper: The Outdoor Life of Dale Reis, a collection of stories from his father’s experiences hunting and trapping. DEB STINOGEL KALISH is senior assistant city attorney for Boulder, Colo.

1979 LES ELLIS is a market analyst for United Hardware Distributing in Plymouth, Minn.

STEVE HINRICHS is senior vice president of sales for Global Atlantic

LISA (ENGELHART) O’BRIEN retired as a finance manager from Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., after 27 years of service. GREG ORWOLL is executive director of DuRide in Dubuque, Iowa. JULIE SERRA is senior clinical research associate at Serra Clinical Consulting LLC in Portland, Ore. F JENNY SKINNER is founder and CEO of CakePlay, which creates products to make the work of cake decorators and pastry chefs more fun and convenient. Skinner’s work experience has included quality control for food manufacturing, technology development and product formulation, product management and marketing in the baking and spice industries, prospect management for a food venture capital firm, and two food technology startups. KRIS (ELFSTROM) TIERNAN is a pediatric nurse practitioner at Medical Associates and is on the nurs-

Dr. Rebecca Shaw ’71, left, is an instructor for Des Moines University College of Osteopathic Medicine. Shaw, a former Luther Board of Regents chair, is active in the Global Health Department and recently traveled on a Global Health Brigade Medical Mission to Honduras with 31 DMU students. One of those students happened to be Kelsey (Kittleson) Millonig ’12, right, a DMU College of Podiatric Medicine and Surgery student. In Honduras the group of 10 proivders and 31 students saw 1,582 patients over the course of five clinic days.

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Washington, D.C., for a senator from Minnesota. I worked on agriculture, food, and nutrition issues. Believe it or not, my senior paper on the PL480 program has been part of policy work on and off for my entire career. My husband was my intern, and after a short career with a feed and grain company in Mankato, Minn., I have been working on our farm and in the food and agriculture policy arena ever since.”

founder and president of Company of One in Minneapolis.

JILL STORLIE is owner of Jillellyn Consulting in Spring Grove, Minn.

JEFF PAULSON is president, health care west, for Sodexo Health Care Services in Des Moines, Iowa.

NICK VAVRICHEK of Grand Marais, Minn., is a registered nurse at Sawtooth Mountain Clinic.

CAROL GUSTAFSON is the owner and an operations specialist for Carol’s Assembly Service in St. Louis Park, Minn.

at Faith Lutheran Church in Isle, Minn.

(MCCLINTOCK) DORN is a senior companion for Lutheran Social Services in Buffalo, Minn.

NORMA (LEWIS) PORTER is finance director II for DeCare Dental in Eagan, Minn.

1982 PAUL BROWN is a pastor JAY EGENES is a pastor for Spirit of Hope in San Bernardino, Calif. SCOTT GOMER is the director of communications and client services for World-Class Instructional Design and Assessment, known as WIDA, at the Wisconsin Center for Education Research in Madison.

ROBERT PAUL is director of brand strategy at USDM.net and is the

1983 SHERRY

TOM VIX is a science teacher and head basketball coach at RushfordPeterson (Minn.) High School. He coached his boys’ basketball team to a 31-2 season record and a runner-up finish in Class A of the Minnesota High School Championships at the Target Center in Minneapolis.

CHERI JEANS HOLTERMAN of Reedsburg, Wis., is human resources director for Dental Associates of Baraboo.

CINDY FREDRICK is associate vice president of engagement and annual giving at the University of Virginia. DREW TORGERSON is national account sales manager for TCS Basys Controls in Middleton, Wis.

1984 JEFF CLOTHIER

is senior training specialist for Cognizant Technologies in Des Moines, Iowa.

“Lawn mowers” turn into lamb-raising business for Ingrid Bey ’81 Ingrid Bey ’81 operates Belle Acres farm in Belle Plaine, Minn., with significant other, Dave Plunkett. A number of years ago, she says, the farm needed some pasture lawn mowers, and the couple ended up getting

sheep to do the job. Ever since, she says, they have raised lamb, developing a business—Belle Acres Lamb—that markets lamb to individual customers. “We love to cook with lamb, share

recipes, and promote locally raised lamb. We really enjoy making the foodie connection with our customers, and we consider ourselves ‘compassionate carnivores,’ ” Bey says.

Belle Acres Hearty Lamb Chili

COURTESY INGRID BEY ’81

1 lb. ground lamb 1 cup onion, chopped 1 cup celery, chopped 1 can (16 oz.) red kidney beans 1 can (16 oz.) tomato sauce 1 tbsp. chili powder

½ tsp. salt ½ tsp. oregano leaves ¼ tsp. basil leaves 2 tsp. sugar 1 cup salsa or picante sauce

Cook lamb, celery, and onion over medium heat until lamb is no longer pink. Drain well. Add remaining ingredients. Simmer over low for 30 to 45 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Ingrid Bey raises lamb. The one she’s holding here was born on Easter.

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Distillery stays true to its heritage Phil Bubb ’00 had what he calls “a real circle of life moment” one morning last winter as he and Todd Dunkel ’00 breakfasted on bacon from an area farm. The guys had purchased corn from the farm, used the corn in their distillery and donated the spent grain back to the farmer, who fed it to his hogs and then donated some of the pork back to the distillers. “Todd and I were texting each other from our respective homes about how cool it was,” Bubb says. Dunkel and Bubb fired up the Iowa Distilling Company in Cumming, Iowa, in 2012, and are slowly building what they hope will become a very large Midwestern liquor manufacturer. Right now, they fill 1,500 bottles of bourbon and rum by hand each week. Some of their production goes into white oak barrels to age—even the rum, which Bubb describes as a whiskey-drinker’s rum because of that aging process. They buy corn and rye from farms within 15 miles of the business. Both men grew up working on family farms, and part of their idea in setting up the business was to be consistent with the heritage of distilling. “It was a big deal for us to work with local farmers, use local grain,” Bubb says. “As of harvest 2014, it’s going to be all within about four miles of the building because we’re sourcing entirely from two farmers.” To meet another need of the distillers, the farmers will switch to non-genetically modified corn this year. “That’s what our customers are asking us for,” Dunkel says. Bubb, who is a practicing lawyer in nearby Des Moines,

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says he was attracted to distilling not only by a taste for the spirits, but because of his history-major past: “Todd is a computer scientist, so when he came into it he was looking at how the plumbing works, how the chemical processes function. For me, it was more like, why is bourbon an American product? Distilling used to be an adjunct of farming. Prior to Prohibition, it was a way to preserve excess grain. You couldn’t necessarily keep grain over the winter, so whatever you couldn’t eat or store, you’d convert into alcohol.” As on a tightly run farm, almost nothing goes to waste at the Iowa Distilling Company. The only by-product that cannot somehow be used is something Bubb calls “corn water,” which is pumped to a 10,000-gallon steel tank out back. A septic company then takes the liquid to the water treatment plant in Des Moines. No waste makes it into a river or gets dumped onto a field, he says. —Ellen Modersohn Learn more about the Iowa Distilling Company at www.iowadistilling.com.

Best brewery named for a rugby position Bruce Dir ’87 is owner and master brewer at Tighthead Brewing Company in Mundelein, Ill.

Bruce Dir ’87

While he named the company for

BOB MODERSOHN

The beverage makers

Todd Dunkel ’00 and Phil Bubb ’00 own and operate the Iowa Distilling Company, in Cumming, Iowa, near Des Moines. the rugby position he played for 13 years—tighthead prop—he says it is a corporate name, and he has yet to name a beer after a rugby term. Tighthead’s beers will have their own brand identity. Paige Lobdell ’16, Dir’s cousin once removed (her mother is Lisa Schrader-Lobdell ’88), does work study in Luther’s Publications and Design Office, and she recently asked Dir a few questions about his business. Why did you start the brewing company? I’ve been brewing for 19 years— ever since my wife, Molly McDonnell, gave me a homebrew kit for Christmas the year before we got married. It became a hobby that led me to read and learn everything I could about beer, beer culture, and brewing history. Then, after 20 years in corporate human resources, I was reorganized out of a job for the second time in seven years. Molly and I decided that if I wanted to follow my dream, this was the time to do it.

How did you start? I enrolled at the Siebel Institute of Technology, one of the oldest and most prestigious brewing schools in the world, and received my associate in brewing degree. A friend of 10 years who was brewing in a local brewpub et me work with him for a year while I put together my business plan. What do you make and where do you sell it? Currently we distribute draught beer only, in kegs, to restaurants and bars throughout Chicagoland. These include Comfortably Blonde Ale, Scarlet Fire Red Ale, Irie IPA (voted number one IPA and Blonde Ale in Chicago by Chicago Magazine in September 2013), and Chilly Water American Pale Ale. How rewarding is having your own brewery? They say it is not work when you love what you do, and I concur. I have the extra bonus of being in a friendly, and very fun industry! There is a great community of

Alumni News

brewers in Chicago and in our Illinois Craft Brewers Guild, where competition is a distant second thought to the sharing of ideas, supplies, and equipment. What’s ahead? If all goes as planned, we will begin to package our main beers in cans for the retail market by the end of 2014. Read more on craft beer:

Schuyler Schultz ’02 is the author of Beer, Food, and Flavor: A Guide to Tasting, Pairing, and the Culture of Craft Beer, published in October 2013. Since graduating from Luther, Shultz has worked as a chef in Decorah, Las Vegas, and now San Diego.

one way or another since 1970, working with restaurants on their wine lists, food pairings, and special dinners. He’s worked at the retail, wholesale, importer, and winery levels. In 2013, after more than 40 years in the industry, he retired. Hunter still lives in his hometown of Rochester, N.Y. About his go-to wine varieties, he says: “My favorite wines change with the menu. However, my fallbacks—because wine and taste are very personal—are Sauvignon blanc, when it is crisp due to good acid and therefore a good food wine, and Rioja reserve, which has great flavor, good value, and works with most red-wine dishes. “I love Sauvignon blanc with grilled salmon and fresh basil pesto. That’s a great match because of the herbaceous, crisp wine. The light tannins and earthy flavors of Rioja blend perfectly with rare lamb chops and rosemary.”

We asked three of Luther’s alumni wine experts for some tips on their favorite varieties.

Gary Hunter ’70

Educated taste: Gary Hunter ’70 has been in the wine industry in

A taste for the classics: Edward Martin ’03 says he has been interested in food and wine since he was very young. “Over the course of several jobs in finance, real estate, and entrepreneurship, I found my passions in art, history, and culture, which led to food and wine history,” he says. “My goal is to be a food and wine writer/educator/sommelier. Nothing captivates my attention and passions like food and its link to historical, social, and cultural significance.” Martin worked in wine shops and restaurants, read and wrote about wine, took winemaking classes, made his own wine, and

more aromatic and maybe more floral than any other wine in all of Bordeaux. It has a great aroma of a bouquet of fresh violets,” he says. “But I’m real happy with some $10 bottles too—there’s a time and a place for everything. There’s a little Spanish cava, a Spanish sparkling wine, that’s called Cristallino. We can buy that for $5.99 a bottle. It’s great to drink in a Champagne flute, and you can make a great mimosa with it.”

Mary and David Rettig

David Lietz ’88

Edward Martin ’03

What the wine experts say

attained professional certifications for use in restaurants and hospitality positions. He is now in charge of wine and bar inventory for Grappa Restaurants. About wines, he says: “My favorite, currently, is Brunello di Montalcino. I am a big believer in classic European wines because they provide a structural knowledge of wine, in general. If I could have anything as a final meal, it would be foie gras with Chateau d’Yquem from France. I am also amazed at how versatile and varied styles of Riesling can be. If I were to go with domestic producers, I was amazed by Schramsburg (Napa) and also some wines from southwestern Michigan.”

Liquid assets: David Lietz ’88 sees wine as an investment, not only for his own collection, but as a member of the advisory board of Bacchus Partners LLC, a private equity wine fund. He advises the group about fine wines and which wines seem to be appreciating and would be a good investment. The attorney and member of Luther’s Board of Regents began learning about wine while working in the restaurant and bar business to put himself through law school. Lietz says he “learned by doing,” sampling wines from different regions and collecting them over the years. Lietz says that good wines are available in all price ranges. His favorite wine, from France’s Bordeaux region, is the Chateau Palmer, especially from 1961 and 1966. “Palmer, in its greatest iterations, has a nose, a bouquet, that’s unlike anything else. It’s

Read more on wine Check out The Gourmet Colony, a food and wine blog by Mary Rettig ’79, at http://thegourmetcolony.tumblr.com. With her husband, David, who holds the Certified Specialist of Wine designation, Rettig writes weekly about childhood food experiences, ethnic foods, and great restaurant and travel experiences, as well as wine. Rettig, director of development for major gifts at the University of Iowa, also creates and hosts vintner dinners. These theme-inspired meals pair foods with wine from the couple’s winery, White Cross Cellars, in Iowa’s Amana Colonies. Recent themes have included April in Paris, Oktoberfest, and the Olympics. The Olympic-themed meal, she said last winter, “begs that Norway be represented, so for an appetizer, I’ve taken lefse, added a creamy spread and smoked salmon, rolled it and sliced it into one-inch pieces.”

Spring 2014 Luther Alumni Magazine

Alumni News

Strube ’86 maintains Chicago produce company’s “giving-back” ethos Rob Strube III ’86 well remembers the hours he clocked as a child working for the family business, Strube, a Chicago-based produce wholesaler. “I started at a wage of a dollar a day,” he recalls. “My grandfather wanted to ingrain in his grandchildren the value of a dollar, and he accomplished that goal—we all paid for college ourselves.” These days Strube commands a slightly higher salary. As company president, a role he assumed last summer, he oversees the day-to-day operations of a business that employs 54 people (including several fellow family members) and annually tallies more than $50 million in sales of an “A to Z” range of fresh fruits and vegetables. “I’m still learning the ropes,” he says. “The important thing for me right now is getting to know all the numbers—which product lines are up and which are down, what’s doing well and what’s not.” Equally important, he says, is maintaining the “giving-back” ethos that his grandfather, the late Robert W. Strube, instilled in the company during his years as president. “My grandfather helped found the Greater Chicago Food Depository in the late ’70s,” says Strube, one of seven Luther alumni currently working for the company or serving on its board. “He wanted to help solve hunger, and establishing the depository was part of his solution.” Last year, the Greater Chicago Food Depository distributed 66 million pounds of food to area residents in need. Approximately 50,000 pounds of that food came from Strube on one day alone last November. “To celebrate our centennial, we donated 40 pallets of fresh produce to the depository,” Strube says. “Giving back to the community is a way to honor my grandfather and will continue to be a vital mission of Strube into its next century.” —Sara Friedl-Putnam For more information on Strube, visit the company’s website at www.strube.com.

Luther Alumni Magazine

MIKE DOTSETH is a software engineer for Harris Corporation in Colorado Springs, Colo.

F CHARLIE HOVEN is catering manager for Eurest Dining Services– Compass Group in Chicago.

CHUCK ELLIS is manager of benefits support for Electronic Commerce Inc. in Elkhart, Ind.

F SARAH KRAGTHORPE is owner of Jitters, a restaurant in Sioux City, Iowa. Jitters was named the city’s first Blue Zones Project restaurant for meeting the criteria of offering healthy food alternatives on its menu.

F JOHN HERMEIER is the chief financial officer for Link Snacks Inc., dba Jack Link’s Beef Jerky, the world’s leading manufacturer, marketer, and distributor of shelf-stable meat snack products selling under the brand names Jack Links, Matador, and World Kitchens. The company, headquartered in Minong, Wis., has nine production plants, two distribution centers, and several support offices throughout the United States, Canada, Brazil, New Zealand, Australia, and Germany. Hermeier says: “Our target market is anyone with an adventurous spirit who has a need to ‘feed their wild side!’ ” CRAIG IBSEN is managing principal for Next Level Ventures in Des Moines, Iowa, and a partner with Rebound Enterprises. LORI (MANGELS) LEIGH is a budget officer for the U.S. Navy in Port Hueneme, Calif. SARA (BEARD) REVELL is the assistant director of the Program Review Division of the Federal Bureau of Prisons in Washington, D.C. LORI (DRINOVSKY) and MARVIN SOJKA ’83 live in Des Moines, Iowa. She is a special education consultant for Great Prairie Area Education Agency. He is founder and managing director of Garrulus Group. REBECCA (OSTERMEYER) SULLIVAN was appointed Paideia director at Luther. She is assistant professor of library and information studies. STEVEN WILKE is owner of Wilke Chiropractic & Wellness in Madison, Wis.

1985 ERIC BRUDOS is CEO of Grafton House in London.

SARA (CHRISTENSEN) HOLLANDER is the director of children, youth, and family ministry for Mount Olive Church in Rochester, Minn.

JEFF NASON is regional sales manager for In-Shape Health Clubs in Stockton, Calif.

SCOTT NELSON is CEO of MDA Leadership Consulting in Minneapolis. F JEFF POWELL is president and owner of Hughes Company, in Columbus, Wis., which manufactures stainless steel equipment for the food processing industry. Major customers include Con Agra, Del Monte, Heinz, Seneca, and Lakeside Foods. Hughes specializes in equipment for bean and corn processing facilities and can process 5–10 tons of vegetables per hour, Powell says.

1986 DAVE MEIRICK was

promoted from chief operating officer to president of RoadSafe Traffic Systems Inc. in Phoenix, Ariz. JOE SWEET is manager of mortgage project management, technology, and reporting at U.S. Bank in Minneapolis.

1987 JULI (VILLESVIK)

BAECKER is CEO of WinkIt in Stillwater, Minn. KRIS FADNESS coached his Austin (Minn.) High School boys’ basketball team to a runner-up finish in the Class AAA Minnesota High School Championship game at the Target Center in Minneapolis.

Alumni News

1988 DONNA (PETERSON)

BOOTS is a gifted education facilitator for North Mahaska Community School in New Sharon, Iowa. TONA (TOLLEFSON) DOVE is an attorney at LeVander, Gillen & Miller PA in South St. Paul, Minn.

SCOTT KAULS is senior vice president of investments for Merrill Lynch in Minneapolis. LISA (MINSKE) KLEVER works in accounting/community education for the Des Moines (Iowa) Public Schools. SARAH (KRAABEL) KRIEWALL is director of the Employee Services Department for the Anoka-Hennepin (Minn.) School District. RACHEL REITAN won an Emmy for her television segment, “The Teaching Doctor,” on New Orleans’s WGNO-TV. LISA (GROTE) and SHANNON SANDQUIST live in Colorado Springs, Colo. In the summer, they work with the Navigators, training young staff and ministering to internationals. THERESA (NEILL) WOODS was appointed volunteer clinical assistant professor of pediatrics for Indiana University School of Medicine in Lafayette.

PETER EIGENFELD of Lake Elmo, Minn., is alliance manager-NDI Americas at Nuance Communications in Florida. MIKE FLITTIE is CIO of Barlean’s in Ferndale, Wash. F MEREDITH (ARNEY) GIORDANO is a water resources geographer at the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), where she comanages a $9 million collaborative research and outreach project to identify promising investments in small-scale agricultural water management. Until July 2013 she was based in Colombo, Sri Lanka. She is now based in Washington, D.C. IWMI’s website says the institute’s vision is water for a food-secure world. MARY GRIMM is continuing medical education coordinator for Gillette Children’s Specialty Healthcare in St. Paul, Minn. KAY (GAMBLE) KUST earned a master’s degree in counseling and psychology services from St. Mary’s University of Minnesota. She is a special education teacher and case manager for Osseo Secondary Transition Center in Brooklyn Park, Minn.

Reynolds Cramer ’91 named CEO of Iowa-based Fareway grocery chain This February, Reynolds Cramer ’91 was elected CEO of Fareway Stores Inc., stepping into the role from his position of executive vice president of the company. For Cramer, the grocery business is a family affair. His great-grandfather Paul S. Beckwith started the Fareway chain in Boone, Iowa, in 1938. Cramer got his start at that same store in high school. During his years at Luther, he continued working for Fareway at its Decorah branch. After positions in the Iowa stores of Oelwein, Ames, Cedar Rapids, and Des Moines, he returned to Boone to work for the chain’s corporate office. Many readers will know Fareway as the chain that’s closed on Sundays, a practice that stems from founder Beckwith’s religious belief in a day of rest. “I like to joke that being closed Sundays gives our competitors a day to try and catch up,” Cramer told the Des Moines Register. Cramer says that the company focuses on topnotch meat and produce departments, as well as great customer service. “That probably sounds simple,” he says, “yet we always feel that our competition is involved in so many other things that they can’t focus on what we consider most important. So we might not be able to do your dry cleaning, but if you shop at Fareway, you’ll go home that night and serve your family the best steak there is.” The chain also prides itself on its green initiatives, from heating its stores by reclaiming the heat generated by their refrigeration compressors to recycling everything from waste oil to plastic shrink wrap. Fareway operates in Iowa, Nebraska, Illinois, Minnesota, and South Dakota. This spring, the company opened its 108th store, in Owatonna, Minn. Cramer lives in Ames, Iowa, with his fiancée, Sheila Baker, and his two children, Ashley (14) and Zachary (9). He is the fourth CEO in Fareway’s 76-year history. —Kate Frentzel

Chris (Schweizer) Johnson ’87 is professor and director of dance at Beloit College in Beloit, Wis. She presented her pieces, Between the Lines and Holding Patterns, at the New Prague Dance Festival in Prague, Czechoslovakia, in July 2013. Johnson was awarded first place overall for her choreography, and her company of dancers was awarded second place in contemporary dance. Spring 2014 Luther Alumni Magazine

Alumni News

DAVID MCDONALD is senior subcontract buyer for Rockwell Collins Inc. in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. DENISE (FLATLAND) ROHM is an accountant for Hodge Construction in Iowa City, Iowa. SCOTT STIVERS is worship curator and volunteer coordinator for Easter Lutheran Church in Eagan, Minn.

ERIC ANTINIOU

F SARAH BARON SULLIVAN works in public relations and marketing for Salad Girl Organic Salad Dressings, based in Minneapolis. LINDA (BALDWIN) TINKLER is a writer in Wakefield, Mass.

Vanessa (Grima Baldacchino) Frazier ’90 was appointed Malta’s ambassador to Italy and was posted in Rome last fall. In March she was awarded the Chevalier de l’Ordre national du Mérite (French Medal of Honor), shown above. The award is the highest civilian honor the French Republic can bestow. Frazier was cited for her work in European and Mediterranean defense and security and for her humanitarian work in Malta for the thousands of people evacuated from Libya during the Libyan crisis. The French ambassador to Malta, Michel Vanderpoorter, right, presented the award.

Caroline Worra ’91 as Abigail in Lizzie Borden

Caroline Worra ’91 earns rave reviews Last year was an especially big year for soprano Caroline Worra ’91. Here’s what some of the music world’s critics had to say about just a few of her roles in 2013: Role: Abigail in Lizzie Borden; Boston Lyric Opera Review: “As Abigail Borden . . . Worra was riveting . . . proving herself one of the finest singing actresses around.” (Karen Ratzlaff, Opera News, February 2014)

1989 JEFF BIGLER of

Rochester, Minn., was chosen for the Transamerica Financial Advisors (TFA) Leadership Award for his commitment to serving his clients, for his volunteering in his community, church, schools, and at Luther, and for his leadership in the industry. Only one winner is selected each year by the TFA senior management.

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tor at Mrs. Fields Cookies in the early 2000s. For the past several years, he has provided the cookies for the annual Kent Finanger Golf Classic.

TOM KRAABEL is principal for LeBaark Consulting in Singapore.

ERIC TVEDT of Hudson, Wis., is a regional account executive for Inside Out Remodeling & Roofing LLC and manager of payer strategy operations and implementation for ION Solutions, both in Texas.

DAWN MATHSON is compliance manager for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota in Eagan. CHRIS MESEKE is director of academic assessment for Park University in Parkville, Mo.

JEAN DICKSON is an attorney/ partner with the Betty, Neuman, and

JILL (SCHROEDER) and JIM PUTMAN live in Eagan, Minn. She is CFO for Kroll Ontrack. He is senior vice president for USBank.

PHOTO CREDIT

Role: Older Alyce in Glory Denied; Fort Worth Opera Review: “The most all-around performer was Caroline Worra. . . . All the colors of the emotional spectrum seem to radiate from her facial expressions.” (Opera Pulse, April 2013) Role: Fiordilgi in Cosi fan tutte; Boston Lyric Opera Review: “Silvery soprano Caroline Worra sang with passion and dead-on accuracy.” (Ed Tapper, Edge Boston, March 17, 2013)

McMahon law firm in Davenport, Iowa. She was recently elected director of the Pleasant Valley (Iowa) Community School District.

Kim (MacVey) Sidwell-Frame ’89 is a general music teacher, K–5, and Rachelle (Lutz) Bowers ’95 is a school counselor, K–5, at Prairie Trail Elementary in Ankeny, Iowa.

