Issuu

LU T H E R A

VOLUME 46, NUMBER 3

SPRING 2013

Come away with us 26 What students see during off-campus study

Meet the Coach 12

Discovering the Crater 18

The New Preus 22

Editor Ellen Modersohn Luther Magazine Volume 46, Number 3, Spring 2013

Managing Editor Kate Frentzel

Published by Luther College for alumni, parents, and friends

Designer Michael Bartels

Contributors Leah Broderick ’15 Sue (Franzen) Drilling ’78 Allison Gieswein ’14 Kirk Johnson ’82 Paige Lobdell ’16 Aaron Lurth ’08 Karen Martin-Schramm Judy Riha Julie (Satre) Shockey ’01 Ann Sponberg Peterson Emily Voss ’13

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, 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 e-mailed to the Alumni Office at alumni@ luther.edu. Questions and concerns about the magazine may be e-mailed to magazine@luther.edu.

Features Three intense weeks in January

Crater: The backstory

What makes a modern library

Study-away photos

They packed up and moved back

Sample the J-term classes that had Luther students exploring the world—and their own minds.

How Luther’s onetime geology curator helped discover the meteorite in Decorah’s past.

Preus may look the same outside, but inside, the campus hub of information has revamped its mission.

Students share glimpses of their study-away experiences.

Four alumni families talk about why they’ve returned to make a home in Decorah.

Special reports

Sesquicentennial Strategic Plan and Fund Summary President’s Council

55, 59

Departments Campus

Development News..........................................8 Students News...............................................11 Athletics........................................................11

Alumni

Aaron Lurth ’08

Class Notes...................................................38 Marriages.....................................................51 Births/Adoptions...........................................51 In Memoriam.................................................53

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 2013

Calendar

inside back

Cover: Jason Knutson ’13 leaps off a diving platform at the Harbor Baths of Copenhagen. He studied architecture at the Danish Institute for Study Abroad in summer 2012. Knutson says he and his friends in the program enjoyed the water after long hours in the classroom and studio. Photo by Kyle Hanson, University of Oregon Opposite: Luther’s new aquatic center, as imagined by Katrina Okerstrom ’14 for the Book Shop’s annual spring Peep-tacular. The real center will be completed this month, and will be dedicated on Oct. 4 at 5 p.m., as part of this year’s Homecoming festivities.

Campus News

Editor’s note: The search for Luther’s next president I had thought this issue of the magazine would deliver news of Luther’s new president—his or her background, educational specialties, philosophies, vision for Luther, family life, favorite Marty’s cookie ... . But the search process, as many of you may know, has taken a different turn. Two candidates were invited to campus to speak with the community here in February, but the Board of Regents decided not to proceed further with one candidate, and the other withdrew from consideration. While not finding a new president on the first try is disappointing, it’s not a rare situation. The search consultant Luther has enlisted, Bruce Alton, says it’s not uncommon for a search to enter a second phase. Based on his 27 years of experience with searches, he believes this happens about once in every eight or nine searches. Shortly before the magazine went to press, we learned the date that President Richard

Luther Alumni Magazine

Torgerson will conclude his term of service to Luther— June 30—and that the search for the new president is now taking a two-pronged approach. In an e-mail to the campus community, search committee cochairs Sandy Lee and Paul Torgerson said that the committee is seeking additional candidates to be considered for the permanent position, with continuing assistance of Alton and AGB Search. At the same time, a committee of the Board of Regents, which includes the regents who are also on the search committee, is working with the President’s Cabinet to define the responsibilities an interim president might have and is looking for candidates who could serve in that capacity. Both committees report to the Board of Regents, which will make the decision regarding the appointment. Lee and Torgerson also said they feel confident in taking this additional time because Luther is strong and well-positioned. For periodic updates on the presidential search, go to www.luther.edu/presidentialsearch.

• We are able to introduce Luther’s new football coach in this issue. Aaron Hafner hit the campus running this past semester. Read his interview and see the portrait of him and his daughters by photographer Emily Voss ’13 on pages 12–13. Whenever I return to visit my own alma mater, another small private liberal arts college in Iowa, I’m struck by how the library still looks the same. Like Luther’s Preus Library, it’s a boxy building with an entrance sheltered by a wide, deep overhang and it looks great lit up at night. But it’s been 30 years (oh my gosh) since I last used the library—shouldn’t it have changed some by now? Afterall, we thought we were outgrowing the place back then. If you’ve wondered the same about Preus, read the story on page 22 about how Luther’s library has been changing to keep up with the demands of the modern campus, offering tools from office cams to pointers on managing your online reputation. Another idea for this issue practically fell in our laps in February—or maybe it was 470 million years ago—when the Washington Post published a story saying scientists believe an asteroid crashed into what is now Decorah. At the heart of the research was a Luther geology curator named Jean Young. On page 18, read about how her persistence uncovered the crater. And if you’ve ever daydreamed of returning to Decorah to live in a historic home, or maybe atop a ridge with a view for miles, to paddle the Upper Iowa River and bike the trails, read about other alumni who’ve done just that, page 32. — Ellen Modersohn editor