F KARLA YUKARI SAKAMOTO is a food writer doing culinary tours in Tokyo. Following Luther, she trained at the French Culinary Institute as a chef and baker. She also trained as a sommelier with the American Sommelier Association and has written a book, Food Sake Tokyo, on Japanese food and beverages. Read her blog at http://foodsaketokyo.wordpress.com. The Luther Alumni Magazine ran a profile of Sakamoto in the winter 2012 issue. Read the article in the Web Extras section of Luthermagazine.com. F DAVID SMITH of Aurora, Colo., started his career in accounting and finance and became marketing direc-

MICHAEL WASCHEVSKI served on the Presbyterian Committee on Congregational Song, which released the hymnal Glory to God for the Presbyterian Church after five years of development. He is the associate pastor for programing and pastoral care at First Presbyterian Church in Fort Worth, Texas.

1990 JARED ASHLAND is vice president of information technology for Jewelers Mutual Insurance in Neenah, Wis.

RICHARD BRUXVOORT-COLLIGAN is a songwriter and has two songs, “O Christ, Surround Me” and “As-salaamu Lakum (Peace of God Be with You),” included in the new Glory to God hymnal of the Presbyterian Church. His new album of contemplative psalm song, Our Roots Are in You, was released last September. He lives in Strawberry Point, Iowa.

Alumni News

MIRA CANION of Lafayette, Colo., had her book, Agentes Secretos y el Mural de Picasso, featured in a Spanish class last fall at ArtHaus in Decorah. She has authored a number of books with the mission of creating interesting and accessible reading material for language students.

REWARD OFFERED TO

DAVID CASPERSON is the owner of DMC Insurance Services Inc. in Lakeville, Minn., and a representative with the DMG Financial Group. F TAMMY (ZENK) FAUX is an associate professor of social work at Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa. She is also owner of Genuine Faux Farms, which grows organic produce. RICHELLE HALVERSON joined the staff of Midwest Group Benefits in Decorah. Her primary focus is in the company’s self-funded and fully insured areas. TED HOORNSTRA of St. Petersburg, Fla., is scheduled to appear as a contestant on Wheel of Fortune Wednesday, June 11. HOLLY NORTON is a professor at the University of Northwestern Ohio in Lima. SHARI (HUFF) OLLENDICK is a legal secretary for Kennedy & Kennedy in New Hampton, Iowa. SUSAN (RILEY) SCHNEIDER is working on her book, Stick It to Leadership. She is president of Plus Relocation Services in Minneapolis. JEN SCHWEM is a database analyst for National Jewish Health in Denver.

ALUMNI CHILDREN When your child enrolls at Luther, he or she is eligible for a Luther Legacy Award of

$ 4,000 ($1,000 per year for 4 years)

Do you have a son or daughter who may be interested in attending Luther? If so, the Luther Admissions Office wants him or her on its Wanted List. Go to luther.edu/admissions/legacy to tell us more about your child.

DAVID WERGES is pastor for the Cross Roads Lutheran Parish, which consists of four congregations in the Osage (Iowa) area.

1991 LISA (ROSBY) ALDRICH is a substitute teacher in Lakeville, Minn.

DEAN BOLTE is managing directorAmericas for Omnifone in Glendale, Calif.

Spring 2014 Luther Alumni Magazine

Alumni News

MARTY COLE is a financial consultant for Thrivent Financial in Waconia, Minn.

CAROL (EDWARDS) DENEKAS of Dyersville, Iowa, is the author of Rescuing Love, a contemporary Christian romance, published by Tate Publishing. The book is available through the publisher, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble. DIANE (MCCAULEY) GOETSCH is the arts education coordinator for D.C. Everest Area School District in Schofield, Wis. STEPHEN HAMBORG is operations manager for Deere & Company in Dubuque, Iowa. ROB PIETZ is production control manager for Beacon Promotions in New Ulm, Minn. DAVE TURCK is senior business analyst (ERP) for Alliant Energy in Madison, Wis.

SUJAY LAMA is the University of North Texas women’s tennis head coach. The Professional Tennis Registry named him the 2013 Jim Verdieck College Coach of the Year. The award was given by the leading tennisteaching professional organization in the world. CRAIG RABE is principal finance business relationship manager at Rockwell Collins in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

Eric Monson ’92, second from left, is president of American Vocal Studio Ltd. in Hong Kong. His vocal group, Metro, made it to the quarterfinal round for the 2014 China’s Got Talent competition.

SARAH RUNDE is senior clinical research manager for Medtronic in Minneapolis.

district in 1998 as a classroom teacher, teaching third and sixth grades before becoming a behavioral interventionist and assistant principal at Hidden Valley Elementary School in Savage. She also serves on the school’s leadership team and is the school’s volunteer coordinator. She will be in consideration for the 2014 Minnesota Teacher of the Year.

SONJA (PARKS) SANDQUIST is pastoral leader for St. Mark Lutheran Church in Waterville, Kan. DAVE SCHNEIDER is senior vice president for Digitas, a digital marketing firm in Chicago. He is part of the senior leadership team, directs several of the firm’s large Chicagobased clients, and leads overall client services practice. KAREN (TITUS) TREWIN is an associate representative for Thrivent Financial in Decorah.

1993 JP BICKEL is vice 1992 KARA (SKATRUD)

BAYLOR was named campus pastor at Carthage College in Kenosha, Wis.

JOEL BOULANGER is director of Litigation SaaS Operations for Thomson Reuters in Eagan, Minn.

president–partner services for SecurityCoverage Inc. and product marketing manager for Go Daddy in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. MARK BJERKE is director of business development for Image Express Inc. in Eden Prairie, Minn.

NANCY (QUIRING) FISHER is talent development manager for Caribou Coffee–Corporate Office in Brooklyn Center, Minn. JOHN GRUNWALD is director of technology for the Fairfield (Iowa) Community School District. KEITH KNAUTZ is director of golf course operations at Glendale Lakes Golf Club in Glendale Heights, Ill.

Luther Alumni Magazine

STEPHANIE (DAHMS) CIN was named the 2013 Burnsville-EganSavage (Minn.) School District 191 Teacher of the Year. She joined the

GREG ELLIS is general manager for Drake IMG Sports Marketing in Des Moines, Iowa. BRITT (ANDERSEN) HUSS earned a master’s degree in education from the College of Saint Elizabeth. She teaches art in the Hopatcong (N.J.) School District. SONYA (LINDQUIST) JANSMA is a certified public accountant for CliftonLarsonAllen LLP in Hudson, Wis. F DAVID PIERCE and his wife, LEAH (EMBRETSON) PIERCE ’00, grow hops on their farm, selling to brewpubs in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minn. She founded and managed the Waconia, Minn., schools edible classroom and community vegetable garden for four years. The garden supplies the school cafeteria and community supported agriculture shares and is used as a resource and teaching site for many classes and subject disciplines. NATHAN POTTER is digital marketing director for Underwriters Laboratories in Laramie, Wyo.

ANJELA SHUTTS was elected to the three-person executive committee of the law firm of Whitfield & Eddy PLC in Des Moines, Iowa. The executive committee develops comprehensive strategic direction and leads all initiatives of the 51-person law firm with three Iowa offices. She was also appointed by Iowa governor Terry Branstad to the Judicial Nominating Commission, District 5C (Polk County, Iowa). The five-person nominating commission submits nominees to the governor for vacancies on the district court bench.

1994 HEATHER CLEFISCH

is division vice president–senior corporate counsel and assistant secretary for Spectrum Brands Inc. in Madison, Wis. KRISTIN (OLSON) ELERDING teaches preschool for Alden (Iowa) Elementary. MARI (SCHEETZ) EYESTONE is a research associate at the University of Iowa in Iowa City. DONGI (HOLZ) HUSS is a product and systems developmental specialist for CHS in Inver Grove Heights, Minn.

Alumni News

F KRISTIN SHURR is a managing partner with Great American Restaurants, a 13-unit company in the Washington, D.C., metro area. “I have been working in the industry for 14 years and love the business,” she says. JASON YUNGTUM is vice president and regional general counsel–legal services for Catholic Health Initiatives in Omaha, Neb.

1995 HEATHER (WERDAHL) CRAIG is claims service manager for USAA in Phoenix, Ariz.

CHRISTINE (DENEHY) ENDERLE is a self-employed music teacher in Williamstown, Mass. SCOTT ISBELL works in factory sales for Crown Equipment Corporation in Davenport, Iowa. F LAURA KNUTSON works in human resources for Wirtz Beverage MN in St. Paul, Minn. SUZANNE (LAMBERTY) MOE and her family were featured in an episode of Massive Moves, an HGTVCanada show. The episode profiled the move of a 1905 two-story farmhouse from Georgetown, Minn., to their property in rural Lake Park, Minn.

MELISSA (SCHINDLER) MIROSLAVICH is owner of Miroslavich Photography in Woodbury, Minn. Woodbury Magazine named her business the best photography studio of 2014. She was also given the Portrait Photographer of the Year Award by Twin Cities Professional Photography Association. She is shown on KSTP TV’s Twin Cities Live, and her work has been featured in Oncology Today Magazine and on KARE 11. She is also the photographer of the first Animal Humane Society “Report to the Community” calendar. She earned the master of photography degree from Professional Photographers of America.

DAN PESONEN is a technician for I&S Group in Mankato, Minn. ANN (STENSAAS) SHORT is a pediatric occupational therapist for TOP Pediatric Therapy in Frisco, Texas. STACEY (SOKOL) and GARRETT STRUESSEL ’93 live in Janesville, Wis. She is Project BURST social worker at Parker High School, and he is pastor at Hope Lutheran Church. HERMAN TIEDEMAN of Watertown, Wis., is a sales representative for South Dakota and southwest Minnesota for Bailey Nurseries.

1996 KRISTYN (EDWARDS) BENSON is senior director of regulatory affairs for Torax Medical in St. Paul, Minn.

DEE BROWN is the head crosscountry coach for Iowa Central Community College in Fort Dodge, Iowa. His women’s cross-country team won their third national title in a row, and the men’s team finished second. He was named NJCAA National Coach of the Year.

MATTINE (DAHL) GALLENTINE is president of MG Training and Consulting in St. Charles, Ill. She is also chair of vocational services for the Rotary Club of Naperville Sunrise and director of Friends of the Forest Preserve District of DuPage County Board of Directors. In addition, she is board director for the Chicago Family Business Council and site coordinator for Girls on the Run at Ferson Creek Elementary School. KATHY (SCHMITT) KLINE is an education outreach specialist for the University of Wisconsin–Sea Grant Institute in Madison. BETH (KELLER) and ANDY MORK ’94 live in St. Paul, Minn. She is a hospitalist at St. John’s Hospital. He is a technology integrationist at Saint Thomas Academy.

Davidson ’92 heads Kellogg division Wendy (Jaycox) Davidson ’92 has worked with giants in the food industry throughout her career, moving from Tyson Foods Inc., to McCormick & Company, to Kellogg Company. She’s now president of Kellogg’s U.S. Specialty Channels business unit, which develops and markets food products for food service (schools, healthcare, restaurants, businesses), convenience stores, vending, export, and custom manufacturers. Davidson translates society’s food interests into what consumers see from food service to retail store shelves. “The industry is always so interesting because consumers not only use food for fuel, but food has such a way of predicting future direction in desire for convenience, health, lifestyle, and flavor,” she says. One direction the consumer is headed is toward more healthful eating, and Davidson says that Kellogg, which was founded more than 100 years ago by W. K. Kellogg to create wholesome foods (think Corn Flakes), is continually looking for new ways to make its products easily accessible. So what can consumers expect to see in the future? More single-serve containers and packaging with less material, which weighs less, takes up less space, and uses less fuel to transport. The emphasis on less packaging, of course, also mirrors growing interest in sustainability. Also look for snacks and treats that incorporate more whole grains and less sugar and salt. Davidson’s family—Anders, 15; Brenna, 10; and husband Thor Davidson ’93—have enjoyed the opportunity to taste products before they reach the marketplace. “I bring a variety of our new products home,” she says. Pringles Tortilla chips, which hit Walmart stores in January, got a thumbs-up from the kids last fall. A sociology and political science major at Luther, Davidson got her start in the food business through an internship at Tyson. In addition to serving on the Executive Committee of the Women’s Foodservice Forum Board of Directors, which helps advance women in the industry, she is on Luther’s Board of Regents. —Ellen Modersohn

Spring 2014 Luther Alumni Magazine

Alumni News

LORI MIDTHUN is executive director of Bainbridge Youth Services in Bainbridge Island, Wash. STEWART OPJORDEN is a staff cytotechnologist for Memorial Hospital, University of Colorado Health in Colorado Springs.

BILL MINDAK

JON SEVERSON is owner at Colorado Speciality Velo LLC in Colorado Springs.

With FDA, Betsy Jean Yakes ’00 works to protect nation’s food supply It hits hard. It hits fast. And it makes anyone unlucky enough to contract it miserable. According to Betsy Jean (Olsen) Yakes ’00—a chemist at the the FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition in College Park, Md.—the highly contagious norovirus wreaks havoc on the digestive systems of more than 20 million Americans each year. “Unfortunately, traditional methods for detecting the norovirus pathogen in foods are slow or unreliable, so it’s difficult to detect the virus quickly enough to prevent large foodborne illness outbreaks,” she says. “One long-term goal of my research at the FDA is to develop a test that nonscientists can use to detect norovirus in oysters quickly and easily, perhaps even at the point of harvest to ensure the shellfish is safe before it’s brought back to shore.” Ensuring the safety of the nation’s food supply has been a mission of the FDA since its formation in 1906—and Yakes’s job since she began investigating advanced instrumentation and detection techniques at the agency in 2007, first as a postdoctoral fellow and later as a staff member. (She earned a doctorate in analytical chemistry from Iowa State University that same year.) While progress in the field often comes in small increments, Yakes draws inspiration from the knowledge that her efforts may one day help the FDA reach one of its primary goals—to reduce food-borne illnesses through adoption of practices that prevent pathogens from being present in the nation’s food supply in the first place. “I love seeing a problem or challenge that can be helped by science, designing experiments to get to answers, getting results, and then evaluating what to do next,” Yakes says. “Even on the long days, it’s fulfilling to know that what I do helps to protect the public from food-borne illnesses.” —Sara Friedl-Putnam

Luther Alumni Magazine

JILL OSIER wrote Should Our Undoing Come Down upon Us White, winner of the 2013 Frost Place Chapbook Competition. The chapbook explores the landscape of winter and how we struggle for human connection when the elements bear down on us. She received a fellowship to the Frost Place Poetry Seminar in Franconia, N.H., where she will give readings at the Frost Place and live and write in Frost’s mountain cabin. She was also awarded a literature fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Diane Middlebrook Poetry Fellowship from the Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing, and the Campbell Corner Poetry Prize. DENNIS TROY is a molecular sales specialist for Medical Diagnostics Sales in Billerica, Mass. He is a 2012 Winner’s Circle Honoree, which acknowledges the top 3 percent of worldwide sales performance out of 1,300 representatives.

1997 JEFF BERTHIAUME is a

loan officer with Cornerstone Home Lending Inc. in Fort Collins, Colo.

PHIL SHEIE is a bicycle fitting technician and mechanic for Counterbalance Bicycles in Seattle. ERIC STRELOW is public sector account manager for Sprint in Omaha, Neb.

1998 KRISTEN (ASLAKSON)

and EVAN ABBEY live in Urbandale, Iowa. She is a developmental kindergarten teacher at Timber Ridge Elementary, and he is project manager for online learning at Heartland AEA (Area Education Agency). SHARLENE BOHR owns the Exchange Cresco in Cresco, Iowa, where she is an instructor and artist. ANDY DYBVIG is consumer insights manager for Convenience and Food Service with General Mills in Golden Valley, Minn. JAY KAUTT is a planned giving officer for the University of Minnesota Foundation in Minneapolis.

JANET (KRANZ) DAVIS is a customer advocate for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas in Richardson. KIRSTEN (ALWORTH) DOESCHER of Verona, Wis., is community support agent for Three Rings/SEGA of America in San Francisco. CHRIS HARRIS is a partner with Thrivent Financial in North Liberty, Iowa. LEA (DONHOWE) LOVELACE is a codirector of ArtHaus in Decorah, which received a $7,500 grant from West Bend Mutual Insurance Company’s Independent Agents’ Fund. The grant will help fund free and low-cost community events, a youth scholarship program, and the new ArtHaus Apprentice Program.

DANIEL OLSON of Baltimore earned a master’s degree in art and design entrepreneurship from the Maryland Institute College of Art. He is the founder and CEO of Language Asset Services, which provides language consultation, translation services, and individual foreign-language lessons to non-native-speaking adults of all levels of experience. STEEN WESTERGAARD is senior development scientist for Novo Nordisk A/S in Bagsvaerd, Denmark.

Alumni News

LIZ (RUUD) ZIEGLER teaches reading at Eagle Bluff Elementary in Onalaska, Wis.

JAMI SEVERSON teaches Spanish at John Adams Middle School in Rochester, Minn.

1999 BRAD AABERG is

SARA (YEDLIK) ARNOLD was appointed to the Iowa State Board of Educational Examiners by Governor Terry E. Branstad. She is a teacher with the Cedar Rapids School District Program for Creative and Academic Talent at Hoover, Coolidge, and Van Buren elementary schools. SHELLEY (JENNINGS) BUMPUS teaches preschool for Trinity Lane Preschool in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. DREW DEWITT is an account executive for Hallett Financial in Minneapolis. BRENT EBLING is senior finance manager for Capital One in Eden Prairie, Minn. NICOLE (PRESCHER) HANSON is a nurse practitioner in orthopedic infectious diseases at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. CHRIS JACOBSON of Anahola, Hawaii, is a management consultant for CompassX Group. JAMES KNAPP is president at Heritage Wealth Architects in St. Paul, Minn. CHRISTINE LOVEN-SANTOS is dean of students for New America School in Denver. LINDSEY (SMITH) MUNSON is an admissions representative at Trinity College of Nursing Health and Sciences in Rock Island, Ill. LORI (HAGEN) SCHOENHARD is client relationship manager for MedTouch in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

LUKE HANSON ’14

officials coordinator for North Country Region USA Volleyball in Bloomington, Minn.

TRIXIE (EVENSON) WALTERS of Otsego, Minn., is controller for Probus Online and Snap Agency, and she also works as a business analyst and in sales for Studio 503/Cointainer Company.

2000 BETH BROGAARD-

ALLEN is a country representative for Burundi at Population Services International in Bujumbura, Burundi. SARA (DONHOWE) GOLDBERG of Takoma Park, Md., is directorstewardship and donor advancement for Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. MELISSA (AHLSTROM) GREGG is assistant supervisor of statistical programmer analysts for Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. JODI (WENNER) NIXON teaches second grade for the St. Peter (Minn.) Public Schools. JENNIFER (TESMER) PICKETT is a clinical research associate for Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. JILL RUTZ works in change management for DuPont Pioneer in Johnston, Iowa. GRETCHEN SCHEIDEL is a psychology postdoctoral fellow at Children’s Hospitals & Clinics of Minnesota in St. Paul. SARAH (LONG) and DIRK STADTLANDER live in Pueblo, Colo. She is a substitute teacher in the Pueblo City Schools. He is pastor at King of Kings Lutheran Church. LINDSEY (ANDERSON) THOMPSON is client service specialist for Scrimmage in Minneapolis.

Dan Christenson ’02, right, spoke to several Luther classes on campus during spring semester 2014.

Dan Christenson ’02 is key adviser to top policymakers at USDA Dan Christenson ’02 is the chief of staff for the Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services division at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). He works as a key adviser to top policymaking officials at the USDA, including secretary of agriculture Tom Vilsack and undersecretary Kevin Concannon. The USDA administers a broad range of food and nutrition programs that touch the lives of one in four Americans, including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and School Breakfast Program, and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). All together, the various nutrition assistance programs at the USDA account for more than $100 billion of the USDA’s annual budget. While at the USDA, Christenson has been closely involved with the development of major national policies, regulations, and administrative actions that impact the way Americans eat, including: • the first update to nutrition standards for school lunches and breakfasts in roughly 15 years • the first comprehensive standards for foods sold in school vending machines and a la carte lines • nutrition standards for the foods available through the WIC program • the promotion of the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans and the new MyPlate food icon Prior to coming to the USDA, Christenson worked for several years on Capitol Hill as a senior professional staff member on the U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee—first under chairman Tom Harkin (D-IA) and later under chairwoman Blanche Lincoln (D-AR). During his time on the Senate Agriculture Committee, Christenson was a top policy adviser and staff member on food and nutrition issues. He helped to craft the nutrition title of the 2008 farm bill, as well as the 2010 Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, the legislation that governs the nation’s child nutrition programs. — Courtesy Dan Christenson ’02

Spring 2014 Luther Alumni Magazine

Alumni News

SCOTT VIAL of Fort Benning, Ga., is a major in the U.S. Army and commands the 926th Medical Detachment (Preventive Medicine) at Bagram Air Field, Afghanistan. The 926th will be deployed for nine months and provide preventive medicine support to U.S. and International Security Assistance Force members in northern and eastern Afghanistan, as well as the Kabul region.

2001 F DAN BELLRICHARD is operations and systems manager for Grass Run Farms in Dorchester, Iowa. LAURA (RIORDAN) BERARDI is corporate and foundation relations officer for Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa. LAURA (AHLSTRAND) BUNCH is senior account manager for Worldstrides in Ballwin, Mo. F HEATHER CIERNIA NELSON and CHRIS NELSON ’04 live in Woodbury, Minn. She is director of music and worship for Shepherd of

KARI (DOUDNA) SPLINTER teaches special education for the Dubuque (Iowa) Community Schools.

the Hills Lutheran Church. He is manager of IT operations and infrastructure for Restaurant Technologies Inc.

2003 TANYA (LEAKE)

JODI (ANDREWS) COLEMAN is a registered nurse for Primary Children’s Medical Center in Salt Lake City.

and MARK ANDERSON live in Middleton, Wis. Tanya is IT payroll clerk for the city of Madison, and Mark is a software engineer for CUNA Mutual Group.

TIFFANY FAY is a youth administrator for Antioch Community Church in Waco, Texas. MELODY JORDAHL-IAFRATO is associate program director of the University of Arizona Medical Center at South Campus Family Medicine Residency. She is also assistant professor of family and community medicine at University of Arizona College of Medicine in Tucson.

2002 GERRET APELT is IT

operations manager at IS Nordic A/S in Copenhagen, Denmark. LYNN DALHED is senior operational trainer for Optum Health in Bloomington, Minn. SONJA (MORTENSON) DZIEKCIOWSKI teaches second grade for the International School of Minnesota in Eden Prairie.

F ANGIE (JOHNSON) RICHARDS is director of sales and catering and oversees the Doubletree by Hilton and Hilton Garden Inn Hotels for Titan Development & Investments in Rochester, Minn.

ANNE-MARIE HANSON is the Patricia C. and Charles H. McGill III ’63 Visiting Assistant Professor of International Studies for Trinity College in Hartford, Conn.

PETER SCHLETTY is digital editor for Hazelden Publishing in Center City, Minn.

ANN (JORSTAD) HUBER earned a doctor of nursing practice degree from the University of Minnesota. She is a certified nurse-midwife for North Metro Midwives in Plymouth, Minn. MELISSA (NASH) LADD is a substitute teacher for the Montgomery County Public Schools in Silver Spring, Md.

LUTHER COLLEGE SUSTAINABILITY

LINDSAY READ is in Berlin, Germany, for a year on a nutrition education/policy fellowship with the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.

F Derek Miller, left, legislative director for Sen. Tom Harkin, got a tour of River Root Farm in Decorah in spring 2013 from owners Katie (Prochaska) ’01 and Mike Bollinger ’02. Katie and Mike are experts in growing food in the winter (yes, even in Iowa) using high-tunnel greenhouses. River Root Farm produces certified organic vegetables for area restaurants, food stores, and CSAs. Miller was in town to get a feel for the work being done by the Northeast Iowa Food and Fitness Initiative (NIFF), which promotes active living and healthful eating. The Bollingers have hosted workshops over the years on vegetable/herb/ cut-flower production in high tunnels, and they have hosted school groups as well. They are also part of the NIFF’s Buy Fresh, Buy Local campaign.

Luther Alumni Magazine

the Year for the 2012 cross-country season, when her team won the state title.

ANN (LIEBBE) WALTERS is a registered nurse in the cardiovascular care unit for Advocate BroMenn Medical Center in Normal, Ill. JANE (MCDERMOTT) and KENNY WHEELER ’00 live in Bettendorf, Iowa. She teaches physical education for the Pleasant Valley Schools. He is an academic adviser for Western Illinois University. They are co-head coaches for the Pleasant Valley High School track and field teams. They were selected as the Iowa Association of Track Coaches (IATC) Class 4A At-Large Coaches of the Year for the 2013 track and field season. She was also the IATC Class 4A Coach of

DAN BURRIS earned a master of divinity degree from Lutheran Theological Seminary, Gettysburg. He is associate pastor at St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church in Boyertown, Pa. NISSE CHRISTOPHERSON is business development executive for Iron Mountain in Des Moines, Iowa. KATE (SWENSON) CINNAMO is director of community relations for Ebenezer Ridges Care Center in Burnsville, Minn. BETSY DREIER published an ebook of poetry titled Tears Fall into Waterfalls. KRISANNE (LINDE) FORSMAN teaches first grade for Kimball (Minn.) Elementary School. ERIN INDRELIE SWOBODA is administrative dean at Chanhassen (Minn.) High School. JUSTIN JAEGER of New Berlin, Wis., is a registered representative for New York Life Insurance Company and serves as vice president of youth for the Wisconsin Rugby Union and as coach for the Oconomowoc Rugby Football Club. DAVID LOWER is a market research consultant for Wells Fargo in Minneapolis. AMANDA (BOEHMKE) MADER is administrative specialist for Wipfli LLP in Edina, Minn. BROOKE SANDERS and ZACHARY KREGER ’02 of Waukee, Iowa, started a company and created an iPhone app called Offspring. It enables one to capture, share, and publish a child’s special moments. http://offspringapp.com

Alumni News

MELISSA STULL is an attorney and partner at Soule & Stull LLC in Minneapolis. RYAN THOMPSON is senior IT solutions developer for Wellmark Blue Cross Blue Shield in Des Moines, Iowa. He is also an assistant wrestling coach at Norwalk High School. KARIANNE (MOUCKA) WARDELL is vice president-digital for Weber Shandwick in Chicago.

BETH WILLER is founder and artistic director of the women’s vocal group Lorelei Ensemble in Boston. The group has been recognized as one of Boston’s up-and-coming vocal ensembles. She is also resident conductor of the Radcliffe Choral Society at Harvard University and the conductor of the Boston Conservatory Women’s Chorus. She is a candidate for a D.M.A. in conducting at Boston University.

2004 BRET ASKELAND is

senior software engineer for Cerner Corporation in Durham, N.C. AMY (COLONY) BLACK is a surgical nurse practitioner for the Department of the Navy at the Navy Medical Center San Diego. ANNE (BURMEISTER) BOOTH teaches five- and six-year-olds for the Des Moines (Iowa) Public Schools. SARAH BRAUN is marketing program manager for Proto Labs in Maple Plain, Minn.

At the beginning of every summer while in school, Zachary Hawkins ’04 returned home to work on his family farm in North Manchester, Indiana. At the end of every summer, he found it harder and harder to leave. Last year the gravitational pull of the J. L. Hawkins Family Farm was too strong. Hawkins decided to step away from pursuing a master’s degree in creative writing and environment in Pennsylvania and move back home to run the farm alongside his father. “It dawned on me that when I left for school I would step outside of the daily transformation of the pasture grasses, the soil conditions, the movement of the seasons in the place. I would be removing myself from the dynamic and evolving relationships of the farm—the very relationships that nurture my writing,” Hawkins says. Hawkins now primarily manages the farm’s community supported agriculture, or CSA, garden. The J. L. Hawkins Family Farm provides locally grown ingredients to the community. The farm has created a buzz around northern Indiana with “Pizza Fridays.” Since 2009, the Hawkinses have been serving pizza baked in an outdoor, wood-fired brick oven to members of the community from mid-May to early September. The farm supplies most of the ingredients for the pizzas, from vegetables and herbs from the garden, to pepperoni and sausage from livestock, and even honey from on-farm beehives. Pizza Fridays have received mention in USA Today’s Go Escape magazine, the Serious Eats food blog, and GRIT magazine, and they provide a great experience as well as good food. “By sunset, the lawn is dotted with a multitude of picnics, and people are telling stories, laughing, and eating pizza at the edge of the gardens and pastures, where many of the ingredients were raised,” Hawkins says. Although he is not seated in a classroom, Hawkins hasn’t put down his pen and paper quite yet. “I realized I had to be here on the farm, immersed in its work, to write honestly about it. Direct experience, mystery, and passion are vital to both my farming and my writing, and they are

COURTESY OF ZACH HAWKINS ’04

Zachary Hawkins ’04 finds writing inspiration in return to family farm

Zach Hawkins ’04 gets started on this year’s gardens, seeding the spring peas. most alive for me on my family farm,” Hawkins says. His writing has appeared in The Wapsipincon Almanac and Flyway: Journal of Writing and Environment and is forthcoming in Prairie Gold: An Anthology of the American Heartland from Ice Cube Press. —Paige Lobdell ’16

MARNIE (PRICE) CARLSON is a middle school counselor for the MFL MarMac School District in McGregor, Iowa.

Spring 2014 Luther Alumni Magazine

Alumni News

STEVE CARLSON is director of patient care on 3rd Surgical, a postoperative unit of Franciscan Healthcare-Mayo Clinic Health System in La Crosse, Wis. AARON COFFEEN is business development director for Hagerly Brothers Company in Peoria, Ill., and senior consultant of Axiom CPAs and Business Advisors. SAYE-MAYE COLE wrote an article for nbcnews.com titled “Child War Survivor to Syria’s Children: Don’t Give Up,” in which he tells about his life growing up in Liberia during two civil wars. Find a link to the story in the Web Extras at luthermagazine.com. LINDSAY COLWELL is the director of youth and young adult ministry for Our Savior’s Lutheran Church in Austin, Minn. F AMY FRYE is director of the University in British Columbia’s Centre for Sustainable Food Systems at UBC Farm. She earned a master’s degree in resource management and environmental studies from the university and then started working at the center in 2006 as marketing coordinator and eventually programs manager and acting director. She was named director in March 2013. “The UBC Farm is a very unique and special place, and it combines my passion for food and sustainability,” Frye says. JENNIFER (WEIER) GIPP is a clinical optometrist at Gundersen Health System in Decorah. She recently participated in a global health trip to Nicaragua with an organization called Global Partners. KARI (LOWE) KARSNICK is senior audit manager for Ameriprise Financial in Minneapolis. KATHARINE (KABOORD) and TONY MUDRA live in Norway. Both work for the International School of Stavanger. She is an admissions and communications officer, and he is the vocal music director. ANTHONY NUNEZ is assistant principal for the Clark County School District in Las Vegas. YAW OWUSU is an assistant professor in the College of Pharmacy at University of Hawaii at Hilo. BECKY (KNOTT) PORTER is territory manager for Spectranetics in Eldridge, Iowa.

Luther Alumni Magazine

MIRIAM (BLOM) and PAUL SKRADE live in Galesburg, Ill. She earned a master’s degree in kinesiology from Iowa State University and was a 2013 American Kinesiology Association National Graduate Scholar. She was named head men’s and women’s tennis coach at Knox College last summer. He earned a Ph.D. in ecology and evolutionary biology from Iowa State University and is interim director of sustainable initiatives at Knox College. Paul was briefly featured in the documentary film America’s Darling: The Story of Jay N. “Ding” Darling because he was awarded the “Ding” Darling Scholarship through the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation. EMILY (KNUTH) STORK is an attorney with the Davis Brown Law Firm in Des Moines, Iowa. JENN (WHITE) WARREN is head of audit, compliance, and operational risk for Great Western Bank in Sioux Falls, S.D. KJ WEPKING earned a master’s degree in special education from George Mason University in Fairfax, Va. TIFFANY (JONES) WOGSLAND is director of family services for the Haven Network in Rockford, Ill. ELISSA ZOERB is a customer education support specialist for Augsburg Fortress Publishers in Minneapolis.

2005 KATHRYN

ARMSTRONG is senior group leader for Target Corporation in West Jefferson, Ohio. ANDREA CHRISTENSEN is an A3 English Guide for Great River School in St. Paul, Minn. SARAH CORBISIER earned a master’s degree of cultural studies from Telemark University in Norway. She teaches music for Nome Kulturskole in Telemark, Norway. KELLY (RIES) DAHL earned a master of science in nursing degree with an emphasis in nursing education from Allen College. She is a registered nurse at Mary Greeley Medical Center in Ames, Iowa. BRIAN DEEGAN is a resident in radiation oncology at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.

ASHLEY (REIMAN) DODDRIDGE teaches sixth-grade mathematics and coaches middle school cross country for the Spring Hill (Kan.) School District. BECKY FRANKLIN is operations manager for the Weaver’s Guild of Minnesota, serves as an arts commissioner with the Minneapolis Arts Commission, and is chair of the public relations committee for the city of Minneapolis. LESLEY (HIEBING) FRIEDHOFF is a staff psychologist for the United States Air Force at Eglin (Florida) Air Force Base.

SUSIE PETTINGER is a teacher associate at Moulton Extended Learning Center in Des Moines, Iowa. AMANDA (BJORK) SCHULTZ teaches art for the Winona (Minn.) Public Schools. JULIE (KRUSE) SUMMER earned an M.B.A. degree from Hamline University. She is business development coordinator for Wessels Sherman Joerg Liszka Laverty Seneczko PC in Minnetonka, Minn. She also provides piano instruction for Burnsville/ Eagan/Savage community education.

MAGGIE GILL is an assistant professor of neuroscience at North Central College in Naperville, Ill. SHANNON (JOHNSON) GRAVELLE is music director for St. Andrew Lutheran Church in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. She is also a teaching assistant at the University of Iowa. THERESA (DAMRATOWSKI) and MIKE GUCWA live in Orlando Park, Ill. She is a Disney Travel Expert for Mouseketrips LLC, and he is regional manager for MarketStar. KARI (HOFFMAN) HALSTEAD is a middle school reading specialist for the Hudson (Wis.) School District. KATIE (SCHAEFER) HOM of Berkeley, Calif., earned a master’s degree in music education with honors from the University of Kansas. She was awarded the Robert Bradford Newman Medal for Merit in Architectural Acoustics for work done on her thesis. She is a teaching artist for Cantare Children’s Choirs of Oakland and choir teacher for Synergy Charter School. KATIE (BUTLER) LIVINGOOD is executive director of Southeastern Minnesota Youth Orchestra and communications and media specialist for St. John’s Lutheran Church in Kasson, Minn. ANN (LUND) MARTIN is an optometrist at Optical Gallery in Lincoln, Neb. KIM (WILLIAMS) MICHLIN teaches third-grade special education at Fraser Academy in Minneapolis. TIM PATTON is international baccalaureate coordinator for Escuela Bella Vista in Maracaibo, Venezuela.

RACHAEL VAUBEL earned a medical doctorate from Mayo Medical School and a Ph.D. from Mayo Graduate School. She is a resident in anatomic and neuropathology at Mayo Clinic in Rochester. F RACHAEL (CAHILL) WHITE writes a food blog called Set the Table (rachaelwhite.me), where she posts stories, recipes, and photographs to “encourage people to take time out of their busy lives to gather around the table with friends and family to create lasting memories,” she says. She and her husband, BRAD WHITE ’06, moved to Tokyo in 2008. Her recipes have been published in Japan’s Daily Yomiuri newspaper, in the Foodista Best of Food Blogs Cookbook, and in Peko Peko: A Charity Cookbook for Japan. She has written food-related articles for the Huffington Post. DAVID ZELINSKAS is a doctor of osteopathy/family physician for the U.S. Navy in Norfolk, Va., aboard the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush (CVN 77), providing primary care for the ship’s crew. He is a diplomate of the American Academy of Family Physicians, board certified, and part of Gold Humanism Honor Society.

MARIA DA SILVA ’15

Alumni News

Justin Scardina ’04 is executive chef at Decorah’s La Rana restaurant.

Justin Scardina ’04 experiments with pop-up restaurant, themed dinners Justin Scardina ’04 has come a long way from his first food-services job toiling in the kitchen of a Decorah Hardee’s restaurant. Today, instead of whipping up fast food, he creates far more palate-pleasing fare as executive chef of Decorah’s La Rana Bistro and owner of Driftless Food and Catering. He’s also the mastermind behind [Salt/ Water], a pop-up (or one-night) restaurant he kicked off at La Rana in March 2013. “It was something different the town hadn’t seen, so I thought I’d give it a try,” he says of launching the venture. “Starting a restaurant is amazingly expensive, but pop-ups allow a chef to use an established kitchen and dining room. . . . La Rana offered the perfect venue in Decorah because

it’s closed on Sundays.” That first dinner drew a couple dozen diners for a four-course meal featuring tomato consommé with basil, roasted Cornish game hen, fingerling potatoes, and smoked apple crostata. Subsequent [Salt/Water] dinners have offered equally tantalizing menus planned around themes ranging from “Italian farmhouse” and “French summer” to “warmth” and even “childhood” (think peanut butter and jelly, macaroni and cheese, hot dogs, and chicken nuggets). “I love being able to take what I know and come up with something crazy for a menu,” says the largely self-taught chef, who uses locally grown ingredients whenever possible. “I figure out a theme and then

develop a multicourse menu around it—a traditional soup or salad, something sweet, something savory.” The dinners, held monthly, have proved popular, offering area residents another dining option, often on Sunday, when many local restaurants are closed. “It’s been a lot of fun and very successful,” says Scardina. “People are always asking me when I’m doing the next one.” —Sara Friedl-Putnam

To learn more about [Salt/Water], read Scardina’s blog at http://dfcsaltwater. wordpress.com.

Spring 2014 Luther Alumni Magazine

Alumni News

associate artistic director of Lake Superior Youth Chorus, choir director of First Covenant Church Duluth, choir manager of Twin Ports Choral Project, and owner of Jennifer Campbell’s Voice Studio.

2006 ERIN (GALLAGHER)

BELLINDER is director of the Bridges Program at the Therapy Place in Columbia, S.C. She was nominated for the My Favorite Teacher Award by the Cerebral Palsy Family Network. KELSEY BOYCE earned a master’s degree in postsecondary education from the University of Northern Iowa. She is director of Brandt Hall at Luther.

F JESSICA BURGSTAHLER is a clinical dietitian at the Minneapolis Veterans Administration Medical Center on the cardiac and TBI/polytrauma/rehab floors. She says: “I’ve been here since 2006 and have loved every minute of my job, including calculating tubefeedings, educating patients on the importance of omega3s, working with other team members, training six nutrition interns per year, and providing food to a patient with a brain injury and watching them enjoy their first meal after not being able to eat for months.” JENNY (GRAUPMANN) CAMPBELL is an adjunct instructor of voice at the University of Minnesota–Duluth. She is also

SARAH (OLSON) CUTCLIFFE of Chicago Heights, Ill., is senior epic trainer for Sagacious Consultants. She earned a teaching certificate in urban special education from Cardinal Stritch University. CORRINE (BISHOFF) DENIS is campus ministry pastor at Winona (Minn.) State University in the Lutheran Campus Center in Winona. LISSA FLAATEN earned a master’s degree in school counseling from Capella University in Minneapolis. ROB FOLLEY earned a master’s degree in international economics from Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies. He is a foreign service officer for the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C. ALISSA (JACOBSON) GAMBREL is program supervisor financial and coordinator of financial services for the Lovaas Institute for Early Intervention in Minneapolis. ANGELA (REICHERT) GRIFFIN is a registered nurse at Alger Pediatrics in Grand Rapids, Mich. KATHRYN HOBSON is the Frederick Douglass Teaching Scholar in Communication Studies at Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania.

Stacy (Greene) Loneman ’06 with Eli, and Kathryn (Swan) Kummer ’06 with Michael. Loneman is a registered nurse at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. Kummer is a registered nurse at Abbott Northwestern in Minneapolis.

Luther Alumni Magazine

LACEY (CURTIS) and ERIK IVERSON ’08 live in St. Paul, Minn. She is music specialist for Oak Hill Montessori School. He teaches physical education and health and is athletic director for St. Paul Preparatory School. COURTNEY KUPFER is student services and media manager for CenterPoint Massage & Shiatsu Therapy School & Clinic in Minneapolis. JOHN LIDVALL is a physician at Unity Point Health Methodist Medical Center in Peoria, Ill. NATE MCCANN is inventory manager for Learfield Sports in Chicago. KELLY MILLER is a registered nurse of the acute care rotation team at the University of Kansas Medical Center in Kansas City. F KEVIN OPPERMANN and his wife, Keely, have a small farm outside of Madison, Wis., where they raise chickens, eggs, and beef, selling to local consumers. Also, family members Jim ’77 and Mary Sue (Stoneman) Oppermann ’77, Peter ’08 and Arin (Pershing) Oppermann ’07, and Matt ’11 and Kayla (Oppermann) Droese ’11 raise sweet corn and sell directly to consumers and restaurants and at local farmers’ markets in the Madison area. Last year was the 50th anniversary year of the family’s sweet corn sales, a small family venture that Kevin says helped put all of them through Luther. JUSTIN PAPKA is a business officer in international research at the Uni-

versity of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. ABBY (BALLAIN) POLICH of Shawnee, Kan., is director of affiliate solutions for Nordic Consulting. LAURA (SCHUURMAN) RASMUSSEN earned a MontessoriSTEM graduate certificate from Saint Catherine University. She is an upper elementary teacher at Rochester (Minn.) Montessori School. KELLY WENDLER WING is project manager and DSM team lead for Pigott Inc. in Des Moines, Iowa. TRISH YOUNG earned a master of science in nursing degree from the University of California–San Francisco. She is a certified nurse and midwife for Midwifery and Women’s Health Care at Geneva Woods in Anchorage, Alaska.

2007 SARAH BANE earned a master’s degree in children, youth, and family ministries from Luther Seminary. She is youth director for Shepherd of the Valley Lutheran Church in Apple Valley, Minn.

LUCIAN CAMP is project manager for Renewable Energy Group in Ames, Iowa. SARAH CAMPBELL teaches first grade for the Cudahy (Wis.) School District. HEMIE COLLIER is assistant football coach at Concordia University– Ann Arbor, Mich.

David McKay ’09, Erik Bies ’06, and Adam Frye ’07 ran in the U.S.A. Track & Field Club Cross Country National Championships in Bend, Ore., in December 2013. McKay ran for Team Run Eugene, Bies for Great Bellingham Running Club, and Frye for Run N Fun (based in St. Paul, Minn).

Alumni News

ELLIE (DUNDEK) DEMITRIUS is a medical receptionist for Carolina Urgent and Family Care in Fayetteville, N.C. ZACH ESKER is senior fund accountant for State Street Bank in Kansas City, Mo. ANDY FERRON is senior client technology specialist for Securian Financial Group in Minneapolis.

KURT GULSVIG is a commercial agent for 90210 Talent in Beverly Hills, Calif. KATIE (JURY) HOFFMAN is departmental analyst and freedom of information coordinator for the State of Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs in Lansing, Mich. EMILY HOLLEY is a loan servicing specialist and HOA/utility processor for Wells Fargo Home Mortgage in West Des Moines, Iowa. KATIE HOLMBERG earned a master’s degree in international policy from the Monterey Institute of International Studies. She is an intern at the Organization of American States in the Department of Effective Public Management in Washington, D.C. ZACH KLOBNAK is instructor of music and college organist for Centre College in Danville, Ky. BRANDON LEBEAU earned a Ph.D. in educational psychology specializing in quantitative methods in education from the University of Minnesota. He is a visiting assistant professor at the University of Arkansas in Little Rock. DANIEL LE GUEN-SCHMIDT earned an M.B.A. degree from Capella University in Minneapolis. PETER MCNAMARA is a coach and substitute teacher for Holy Family Catholic Schools in Dubuque, Iowa.

Anna Bolz ’06 makes desserts at one of New York City’s premiere restaurants.

Bolz ’06 changes her tune to create pastry at a top New York restaurant How does a Luther music major from rural Iowa end up as pastry sous chef at a three-star Michelin restaurant in the heart of New York City? Just ask Anna Bolz ’06, who has held that title at Per Se—“the best restaurant in New York,” according to the New York Times—since 2011. “Like many Luther stories, I would imagine, it’s a roundabout one,” she says.

Lemon 7UP Cake 3 sticks butter, soft 3 cups sugar 5 eggs, room temperature 3 cups all-purpose flour 2 tbsp lemon juice ¾ cup 7UP 1. Butter and flour a 12-cup Bundt pan and put it aside. Preheat oven to 325F. 2. In a stand mixer, cream the butter with 1 cup of the sugar until light and fluffy. Add the remaining 2 cups of sugar and continue to cream the mixture for 15 to 20 minutes, or until it is no longer gaining volume. 3. Add one egg to the creamed butter mixture, and mix until evenly incorporated. Scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl. Continue adding the eggs one at a time,

SCOTT WHITTLE

LAUREN (MUSOLF) and CHRIS GIULIANI live in Brookfield, Wis. Lauren is director of operations and projects for Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin. Chris is family service counselor for Wisconsin Memorial Park.

SCOTT WHITTLE

CHRISTINA GAARD is a pharmacist at Clement J. Zablocki Veterans Medical Center in Milwaukee.

Is it ever. Bolz was on track to attend graduate school in music when the chef at the tea and pastry shop where she was then working quit abruptly. Asked by the restaurant’s owner to take on the job temporarily, she quickly discovered her true passion lay in the kitchen: “I worked 14-hour days making scones and pastries, but it never felt like work at all.” After graduation from Luther, she enrolled in a six-month program at the French Culinary Institute in Manhattan—and set her sights on working with Chef Thomas Keller, owner of Per Se and the acclaimed West Coast restaurant The French Laundry. “Very early in my career, I knew that Chef Keller was someone I wanted to work for,” she says. “But I would not be here had I not dared to change direction and move to New York to study.” Putting in 14-hour days is now typical for Bolz, who particularly enjoys the “systematic, detailed work” of creating mouth-watering desserts and confections to cap off the nine-course, prix fixe ($310) meal served at Per Se each night. “Per Se is a once-in-a-lifetime destination restaurant,” she says. “It’s my job to make those guests happy at the end of their dining experience, and it’s a job I thoroughly enjoy.” —Sara Friedl-Putnam

scraping between additions, until all of the eggs have been incorporated. 4. Add the all-purpose flour, and mix on low speed until just combined. With the mixer still running on low, stream in the lemon juice and the 7UP. 5. Transfer the mix to the prepared pan, leveling the top if necessary. Bake the cake in a 325F oven for 60 to 75 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. 6. Allow the cake to cool 5 minutes before inverting the pan over a cooling rack. Allow the cake to cool under the inverted pan. Serve with fruit and cream, hot fudge, ice cream, or all of the above. —Anna Bolz shared this family recipe, which she sometimes prepares for the staff meal at Per Se.

Spring 2014 Luther Alumni Magazine

Alumni News

LISA MODRY is patient care coordinator for the 12th Street Dental Office in Rochester, Minn. BLAKE NELLIS of Minneapolis is a freelance artist, dancer, and choreographer. He teaches performing around the world and is also a visiting teaching associate in dance at Luther. KATIE (KRUSE) RATHER is director of development, College of Letters and Science, for the University of Wisconsin Foundation in Madison. TREVOR ROCKWELL teaches PS–8 physical education and grades 3–8 health for St. Benedict School in Decorah. DARA STULL is ministries coordinator for Christus Lutheran Church in Greenville, Wis. ERICA (SVIEN) SWENSON teaches special education for the Orono (Minn.) School District. JENNA SWAN is a media specialist for Novus Media Inc. in Plymouth, Minn. KELLY THORSEN is a mental health therapist for Headway Emotional Health Services in Richfield, Minn. SONJA TIMIAN is a speech-language pathologist at the Heights Community School for the St. Paul (Minn.) Public Schools. BRIANNA WASSINK is high school and elementary orchestra director for the Roseville (Minn.) Area Schools. LUKE WIGLE is a Washington Conservation Corps emergency response and training supervisor/natural resource specialist 1 for the Washington State Department of Ecology in Olympia, Wash.

LINDI (ARCHER) MAKOHONIUK is a crew member at Trader Joe’s and a resident adviser for Youth Emergency Services and Shelter in Des Moines, Iowa.

ANDREW BAILEY, AARON LURTH, JULIE SATRE SHOCKEY ’01, and GWEN (MOWRY) VAN GERPEN ’01 made up the champion team of the spring 2014 Luther Bookshop Wii Bowling Tournament. See photo, below. BRANDON BECKER teaches seventh-grade language arts for the Minnetonka (Minn.) Public Schools. KATIE BENSON earned a Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of Iowa. She teaches mathematics at Westminster College in Fulton, Mo. LINDSEY (BULGER) BINA is assistant director of annual giving programs at Hamline University in Minneapolis. F JUSTIN CARLSON is a chef for Travail Kitchen & Amusements in Minneapolis. MICHAEL FEDOTOVSKIKH is a supply specialist in the U.S. Army Reserves. He recently returned to Decorah after serving nine months in Afghanistan to aid the 322nd Engineer Company. RYAN FORDICE is a graduate student intern at the University of Chicago Spiritual Life Office and a campus ministry intern for Lutheran Campus Ministry of the University of Chicago. AJ GREGG earned a master’s degree in nutrition and functional medicine from the University of Western States. He is doctor of chiropractic at Hypo2 High Performance Sport Center in Flagstaff, Ariz.