Do you prefer to read the alumni magazine online? It’s your choice: You can now opt out of the print mailing and read the Luther Alumni Magazine online. You’ll see the same content in a flipbook format with easy-to-turn pages. To opt out, go to luthermagazine.com and choose from the buttons on the left. We’ll send an e-mail to let you know when the magazine is ready to read online, about a week before the print edition comes out. (Don’t want the e-mail notice? Click on the unsubscribe link in the e-mail and you won’t get further notices.) We realize that not everyone wants to read the full magazine online, so unless you opt out, we will continue to mail print editions to addresses within the United States. At luthermagazine.com, you can also • update your contact information • send a class note • send a story idea • read additional articles • read full alumni obituaries • link to videos or other sites for more information.

Campus News

President Richard Torgerson will receive the Royal Norwegian Order of Merit at a ceremony during the Student Research Symposium at Luther on May 3. The Order of Merit, founded by King Olav V in 1985, is awarded to foreign nationals who have performed exceptional service in the promotion of Norway and Norwegian interests abroad. The award will be conferred on President Torgerson by Norwegian Honorary Consul Quentin Boyken on behalf of His Majesty King Harald V of Norway. Torgerson will be receiving the award in recognition of his efforts to maintain, foster, and strengthen Luther’s close relationship with Norway during his 14-year tenure at Luther. Luther has stewarded its Norwegian heritage in many ways, including: • hosting eight visits by members of the Norwegian Royal Family, including the October

zach stottler ’15

Torgerson to receive Royal Norwegian Order of Merit; Nordic studies center established

President Richard Torgerson talks with Norway’s King Harald V and Queen Sonja during the royal couple’s visit to Luther in 2011 for the college’s 150th anniversary. 2011 visit by King Harald V and Queen Sonja • involvement in Decorah’s annual Nordic Fest • collaboration with and support of the Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum in Decorah • co-sponsoring the prestigious Nobel Peace Prize Forum for 25 years • coordinating the Scandinavian Summer Institute for 48 years

• active engagement in the Norwegian American Historical Association • bringing a variety of Norwegian musicians, scholars, and government officials to campus • maintaining close ties with Luther College’s sister ELCA Norwegian Colleges in academic and cocurricular endeavors. New Nordic center named for Torgersons: Luther’s Board of Regents has announced that the Richard L. and Judith A.

Torgerson Center for Nordic Studies is being established at Luther College. O. Jay and Patricia Tomson of Mason City, Iowa, have committed to Luther $1.25 million to endow a chair within the center, matching $1.25 million to be raised by the college by May 31, 2014. The center will provide a programmatic vision to build on the strengths and resources already available on campus to forge new ties with Scandinavia, serving students who want to further their interest in Scandinavian Studies. The range of disciplines involved will include environmental science and sustainability, immigration and multiculturalism, peace studies, health care, banking, political science, economics, and social work.

Join the celebration All are invited to “A Torgerson Tribute: 14 Years of Mojo from the Get-Go!” at 8 p.m. Thursday, May 16, in the Center for Faith and Life.

Four join Luther’s Board of Regents The Board of Regents has four new members. Pictured at right, they are, left to right, Ann Bentdahl ’85, Katherine Johnson-Becklin, J. Robert Paulson ’78, and James Thomsen ’86. Bentdahl served as president and CEO of the Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation until her retirement in December 2012. She follows her parents, Ray ’59 and Shirley (Klingsheim) Bentdahl ’59, as a board member. She and her husband, Roger Smith, have four children and live in Edina, Minn. Since 2008, Johnson-Becklin has served as an educational consultant, specializing in gifted and talented education. Johnson-Becklin and her husband, Jay Becklin, live in Middleton, Wis., and are the parents of Hans ’14 and Alexandra. Since 2008, Paulson has served as the president, CEO, and director of NxThera Inc. Paulson has spent more than 15 years as a leader in the medical technology industry. Paulson, and his wife, Barbara Cook Paulson, live in Medina, Minn., and are the parents of Matthew ’04, Timothy, Christopher ’13, and Bethany. Thomsen is senior vice president and chief marketing officer at Thrivent Financial for Lutherans. In this position, he leads the marketing, products, and member services division of the company. He and his wife, Kathy, have two children and reside in Eden Prairie, Minn.