KJERSTEN MATHSEN is education coordinator for Lutheran Family Services Rocky Mountains–Refugee and Asylee Programs in Albuquerque, N.M.

SPENCER KNAPP is an account sales executive with Hewlett-Packard in Dallas and serves as U.S. coordinating ambassador for One Young World.

JOE MCANDREW earned a master’s degree in community and regional planning from the University of Oregon. He is a legislative associate for Transportation America in Washington, D.C.

F LAUREN (LANGLEY) LANGWORTHY and her husband, Caleb, run a certified organic farm north of Menomonie, Wis. They have a community-supported agriculture program, sell produce and mushrooms to local food cooperatives, and have a pastured lamb and wool enterprise. “We’ve also been working with several local organizations to strengthen local food systems, transitioning land to the next generation of farmers and land access/tenure for beginning farmers,” Lauren says. Read her blog at BlueOxFarm.wordpress.com.

MEGAN (CRAVEN) MCCREESH is world language coordinator and teaches French for the Cherry Creek School District in Greenwood Village, Colo. LAURIE MEINHOLZ graduated from Palmer College of Chiropractic in Davenport, Iowa. She opened Nordic Chiropractic in Decorah.

TONY LARSON is an associate attorney with Gerald Miller PA in Minneapolis. LEIF MADSEN earned a master’s degree in athletic training from the University of Northern Iowa. He is an adjunct instructor of gross human anatomy, cadaver and dissection labs, care and prevention of athletic injuries, and therapeutic exercise in the Human Performance Center at the university in Cedar Falls, Iowa. He is also the goalkeeper coach for the Wartburg College men’s soccer team.

JOHN MEYER is CEO and cofounder of Lemonly, a visual marketing firm that specializes in infographics, data viz, and UI/UX design in Sioux Falls, S.D. He was named one of Entrepreneur Magazine’s top 10 emerging entrepreneurs of 2013 and the Small Business Administration’s young entrepreneur of the year in South Dakota 2013. MIKE OWENS is lead web engineer for the Fabricators & Manufacturers Association in Rockford, Ill.

JUSTIN ZEIGLER earned a master of divinity degree from St. Paul School of Theology. He is an AmeriCorps member working with AIDS United in Albuquerque, N.M.

GREG SORENSON earned a Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and is senior chemist for 3M in Maplewood, Minn.

2008 SARAH (VAIL)

PHOTO CREDIT

ANTONELLO is senior specialist and executive assistant to the CEO at American College of Cardiology in Washington, D.C.

Aaron Lurth ’08, Julie Satre Shockey ’01, Gwen (Mowrey) Van Gerpen ’01, and Andrew Bailey ’08 with their Wii bowling trophy.

Luther Alumni Magazine

KRISTEN (LEARMAN) STENGL is a ceramics instructor for the Annette Howell Turner Center for the Arts in Valdosta, Ga. She is also acting key spouse for the 41st Rescue Squadron at Moody Air Force Base. NICKI (SVESTKA) TERBEEST is a stay-at-home mom in Decorah.

Alumni News

Q&A: Kelli Billstein ’07—English major turned foodie

Food writer and editor Kelli Billstein talked with us via email from Minneapolis. How did you get into food writing? I don’t remember being super into food as a kid or at Luther. When I was growing up I subsisted on Frosted Flakes, and as a student at Luther I remember eating peanut butter sandwiches and yogurt. My foodie self was dormant. Postgraduation, I worked several stereotypical coffee shop jobs. (Lise Kildegaard, Luther professor of English, predicted that this would happen and that we English majors would talk about Gulliver’s Travels with lit-savvy regulars. For me, that prognostication came true.) Eventually, I got a job working at French Meadow, an organic cafe in Minneapolis where hipster foodies flock, and there I discovered I had an appetite for learning about food. . . . At the time, I was also freelance writing for a few local magazines, so I started pitching stories about food since I was educating myself about it anyway (meaning that I was eating out a lot and attempting to cook and bake things in my small apartment). After a year of that routine, I decided to teach English in France, and there my love of food and food writing grew even more. (Turns out crusty baguettes, creamy brie, and red wine pair well with journals and pens.) I landed back in the Twin Cities after my French séjour and continued to search for opportunities to learn about food, eat food, and write about food. A year passed. Then, I found a job opening as a senior editor at Cooking Club magazine. I seized the opportunity with a passion I normally reserve for Neapolitanstyle pizza. I’ve been with Cooking Club ever since, cooking and eating, writing and editing recipes. If you could eat at only three restaurants in the Twin Cities, which would you choose and why? Restaurant Alma: Alma is cinematic and magical. It’s where I go on special occasions. The food is beautiful, delicate, and mindblowingly delicious.

You once started a foodie book club— what did you read? Our reading included Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer, How to Cook a Wolf by M.F.K. Fisher, and Blood, Bones and Butter by Gabrielle Hamilton.

Bar la Grassa: BLG oozes “cool” with its loud music, its intelligent servers, and its dark decor. Oh, and it’s some of the best Italian food you’ll find in Minneapolis. . . . Try the spiced carpaccio bruschetta or the pasta negra with sea urchin chili, mussels, and tomato. Travail Kitchen and Amusements: Ever heard the expression “too many cooks in the kitchen”? That’s Travail. There are no servers at this joint, just young goofball cooks who can wax poetic gastronomy on the plate. The eatery is characterized by communal seating, wild antics (like spontaneous karaoke and shots of whisky), and some of the most gorgeous, impressive dishes you’ll ever eat. What’s your favorite dish to cook at home? I was once hired because I mailed a box of homemade chocolate chip cookies with my CV. Cookies open doors. My favorite recipe at the moment is for Jacques Torres’s chocolate chip cookies, which was in the New York Times. http://lczine.com/Kellicookie. Which Twin Cities publications do you write for? I’ve written for Edible Twin Cities, Heavy Table, VitaMN, and a number of community magazines, including Edina Magazine, St. Louis Park Magazine, and Woodbury Magazine. I recently wrote a feature about Zoë François, a local pastry chef and coauthor of the book Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. ADAM HILBELINK PHOTO

Spring 2014 Luther Alumni Magazine

Alumni News

ANDREA (HOEKSEMA) TIGGES is an ICU/CCU staff registered nurse for UnityPoint Health in West Des Moines, Iowa. CARL WESTPHAL earned a master’s degree in public affairs from Princeton University. He is an international economist with the U.S. Department of the Treasury in Washington, D.C. SAM WEYERS is an associate attorney with Kelleher & Buckley LLC in Barrington, Ill.

2009 F JOHANNA BERGAN is director of member services for Youth M.O.V.E. National. She is also education and outreach coordinator for Oneota Community Co-op in Decorah.

Central Public Schools in Norwood Young America, Minn. JESSICA (RYAN) EVERMAN is a physician assistant for Gundersen Health System in Waukon, Iowa. KIRSTEN (EPPELSHEIMER) and ERIC HOFFER ’08 live in Minneapolis. She teaches second grade at Richard R. Green Central Park Community School. He was ordained as an ELCA pastor and accepted a call as senior pastor at Prince of Peace Lutheran Church. BLAKE HUMPAL is global sourcing manager for JELD-WEN Inc. in Charlotte, N.C.

Luther alumni met at the annual Iowa Music Educators Association Conference in Ames, Iowa. Row 1: Jeanine Link ’10, Anna Kenyon ’11, Abby Switzer ’12. Row 2: Tom Haugen ’61, Lola (Pederson) Haugen ’62, Katherine (Loher) Anderson ’10, Peggy Hamilton ’07, Jaclyn (Ohnemus) Hussey ’11, Erin Torkelson ’09. Row 3: Cara Stone ’05, Bethany Seedorff ’05, Christa Braga ’05, Alex Gisleson ’11, and Luther’s Dorian music coordinator, Jim Buzza. Row 4: Jeff Knutson ’12, Dave Swenson ’81, Jesse Bunge ’11.

ALLIE CARVER is corporate account support specialist for Ecolab in Mendota Heights, Minn. SARAH COWING is assistant stage manager for Virginia Opera in Norfolk, Va. EMILY DYESS is 6–12 middle and high school choral director for

XANDER JEANNERET of Hollywood, Calif., is a member of the fantasy theatre troupe Dungeon Master. He also provided the voice of the announcer on the hit indie fighting game Divekick, by Iron Galaxy Studios, which was voted best fighting game of 2013 by Destructoid.com. Xander also appeared in February 2014 as a contestant on season two of King of the Nerds on TBS. LINDSEY JOHNSON is advancement director for Tilden Preparatory School in Albany, Calif. She is performing with the San Francisco Symphony Chorus, Opera on Tap San Francisco, and Waffle Opera. RACHEL KERR is an elementary music specialist for the American International School of Muscat in Oman.

F Erin Green ’10 samples the local fare at Vivero Alamar, an organic farm in Havana, Cuba—“Food tourism at its best!” she says. Green earned a master’s of finance and sustainable tourism degree from East Carolina University in Greenville, N.C. She wrote her thesis on foodrelated travel behavior. She currently works at McCabe World Travel, an agency that organizes upscale tours, including culinary tours of France.

Luther Alumni Magazine

ADAM LAMOS earned a master’s degree in accounting from St. Ambrose University. He is audit senior for Deloitte in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. JUSTIN MADSEN is a lead accountant with Target Corporation in El Segundo, Calif. STEPHANIE MCCOY earned a holistic health coach certificate from the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. She is nurse innovator for Iora Health in Brooklyn, N.Y.

BAILEY MILLER is assistant digital brand manager for TN Marketing in Wayzata, Minn. NATHAN NEBLUNG is a mortgage loan officer for Wings Financial Credit Union in Apple Valley, Minn. NATE NEIS is a registered nurse and an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation specialist with University of Iowa Children’s Hospital in Iowa City. GRETCHEN-LYNN SCHWANZ teaches mathematics for the Inver Grove Heights (Minn.) Community Schools. KRISTIN SKAAR is special events and communications manager for Habitat for Humanity of Minnesota in Minneapolis.

AMY (EKLAND) and PHIL WORDEN ’08 live in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. She is a logistics manager for 3A Inc. He teaches special education for the Grant Wood Area Education Agency.

2010 MARGI ABRAHAMSON is in teller customer service at Royal Credit Union in Eau Claire, Wis. AHMED ALKHALILI is a website engineer for Iroc Web Design Services in Calmar, Iowa. JILL BOHLE is a doctoral student in English and a teaching assistant at Iowa State University in Ames. F JANNA CARROLL-BOLDT is manager of Carroll’s Corn in Rochester, Minn.

JAMIE (CHRISTOFFER) SWENSON teaches fourth grade for the South Washington County Schools in Cottage Grove, Minn.

STEVE DIGNIN teaches science and is the technology coordinator for Saint Paul American School in Beijing, China.

NATHAN TODD is parks and recreation assistant for Decorah (Iowa) Parks and Recreation.

RYAN EGAN is an accountant for the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction in Madison.

ERIN TORKELSON teaches K–6 general music for the BelmondKlemme (Iowa) Community School District.

BARBARA EISENMENGER is a youth and family therapist for Canvas Health Inc. in Minneapolis.

ADAM TULKKI teaches elementary music for the Big Lake (Minn.) School District.

ERIK ELIASON is associate enrollment counselor for Capella University in Minneapolis.

Alumni News

WESLEY GREGG earned a doctorate in chiropractic from the University of Western States in Portland, Ore. He is a doctor of chiropractic at HYPO2 High Performance Sport Center in Flagstaff, Ariz. KRISTEN HAUG is a repertoire development quality assurance technician for MakeMusic Inc. in Eden Prairie, Minn.

2011 KELLY BANDMAN is

ANNA ESSENDRUP earned a master’s degree in genetic counseling from the University of Colorado at Denver.

a family support worker for 360 Communities in Burnsville, Minn. RACHEL BARCLAY is program coordinator for Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.

JAMES FEINSTEIN is a staff assistant for the U.S. Senate in Washington, D.C. LAUREN FLADLAND teaches vocal music at Prairie Point Middle School and Ninth Grade Academy in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

LANDON JACOBSEN is a financial analyst for American Midstream Partners LP in Denver. JOHANNA (THIES) JESSEE is administrative assistant/customer service for Dairyland Laboratories in Cochrane, Wis. TYLER POWELL is an associate attorney with First Law Group SC in Stevens Point, Wis. LAUREN RAUCHWARTER earned a master’s degree in communication, technology, and society from Clemson University. She is a creative strategist, account manager, and online public relations and advertising specialist in Minneapolis. TIFFANY (KRUSE) RAVE is sports and marketing director for the Eastern Iowa Sports Facility and the head softball coach at Monticello (Iowa) High School. PETER RUSSELLA is a teacher at French Institute Alliance in New York City. ERIC ST. CLAIR earned a master’s degree in public policy from the University of Northern Iowa. He is education program consultant for the State of Iowa Department of Education in Des Moines, Iowa.

J. SCOTT HARRISON is a business development specialist at Profiles Incorporated in Eden Prairie, Minn. KATIE CAMPBELL is executive director of Aynah in Minneapolis. She received the 2013 William Hlushko Award to Young Cooperative Educators from the Association of Cooperative Educators Institute for her work and leadership with Aynah. Aynah helps develop cooperatives in needful communities and has completed two water co-ops in Ethiopia. It also is encouraging curriculum changes on college campuses. “The model and approach of Aynah being developed by Katie Campbell and her colleagues is one of the most promising that we have seen in a long time, combining education, business development, and leadership,” says William Nelson, president of the CHS Foundation that provided funding to the group. In her role, Campbell led the transition of Aynah from a student group to a nonprofit organization and helped assemble an effective volunteer management team and attract social economy leaders to its advisory board.

Nathan Hecht ’11 is serving in the Peace Corps as a community environmental management volunteer in the community of Llupa, near Huaraz, Peru. While on Facebook one day, he saw a photo of one of his college friends, Marie Maguina Heller ’10, at a popular tourist spot close to Huaraz. The two later ran into each other in the central plaza and managed to catch up.

LAUREN HAEFEMEYER is an EMT for HealthEast Ambulance in St. Paul, Minn. RICH HOLLEQUE is youth pastor at Cambridge (Minn.) Lutheran Church. KIRSTEN JACOBSON is field director for Kind For Congress in La Crosse, Wis. KIA JOHNSON is a park ranger with the National Park Service at Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming.

LEXY DETERMAN is head softball coach and sports information director for MacMurray College in Jacksonville, Ill. MITCH DIETZ is a retail sales representative for Verizon Wireless in Apple Valley, Minn. JACY DILLAHUNTY teaches health and physical education for the St. Paul (Minn.) Public Schools.

CHELSEA (COMBS) SWANSON teaches fourth grade for the Ames (Iowa) School District.

EMILY KILGORE is the author of “Teacher Home Visits: The Importance of Sharing a Meal,” which was published in the national education publication Ed Week. She teaches second grade for Richardson Elementary School in North St. Paul, Minn.

AUSTIN TEGELS is a statistical analyst for CBE Companies in Cedar Falls, Iowa. BRI THICKE is a graduate research assistant for Medgene Labs in Brookings, S.D. BRITTANY TURNER earned a juris doctorate from Baylor University School of Law. She is an associate with Carrington Coleman in Dallas. AARON ZANDER teaches sixthgrade mathematics for the Nevada (Iowa) Community School District.

These alumni and friends gathered in Denver, Colo., in January 2014 on their way to ski in Beaver Creek, Colo. Left to right: Ben Woo Ching, Brandon Reed ’10, Pieter Ver Steeg ’10, Andrew Peterson ’10, Adam Kruse ’11, Erik Johnson ’11, Maria Woo Ching ’10, Hannah Vogt, Adam Pyzdrowski ’10, Chris Ash ’10, and Collin Thompson ’11.

RYAN KUHN earned an M.B.A. degree from the University of Sioux Falls. He is a digital marketing specialist at Our Valley Group in Santa Clarita, Calif. JORDAN LANG is an auditor for Deere & Company in Moline, Ill.

Spring 2014 Luther Alumni Magazine

Alumni News

BETHANY (WICHMAN) LEHMAN is an admissions counselor for Mount Mary University in Milwaukee. KATE (PATTERSON) MASON is senior account executive for Rise Interactive in Chicago.

Gardening cultivates interest in larger food issues for Amy Behrman ’12 When Amy Behrman ’12 signed up for her senior year January Term internship at the Spaulding Inn Bed and Breakfast in Grinnell, Iowa, she had no idea the impact a single garden would have on her future. The sociology major watched closely as B&B owner Valerie Hammond used organic, homegrown vegetables from her own garden to feed guests and family members. “A lot of our conversations revolved around food and her passion for that kind of lifestyle, and I found it really intriguing,” Behrman says. After graduating from Luther, Behrman again found herself tending plants. She worked for a summer in a commercial vegetable garden her father had started, and then applied to AmeriCorps for positions relevant to food and related social issues. The best fit was the Harvest Initiative, a nonprofit group working for agricultural and community development on the Crow Creek Sioux Reservation in South Dakota. Behrman administered a U.S. Department of Agriculture outreach grant. She says her main accomplishment was creating a school garden. After applying for funding and planning, planting, and tending to the plot, Behrman had produced an abundant garden to provide the tribal school cafeteria with affordable and fresh produce. “When you know that every small success is a step toward one less hungry or unhealthy child, it’s a lot easier to keep moving forward,” she says. Although Behrman’s one-year term with the Harvest Initiative has ended and she now works as a bank teller, she says she has gained new perspective. “Going into this job, I was focused on the ways that an individual could more sustainably provide for themselves and their immediate circle, things like planting gardens and buying local. Planting a garden is important, but we also need to keep an eye on government policies and national perceptions of food access issues,” Behrman says. —Emily Gehlsen ’16

Luther Alumni Magazine

VAUGHN TACKMANN of Decorah is assistant track and field coach at Luther. STEVEN THAI is press secretary for Victory Fund and Institute in Washington, D.C.

COURTESY AMY BEHRMAN

After Luther, Amy Behrman ’12 worked with Harvest Initiative, a nonprofit group working for agricultural and community development on the Crow Creek Sioux Reservation in South Dakota.

council manager for Credit Union Executives Society. He is business technology specialist for American Family Insurance.

ALEX VAN DYKE is operations clerk at Wells Fargo Home Mortgage in Minneapolis.

CAMILLE (STENHAUG) MCVENES is an accountant in construction accounting for Target Corporation in Minneapolis. F JAMEY MEYER is an organic inspector and agricultural compliance investigator for the Iowa Department of Agriculture in Des Moines. WILLIAM MORRIS is a copy editor for Gannett Wisconsin Media in Wausau. MOLLY MORRISSEY is marketing communications coordinator for Cardiovascular Systems Inc. in Minneapolis. ALEX PEHLER teaches high school math and coaches soccer for the Stoughton (Wis.) School District. CLAIRE PHILPOTT is the education coordinator, classical, for Minnesota Public Radio in St. Paul. JENNA REISHUS is a health coach and wellness program coordinator for Health Solutions LLC in Hiawatha, Iowa. ALYSSA RITTER of Decorah is an admissions counselor for Wisconsin and eastern Minnesota at Luther.

KELSEY WAUTERS is audit senior and certified public accountant at Deloitte and Touche in Minneapolis. JORDAN (MEYER) and TIM ZAHRTE ’12 live in St. Peter, Minn. She earned a master’s degree in leadership in student affairs from St. Thomas University and is an area coordinator at Gustavus Adolphus College. He is a Promise Fellow with Americorps.

2012 KELSEY (KLIMESH)

ALLENDES teaches Spanish and music at St. James Parish Elementary School in Washington, Iowa. JASMINE ATARI is resident services coordinator at Sky55 for Forest City Enterprises in Chicago. SYDNEY BEAN is assistant registrar at Kaplan University in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. AMY BEHRMAN is a teller for the Henry County Bank in Napoleon, Ohio. BRANDON BOLES works in sales/ advertising for Prize Fighting Championship and is lead UFC/MMA content manager for Full Scale Sports in Denver.

KELLY SCHNEIDER is a fifth- and sixth-grade teacher at St. Joseph Catholic School in Sinsinawa, Wis. KATRINA SIKKINK earned a master’s degree in occupational therapy from St. Catherine University. She is an occupational therapist at St. Cloud (Minn.) Hospital. DON STEIN is associate producer for Rock Valley College Theatre in Rockford, Ill. KRISTIE (WIMMER) and TRENT STONEROOK live in Sun Prairie, Wis. She is member relations and

BAILEY CAHLANDER of St. Paul, Minn., is an artist ambassador with Tom Nordyke Consulting and a production assistant with Minneapolis Video Production. She is also owner of Bailey Rae Mosaics.

Alumni News

F JENSEN CONNOR is a GIS specialist with the Iowa Soybean Association in Ankeny, Iowa.

ANDREW FINANGER is a sales associate for REC Solar in Boulder, Colo.

tered nurse in pediatrics at Centracare Health System. HANNAH JANAKY is a wilderness instructor. She provides therapeutic and educational wilderness experiences for juveniles in the outdoor program at Thistledew Camp in Togo, Minn. SHELBY KLEIN is a social worker and mental health practitioner for Tri Star Assertive Community Treatment in Cosmos, Minn.

MAGIE DARLING is chief evaluation and advocacy officer at Nueva Vida in Washington, D.C. AMANDA DIETEL teaches third grade and RTI mathematics at Jordan (Minn.) Elementary School. SALLY EA is a mental health counselor for South Metro Human Services in St. Paul, Minn. MELISSA ERICKSON is a reporter for the Ames Tribune in Ames, Iowa. ANNA (LOOFT) and RYAN FETT live in Cambridge, Mass. She is a graduate student in theological studies at Harvard Divinity School and recently had an article, “The Fruits of Conversion: Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s Final Contributions to the Women’s Rights Movement,” published in the Yale graduate student journal Glossolia. He is an associate with PriceWaterhouseCoopers in Boston.

TAYLOR FROEHLE is member engagement coordinator for the North Carolina Association of Certified Public Accountants in Raleigh, N.C. HILARY GARRINGER teaches kindergarten at Fisher Elementary School in Marshalltown, Iowa. DANIELLE GIBBS is district executive for Boy Scouts of America Hawkeye Area Council in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. LAUREN GRIFFIN is a program assistant for the National Albanian American Council in Washington, D.C. HANNAH GRUNDHOEFER is a flight attendant for Endeavor Air in Minneapolis.

ALISON SANCKEN is client services coordinator at Camp Fire Minnesota in Minneapolis. LAURA SCHULTZ teaches K–3 primary music for the Irvine (Calif.) School District. CALLY SIMANSKI teaches mathematics at Princeton (Minn.) High School.

AUGIE LINDMARK is immigration and refugee resources assistant for Catholic Charities in Minneapolis. LUWA MATTHEWS is a graduate student and research assistant at Duke University in Durham, N.C. SAM MEYERS is a special education paraprofessional for the Wayzata (Minn.) Public Schools. ALEX MUNDY is a specialist for Oregon Self-Sufficiency Program at Oregon Department of Human Services in Salem. PAIGE OFSTEDAHL is family services coordinator for the Arc of Southeast Iowa in Iowa City.

KATIE (HASHER) and WILL HAGAN live in Monticello, Minn. She is employment counselor for Corvel Corporation. He is a regis-

TIM OLSTAD was one of 10 semifinalists on Fox Television’s The X Factor.

MIKKI SODERGREN was the 2014 winner of the American Traditions Competition in Savannah, Ga. In February she took home three prizes: the Courtney Knight Gaines Gold Medal, the Ben Tucker Award for best jazz performance, and the Johnny Mercer Award for best performance of a Johnny Mercer song, given by the Friends of Johnny Mercer Inc. Mercer, a Savannah native, wrote such hits as “Moon River,” “Skylark,” “Jeepers, Creepers,” “Goody, Goody,” and “Stardust.” Sodergren’s winning finals program included “Home” by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman, from Beauty and the Beast; “I’m Gonna Sit Right Down (and Write Myself a Letter)” by Fred Ahlert and Joe Young; and “Over the Rainbow” by Harold Arlen and E. Y. Harburg. CHAD SONKA is a private voice teacher at Brooklyn Musical Arts and a graduate student and teacher at Manhattan School of Music in New York City. ELISA VAZQUEZ is social media coordinator for Elevate My Brand in Los Angeles.

2013 MASEEH AHMED is

Olivia Hahn ’13 and Karla Dietmeyer ’13 of the cello/violin folk duo The OK Factor released their debut album, Water Street, in February. The album is inspired by their time at Luther and in the Decorah community. They have played in venues across the Midwest and Southeast, including the Stone Arch Bridge Festival in Minneapolis, the Dakota Jazz Club, and the Iowa State Fair. They will be touring the Midwest this summer, showcasing their original folk music. Follow their tour schedule at www.theokfactor.com.

TERESA PROCTER was a soloist in the Shepherd School of Music’s performance of Handel’s Messiah. She performed the mezzo-soprano piece “Oh Thou That Tellest Glad Tidings to Zion” as part of the Rice University Chorale’s holiday celebration. She is a second-year master’s student of voice at the university in Houston.

video director for the Corbin Group, a strategic marketing organization in Decorah. EMMANUEL AVILA is steering board member at CHIRLA-California Dream Network in Los Angeles. EMILY BANITT is a graduate student and research assistant at the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls, Iowa.

Spring 2014 Luther Alumni Magazine

Alumni News

CHARLES BANTA is an IT resident at Google Inc. in Mountain View, Calif.

LAUREN NIELSEN is magazine editor for Ashdown Broadcasting in Kasson, Minn.

MARRIAGES

BRANDY BEGGERLY teaches fifthgrade science and English at North Union School Sentral in Fenton, Iowa.

DON NORLANDER is a portfolio analyst at Manulife Asset Management in Manila, Philippines.

1972 MARY WAARVIK and

ALEX NYMAN is program services coordinator for REM Hennepin in Minneapolis.

1974 JACQUELINE

MARY BISSEN teaches grades 6–8 vocal music for the Albert Lea (Minn.) School District. MATT BITZ teaches fifth grade and is seventh-grade football coach for the Albert Lea (Minn.) School District. MARIA BROWN is a registered nurse at Aurora St. Luke’s Medical Center in Milwaukee. KAYCEE BUCHER teaches in the Early Childhood Learning Center in the downtown Minneapolis YMCA. BEKAH CAMPBELL is a registered nurse in the angioplasty unit at Aurora St. Luke’s Medical Center in Milwaukee. MICHAEL CROWE ’13 and SETH DUIN ’12 played key roles in the production of a five-minute documentary film about Luther professor of Africana studies and English Novian Whitsitt, titled Hours with Novian. The film was chosen as an official selection for Louisville’s International Festival of Film. Crowe and Luther assistant professor of communication studies Thomas C. Johnson produced the film, and Duin composed the score. CALEY DANIELSON teaches K–12 vocal music for the Butterfield-Odin (Minn.) School District.

1982 HEIDI ERDMANN and

JENA SCHWAKE is a graduate teaching assistant at Colorado State University in Fort Collins. SHANTEL SCHWARTING is customer service representative with Thrivent Financial in Appleton, Wis. SHEILA SINHA is a teacher with the Minnesota Math Corps for Twin City Area Schools in St. Paul Park, Minn. KIAH SOLBERG teaches kindergarten at Brownsdale (Minn.) Elementary School. TAYLOR SPILDE teaches sixth-grade reading in the Decorah Community Schools. ALI TOAL is a staff assistant for Senator Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) in Washington, D.C.

ETHAN GROOTHUIS is sports editor for the Granite Falls (Minn.) Advocate Tribune.

MARA WARNBERG teaches K–5 music at Mississippi Heights Elementary School in Sauk Rapids, Minn.

BETH KORLESKI is merchandise manager for West Music in Coralville, Iowa.

ALLISON WITTIG is an accountant at Bohr, Dahm, Greif and Associates in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

Luther Alumni Magazine

HODGKINS and Kim Bloom, Dec. 21, 2013

AMANDA RUDNICKAS teaches K–4 music for St. Anthony Elementary School in New Ulm, Minn.

SARAH FREHNER is a life renewal recovery coach for Minnesota Adult & Teen Challenge in Minneapolis.

HEIDI (DARRINGTON) MUENCHOW is a program assistant and teaches music and art for Crossroads Academy in Decorah.

John Carson, June 15, 2013

1976 ANDY HOLEY and Gary

ERIN UNDERDAHL is a registered nurse in the surgical unit of Mayo Franciscan Hospital in La Crosse, Wis.

ELIZABETH LAFERRIERE is lectrice d’Anglais at the Université de Brétagne Occidentale in Brest, France.

and Adam Danielson, July 7, 2012

HANNAH RANUM is a technology consulting analyst with Accenture in Minneapolis.

PETER SANDSTEDT is a vendor project specialist for Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill.

2004 CHRISTA ANDERSON

Whitford, Aug. 23, 2013

Kathleen O’Connor, May 18, 2013

1990 BECKY KREUTNER and David Saar, Aug. 24, 2013

1993 NATHAN POTTER and Rachel Crank, Sept. 14, 2013

1995 JENNIFER NASLUND and Todd Sime, July 13, 2013

1999 NIKKI SCHIMKE and

PAUL BIRDSALL and Emily Jolly, Sept. 7, 2013 JON BUTLER and Miranda Maldonado, May 26, 2013 STEVE CARLSON and Jessica Pace, Aug. 4, 2012 MARCY EHLERS and Adam Rasmussen, June 9, 2012 JOLENE HERMES and MATHIAS DAGUE ’05, Sept. 28, 2013 BROCK REED and Lindsey Payton, July 21, 2012 MONICA SMITH and Daren Lindahl, Aug. 9, 2013

2005 IRENE ERKENBRACK and Fred Green, Sept. 7, 2013

JACIE HAROLDSON and Benjamin Myers, July 13, 2013 LINDSAY KIMBALL and Mark Fangmeier, Sept. 14, 2013

2006

Ryan Flynn, Oct. 18, 2013

CLINT AMBROSON and Abbey Ackermann, Oct. 13, 2012

2000 ELISABETH MARVIN

ALISSA DARROW and Brad Plack, Feb. 9, 2013

and Shane Sandersfeld, April 28, 2012

GRETCHEN SCHEIDEL and Carrie Farmer, June 8, 2013

JENNY GRAUPMANN and Jefferson Campbell, June 11, 2013 JASMINE HIGH and Scott Heckman, Oct. 13, 2012

2001 ALLISON CHURILLA and Alex Liuzzi, Oct. 5, 2013

TARA HUINKER and Tony Brown, July 13, 2013

REBEKAH RUSCH and Brandon Vogelsberg, July 13, 2013

LAUREN KRAUS and DAVE KELLER ’09, June 22, 2013

PETER SCHLETTY and Amber Bahn, Oct. 26, 2013

KARI MARTELLI and KIRK SHERBURNE ’03, May 11, 2013

JENARAH TEKIPPE and Christopher Wojcik, June 8, 2013

AARON MURPHY and Brian Kipp, Sept. 21, 2013

2002 MISSY KNOTT and Shane Huff, Oct. 12, 2013

SONJA MORTENSON and Dan Dziekciowski, July 27, 2013

2003 RANDY MACK and Seema Patel, Jan. 19, 2013

KELLY WENDLER and Danny Wing, Sept. 7, 2013

2007 DANIEL SCHMIDT and Julien LeGuen, July 17, 2013

AMANDA POHLMAN and Michael Janke, Sept. 28, 2013 BRETT SCHEETZ and Anne Ellingson, Oct. 13, 2012

Alumni News

JENNIE TENOLD and Ryne Nelson, Sept. 14, 2013

KATIE HASHER and WILL HAGAN, July 6, 2013

2008 JOHN MEYER and Paige

ALEESE KENITZER and DAN BALDWIN, Nov. 16, 2013

Pearson, Oct. 11, 2013

KELLY WOOD and Chris Robertson, Sept. 28, 2013

2009 ELISE ARAM and

Charlie O’Donnell, June 29, 2013 ERIN GORMAN and Michael Gille, Sept. 7, 2013 LINDSEY JOHNSON and Scott Werley, Aug. 31, 2013

KELSEY KLIMESH and Edward Allendes, July 27, 2013 EMILY LYNN and Valerie Harle, May 31, 2013 KAITLIN MAAS and SAM MEYERS, May 18, 2013

2013 SARAH MCWILLIAMS

1997 LINDA (KLOTZBACH) and NATHAN FERRIS, a son, Roman Alexander, Feb. 2014

AMY PARKER FIEBELKORN and David Fiebelkorn, a son, Holden David, May 2013

1998 Amanda and JAY KAUTT, a daughter, Ava Lucille, Oct. 2013

JESSICA (HUDSON) and Brendan McAndrews, a son, Jack Donald, July 2013

2010 JANNA CARROLL and Tony Boldt, Feb. 16, 2013

HEIDI CRABB and PAT WILLIAMS, Oct. 20, 2012 CHELSEA COMBS and Zach Swanson, June 8, 2013 KATIE DOLAN and JOSH GERBER, Aug. 18, 2012 PAIGE GAPINSKI and PAUL PIERSON, July 6, 2013 TIFFANY KRUSE and Philip Rave, Aug. 18, 2012 MARIE MAGUINA and Gregory Heller, Jan. 21, 2012 DIANA SPRINGER and DREW DOESCHER, Aug. 2, 2013 KARI TAYLOR and MATT OLSON, Dec. 29, 2012

JANE (HOOVER) and Viren D’silva, a daughter, Arya Monique, Dec. 2013

BIRTHS AND ADOPTIONS Luther Alumni Magazine welcomes photos of babies wearing Luther gear.

LISA (WILSON) and Joe Perez, a son, Owen, July 2013

1989 KECIA (FRENCH) and

Rob Stroot, a daughter, Christelle, born April 2012, adopted Aug. 2013

1991 BARB HUGHES and

Paul Anderson, daughters, Jahzara Elizabeth, born July 2009, and Shamya Lucille, born May 2010, both adopted Aug. 2013

1994 SARA (DEIST) and

GIDEON STANLEY ’95, a son, Isaac Samuel, Sept. 2013

1995 CHRISTINE (DENEHY) and Eric Enderle, twins, a daughter, Charlotte Denehy, a son, Alexander Denehy, Nov. 2012

Amy Young and ROB KLEINENDORST, a daughter, Sadie Jane, Dec. 2013

2011 ERIN FENCL and Dan

1996 JAIME SCHULTZ and

CATE FISHER and MITCH DIETZ, Dec. 7, 2013 MELANIE MASSNICK and JACOB REITZ ’10, Oct. 26, 2013 KAYLA OPPERMANN and MATT DROESE, Sept. 21, 2013

2012 BLAIR BUTLER and

BOB DOLAN ’09, Dec. 29, 2013

2002 NATALIE (HELGESON)

EMILY (THOMAS) and Michael Hobgood, a daughter, Brynn, May 2013

JOHANNA THIES and David Jessee, June 15, 2013

Hougen, Sept. 28, 2013

Tom Schultz, a son, Rylan, May 2013

and Jeffrey Bruchhauser, a son, Caleb Grant, May 2013

and JUSTIN KASPRYK ’12, Nov. 16, 2013

JENNIFER SLETTEN and Aaron Hagen, June 8, 2013 LAURA WILLIAMS and GAVIN TUGANA ’08, March 23, 2013

2001 ERIN PEDERSON and

PAUL HEFTY ’86, a daughter, Sylvie, Dec. 2013 KATHY (SCHMITT) and Jeffery Kline, a daughter, Delphey Virginia, Dec. 2012 ANNA (WHITE) and MATT LOVELY ’94, a son, Thatcher Davis, Nov. 2013

1999 Stephanie Zawistowski and J. D. BURTON, a daughter, Naomi Lee, July 2013 NICOLE PRESCHER and Andy Hanson, a daughter, Sonja Elaine, July 2013 Kayla and SHANE HOWARD, a son, Matthew Alexander, Feb. 2014 CHRISTINE LOVEN-SANTOS and Rolemberg Santos, a son, Tiago, June 2013 SARAH TOFTE and Marie Homes, a daughter, Olive Evers, Jan. 2014

ELIZABETH (NICKLAY) and JORDAN STADHEIM ’05, a daughter, Emma Elizabeth, Dec. 2013

2003 AMANDA (BOEHMKE) and Mark Mader, a son, Maxwell Kenneth, Aug. 2013

JENNY (KLEINSMITH) and Brian O’Donnell, a son, Luke, June 2012 JENNI (BOERGER) and Chris Sewell, a daughter, Stella Jane, Nov. 2013

NELLE (HENRY) and PETER TOKHEIM, a son, Alex, Jan. 2013

JEN (HALL) and JASON SOLAND ’00, a daughter, Quinn Marie, Jan. 2014

2000 TIA (PHILIBERT) and

ELAYNE (BROMMELSIEK) and JOEL SOMMERS, a daughter, Lila Cate, Feb. 2014

Brad Bastian, twins, a daughter, Aria, a son, Elijah, April 2012 SHELLEY (KUBITZ) and RYAN MAHANNAH, a son, Sean Douglas, Sept. 2013 JODI (WENNER) and David Nixon, a son, Jace Jacob, Dec. 2013 MARIA MILLER-RINALDI and JOE RINALDI, a son, Enzo Roark, July 2013 BETH (MARVIN) and Shane Sandersfeld, a son, Quinlan Charles, Aug. 2013 Ryann and TIM STATON, a daughter, Lark, Oct. 2012

ERIN INDRELIE SWOBODA and JUSTIN SWOBODA ’02, a son, Jack Jeffrey, Oct. 2013

2004 EMILY (MARTZ) and ALEX ANDERSON ’03, a son, Raymond, July 2013

SARA (BOWMAN) and Shawn Andrus, a son, Archer Stanley, Oct. 2013 EMILY LUNDQUIST BARNES and AARON BARNES ’03, a son, Oliver, Feb. 2014 LIZ (LYNESS) and ANDREW BEST ’06, a son, Fisher Thomas, May 2012

Spring 2014 Luther Alumni Magazine

Alumni News

BETSY (AUNE) and Thomas Blank, a son, Bruce Aune, Feb. 2014 Jessica and STEVE CARLSON, a daughter, Katherine Lynn, Feb. 2014 ANGIE (JOHNSON) and Ben Coldren, a daughter, Millie Joyce, Sept. 2013 KATIE (WOODARD) and Bryan Engelhardt, a son, William, May 2013 Emily Frana and NICK HEEREN, a son, Graham Wesley, July 2012 JENNY (LAURSEN) and JOSH JEVNE, twin sons, George and Henry, Aug. 2013

MELISSA CHRISTOPHERSON and Sean Smith, a son, Kellan, March 2013

MEGAN (FINNEGAN) and NICK KELLEY, a son, Ethan Sean, Nov. 2013

KAYCEE (GREEN) and Robert Rogers, a son, Silas Michael, Nov. 2012

MARJA (COX) and SAM STEINBERG, a son, Winston, Feb. 2014

NIKKI GAMEZ and Josh Kuhn, a son, Jeffrey Grant Gamez, Nov. 2013

KATE (MYERS) and FRED SMITH ’07, a son, Frederic Samson, Jan. 2014

EMILY (LUKASEK) and Philip Strong, a daughter, Marah, Dec. 2013

KATHRYN (SWAN) and John Kummer, a son, Michael Timothy, Oct. 2013

2009 JESSICA (RYAN) and

AMY (HOODJER) and Eric Updegraff, a son, Lincoln, Oct. 2013

STACY (GREENE) and Eric Loneman, a son, Eli, June 2013

2005 MELISSA (DOWD) and

MEGHAN (GESING) and JOHN PALMER ’03, a daughter, Roslyn Grace, Feb. 2014

Paul Boeke, a daughter, Charlotte, Feb. 2012

JESSICA HARTENBERGER and Leif Kleppen, a son, Casper, Oct. 2013

THERESA (DAMRATOWSKI) and MIKE GUCWA, a daughter, Annaliese Alayne, July 2013

ELISA (FALK) and JUSTIN KNOEPFEL, a son, Levi Samuel, Feb. 2014

KARI (HOFFMAN) and Lester Halstead, a son, Calvin Elliot, June 2013

KELLY (JONES) and Brian Larson, a daughter, Sarah, March 2012

YAZ WILKINSON-MAMMAN and Habib Mamman, a daughter, Nabilah, June 2013

ERIN (BROWN) and DAVID LENNINGER, a son, Collin David, Feb. 2013 HOLLEE (SCHULTE) and Mike McCormick, a daughter, Olivia Marie, Nov. 2013 GWEN (BEBERG) and Austin McGlaun, a son, Gabriel Charles, March 2014 KATHARINE (KABOORD) and TONY MUDRA, a daughter, Else, Sept. 2013 ANGELA (MEYER) and Anthony Pittman, a daughter, Emilie Elizabeth, Sept. 2013

KIM (WILLIAMS) and Matthew Michlin, a son, Jonah William, Nov. 2013 MELISSA (GARBRECHT) and JUSTIN PIEPER ’04, a daughter, Leah Marie, Nov. 2013 KYLA (SCHULENBERG) and Adam Schoenwetter, a daughter, Cora Jean, April 2012 AMANDA (BJORK) and CHAD SCHULTZ ’01, a daughter, Madison Elaine, Oct. 2013 Sara and DAVID ZELINSKAS, a daughter, Avie, Oct. 2013

2006 Abbey and CLINT

AMBROSON, a daughter, Vivian Rose, July 2013 RACHEL (WINWOOD) and KEITH BECKER ’05, a son, Levi, Oct. 2013

KARI (HANSON) and Nick Ploysa, a son, Samuel Rivers, Oct. 2013 BECKY (KNOTT) and Seth Porter, a son, Brooks Henry, Aug. 2013 Lindsey and BROCK REED, a son, Braxon Harris, Dec. 2013 REBECCA (LONGMUIR) and CHRISTOPHER ROTHFUSS, a daughter, Abigail, July 2013

Luther Alumni Magazine

KELLY (SCHEMA) and ALEX THORESON, a son, Max Thomas, Sept. 2013

2007 KRIS (BRICK) and

William Becka, a daughter, Skyler Jean, Oct. 2013 SUSIE (BISSEN) and ZACH ESKER, a son, James, July 2013 CARRIE (BEAVER) and JOHN JAEGER ’05, a daughter, Elise Malinda, Aug. 2013

MEGAN (REUTLINGER) and Jesse Lyon, a son, Eli Allen, Sept. 2013

2010 BRITTANY (BUCZEK) and NATHAN TODD ’09, a son, Miles Breyton, Aug. 2013

VANESSA (OELRICH) and GARY WIEST ’11, a son, Owen James, Nov. 2013

IN MEMORIAM Read full obituaries online at luthermagazine.com.

SARAH (QUICK) and Matt Olejniczak, a son, Walter Matthew, Feb. 2014

1938

EMILY (JACOB) and KYLE PEARSON, a son, James, Feb. 2014 Anne and BRETT SCHEETZ, a son, Emmett Daniel, Oct. 2013 JESSICA (MEYERHOLZ) and Anthony Smith, a daughter, Emma, Oct. 2013

1939

2008 LAURA (TITUSDAHL)

and KARL BOLEEN, a daughter, Ida, Oct. 2013

INEZ (NELSON) JACKSON of Madison, Minn., died June 9, 2013, age 98.

ALEXANDER “ALEX” FISHER of Slayton, Minn., died Dec. 15, 2013, age 97.

1941

GLENN FORSETH of Bartlesville, Texas, died Dec. 19, 2013, age 94.

Claire Rosser and JIM HILDEBRAND, a son, Owain Maddox, May 2013

KELLI (ANDRE) and ADAM KELLERHALS, a daughter, Norah Kristin, Oct. 2013

ASHLEY (BERG) and Jason Hovendick, a daughter, Abby Ann, Dec. 2013

MEGAN (ST. CLAIR) and JON NELSON, a son, Andrew Donald, Dec. 2013

ANGELA (REICHERT) and Kevin Griffin, a son, Hunter Nicholas, May 2013

Kirsten and SETH JOHNSON, a daughter, Heidi Elska, Sept. 2013

Blair Everman, a son, Weston William, Jan. 2014

DUANE SOMMERNESS of Sun City, Ariz., died Dec. 3, 2013, age 95. ANNE (KARLIN) and RYAN GIBBS a daughter, Eleanor Margaret, Oct. 2013

Alumni News

1942

WANDA J. (ANDERSON) BERNATZ of Decorah died March 4, 2014, age 85.

1943

MARJORIE (LEIKVOLD) MASON of North Oaks, Minn., died Nov. 20, 2013, age 86.

ALVINA REBECCA “BECKY” (FOSMARK) CONRADSON of Phenix City, Ala., died April 16, 2013, age 92.

RUTH (HAGEN) ALLEN of Mabel, Minn., died Feb. 21, 2014, age 92.

1949

1944

1952 SHERWOOD O. “BUD” MELLOM of Willmar, Minn., died Oct. 30, 2013, age 89.

HILDA (DEGROOT) SETTJE of Springfield, S.D., died Jan. 12, 2014, age 89.

RENA M. RUSTAD of Northwood, Iowa, died Jan 20, 2014, age 84.

1953 WILLIS I. NORDHEM of Mundelein, Ill., died Feb. 2, 2014, age 85.

HJORDIS MARILYN (MYHRE) NELSON of La Crosse, Wis., died Dec. 27, 2013, age 88.

ARLENE CLARE (LARSON) SCHLAKE of Rochester, Minn., died Nov. 8, 2013, age 89.

ROGER WHEATMAN of Decorah died March 8, 2014, age 90.

1947

FRED OWEN HOFF of Edina, Minn., and Sun City West, Ariz., died Dec. 26, 2013, age 93.

1950 KENNETH S. KNUTSON of Tracy, Minn., died Oct. 8, 2013, age 92.

1948 RICHARD A.

ANDERSON of Wilmette, Ill., died Sept. 4, 2013, age 90. VIOLET (JANSEN) BEENKEN of Sulphur Springs, Texas, died March 24, 2010, age 79.

JEROME “JERRY” DAHL of Santa Ana, Calif., died Oct. 15, 2013, age 93.

DONALD R. “DON” GORDON of Normal, Ill., died Feb. 14, 2014, age 88.

1955

JOYCE KARWYN (DAHL) FADNESS of Austin, Minn., formerly of Houston, Minn., died March 2, 2014, age 82. DALE R. NOBLE of Santa Barbara, Calif., died March 22, 2014, age 82.

ANTHONY WALTER “WALLY” OXLEY of Decorah died March 1, 2014, age 83. JANET (BAILIE) REMSTAD of Brown Deer, Wis., died Dec. 8, 2013, age 82.

1954 LILA ELAINE (DAHLE)

KUNTZ of Edina, Minn., died Nov. 3, 2013, age 82. FRED JOSEPH SCHULTZ of Irvine, Calif., died Dec. 7, 2013, age 81.

ERWIN M. BEENKEN of Sulphur Springs, Texas, died March 10, 2011, age 83.

DARLENE NOLA (PETERSON) JONES of Decorah died Nov. 19, 2013, age 79.

JOHN THOMAS ROTTO of Decorah died Nov. 29, 2013, age 84.

INGRID (OXLEY) BRADY of Ames, Iowa, died Oct. 17, 2013, age 83.

KENNETH BURESH of Scottsdale, Ariz., died Jan. 25, 2014, age 90.

1945

1951

MARVIN GLEN MUNDT of Valparaiso, Ind., died May 6, 2013, age 80. IRVING C. NJUS of San Antonio, Texas, died Dec. 12, 2013, age 82.

1957

ROGER A. ERICKSON of Blair, Wis., died Dec. 18, 2013, age 84.

1959

1960

1961

DAVID ORLANDO LOMEN of Tucson, Ariz., died Nov. 15, 2013, age 76.

JEROME PAUL HOFF of Princeton, Minn., died July 12, 2012, age 74.

LUTHER DAVID PETERSON of Oswego, N.Y., died Jan. 28, 2014, age 74.

DAVID ALAN WANGSNESS of Woodbury, Minn., died Feb. 11, 2014, age 75.

Spring 2014 Luther Alumni Magazine

Alumni News

1962

ALAN CARPENTER of DeLand, Fla., died Jan. 11, 2014, age 74.

1971

GARY R. AMBROSE of Granite City, Ill., died Aug. 1, 2013, age 63.

RONALD IVAN JOHNSTAD of Emigrant, Mont., died Jan. 30, 2014, age 77.

1987

STEVE REMMEN of Decorah died Dec. 23, 2013, age 64.

1993 BARBARA R. (KNUTSON) SPALDING of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, died March 9, 2014, age 73.

1963

1964

1966

1970

HEIDI OERTLEY of Spotsylvania County, Va., died Nov. 14, 2013, age 63.

1975 DON DAVIS of Ridgeway, Iowa, died Dec. 22, 2013, age 71.

1977 SAMUEL JUSTIN IVERSON, 72, of Grundy Center, Iowa, died March 3, 2014, age 72.

RON PIERRE VIGNEC of Tacoma, Wash., died Nov. 10, 2013, age 70.

1994 ALLEN D. “AL” CRAWFORD of Rockwall, Texas, died March 16, 2014, age 59.

2006

LOIS JOHNSON of Mission Viejo, Calif., died Oct. 22, 2013, age 64.

Luther Alumni Magazine

PAUL D. WILLIAMS of Bolingbrook, Ill., died June 22, 2013, age 55.

1980

ERIC PAUL RANUM of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, died Nov. 10, 2012, age 55.