Spring 2013 Luther Alumni Magazine

Allen Hightower Sean Burke

Profs granted tenure tell what’s at the heart of their teaching The four Luther faculty members who earned tenure in 2013 talk about their teaching philosophy.

Sean Burke

Promoted to associate professor of religion “My teaching, scholarship, and service have been shaped by my commitment to Luther College’s goals for student learning (found in the course catalog and on the website): ‘Graduates of Luther College should be individuals with disciplined and inquisitive minds, equipped to understand and confront a changing society, and committed to using their talents to serve the common good.

Luther Alumni Magazine

AAron Lurth ’08

Campus News

Richard Mtisi Eric Baack

‘As a liberal arts college of the church, Luther College seeks to ensure that all students will grow in knowledge and abilities and mature in values during their undergraduate years and be motivated to continue this growth throughout their lives.’ They are also shaped by my commitment to the pedagogical and ethical value of placing people and subjects that have traditionally been marginalized at the center of inquiry.”

Allen Hightower

Director of choral activities and professor of music “Musical mountaintops—that’s what we strive for. I have been so blessed to sing with many of America’s finest choral conductors. Through their leadership and example, I’ve been to many musical mountaintops. It’s my

passion as a teacher to take Luther students there as well. My teaching springs out of a conviction that singing frees the mind, body, and spirit. . . . As a teacher, I strive to create daily opportunities for students to go beyond themselves and to experience what it is to create and share beauty and truth.”

also allows my students to access class material that could have been abstract and difficult to comprehend. I believe that if I am genuinely committed to a subject, passionate about studying it, and devoted to showing how much it is worth studying, this will have a positive influence on student learning.

Richard Mtisi

Eric Baack

Promoted to associate professor of Africana studies and history “I believe that making connections between what seems remote to the students (e.g., the lives of people in ancient Mali in the oral text Sundiata or the exploits of Shaka in Thomas Mofolo’s Chaka) and the kinds of things they could relate to in their daily lives can be quite fruitful. This approach not only makes history come alive but it

Promoted to associate professor of biology “I challenge students to identify the boundary between what we know and what remains unknown. My goals are to help students to develop their abilities to think as scientists—to evaluate existing evidence and to design experiments to address open questions—and to see the world with the eyes of a biologist.”

Campus News

Jensen named director of Center for Sustainable Communities

World-renowned activist speaks on GMO seeds, small farms’ importance “In this Earth we shall not plant any seeds, besides compassion, besides love.” Vandana Shiva ended her Farwell Distinguished Lecture in February with these words, receiving a standing ovation from her Center for Faith and Life audience. Shiva is a world-renowned environmental thinker and activist, a leader in the International Forum on Globalization, along with Ralph Nader and Jeremy Rifkin, and in the Slow Food movement. Shiva won the Alternative Nobel Peace Prize (the Right Livelihood Award) in 1993.

Communities at the college’s spring convocation in January.

She is director of Navdanya, a network of seed keepers and organic producers spread across 17 states in India that seeks to preserve biological and cultural diversity. She also leads the Research Foundation for Science, Technology, and Natural Resource Policy and is the author and editor of many books. Before becoming an activist, Shiva was among India’s leading physicists. In her lecture, Shiva spoke of growing up in a forest in Dehradun, India, learning from her father, a conservator of the forests, and her mother, a farmer. Later, her first research center was headquartered in her mother’s cowshed. She spoke about the relationship of corporations and

In April 2012, the Swedish National Artists’ Organization’s celebration of World Art Day sparked outrage around the globe and provided yet another culturally confused and insensitive depiction of the black female body with a cake in the shape of a life-sized female torso. The torso, cartoonishly curvy a la the Venus of Willendorf, consisted of bright red sponge cake iced with glossy black frosting. At its neck was a hole cut into the table, which allowed its creator—Afro-Swedish artist Makode Linde, made up in minstrel blackface—to scream

Dorothy Roberts, Kirkland and Ellis Professor at Northwestern University School of Law, gave the plenary speech at Luther’s Black History Conference in February. every time someone cut a slice. The art cake was intended to celebrate freedom of expression and to draw attention to female circumcision and genital mutilation, but among the smiles and titters of an all-white audience of Sweden’s elite, the message was

Environmental activist Vandana Shiva delivered the Farwell Distinguished Lecture in February.