1981

PATRICIA ANN (BARBER) TAYLOR of Chicago died Dec. 2, 2013, age 54.

1983

SUSAN ELIZABETH HEATON of Prior Lake, Minn., died Nov. 29, 2013, age 52.

KRISTINE MARIE (BOUSKA) FOREMAN of Rosemount, Minn., died March 3, 2014, age 43. ANN MARIE LUNDVALL of Ames, Iowa, died Jan. 21, 2013, age 43.

CRAIG ALLEN WATKINS of Amboy, Ill., died Jan. 1, 2014, age 60.

1979

KEITH H. STEERE of Kingsport, Tenn., died Dec. 18, 2013, age 67.

1972

MATTHEW TOULOUSE of West Des Moines, Iowa, died Dec. 16, 2013, age 47.

2010

STAN “LEIGH” BLAZEK of Silver Spring, Md.; Chicago; and Poynette, Wis., died Nov. 2, 2013, age 41.

AMY MONROE of Decorah died Nov. 27, 2013, age 38.

LEANDER RUFUS VETHANAYAGAMONY of Bolingbrook, Ill., died Dec. 30, 2013, age 24.

Professor emerita Helen Strand passes away at age 104 HELEN AMALIA STRAND of Oak Grove, Minn., passed away peacefully at home in her sleep March 11, 2014, at age 104. She was born June 2, 1909, in Harmony, Minn., to Jacob and Carrie Strand. She earned a twoyear teaching certificate from Winona State Teachers College, a bachelor’s degree from St. Olaf College, and master’s and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Minnesota. Strand taught primary school in rural Harmony (Big Springs), Donaldson, Lockhart, Spring Grove, and Aitkin (Minn.) schools. She served as a lieutenant USNR (WAVES) during WWII with the Navy Department, Bureau of Ordnance, and also worked at the War Department, Post Office Department, and Department of Agriculture in Washington, D.C., before returning to Minnesota for graduate school. She was professor of education at Luther from 1954 to 1974, a Fulbright lecturer at Cuttington College in Liberia in 1966, and director of students for the Upward Bound Program, Liberia, from 1969 to 1972. After leaving Luther in 1974 she was an American Lutheran Church missionary teaching at Balob Teachers College, Lae, Papua New Guinea, until 1979.

President’s Council Looking in on Luther College When I was invited to come to Luther, my son said, “Dad, you are at the top. You finally made it to a school with cheerleaders!” Now his mom and I are shameless Luther cheerleaders ourselves. This is a wonderful place. The preacher in me asks you to respond, “Amen!” And with the lovely news that Dr. Paula J. Carlson will become Luther’s 10th president, I can say (again) with confidence: she is getting a great job! What will I tell people who will ask about my year at Luther College? Three things come to mind as inspiring. First, this place welcomes students into a community that cares about their gifts, disciplines their strengths, and links them with outstanding faculty and staff mentors. And because this is a community of conviction, students are welcomed in holy awe for who they are and what they will become. To keep our promise to our students and the world, Luther College challenges as it cares, leading deep into the worlds of science, social science, humanities, and the arts. Second, Luther College is an educational portal “into a larger world.” Luther enrolls about 150 students from 56 countries, 75 percent of our students will study abroad prior to graduation, and the college itself is systemically networked locally and globally. People in over 180 countries are using an interactive, open-source computer science textbook written by professors Brad Miller ’86 and David Ranum ’83. Luther’s nationally recognized efforts in reducing its carbon footprint—40 percent so far— puts Luther at the forefront in linking pragmatic action with academic exploration and moral courage in the area of sustainability. And Paideia opens into the world God loves, the world of many cultures and religions: drawing in resources from everywhere and moving out into internships, research, service, and career placement. Luther is a dynamic enterprise nestled in beautiful Decorah. Third, the care and affection Luther alumni, parents, and friends have for this college is infectious. This goes beyond cheerleading. Many schools have loyal grads, but people love Luther College. Over and over, I have been struck by the strong bonds of community and commitment. It’s not common elsewhere, so don’t take it for granted. An underlying theme at Luther, Belong, captures it beautifully. Generations of Luther students and their supporters join the chorus (in four-part harmony, of course): “I belong at Luther College, and Luther belongs to me!” In this report, we celebrate President’s Council donors who generously proclaim that Luther belongs to them! These donors, along with all other alumni, parents, and friends who share their time and treasure, live out their vocation of joyful stewardship, multiplying the Luther College blessing for our students and the world. Thank you for your investment in the lives of our beautiful, capable students! It is an honor and privilege to serve this institution. After this interim year, both my wife and I will continue to look in on Luther College with every confidence that “the best is yet to be!”

Important changes to the Luther College President’s Council Last year, in their February 2013 meeting, Luther’s Board of Regents passed a resolution to increase the threshold for President’s Council membership. The current threshold of $1,000 had been in effect for the previous 21 years, since the creation of the President’s Council giving society in 1992. Beginning January 1, 2014, all gifts to Luther in a calendar year— January 1 to December 31—of $1,500 or more now qualify for recognition in the Luther College President’s Council. Also, to encourage leadership giving among Luther’s most recent graduates, a new membership level of President’s Council, the President’s First-Decade Society, has been established in 2014 to recognize alumni who, in their first decade after graduation, contribute $750 or more in a calendar year. President’s First-Decade Society members will receive the same recognition and acknowledgement as other members of the President’s Council giving society. Alumni from the classes of 2004 to 2014 are eligible for membership in the President’s FirstDecade Society beginning in January 2014; alumni from 2005 to 2015 will be eligible in January 2015; and so on.

Soli Deo Gloria!

David L. Tiede, Ph.D. Interim President

Spring 2014 Luther Alumni Magazine

President’s Council The following pages list individuals and organizations who have provided financial support to Luther College of $1,000 or more in the past calendar year, January 1–December 31, 2013, and those who have provided $100,000 or more to the college cumulatively through December 31, 2013. In recognition of their leadership in giving, these donors qualify as members of the Luther College President’s Council. All gifts at this level—including annual fund support, which qualifies for added recognition as Leadership Trust Benefactors—are included in the list of President’s Council donors. Gifts at all levels are vital in providing scholarship assistance for students, ensuring the success of academic and cocurricular programs, and meeting needs for technology, equipment, and facility maintenance and replacement.

PRESIDENT’S COUNCIL LIFE MEMBERS This is a permanent record of recognition of those whose cumulative outright gifts total $100,000 or more, those who have established irrevocable planned gifts with remainder interest present values of $100,000 or more, those who have made irrevocable gifts of life insurance policies with cash values of $100,000 or more, or those who have contributed combinations thereof, as of December 31, 2013. The President’s Circle commemorates these pioneer presidents of Luther College: Peter Laurentius (Laur.) Larsen, served 1861– 1902; Christian Keyser Preus, 1902–21; Oscar Ludvig Olson, 1921–32; Ove J. H. Preus, 1932–48; and J.Wilhelm Ylvisaker, 1948–62. * Attained Life Membership and President’s Circle membership during the 2013 calendar year ◊ President’s Council Life member(s) whose cumulative giving increase from last year resulted in a move to the next President’s Circle level

The Larsen Circle

The Preus Circle

Recognizes those whose cumulative gifts given as of December 31, 2013, total $1,000,000 or more.

Recognizes those whose cumulative gifts given as of December 31, 2013, total $500,000 to $999,999.

INDIVIDUALS Bruce ’68 and Janis (Zube) Altorfer ’70 †Arthur and †Helen Austin †E.E. “Ray” ’59 and Shirley (Klingsheim) Bentdahl ’59 R. Eric ’61 and Cynthia (Aal) Carlson ’63 David Carlson ’85 David ’63 and Brenda (Landsgard) Carlson ’73 †Bert and †Bernice Cross †Bert and †Mildred Dahl †Edward Dahly Shelby and Gale Davis Orville and Kathleen Johnson †Ervin and †Phyllis Johnson †John Kintzinger Douglas ’82 and Shelly Kintzinger Jewel Kintzinger Day and Burtwin Day †Leon and †Helen Koebrick David ’64 and Camille Kundert Bradley ’86 and Jane (Dalen) Miller ’86 Neal ’59 and Gerry (Mosby) Nottleson ’59 ◊Curtis Reiso ’54 †Milton and †Dorothy Roelfs Steven Schaver ’76 and Asunta Eizaguirre †Edgar ’38 and †Gerda Sersland Rebecca (Linnevold) ’71 and Robert Shaw

INDIVIDUALS Anonymous †E.J. and †Betty Altorfer Rich ’74 and Candace (Grimm) Altorfer ’73 †Arthur ’30 and †Mary Louise Bergee ◊†John ’33 and †Mildred Breiland Ronald ’59 and Gene (Flom) Calgaard ’58 †Roy ’26 and †Helen Carlson †Lillian Ellerman Daryl ’61 and Audrey (Pederson) Erdman ’61 John and Marilyn Gilbert †Thomas and †Frances James †Herbert ’32 and Kay Johnson Sandy and Mick Lee ’57 ◊David ’64 and Pat Miller †Tilmar Moilien ’34 Donald Nelson Weston Noble ’43 Marti (Tomson) ’84 and William Rodamaker Arne ’80 and Ruth Sorenson O. Jay and Patricia Tomson †C. Harvey ’49 and Charleen Wilkins

ESTATE GIFTS Estate of Nena Amundson ’56 Estate of Malcolm ’30 and Maybelle Estrem CORPORATIONS AND FOUNDATIONS American Lutheran Church Gardner & Florence Call Cowles Foundation Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Iowa College Foundation The Kresge Foundation Lilly Endowment Inc. Microsoft Corporation F.W. Olin Foundation Inc. Qwest Communications International Inc. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans

ESTATE GIFTS Estate of Patricia Gunderson Estate of Leo Schafee CORPORATIONS AND FOUNDATIONS Bank of the West (formerly Community First National Bank) Bruening Rock Products Inc. Fred Carlson Company Inc. Roy J. Carver Charitable Trust Decorah Bank and Trust ◊Howard Hughes Medical Institute IBM Corporation R.J. McElroy Trust Teagle Foundation Incorporated

† Deceased

NOTE: The President’s Council Life Members lists (pp. 68–70) recognize donors whose CUMULATIVE giving to Luther College has reached $100,000 or more as of December 31, 2013. All other lists (pp. 70–79) recognize donors who have given $1,000 or more to Luther College in the past CALENDAR YEAR—January 1–December 31, 2013—ONLY.

Luther Alumni Magazine

President’s Council The Olson Circle Recognizes those whose cumulative gifts given as of December 31, 2013, total $250,000 to $499,999. INDIVIDUALS Anonymous (3) Jutta F. Anderson †Glenn ’39 and †Delia Bergland †Harald ’25 and †Helen Bestul Alan ’55 and Sally Brudos Russell Bruemmer ’74 Wilfred ’53 and Ruth (Jensen) Bunge ’51 John and Carole Lea Cotton †Kathryn Engebretson ’77 E.D. and Helen Farwell George and Joann Hagen †Kermit ’38 and †Jane (Haugen) Hanson ’39 †Lucille Heintz Richard ’65 and Joann (Harr) Hemp ’65 Helen (Peterson) ’52 and Jack Hustad Dennis and Carole Johnson †Darlene (Peterson) ’55 and Robert Jones Douglas ’73 and Sandra Kratz David ’69 and Julie Larson Ellen (Hanson) Lindop ’46 †Paul ’49 and Justine (Holum) Lionberger ’50 David Lubben ’74 and Nancy Kwam Paula (Hermeier) ’76 and Kurtis Meyer ’76 Glenn Nelson and Mary Jane Borelli †Walter ’50 and Virginia Nelson ◊Alan ’61 and Linda Nordhem †Carleton ’49 and Barbara (Orwoll) Nordschow ’49 Donald ’48 and Dorie Olson †Jeanne (Preus) Rost ’41 Marilyn (Haugen) ’66 and Jeff Roverud ’66 Walter ’59 and Amelia Rugland †Vernon Serfling John ’58 and Donna (Ferden) Suby ’59 Robert ’58 and Janet (Purmort) Tollund ’73 ◊Joan (Catlin) ’63 and David Totten †Ollie ’49 and Pipka Ulvilden Michael Voltmer ’74 †Russell and †Margaret Wicks Michael and Barbara Wigley Robert and †Jean Wigley ◊Enwei Xie ’94 and Lynn Tonglao

ESTATE GIFTS Estate of Robert Amunrud Estate of Wilbur Dosland Estate of Evelyn Evenson Estate of Harry and Selma Hougan Estate of David Knudson ’61 Estate of Gordon Luce ’49 Estate of Duane Monette ’69 Estate of Ronald Olson ’65 Estate of William Seabold Estate of Halberta Steensland Estate of Ruth Steinmetz Estate of Laura Stoin CORPORATIONS AND FOUNDATIONS Associated Colleges of the Midwest Bush Foundation The Margaret A. Cargill Foundation Carlson Materials Company Inc. The Arthur Vining Davis Foundations Davis United World College Scholars ExxonMobil Foundation The Jessie F. Hallett Charitable Trust Kinney-Lindstrom Foundation Inc. Luther College Woman’s Club Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Foundation Northwest Area Foundation The Presser Foundation Thanks to Scandinavia, an Institute of the American Jewish Committee Voltmer Electric

The Ylvisaker Circle Recognizes those whose cumulative gifts given as of December 31, 2013, total $100,000 to $249,999. INDIVIDUALS Anonymous (2) †Maynard ’39 and †Minerva Aaker H. George and Christine Anderson Jeffrey ’84 and MaryEllen (Palmquist) Anderson ’84 Lloyd and Kathy Anderson M.C. Anderson ’54 John and †Mabel Bale †Sissel Berdal Alvin ’55 and †Marilynn Berg Roger and Carol Berg Jon and Stephanie Bergquist

Susan (Maclay) ’64 and Paul Blackman Donald ’51 and †Wanda Blockhus Marilyn Bohl ’56 Alvin ’54 and Marion Brekken Gregory ’78 and Karen Bruening †Harley and Joyce Carlson *†Alan ’62 and Rebecca Carpenter *Keith Christensen ’80 and Dawn DeinesChristensen ’82 *†Lois (Brandt) Drews ’49 Dennis and Jolene Elmore James Field ’54 Dennis ’68 and Jean Flatness Timothy ’67 and †Janet (Strube) Fleming ’67 Luther ’49 and Ilene (Knutson) Forde ’46 Helene (Rowe) ’48 and †Edward Furst Callista (Bisek) ’88 and Newt Gingrich Ingeborg (Bader) Goessl ’60 J Bruce ’62 and Cosette (Cross) Goetsch ’63 Jan (Engle) ’62 and John Gray Leon and Linda Gregg William ’61 and Dianne Halling †Henry and †Janet Halvorson Gene ’63 and Suzanne Haugland Ronald and Lisa Have Adrian ’41 and †Evelyne Helgeson Sheldon ’52 and Renee (Aust) Hermanson ’54 Betty Hoff ’60 †James ’49 and †Elizabeth Holey Robert and Arlene Houlihan *David ’66 and Carole Hoyem †Reuben ’28 and †May Jacobson †Erling ’31 and †Geneva Johnson Glen ’70 and Kathy (Selzer) Johnson ’71 Timothy Jones and Annie Cardelus Marvin and Mary Klocke Stephen ’63 and Susan Kraabel Wendell ’58 and Judith (Davidson) Larsen ’60 †Percy ’45 and Constance (Dahl) Larson ’45 O. Dale ’61 and Patricia Larson David Lietz ’88 and Suzette Derrevere *Willard ’37 and Yvonne Linnevold †Walter Magnuson Ronald ’57 and Marilyn (Lokensgard) Martinson ’57 Paul ’81 and Miri (Peterson) Mattson ’81 *David and Patricia Meyer

Spring 2014 Luther Alumni Magazine

President’s Council †Frank ’37 and †Esther (Stephens) Miller ’37 Victoria (Dahly) ’73 and Randal Miller ’73 Martin Mohr and Mary Lou Hull Mohr Bjorn ’64 and Margot Monson Corinne and Harland Nelson †David ’49 and Betty Rikansrud Nelson ’57 *Millard and LaVonne Nelson Roald ’54 and Ruth Nelson Stephen ’81 and Kari Noltner †Hildred (Kronlokken) ’54 and Franklin Norman Timothy ’87 and Molly Oitzman Marsha (Weckwerth) ’82 and Lee Olch †F. Milo ’58 and Carole Olson †Edwin and Thelma Overholt Steven ’68 and Connie (Marlow) Overholt ’71 J. Robert ’78 and Barbara Paulson Steven ’78 and Solveig (Storvick) Pollei ’79 †Esther Porter †Herman ’16 and †Florence Preus †Lucile Brickner Brown Price †Mary Margaret Roberts ’44 †Esther Rodda Robert ’51 and Lucille Rosholt Dale ’62 and Catherine Ruosch J. Stephen ’68 and Lin (Mathieu) Schmidt ’70 †Floyd and †Mary Lou (Schmitt) Sollien ’68 Jon and Rebecca Stellmacher *Steven ’81 and Carmen (Hansen) Stenhaug ’82 Karen (Mathews) ’65 and Mark Stuart Brad ’81 and Meg Thompson Sterling ’50 and †Vila (Kiel) Thompson ’51 †Henry Tollefson Paul ’73 and Rebecca (Larson) Torgerson ’73 Richard and Judith Torgerson *Terry Trimpe ’70 Jerry ’57 and Barbara Twedt Thomas ’62 and Juanita Vaaler Joseph ’80 and Greer Whitters John ’57 and Carol Witt †Arlo ’43 and Agnes (Kvaase) Woolery ’43 †Paul ’39 and Mary Anne Wulfsberg †James Ylvisaker ’60 ESTATE GIFTS Anonymous Estate of Margaret Baker

Estate of Ruth Benson Estate of Karen Berg ’65 Estate of Clara Bonthron Estate of David Borders ’73 Estate of Michael ’38 and Betty Borge Estate of Edwin Bottolfson ’22 Estate of O.L. Enstad Estate of Harlan Flatjord Estate of Marie Gunther Estate of O.M. Haaland Estate of Alvida Hale Estate of Lucille Hamilton Estate of Carole Hanson ’60 Estate of Dorothy Haugen Estate of Herbert Jacobson ’33 Estate of Martin ’19 and Avis Jenson Estate of Betty Juhasz Estate of Linka Kempf Estate of Delores Kudej *Estate of Affry Lerol Estate of Elizabeth Nasvik Estate of Leo Naughton Estate of Inga Nelson Estate of Justin ’41 and Milly (Meyer) Nelson ’44 Estate of Alice Paulson Estate of Melvin Rasmussen Estate of Walter ’29 and Nora Rugland Estate of Maynord Steensgard ’52 Estate of Genevieve Stelberg Estate of Josephine Thostenson Estate of Gertrude Tingelstad ’41 Estate of Henrietta Torgerson ’39 Estate of Theodore Vagts Estate of G. Norman Wigeland CORPORATIONS AND FOUNDATIONS The American Scandinavian Foundation Col. L.C. Christensen Charitable and Religious Foundation *Deco Products Company John Deere Foundation First Lutheran Church, Decorah, Iowa Homer and Martha Gudelsky Family Foundation Ernest W. Hallett Charitable Trust Hawkeye Stages Inc. The Hearst Foundation Inc. Hormel Foods Corporation Interstate Power Company S.C. Johnson Wax Fund Inc. The Joyce Foundation

W.K. Kellogg Foundation Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company The William Penn Foundation Research Corporation Dr. J.E. Salsbury Foundation Spahn & Rose Lumber Company

PRESIDENT’S COUNCIL CALENDAR YEAR DONORS ° Leadership Trust member (gifts totaling $1,000 or more to the Luther College Annual Fund in the past calendar year, January 1, 2013–December 31, 2013) † Deceased

President’s Executive Cabinet Recognizes those whose gifts given from January 1, 2013, to December 31, 2013, total $50,000 or more. INDIVIDUALS Bruce ’68 and Janis (Zube) Altorfer ’70 °Ronald ’59 and Gene (Flom) Calgaard ’58 °R. Eric ’61 and Cynthia (Aal) Carlson ’63 †Alan ’62 and Rebecca Carpenter Shelby and Gale Davis Robert Gay Douglas ’73 and Sandra Kratz °David ’64 and Camille Kundert °O. Dale ’61 and Patricia Larson °Sandy and Mick Lee ’57 °Willard ’37 and Yvonne Linnevold David ’64 and Pat Miller °Millard and LaVonne Nelson °Alan ’61 and Linda Nordhem Neal ’59 and Gerry (Mosby) Nottleson ’59 †Sandra Osler °Curtis Reiso ’54 °Marti (Tomson) ’84 and William Rodamaker °Arne ’80 and Ruth Sorenson O. Jay and Patricia Tomson

Luther Alumni Magazine

President’s Council ESTATE GIFTS Estate of Mildred Breiland °Estate of Marlys Engen Estate of Affry Lerol

President’s Academy

CORPORATIONS AND FOUNDATIONS Associated Colleges of the Midwest °Decorah Bank and Trust Howard Hughes Medical Institute Sodexo Inc. °Thrivent Financial for Lutherans

INDIVIDUALS Anonymous (3) Richard ’64 and Barbara (Moen) Amundson ’65 °Steven ’74 and Paulette (Engel) Barnes ’74 Susan (Maclay) ’64 and Paul Blackman °Alvin ’54 and Marion Brekken °Russell Bruemmer ’74 Wilfred ’53 and Ruth (Jensen) Bunge ’51 °Evelyn (Henderson) Costley ’41 John and Carole Lea Cotton °Wendy (Jaycox) ’92 and Thor Davidson ’93 Laura Dotseth ’86 and David Larsen Jessica Ellis ’98 James Field ’54 °Dennis ’68 and Jean Flatness Leon and Linda Gregg Larry and Diane Grimstad °Ronald and Lisa Have °Edward ’63 and Sharon (Madson) Hill ’63 °David ’66 and Carole Hoyem Helen (Peterson) ’52 and Jack Hustad °Glen ’70 and Kathy (Selzer) Johnson ’71 °Michael ’78 and Amy (Kiesler) Kust ’78 °David ’69 and Julie Larson David Lubben ’74 and Nancy Kwam Paula (Hermeier) ’76 and Kurtis Meyer ’76 Bjorn ’64 and Margot Monson °Steven ’68 and Connie (Marlow) Overholt ’71 °J. Robert ’78 and Barbara Paulson °Robert ’51 and Lucille Rosholt °Marilyn (Haugen) ’66 and Jeff Roverud ’66 °Kevin ’72 and Leslie (Smith) Sand ’74 °Steven Schaver ’76 and Asunta Eizaguirre °Rebecca (Linnevold) ’71 and Robert Shaw Melvyn ’63 and Ingrid (Jacobson) Smith ’63 °Susan Sorlien ’73 and Thomas Jones Karen (Mathews) ’65 and Mark Stuart °Richard ’72 and Jane Theiler Sterling Thompson ’50 °Diane (Baum) ’72 and Gaylord Thormodsgard °Richard and Judith Torgerson

President’s Associates Recognizes those whose gifts given from January 1, 2013, to December 31, 2013, total $25,000 to $49,999. INDIVIDUALS Rich ’74 and Candace (Grimm) Altorfer ’73 Eugene and Aneila Barth Nancy (Larson) Bluemel ’62 David ’63 and Brenda (Landsgard) Carlson ’73 °Jonathan ’90 and Dawn Doering °Helene (Rowe) ’48 and †Edward Furst Ingeborg (Bader) Goessl ’60 Gene ’63 and Suzanne Haugland Richard ’65 and Joann (Harr) Hemp ’65 °David and Patricia Meyer Weston Noble ’43 Ed and Jackie Stanek °James ’86 and Kathy (Winter) Thomsen ’85 °Joan (Catlin) ’63 and David Totten °Enwei Xie ’94 and Lynn Tonglao ESTATE GIFTS Estate of Ruth Maclay Flatt Estate of Reno Vantaggi CORPORATIONS AND FOUNDATIONS Bruening Rock Products Inc. °Iowa College Foundation John R. Wright and Eloise Mountain Wright Foundation

Recognizes those whose gifts given from January 1, 2013, to December 31, 2013, total $10,000 to $24,999.