GMO seeds patent them and in many instances have such control over the market that farmers are forced to buy GMO seeds rather than using the natural seeds from plants they have traditionally grown. Shiva also elaborated on how critical local farming is to society. Mass production and distribution practices have led to disease and sickness, Shiva said, and she emphasized, “Food should be nourishing our body, not causing health problems.” Small farms produce more food, provide nutritionally dense food, and are an industry that is in need of protection, she said.

consumers within today’s society, asserting that because of the massive size and influence some corporations have attained, they have changed cultures throughout the world. “Our identity is to consume,” Shiva said. She also spoke on the issue of seeds that have been genetically modified. Companies creating

Breanne pierce ’16

Black History Conference examines how black women are portrayed

nal groups in the areas of food and wellness, energy, education and outreach, and land stewardship. “Our overall objective is to strengthen both the college’s sustainability efforts and to work with partners to enhance sustainability throughout the region,” Jensen says.

Breanne pierce ’16

Jon Jensen ’89, Luther associate professor of philosophy, was named to a three-year appointment as director of Luther’s new Center for Sustainable

During a three-month strategic planning process with 36 individuals from campus and the community, still ongoing at presstime, Jensen sought to shape the mission and vision for the center, as well as set goals and priorities for the future. He will guide the center’s work with both the on-campus and exter-

ambiguous. How and why images like these cause controversy was the subject of Luther College’s 10th annual Black History Month Conference, held Feb. 6–7 on the Luther campus. This year’s conference, Body Politic: Cultural Identities and Representations of Black Women’s Sexuality, recognized that representing black women’s bodies is a political undertaking. The conference fostered a conversation, asking such questions as: Should consumers of popular culture consider how certain images affect black women’s sense of self? How are artists and other public figures challenging degrading depictions of black sexuality? The conference began with a

— Paige Lobdell ’16

plenary lecture by Dorothy Roberts, a scholar of race and gender, whose groundbreaking work in law and public policy focuses on contemporary issues in health, social justice, and bioethics. A movement piece, directed by Jane Hawley ’87, Luther associate professor of dance, and performed by Christie Owens ’16, celebrated actress and recording artist Lena Horne (1917–2010), this year’s conference honoree. Among other speakers, the conference also included an exhibit and gallery talk with photographer Danielle Scruggs, whose work includes intimate self-portraits and portrait series of people of African descent.

Spring 2013 Luther Alumni Magazine

Campus News

A level head in a (Libyan) crisis This January, Vanessa (Grima Baldacchino) Frazier ’90, ambassador of Malta to Belgium, Luxembourg, and NATO, came to campus to talk about sandwiches. “When I was a very young diplomat in Washington,” she said to a rapt audience at Luther’s spring convocation, “I met an old seasoned ambassador who told me that the role of a diplomat is to walk down the street one day, meet the butcher, and talk about meat. And the next day walk down the same street, meet the baker, and talk about bread. On the third day, walk down the same street, meet the butcher and the baker, and talk about sandwiches. “When I look back, I see how many people out here gave me the ingredients to make the most wonderful sandwiches,” she reflected. After graduating from Luther with a double major in French and business management, Frazier studied at the University of Malta and took diplomatic assignments for the Maltese government in Washington, Rome, and London. “I always felt that my vocation was the law,” Frazier later confides. “But when I was still quite young, my grandmother would say, ‘You’re going to be a diplomat. That is your career path.’ ” Her grandmother proved prescient; after George H. W. Bush visited Decorah during his 1987 presidential campaign and Al Gore spoke to her political science class at Luther, Frazier became interested in politics, and especially in career diplomacy. Frazier had been a member of the diplomatic corps of Malta, an island archipelago in the Mediterranean, since 1994 and

Luther Alumni Magazine

was serving in London when, in 2006, she was asked to step into the director of defense position. At the time, the Luther grad and her husband, Marco, were looking to add a second child to their family. She explained this to the prime minister, who replied, “You’re offending me! It’s your civic duty to have as many children as you want. I promise you, it’ll work out. Go home and speak with your husband and then decide.” “I took the job,” Frazier says, “and it’s true—it was fantastic.” The new director of defense and her husband did indeed have a second child, and Malta’s family-friendly policies meant that Frazier kept a cradle by her desk and arranged her meetings according to her breastfeeding schedule. Juggling a young family with such an eminent position required no small skill, but the ambassador is humble about her accomplishments. When a friend reveals that Frazier was a national judo champion and competed in several international competitions in the sport, Frazier demurs. “On the flight coming over here, I saw Argo, and I’ll use the same expression that was said in it: ‘If we wanted applause, we would have joined the circus.’ ” As a woman who’s worn many hats over her two-decade career, Frazier is no stranger to a change of uniform. In fact, the first thing she did when she sat down for a casual afternoon interview was fish a pair of shinlength, fur-lined mukluks from a plastic bag at her side and take off the imposing four-inch heels she’d been wearing since her keynote speech at convocation that morning. This no-nonsense approach