ESTATE GIFTS °Estate of Norman Alstad ’38 Estate of Richard ’48 and Jean Anderson Estate of Leila Ellingson Estate of Patricia Gunderson Estate of Grace Olson Estate of Floyd Sollien Estate of Oswald Swenson ’51 CORPORATIONS AND FOUNDATIONS Roy J. Carver Charitable Trust Casper Plumbing and Heating Davis United World College Scholars Eaton Corporation °Evangelical Lutheran Church in America °ExxonMobil Foundation IBM Corporation Luther College Woman’s Club Lutheran Community Foundation °Wells Fargo Eloise M. Wright Trust

President’s Affiliates Recognizes those whose gifts given from January 1, 2013, to December 31, 2013, total $5,000 to $9,999. INDIVIDUALS Anonymous Jutta F. Anderson David and Candace Arp Luong Banh Shirley (Klingsheim) Bentdahl ’59 °Ann Bentdahl ’85 and Roger Smith °Ronald and Ann Bolinger °Quentin and Inez Boyken Alan ’55 and Sally Brudos John ’59 and Dorothy Brugge °David Carlson ’85 °Rocklon ’73 and Barb (Donaldson) Chapin ’73 °Keith Christensen ’80 and Dawn DeinesChristensen ’82 °Craig Cornelius ’74 and Ann HaddenCornelius Eric ’99 and Julia Cutler Donald ’68 and Joanne Davidson Jeffrey ’80 and Joni Dotseth Randa Duvick ’78 and Dave Grosnick °Peter ’81 and Kari Tollefson Espinosa ’84 °Peggy and Bryan Ettestad

Spring 2014 Luther Alumni Magazine

President’s Council °E.D. and Helen Farwell °Craig Fox ’83 °Lorene (Oppen) Gard ’63 and James Taylor J Bruce ’62 and Cosette (Cross) Goetsch ’63 °Richard ’50 and Eileen Grindeland °Suzanne (Knoll) ’65 and John Hales °Mark and Barbara Hanawalt Richard Simon Hanson ’53 °Jon and Mary Hart Mark ’71 and Lois (Lebakken) Helland ’71 °Sheldon ’52 and Renee (Aust) Hermanson ’54 °Katherine Johnson-Becklin and †Jay Becklin †Darlene (Peterson) ’55 and Robert Jones °Timothy Jones and Annie Cardelus °Jonathan ’85 and Sandra (Neitzel) Joppa ’87 Fred ’73 and Stephanie (Hanson) Koch ’73 °Stephen ’63 and Susan Kraabel °Timothy and Sarah Krumm °George Kuh ’68 Mary Kust Richard ’55 and Gloria (Smalley) Landborg ’55 °Ronald ’61 and Jean Lee °James ’79 and Janis (Miller) Lovell ’80 Joel ’88 and Laurence Ludvigsen Jon Lund Dale and Kathleen Lyndahl °Bradley ’86 and Jane (Dalen) Miller ’86 °Victoria (Dahly) ’73 and Randal Miller ’73 Suzanne (Roverud) ’96 and Corey Mineck Paula (Bedford) ’68 and Paul Moucka °Betty Rikansrud Nelson ’57 Jan Nelson ’70 Stephen ’81 and Kari Noltner °Franklin Norman °Timothy ’87 and Molly Oitzman

Thelma Overholt June Paar °Hamlet ’54 and Suzanne Peterson Connie Plaehn ’75 °Jonathan ’61 and Mary Preus ’63 °Janet Robertson ’60 Curtis ’60 and Ann (Knutson) Rotto ’61 Walter ’59 and Amelia Rugland Steven Runde ’97 Dale ’62 and Catherine Ruosch Robert ’68 and Dell Ann (Kappus) Sathe ’68 Britt Sather ’78 °Corey ’98 and Tonya (Schwers) Schmidt ’97 Richard and Mary Ann Shaw Craig ’76 and Jeanette (Nelson) Spilde ’76 Scott ’89 and Laura (Anderson) Stevens ’92 Ryan Stroschein ’99 °David and Martha Tiede Matthew ’01 and Jaime (Rowe) Titus ’00 °Paul ’73 and Rebecca (Larson) Torgerson ’73 °Lee ’78 and Maggie Valenta °Lance ’79 and Shari Vander Linden Cheryl Westrum Bressler ’79 and Richard Bressler Joseph ’80 and Greer Whitters Michael and Barbara Wigley °Larry ’83 and Jane Winter °James ’81 and Jodi (Palma) Young ’81 ESTATE GIFTS °Estate of Lois (Brandt) Drews ’49 CORPORATIONS AND FOUNDATIONS °Cargill Inc. Council of Independent Colleges

“

Luther is a special place for us and for our family. For over 50 years we’ve been touched by Luther’s commitments to its students and by the deep friendships we’ve found there. We’re privileged to be able contribute to such a remarkable place.” —John ’59 and Dorothy Brugge

Deco Products Company °EY Foundation °Google Matching Gifts Program Gundersen Lutheran Medical Center Inc. Kinney-Lindstrom Foundation Inc. Lutheran Foundation of the Southwest °Microsoft Corporation The Monticello College Foundation

President’s Society Recognizes those whose gifts given from January 1, 2013, to December 31, 2013, total $1,000 to $4,999. INDIVIDUALS Anonymous (13) Scott Addington ’69 Sherry (Braun) Alcock ’82 Mark and Regan Allen Isaac ’99 and Karen Almelien Hazel (Milbrath) Amundson ’39 °Alicia Anderson ’86 and Robert Skelly Dennis and Corinne Anderson °H. George and Christine Anderson James ’74 and Patricia Anderson °James ’50 and Ruth (Aas) Anderson ’50 Jim and Pat Anderson Jeffrey ’84 and MaryEllen (Palmquist) Anderson ’84 Kenneth Anderson ’58 °M.C. Anderson ’54 °Michael ’99 and Carryn (Ensrude) Anderson ’99 Roger ’48 and Amme Anderson Ronald ’57 and Lorna (Haugland) Anderson ’60 °Terry Anderson ’62 Avis (Lovell) Andre ’57 °Peter and Berit Andreone Peter and Lisa Androus °Karen Angell ’80 °Donald Annis ’68 °Jack Anundsen °Jeffrey ’89 and Angela (Carlson) Arndt ’88 Craig and Sarah Arnold Mel ’67 and Brooke Ashland Sharon (Zumdahl) ’70 and Stanley Asp °David Aspenson ’84 and Susan Aspenson Murray ’85 °Roger ’63 and Eleanor (Roe) Ault ’64 °Glenn ’62 and Karen (Swain) Austad ’62

Luther Alumni Magazine

President’s Council °Michael ’65 and Karen (Wardell) Austad ’64 °Sally Swab Austin ’70 and Bradford Austin Russell ’63 and Sandra (Edgren) Ayers ’64 °Barbara (Kleene) ’72 and Daniel Babine Kelly and Allison Bachelder °Ruth Ann Bachman ’75 and Thomas Gallagher John Bailey ’75 and Janet Carlson Shirley Baker Daniel Baldwin and Anne Bulliung John Bale °John ’83 and Karla (Nelson) Balk ’83 °Roger ’71 and Peggy Bang Dong and Jennifer Banh °Robert ’87 and Connie (Huisinga) Barrett ’87 Nancy K. Barry Steven ’74 and Nancy Barry °Timothy Bartness ’75 °Ann (Birdsall) ’71 and Byron Beasley °Charles ’73 and Ann (Christensen) Beatty ’75 °Marion ’75 and Peggy (Hall) Beatty ’74 °Matthew ’92 and Kristine Beatty °Loren ’59 and Betty (Eide) Behm ’57 °Naomi (Flugstad) ’44 and Owen Bekkum Adam ’93 and Linnea (West) Benson ’95 °Kristyn (Edwards) ’96 and David Benson °Donald ’56 and Barbara Berg Ann (Gulsvig) ’67 and John Bergstad Steven ’74 and Linda (Kennedy) Berry ’74 °Jeffrey ’89 and Marnie (Kleven) Bigler ’89 Mark Birchard ’86 and Kari Clark °Steven ’84 and Marsha Birchard °Steven ’88 and Janette Birdwell °Matthew Birkenholz ’03 and Kelly Woods Birkenholz ’03 °Dennis ’66 and Suzanne Birkestrand Carol Birkland ’67 and Thomas Woxland °Richard ’71 and Louann (Peterson) Bjorlo ’67 °Donald Blockhus ’51 Michael ’96 and Jennifer (Usgaard) Bockenstedt ’96 °Erik ’87 and Anne Boe °Warren ’60 and Maryellen (Amundson) Boe ’61 °William ’95 and Kirsten (Stumme) Bohmer ’94 °David Boileau ’76 and Shirley Kirschbaum °Kimberly (Carlson) ’02 and Andrew Bonnet

“

The first time we stepped onto the Luther College campus, we both knew it was home. Our experiences there, including participation in band, choir, and J-term travel, have helped us to establish a foundation for everything in our lives. Most importantly, nursing and biology department faculty such as Sheryl Juve, Russ Rulon, and Wendy Stevens provided us with an exceptional education, paving the way to success in our own nurse anesthetist and radiation oncologist careers.” —Carryn (Ensrude) ’99 and Michael Anderson ’99 with sons Austin and Braden

Larry Bonney ’85 Eric Bookmeyer ’96 and Erin Peterson ’97 Steven ’72 and Beverly (Ulstad) Borgstrom ’72 °Carol Borson ’61 °Jake ’61 and Shirley Bostrom °Jeff ’81 and Shawn Bouslog °John ’61 and Julie (Seegmiller) Braaten ’67 David ’80 and Kathy (Haugland) Brandt ’82 °Rolf ’91 and Deirdre Brekken John Broman ’69 and Tracie Heim-Broman Ruth Broman ’79 Steven ’72 and Donnis Broman °Mara (Graven) ’91 and Paul Brooks °Renee (Anderson) ’72 and Charles Brown John ’53 and M. Jean Bruemmer Gregory ’78 and Karen Bruening Amy (Carlson) ’92 and Keith Bruening ’80 Paul Bruer and Linda Miller Paula Brugge ’83 and Charles Spetland Marilyn (Myrah) Bunge ’51 Hildegard Bunge Marion Bunge Mary Bunge Docken ’79 and Don Lucas °Don ’53 and Joan Bungum °David Bunt ’78 John ’87 and Susan Bunz Michael and Diane Burk †Barbara Butler °Jonathan ’04 and Miranda Butler Ruth Caldwell and Uwe Rudolf Lori Koch Cannestra ’82 and Paul Cannestra Jean (Flom) Carlson ’58 Joyce Carlson °Robert Carlson ’71 and Connie Wooldridge

Michael ’85 and Susanne Carney Larry ’65 and Karen (Aaker) Chellevold ’65 °Dennis ’63 and Ann (Henningsgaard) Christ ’66 Ardis Fiskerbeck Christen ’59 Daniel ’68 and Pamela Christensen °Rodney ’79 and Deborah Christensen Birgitte (Povelsen) ’73 and John Christianson °Anne (Marking) ’62 and Myrvin Christopherson °Jon ’84 and Janeen (Fowler) Christy ’93 Leofwin and JoBeth Clark Elly Nyberg Clark ’63 Kristine Cleary ’78 and Peter Coffey °Heather Clefisch ’94 and Nate Zolik °Peter and Sandy Cochrane °David ’80 and Wendy (Hillesland) Coe ’80 Richard and JoAnn Cole °Ralph ’49 and Jane Colrud Lori (Beckman) Conway ’83 °Michele Cooley ’92 and John Gluesing Naomi Craft °John ’60 and Diane Crawford °Erno ’52 and Suzanne (Preus) Dahl ’53 °Roland ’48 and Marilyn (Trytten) Dain ’50 James ’72 and Jeanne (Tormoen) Daubendiek ’72 °Mark ’81 and Jill Davidson °Phillip ’63 and Karen (Harr) Davidson ’63 George Davie °William ’62 and Judith (Ream) Davis ’62 °Leilani Hovden De Muth ’61 Kenneth and Bonnie Deavers °William ’71 and Joanne (Wells) Decker ’72

Spring 2014 Luther Alumni Magazine

President’s Council David ’71 and Jenee (Nelson) Dettmann ’72 Matthew and Lisa Dickey °Jean Dickson ’89 Rodney ’80 and Lisa Dir °Mark ’70 and Vicki (Mohlis) Donhowe ’70 °Michael Dorner ’86 °Edward Dosh ’70 °Thomas and Paula Dosland °Gregory ’61 and Carol Dotseth J. Kent ’62 and Carol Dougherty °Erik ’85 and Ellen (Paulson) Dovre ’86 Louise Dovre Bjorkman ’82 and John Bjorkman °Alice (Ranum) ’49 and Leonard Drake °Ruth Drews ’76 and Dean Peckham Sue (Franzen) ’78 and Jack Drilling °Douglas Duin ’77 and Ann Hill Duin ’77 Shannon (Miller) ’95 and DeLane Duval Richard ’64 and Patricia (McCullough) Edwards ’63 °Donald and Glenda Eggerling °Tami Ehlers ’01 °Peter ’68 and Terryl (Bruins) Eikren ’70 °Ruth (Huebner) ’84 and Michael Eisler °Gary ’59 and Jannell Embretson Henry Emmons ’81 and Jane Blockhus ’81 Charles Enge ’58 °Charles ’73 and Janice (Knutson) Engebretson ’74 Henrik ’57 and Marcia (Borreson) Engebretson ’58 °†Howard and Joan (Rod) Engquist ’54 °Joan (Rod) Engquist ’54 Edgar and Joyce Epperly Daryl ’61 and Audrey (Pederson) Erdman ’61 °Karla (Luzum) ’89 and Lindsay Erdman °Karen (Kiland) ’61 and Daniel Erlander °Nathan ’98 and Anne Ersig Jodene Evans ’84 °Joann (Halvorson) Evans ’52 David ’79 and Rachel (Andersen) Faldet ’78 °Patrick ’00 and Katrin (Aarestad) Fergus ’00 °Gregory ’77 and Victoria Fields Kenton ’54 and Lois Finanger Mark ’77 and Lois (Dunleavy) Finanger ’77 °Nancy Fincham ’85 °John ’69 and Janet Fischer °Nancy (Barrett) ’79 and Ross Fisher ’78 °Elizabeth Fiskerbeck Bruening ’58

“

I had such an amazing experience at Luther because of the positive environment Luther created and the wonderful opportunities it provided. Giving back is our way of helping to ensure future students continue to benefit from these opportunities and to show we support Luther’s mission. The Luther experience is something future students will benefit from for generations to come.” —Jon ’04 and Miranda Butler

°Bob ’66 and Lynne Fjelstul Scott ’83 and Ann Fjelstul °Timothy Fleming ’67 °Charles Fluegel ’63 °James ’64 and Judith (Larson) Fogdall ’65 °Larry ’62 and Marilyn Fogdall Luther ’49 and Ilene (Knutson) Forde ’46 °Donna (Ellefson) Fortney ’57 Gene Frank ’69 Kevin ’00 and Kimberly (Turner) Frantz ’00 °Laura (Charlson) ’89 and David Frazier °Terence ’56 and Faith (Luzum) Fretheim ’56 °Ronald ’61 and Karen (Paulson) Fretheim ’63 °Jim and Rita Friest °K. Edward ’68 and Jean (Knutson) Fry ’68 °Wilmer ’48 and Margaret (Nelson) Fure ’48 Andrew Galuski ’95 and Michelle Corley Jeffrey and Julie Gednalske °Michael ’92 and Teresa George °John and Marilyn Gilbert °Gary ’74 and Sandra Gilderhus Charles ’70 and Ranae (Keoppel) Gipp ’73 Daniel Gjelten ’74 and Lisa Burke ’85 °Eric Goers ’93 and Kerri Doeden Goers ’93 Nancy Gossell ’74 °Steven ’76 and Julie (Huntting) Grandgeorge ’77 °Lloyd ’65 and Mary Beth (Sandstrom) Gravengaard ’65 Andrew ’92 and Carrie Gray Bette Greedy °Kristopher ’82 and Kathryn (Willi) Gregersen ’81 Larry and Zylpha Gregerson Maryln (Johnson) Grimm ’50 Ben and Padrin Grimstad °Joseph ’98 and Ann Grimstad °David ’85 and Janet Gross Mark and Nancy Gruett

Jeff and Lisa Grusy °Laura (Stordahl) ’03 and Tyler Guenzel °Knut ’47 and Marit Gundersen °Delores Gustafson C. Carlyle ’55 and Mary (Kittelsland) Haaland ’56 Corey and Michelle Haaland °Vernon Haas ’52 James ’72 and Susan (Hammond) Haemker ’74 Dale ’81 and Teresa (Bell) Hallberg ’82 °Wayne ’62 and Barbara Halverson Larry ’68 and Jane (Hoplin) Hansen ’68 °Thomas ’77 and Joyce Hansen Bradley and Marion Hanson °Eugene ’59 and Naomi (Borreson) Hanson ’61 °Jean Hanson ’71 °Rhys ’56 and Kathleen Hanson °Scott ’80 and Rhonda Hanson David Happel °Lori Happel-Jarratt ’89 and Al Jarratt Steven ’84 and Denae (Erdman) Harder ’87 °Debra (Lietz) ’87 and Andrew Hare Michael ’87 and Sandra Harman °Harold and Beverly Harris °J. Bruce ’48 and Beverly Harstad °Brian and Julie Hart °Chryss (Syers) ’76 and Mike Hartman °Lee ’84 and Linda (Rosholt) Hash ’85 Paul ’55 and Carol (Williams) Hasvold ’60 John ’00 and Jennifer (Cords) Hatlevig ’00 °Corey ’94 and Carla (Paulsen) Haugen ’93 °Dean ’91 and Pamela (Brown) Haugen ’89 °Gerald ’62 and Sally Haugen Irene (Schulz) ’53 and Chester Hausken °George ’97 and Nicole (Voss) Hawkinson ’98 Alan Hecht ’80 and Kristin Swanson ’80 Alan ’58 and Joanne (Hamberg) Heggen ’59 °John ’62 and Susan Helgeland

Luther Alumni Magazine

President’s Council Adrian Helgeson ’41 °Thomas Hellie ’75 and Julie Olds David ’76 and Sue Henderson °Dayton ’79 and Amy Henderson °Kristine (Hahn) ’85 and David Henderson °Joel ’76 and Debra Hendrickson °Steven ’73 and Virginia (Fixsen) Hendrickson ’72 Darrell Henning ’62 and Terry Sparkes Daniel ’06 and Allison (Kruger) Herman ’07 Gene ’53 and Ruby (Totman) Hermeier ’53 °Avis Herseth Nancy (Hermeier) ’82 and Dale Hershfield Norma Hervey °Lloyd ’43 and Donna Herwig Michael ’81 and Rhonda Hicks Ann Highum and Jerry Freund °Elaine Ottmers Hill ’77 and Paul Hill James ’66 and Nancy (Lofthus) Hill ’68 °Lavern ’49 and Jean Hillesland Steven ’79 and Jacki (Johnson) Hinrichs ’79 °Terry ’64 and Judith (Nerby) Hjelkrem ’65 °Agnes (Grevstad) Hjelle ’60 °Michael Hjelmeland ’01 °Ardith Hoff °Barry ’83 and Lisa (Schulz-Fincke) Hoff ’83 Betty Hoff ’60 Donald and Mavis Hoffman Steven ’71 and Laurel (Jameson) Holland ’71 °Pat Holman ’72 and Philip Wangberg ’70 °Janice (Anderson) ’57 and Roger Horn °Marguerite (Agena) ’64 and Max Horn Robert and Arlene Houlihan

Ed ’63 and Charilyn Hover °Louise (Naeseth) Hubbard ’39 Christopher ’89 and Jennifer (Jenkins) Hubbs ’95 Steven ’00 and Mindra (Freeman) Hudak ’00 °Craig ’84 and Annick Ibsen Kelly (McGrew) ’93 and Phil Irlmeier Steven ’69 and Edith (Held) Jacobsen ’69 Julie (Lyng) ’90 and Herman Jass ’89 Jon Jensen ’89 and Rachel Sandhorst °Lawrence and Mildred Jensen °Paul Jenson ’48 °Arthur ’67 and Jacqueline Johnson John ’83 and Lucina Johnson °Kent ’83 and Lee (Knoernschild) Johnson ’85 Kirk ’82 and Kerry (Kramer) Johnson ’83 Orville and Kathleen Johnson °Scott Johnson ’80 and Naomi Nowland ’80 Terry ’81 and Jone (McDonald) Johnson ’82 °Theodore ’50 and Barbara Johnson Tracy Johnson ’92 William Johnson Beth Jones Donald and Cynthia Jones °Lori Jones ’83 David ’92 and Holly Jorde °Shirley (Stark) ’61 and Travis Jorde °Brian Jorgensen ’80 and Richard Pietz Kevin ’79 and Kristi (Wahlberg) Josephson ’79 Thomas ’96 and Sarah (Bakke) Joyce ’97 °Karen Julesberg ’60 °Curtis and Edith Julson Michael ’98 and Heidi (Hingeveld) Jung ’00

“

We give to Luther because God has given to us. Luther College has been a powerful and positive influence in our lives; when we gather with our two children and their spouses, there are six Luther rings in the room. Navigating a college education financially is so much more difficult than it was when we attended Luther, and we want to do anything we can to help future generations of Luther students. With any luck, our granddaughters will add to our family’s collection of Luther rings.” —Chick ’70 and Chris (Lindgren) Lane ’70

David ’68 and Rayna Kaasa Haldis (Solem) Kaasa ’81 Kevin ’00 and Tamara (Swenson) Kampfe ’02 Edward and Elizabeth Kaschins Ruth Kath Scott ’87 and Ruth (Berschet) Kauls ’88 Martha (Monson) ’76 and Eric Keck °Kirsten (Hoffstedt) ’95 and Michael Keefe °Eric ’87 and Laura (Doorenbos) Kehrberg ’91 Jane Kemp Douglas ’82 and Shelly Kintzinger Jewel Kintzinger Day and Burtwin Day °Lawrence ’54 and Mary (Buchholz) Kipfer ’55 °Joy Hovick Kissel ’93 and Kevin Kissel John Kittelson °Wayne ’61 and Alyce Kivell °Helen (Legler) ’59 and Hans Kneubuhler °Harriet Knudson °Norlie Knudson ’64 °Irene (Holtze) Knutson ’57 °Kenneth ’62 and Judith (Hestenes) Knutson ’61 William ’70 and Carolyn (Peterson) Kobler ’70 Lesley (Dressen) ’00 and Jonathan Kochel °Jessica (Wrobel) ’03 and Preston Koenig °Tamara (Christianson) ’88 and John Koller °Joanne (Gray) Kolstad ’53 °Walter ’49 and Helen Korsrud Roger ’68 and Laurie Krahn Christopher Kramer ’91 Kevin and Barbara Kraus Bethany (Bierman) ’95 and James Krepela °Dora (Harris) ’95 and Karthik Kripapuri °William ’54 and Suzanne Krohn Dennis and Holly Kruger Michael ’87 and Amy (Larsen) Krull ’89 °Jon Kucera ’74 and Susan Graham °Richard Kundel Ross Kurth ’05 °Lynn Kvalness ’64 °Meredith Kvalness ’69 °Stephen ’71 and Mary (Xavier) LaBelle ’71 °Donna Lager ’79 and Steven Jacobsen Eric ’00 and Jennifer (Filteau) Lahaie ’99 °Charles ’70 and Christine (Lindgren) Lane ’70 °Walter ’52 and Adeline (Lovstuen) Langland ’50 Amy (Zalk) ’96 and Matthew Larson

Spring 2014 Luther Alumni Magazine

President’s Council April Ulring Larson ’72 and Judd Larson ’74 °Brian ’00 and Rachel (Forde) Larson ’99 °Marcy (Petersen) ’96 and Eric Larson Mark Larson ’78 and Amy Williams Rob and Sandra Larson Robert and Marilynn Larson Wendell Larson Wendell Larson II °John Laughlin ’89 and Julie Suhr ’88 Reginald and Jerilyn Laursen °Dale ’95 and Amanda (Neal) Lawrence ’95 °Lisa Laxson ’91 and Curt Clifton °George and Erin Lederhaas James and Catherine Lee °Jon ’62 and Stefani (Monson) Lee ’62 Ronald Lee ’62 and Marie Bender-Lee °Dale ’87 and Lisa (Nguyen) Lensing ’86 °Ann Leon ’75 Jeff ’90 and Elizabeth (Johnston) Leschensky ’91 °Truman ’56 and Delores Lewis °Gerald Liedl °David Lietz ’88 and Suzette Derrevere James ’56 and Martha (Ylvisaker) Limburg ’56 Dennis ’71 and Barbara Linderbaum °Ellen (Hanson) Lindop ’46 °Susan Linner ’76 Justine (Holum) Lionberger ’50 °Kathryn (Jordan) ’81 and Charles Litow Douglas Lohafer ’77 °Jerrold ’62 and Elizabeth Lokensgard Constance Lomen °William ’67 and Karen (Porter) Long ’67 Elaine (Wischhoff) Looft ’57 and Bill Schulz James ’85 and Martha (Anderson) Looft ’83 °Joan (Fjeldstad) Losen ’53 °William ’56 and Maxine Losen Michael Loupee ’82 and Rachel NelsonLoupee Jeanie and Paul Lovell Russell ’58 and Juanita (Zeman) Loven ’56 Warren Luckner ’68 and Mary Carr Luckner Asta (Barcas) Ludwig ’01 Margaret (Gulsvig) ’64 and Roger Lunde Gregg ’90 and Jennifer Luther °LaRoy ’60 and Lila Luther Thomas ’00 and Michelle (Feldmann) Lutz ’00 °Kari (Dokken) ’94 and Christopher Lyle Ruth (Rotto) Lyngaas ’58

David and Deborah MacKenzie Debora Madsen ’73 and John Cznadel °Christine Magnuson ’74 °Cecelia (Nybro) ’78 and Brian Manlove °Daniel ’83 and Ann (Wise) Mansfield ’79 °Lisa Manzey Adelmann ’87 and Steve Adelmann °Rafael Marques ’96 °Robert and Margaret Marshall Michael ’81 and Julia Martin °James and Karen Martin-Schramm Ronald ’57 and Marilyn (Lokensgard) Martinson ’57 °Lois (Mikkelson) ’63 and Nathan Marty °John and Rebecca Mason Paul ’81 and Miri (Peterson) Mattson ’81 °Stephen ’68 and Margeen (Bolson) Mau ’69 °Timothy ’84 and Mindy McCarthy °Kyra (Rusch) ’98 and Ben McCool °Gregory ’95 and La Donna (Hoornstra) McGohan ’95 °Susan McKone-Burks Chad ’93 and Theresa McShane James and Helen Meehan °Bruce ’52 and Rosella (Gjere) Melaas ’52 °John and Marcia Metzger °Brenda Severson Meyer ’83 and Brian Meyer Edward and Ilse Meyer Scott and Ruth Meyer °Sonja (Smith) ’85 and Joe Meyer °Todd ’93 and Nicole Michaels °Matthew ’97 and Amy (Cheney) Miller ’98 °Pauline (Amundson) ’72 and Les Miller °Donald ’62 and Shirley Mills David and Bridgette Mitchell Joel Mjolsness ’74 and Jory Segal °Charles ’64 and Gretchen (Looft) Moen ’63 Kathryn Ulvilden Moen ’41 Michael ’70 and Mary Moen Martin Mohr and Mary Lou Hull Mohr °Duane ’68 and Kirsten (Monson) Monick ’68 John Monson Luther ’51 and IvaNell (Mundt) Monson ’51 °Katherine Moody ’01 °Andrew ’94 and Jodi Moorcroft Andrew ’94 and Beth (Keller) Mork ’96 °Larry ’62 and Jean Mosby

°Michael ’74 and Janice (Gjesvold) Mostrom ’74 Carolyn Mottley Jeffrey and Janet Mozena °Kimberly (Gass) ’92 and John Mueller Mark Muggli and Carol Gilbertson °Eric ’91 and Kimberly (Latzke) Muller ’93 Dale ’64 and Helen Mundahl Roselle (Olson) Naeseth ’44 Noela Nalujjuna Robert ’65 and Ann (Aaker) Naslund ’66 °A.P. ’43 and Borghild (Teigland) Nassen ’43 °John ’73 and Corinne Nassen James Neal ’01 and April Rowe Neal ’01 °Carolyn (Nuttall) ’62 and James Nelson °Connie (Jolstad) Nelson ’60 Corinne and Harland Nelson Cy ’76 and Ramona (Feller) Nelson ’75 Dean ’69 and Barbara Nelson Doug Nelson ’82 °Gerald ’62 and Andrea (Cowles) Nelson ’63 °Glenn Nelson and Mary Jane Borelli Jayme (Rutledge) ’87 and Daniel Nelson John ’58 and Arlene (Olsen) Nelson ’56 °Lloyd ’51 and †LaVine Nelson °Roald ’54 and Ruth Nelson °William ’68 and Kaye Nelson Luther ’64 and Marilyn Nervig °Timothy ’82 and Jayne Ness °Lori (Adelmund) ’86 and Joseph Nettleton °Kermit Neubauer °Peter ’97 and Jennifer (Larsen) Newburg ’99 °David ’77 and Mary Kay Nichols °Jared Nichols ’02 °Robert ’64 and Ann Niedringhaus Bradley and Laura Nielsen Joan (Gunther) ’64 and Richard Niemiec Dale and Sunny Nimrod °†Dale ’53 and Alice Noble Michael ’77 and Linda Norderhaug Deborah Norland ’75 and James Bovee °Selmer Norland ’38 Sylvia (Schey) Norland ’47 °Chip ’82 and Jari Norris °Andrew Nottleson ’90 and Lizabeth Diekema ’90 °Jonathan Nowland ’83 and Christi Munson Nowland ’80 °Ronald ’54 and Frieda (Mindrum) Nowland ’54

Luther Alumni Magazine

President’s Council °James ’83 and Karen Nussle Nancy Nygaard Johnson ’85 and James Johnson °Susan Oberman Smith ’83 and Douglas Smith °Eileen O’Brien Denner ’84 and Keith Denner Francis ’59 and Miriam (Strum) Odden ’62 °Jackson Ode ’93 and Cara KennedyOde ’94 Paul ’97 and Melissa Odenbach Ordean and Carol Oen °Dennis ’74 and Sarah (Connell) Ohlrogge ’74 Angela (Spartz) ’00 and Patrick O’Keefe Marsha (Weckwerth) ’82 and Lee Olch Janice Oldenburg ’76 and Jon Ninnemann °Patrick O’Leary and Amaria Najem O’Leary °Kristen (Kollmorgen) ’88 and Lon Olejniczak Jeffrey Olinger ’85 and Heidi Miller-Olinger °Christine Olsen ’78 and Tom Roth Jeremy Olsen ’02 and Katie Murphy-Olsen Paul ’65 and Jeanne Olsen °A. Richard ’59 and Martha (Smith) Olson ’59 °Carole Olson °David ’79 and Siobhan Olson Donald ’48 and Dorie Olson Duaine Olson °Eric ’85 and Virginie Olson °Gary ’61 and Rosaaen (Skifton) Olson ’61 °Helen (Stuepfert) ’69 and John Olson K. Richard ’71 and Carol (Kershner) Olson ’72 Melvin ’68 and Deborah Olson

°O. Rolf ’53 and Gertrude (Kolstad) Olson ’54 °Richard ’59 and Vicki Olson °Timothy O’Neill ’74 and Cynthia Linder O’Neill ’76 James ’77 and Mary (Stoneman) Oppermann ’77 Kevin ’06 and Keely Oppermann George ’67 and Carole (Rust) Orness ’69 Brad and Debra Orvis °Michael Osterholm ’75 and Barbara Colombo °Dan ’89 and Theresa (Anderson) Owens ’89 °Jeffrey ’81 and Nancy Paulson John ’88 and Sherry (Schmidt) Paulson ’88 °Lois (Grangaard) Paulson ’55 Allen ’69 and Karen (Anderson) Peckham ’69 David ’02 and Melanie Pendergast Mark ’82 and Catherine (Eichmann) Penning ’83 Bryan Perrott ’08 °Dale and Judy Peter Roger Petersen and Susan SandholmPetersen °Betty (Fey) ’55 and Merle Peterson °Colleen (Voehl) Peterson ’58 Gregory Peterson ’83 and Ann Sponberg Peterson °Joan (Rohlf) ’81 and Kurt Peterson °Karen (Nilsestuen) Peterson ’65 †Luther Peterson ’61 Steven ’77 and Marcia (Hoff) Pitzenberger ’78 Alexander Platt David ’93 and Rebecca Poetker Steven ’78 and Solveig (Storvick) Pollei ’79

“

I vividly remember the first time I stepped onto Luther’s campus, feeling that I had found my next home. More than 10 years later, I still have a hard time describing what exactly brought me to Luther College, but I am thankful it did, as my life continues to build upon the foundation Luther provided. The Luther community of faith and learning remains important to me, and I give back as a reflection of this, and in hopes that others may experience their own transformative journey.” — Kate Moody ’01

James ’78 and Sandra Potter °Jeffrey ’85 and Lisa Powell °Penelope (Smith) ’77 and David Pratt David ’43 and Ann Preus °Mark ’81 and Mary Pribbenow °Paul Pribbenow ’78 and Abigail Crampton Pribbenow °Marit (Running) ’58 and M. Franklin Pudas °David ’83 and Karen Quinby Craig ’92 and Renee (Lysne) Rabe ’95 °Brian ’64 and Gloria (Evans) Rainer ’65 °Janice Rambow Beatty ’77 °Judith (Miller) ’62 and David Ranheim Keith ’72 and Mary Rapp °Ann Rathe ’87 °Wayne Reames ’97 Vaho Rebassoo and Maura Oneill °Richard and Jill Reed Brett ’81 and Michele (Wylder) Reese ’81 Robert and Donna Reifschneider °Scot Reisinger ’96 and Heather Schacht Reisinger ’96 Phillip and Ruth Reitan Brian ’98 and April (Johnson) Remfrey ’98 °Mary Lynn (Swenson) ’79 and David Rettig °Matthew ’04 and Rebecca (Bellin) Richardson ’04 Olga Rinco Kletus ’51 and Lois Rood Kevin and Mary Ann Rose Waldron ’58 and Arlene (Riegel) Rosheim ’59 L. Darlene Rosholt David ’59 and Joy Roslien °Myrna Ross Linus Rothmeyer Sue Rothmeyer ’81 Hans ’90 and Mary (Mathews) Rotto ’90 Kathryn (Hermanson) Rotto ’57 Alma Rotto-Morgan ’61 °Richard ’61 and Julaine Rud °Marion (Bjerke) Rude ’52 Michael ’68 and Barbara Ruzek Gordon ’63 and Joan (Peterson) Sando ’63 Harlan ’82 and Sonja Satrom Gina Sauer ’86 and Troy Bader °Paul ’73 and Nancy (Fredrickson) Savre ’73 °Robert ’53 and Avis (Nelson) Savre ’53 °Russell Savre ’68 °Alan and Maryjeanne Schaffmeyer

Spring 2014 Luther Alumni Magazine

President’s Council °Marlin ’58 and Ann Scheib Kristen Schlauderaff ’78 and Larry Lindmark °Lauri (Schmidt) ’85 and Jeffrey Schloz Sylvia (Nervig) ’66 and Donald Schmid °Darrell Schmidt ’80 and Julie Mall °J. Stephen ’68 and Lin (Mathieu) Schmidt ’70 °Jeffrey Schmidt ’87 and Berit Nelson Schmidt °Brad Schmugge ’93 Diane and Peter Scholl °Paul ’43 and Camille Schroeder Paul ’98 and Jody (Daubendiek) Schulte ’98 Jack ’61 and Helen Schultz Lisa Schultz Gerald Schwalbach °Jill (Monis) ’97 and Thomas Schwanz °David ’77 and Dawn (Hovden) Schweizer ’78 Helen Schweizer °John ’63 and Catherine Schwenn °Scott Searl ’94 °Robert Seaver ’57 °David ’94 and Jill (Lindeman) Seidelmann ’95 Thomas ’73 and Julie (Hedlund) Seidelmann ’73 °Sara (Gunther) Sersland ’70 °Thomas ’67 and Mary Severson Stephen ’71 and Katie (Kvale) Sheppard ’71 Erik ’01 and Kaia (Nordal) Sherburne ’04 Robert Sheridan ’07 Margaret Sherve ’73 °Anjela Shutts ’93 and Peter Kitundu Elizabeth Skolaski Andor Skotnes and Teresa Meade °Lisa Small Steinbauer ’88 and Mark Steinbauer °Mark Smeby ’70 and Joanie Sheahan David ’89 and Heidi Smith Steven ’95 and Maria (Bringer) Smith ’95 °Karen Smith-Emerson ’72 °Paul ’61 and Carolyn (Myhre) Solberg ’71 °Larry ’63 and Aniko Solomonson °Allan ’60 and LaVonne (Leng) Solomonson ’61 °Allen ’63 and Judith Soltow Ryan Sommers ’04 Dorothy Bergeson Sorenson °Steve ’72 and Susan Sorenson °Terry ’62 and Suzanne Sorom °C. Robert ’66 and Sondra Sperati

Florence Sponberg Richard Staff ’69 °John Stalbaum ’67 David ’77 and Lori (Van Gerpen) Stanley ’80 °Gwen Hamilton Starr ’81 and Steven Starr °Richard ’74 and Mary (Edwards) Steinberg ’76 °Jon and Rebecca Stellmacher °Steven ’81 and Carmen (Hansen) Stenhaug ’82 °Carter ’83 and Michele (Mertens) Stevens ’83 Wendy (Tessman) ’69 and James Stevens Kent ’85 and Laurel Stock Carol (Barth) ’75 and Timothy Stoddard Delayne and Christine Stokke John ’83 and Jane Stoneman °Erik Storlie ’96 and Trupti Naik Storlie °Eric ’85 and Diane (Reque) Storvick ’85 °Olin ’49 and Ruth (Struxness) Storvick ’47 °Paul ’66 and Linda (Knutson) Strand ’66 Jonathan ’74 and Jeanette (Bialas) Strandjord ’74 Sarah Strandjord ’70 °Clarie (Renslo) Streng Broste ’55 and Dennis Broste °Karen Strom ’57 °Ingrid (Hanson) ’93 and Jay Stukerjurgen Bruce ’68 and Marcia Lynn (Wagner) Sundet ’69 Karl ’06 and Sarah (Murrell) Swenson ’07 °Adam Syverson ’02 °Henry ’67 and Marlene Syverson Diane and James Tacke °Eugene ’66 and Miriam (Nelson) Takle ’66 Jenarah Tekippe ’01 and Christopher Wojcik Rick ’94 and Jenny (Olson) Thiery ’94 °Aaron ’00 and Heidi Thiese °Myron ’80 and Diane Thiese Chad ’92 and Melissa (Bonikowske) Thomley ’93 °Brad ’81 and Meg Thompson Joe and Rhonda Thompson Jack Thomson Robert Thomson Ronald ’73 and Chris Throndsen °Charles ’72 and Noreen Thurston °John and Karen Tjostem Paul ’69 and Elizabeth (Tenold) Tokheim ’70

°Robert ’58 and Janet (Purmort) Tollund ’73 °Quy and Patrice Tran Lam °Daniel ’97 and Stephanie Tresemer Terry Trimpe ’70 °Geoffrey ’94 and Dalia Trullinger George ’51 and Phyllis (Rossing) Trytten ’52 °David Tschopp ’08 °Anita (Buss) Turck ’61 Steve Turmes Jerry ’57 and Barbara Twedt Christopher ’92 and Charity Tyler °Chinyere and Onyebuchi Ukabiala James and Nancy Ulring Harold ’69 and Lynette (Ellingson) Usgaard ’70 Richard Uthe °Sara Uthe Holm ’99 and Eric Holm °Thomas ’62 and Juanita Vaaler °Karin Van Dyke Tony ’06 and Laura (Monson) Vanden Heuvel ’08 °E.C. Vanderwalker ’41 Steven Vick ’73 Joann (Hove) Voltmer ’73 °Michael Voltmer ’74 °Norris Waalen ’72 and Hollis Krug Waalen Marilyn Wahlberg °Harold ’62 and Jane (Baker) Wallestad ’61 °Solveig (Johnson) Walstrom ’70 Ruth Ward Schraeder ’88 and Neil Schraeder °Mark Wardell ’68 °Andrea (Borneman) ’02 and Nicholas Weber °Donna (Wangsness) ’64 and James Weigle Annie Weilgart ’75 Caroline (Hjerleid) ’62 and James Weis Holly (Johnson) Wermager ’95 Leslie and Susan West Mitchell West ’77 °Lucas ’07 and Sarah (Nesheim) Westby ’07 Jeffrey ’79 and Barb Wettach °Jody Wettach ’86 Joy (Andresen) ’65 and John Wetzel Marjorie (Running) ’66 and George Wharton °Carolyn (Forde) White ’61 °James ’70 and Irene Whittington °Kyle ’92 and Kristine (Hukey) Wiese ’91 °Genevieve (Fosdahl) Wilberg ’56 °Andrea (Wehrmacher) Wilkerson ’96

Luther Alumni Magazine

President’s Council °Jeffrey Wilkerson Jacqueline Wilkie °Debra Wilson ’71 and Peggy Brenden ’76 °Robert Wilson ’75 °Rolland ’60 and Sharon (Jacobson) Wilson ’60 °Christina (Vignec) Winch ’63 °Warren Wind ’58 °Kristi Wold ’81 and Jean DeRidder °Leigh Wold ’52 and Solveig Misner Michael ’70 and Rosann Wold Amy (Mueller) Wrightsman ’01 °David ’88 and Lauren (Eigenfeld) Wrightsman ’93 Richard ’50 and Joanne Ylvisaker °Jamison Young ’99 Robert ’61 and Carol (Freshwater) Zaiser ’58 Joel ’79 and Jodi Zellmer °Judy (Henriksen) Zetterberg ’72 °Nichelle Zimmer ’90 ESTATE GIFTS Estate of Karen Berg Estate of Ruth Cato Estate of Doris Mani °Estate of Sherwood Mellom ’49 Estate of Richard Preis Estate of Bernice Rise CORPORATIONS AND FOUNDATIONS A&J Petersburg Agency American Legion of Iowa Foundation °Archer Daniels Midland Co. AT&T Foundation °Augustana Lutheran Church Bank of the West Big Red Tomato Packers LLC Boeing Company Capital Group Companies Inc. Ciruli Brothers Culver’s of Decorah D’Arrigo Brothers Company of Massachusetts D’Arrigo Brothers Company of New York Inc. Decorah Veterinary Clinic Deere & Company °John Deere Foundation °Dell Charitable Trusts Dell Giving °Deloitte & Touche Foundation

Ecolab Inc. °Erdman Engineering P.C. Arlin C. Falck Foundation First Lutheran Church, Decorah, Iowa Follett Higher Education Group °The General Electric Foundation Hacker Nelson & Company P.C. Hawkeye Stages Inc. Hotel Winneshiek °Johnson & Johnson Kenneth K. Kinsey Family Foundation °KPMG °Kraft General Foods Foundation Lutheran College Washington Consortium °Madison Community Foundation °The Medtronic Foundation The Merck Company Foundation °Meredith Corporation Midwest Group Benefits °Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Foundation Monsanto Company °Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company Olson Explosives Inc. Only The Best, Truck Broker °Our Savior’s Lutheran Church, Calamus, Iowa °Owens-Illinois Inc. The Presser Foundation The Prevor Family Foundation Inc. °Principal Financial Group Foundation Inc. Spahn & Rose Lumber Company Charitable Foundation Storey Kenworthy Company Subway Target Corporation T-Bock’s Sports Bar & Grill °The Wellmark Foundation Wicks Construction Inc.

Craig Fox ’83 G. Richard and Patricia Geier James ’62 and Karen (Woinowsky) Griffin ’64 Kristine (Hahn) ’85 and David Henderson Fay Henning-Bryant ’64 and Delano Bryant Edward ’63 and Sharon (Madson) Hill ’63 James ’66 and Nancy (Lofthus) Hill ’68 Stanley ’62 and Godela Iverson Helen (Hoff) James ’65 Timothy ’94 and Lani Knutson Roger ’68 and Laurie Krahn Ross Kurth ’05 Charles ’70 and Christine (Lindgren) Lane ’70 Hans ’74 and Carole Lontz Madland Marilyn (Stolle) ’53 and Michael Miller Michelle Monson ’06 Armin ’60 and Terry Pipho Jonathan ’61 and Mary Preus ’63 Judith (Miller) ’62 and David Ranheim David ’81 and Peggy Rathe Curtis Reiso ’54 Phillip and Ruth Reitan Marcia Sivesind ’63 Stephen ’71 and Jeri (Jenson) Smith ’71 Carol Tomer ’79 Joan (Catlin) ’63 and David Totten George ’63 and Joyce (Behrens) Wallman ’65 Donna (Wangsness) ’64 and James Weigle Mitchell West ’77 Marjorie (Running) ’66 and George Wharton Thomas ’58 and Betty Wilkens Ellen Woodard-Colletta ’82 and Giuseppe Colletta Paul ’82 and Karen Zimmerman

President’s Visionaries

Every attempt has been made to ensure the accuracy of this list. If an error has been made, please accept our apology and contact the Luther Development Office at 800-2 ALUMNI or email giving@luther.edu so we may correct our records.

Recognizes those who have established planned gifts from January 1, 2013, to December 31, 2013 Anonymous (5) William Barth ’86 and Teresa Grettenberg ’90 Ronald and Ann Bolinger Ruth (Dallman) Delf ’60 Nathan ’98 and Anne Ersig

Spring 2014 Luther Alumni Magazine

LUTHER COLLEGE ARCHIVES

Endpage

The first Luther students gardened, too.

LUHTER COLLEGE SUSTAINABILITY

Luther’s original 32-acre campus, purchased in 1861, was large enough to include a farm, shown above, so that students could get “exercise by chopping wood, doing some gardening, and looking after the cattle and horses,” according to Luther College Archives records. One hundred and fifty-two years later, in 2013, more than 3,800 pounds of produce were grown in the Luther production gardens, not necessarily to provide exercise for students but to supply food to campus dining services. Along the way, student growers gain valuable learning and experience. The gardens, shown below, are located in a spot just out of view behind trees on the right side of the photo above. See what was grown last year at lczine.com/2013gardens.

Luther Alumni Magazine

Calendar Senior Send-Off

Luther College Lunch Connection in Des Moines

Thursday, May 22 Hotel Winneshiek, Decorah

Friday, November 7 Windsor Heights (Iowa) Community Center

Commencement Sunday, May 25 Luther College

Luther College Lunch Connection SHERRY (BRAUN) ALCOCK ’82

Get Down Give Back: Kick Off to Grand Old Day Sunday, June 1 Home of Jill (Lindeman) ’95 and Dave Seidelmann ’94 St. Paul, Minnesota

Norse Athletic Association Benefit Golf Tournament Monday, June 9 Oneota Golf and Country Club Decorah

Salzburg to Vienna, Austria, Cycling Tour Wednesday, June 11– Monday, June 23 Hosted by Luisa and Peter Forsgren ’82

NAA Twin Cities Gathering

Aaron Romine ’91, Kent Finanger ’54, and Mike Nordgaard ’83 at the home of Rick ’72 and Jane Theiler, in Paradise Valley, Ariz., in March, the day after the Ninth Annual Kent Finanger Golf Classic.

Friday, November 21 To be decided Minneapolis

Christmas at Luther Thursday, December 4– Sunday, December 7 Luther College

Luther College Lunch Connection in Des Moines

Luther Comes to the Heartland Picnic

Mount Palomar Winery Gathering

Sunday, July 27 Heartland Park Park Rapids, Minnesota

Friday, February 6, 2015 Windsor Heights (Iowa) Community Center

Saturday, September 27 Mount Palomar Winery Temecula, California

Luther College Lunch Connection

Architectural Boat Tour

Inauguration of Paula J. Carlson, Ph.D., as Luther’s 10th President

Saturday, August 9 Chicago

Friday, October 10 Luther College

10th Annual Kent Finanger ’54 Golf Classic

Alumni Council Meetings

Saturday, March 14, 2015 Tuscany Falls Golf Club at Pebble Creek Goodyear, Arizona

Thursday, June 12 Lyon’s Pub Minneapolis

Luther College Lunch Connection in Des Moines

Twin Cities NAA Benefit Golf Tournament

Friday, September 12 Windsor Heights (Iowa) Community Center

Monday, June 30 Medina Golf and Country Club Medina, Minnesota

Luther College Lunch Connection

Tighthead Brewing Company Tour

Friday, September 19 To be decided Minneapolis

Friday, October 10– Sunday, October 12 Luther College

Sunday, July 13 Mundelein, Illinois

Family Weekend

Luther College Lunch Connection

Friday, September 19– Sunday, September 21 Luther College

Friday, February 27, 2015 The Center for Changing Lives Minneapolis

Friday, October 10 and Saturday, October 11 Luther College

Homecoming

Friday, October 17 To be decided Minneapolis

Commencement Sunday, May 24, 2015 Luther College

Bach and Bonhoeffer Tour to Germany and Czech Republic Sunday, June 14– Saturday, June 27, 2015 Hosted by Jim and Karen MartinSchramm and Gregory Peterson ’83 and Ann Sponberg Peterson

Luther alumni events are open to all alumni and friends of the college, including parents and other family members of graduates and students. Please note that some dates listed are tentative; specific information about upcoming events will be mailed or e-mailed to alumni, friends, and parents who live near the event sites. If you need more information or if you’re interested in planning an event in your area, call the Alumni Office at (800) 225-8664. We’d love to hear from you!

Nonprofit Org. U.S. Postage PAID La Crosse, WI Permit No. 25

Luther College, 700 College Drive, Decorah, Iowa 52101-1045

Please save the date for the

I N AU G U R AT I O N of

PAULA J. CARLSON as the 10TH PRESIDENT OF LUTHER COLLEGE Friday, October 10, 2014 Homecoming Weekend

For more information, visit www.luther.edu/president/inauguration.