Photo courtesy of vanessa Frazier ’90

Vanessa Frazier ’90 speaks about her career as a diplomat and Malta’s director of defense

Ambassador Frazier shakes hands with Libyan interim prime minister Mahmoud Jibril. is typical of Frazier’s leadership style, and it served her well during the most high-profile incident of her already notable career—the Libyan crisis. According to Frazier, who was Malta’s director of defense at the time, the instability that took over the region during the Arab Spring represented the biggest security threat to Malta since the nation’s independence from Britain in 1964. Those of us who live in one of the world’s largest and most heavily fortified countries might struggle to imagine what it was like for the 400,000 Maltese on February 21, 2012, when two armed Libyan fighter jets requested to land on the small island country, whose constitution professes neutrality. As director of defense, Frazier and her team quickly determined that the pilots, having received orders to bomb Libyan civilian protestors, were defecting from the Libyan army. “Malta takes a position of neutrality, which means that we’re neutral but not neutralized,” Frazier clarifies. The landing of the jets firmly enmeshed

Malta in the crisis, and Frazier and her team quickly organized efforts to evacuate civilians from Libya and to deliver humanitarian aid to the war-torn country. Evacuations were straightforward enough in Tripoli, but, Frazier says, “Remote areas were a challenge—we couldn’t even find some of them on a map!” The long hours were also trying. Frazier spent some 50-hour stretches in the crisis center. “My husband actually told the kids I went abroad,” she says. In a matter of days, 21,000 evacuees—including more than 400 Americans—passed through Malta. In addition, Frazier’s team delivered material aid to the Libyan people—everything from antibiotics to water to baby food to onions. Frazier was lauded in the Maltese and international press for her leadership during the crisis. In fact, she was recognized for that effort and others when she was selected as a “Woman Inspiring Europe 2013” by the European Institute for Gender Equality. This spring, Frazier returned to career diplomacy when she accepted an ambassadorship

Campus News

to Belgium, Luxembourg, and NATO. When asked what she likes best about her new position, Frazier is forthcoming. “It’s not about the driver and the house and all of that,” she says. “All that comes with being an ambassador, the diplomatic promotion of your country’s culture

and interests—that’s something you do at every level of your career, so that’s not new. But now I’ve reached the peak of my career—and I’m young enough to enjoy it! I worked 20 years, and I have another 20 years. I can actually mentor and encourage younger diplomats. In this com-

petitive field, because I’m no longer a junior diplomat, they no longer see me as a threat, and that’s been nice.” Frazier also treasures the travel experiences that she and her family are accumulating. “It’s difficult having to move every three or four years,” she

admits, “but then there’s the beauty that you also take with you as well.” And, of course, the delicious sandwiches that you build along the way.

Seventh Grace Institute program to begin in August

spiritual growth and leadership in spiritual practices. Each session includes presentations, worship, Christian meditative practices, and small groups that stay together for the duration of the program. Presenters include Marty Haugen ’73, liturgical composer; Susan Briehl, author, pastor, and former director of Holden Village; Fr. Ignatius Valentine, St. Raphael Orthodox Church, Iowa City; Ginger AndersonLarson ’74, spiritual director; musicians Mary Preus ’76 and Tom Witt of Bread for the Journey; Hans Peterson ’91 of

Dakota Road Music; David Vasquez, campus pastor; Amy Zalk Larson ’96, campus pastor; and Brad Hanson. Themes the program will explore include grace-centered spirituality, attention to the Word, attending to physical symbols and sacraments, worship and spiritual formation, contemplative prayer, discernment, spirituality and service in the world, and spirituality and evangelism. Previous programs have achieved a 90 percent completion rate and have drawn participants from throughout the

Midwest (in particular Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin) and as far away as New Jersey, Colorado, and Texas. For more information, visit luther.edu/graceinstitute or contact Lori Ostlie, administrative assistant, College Ministries, e-mail ostlielo@luther.edu, phone (563) 387-1271.

Grace Institute’s Spiritual Formation Program VII will run Aug. 2–4, 2013, at Shalom Retreat Center in Dubuque, Iowa. Supported by the Office for College Ministries, the program is codirected by Brad Hanson, Luther professor emeritus of religion, and Mike Blair, campus pastor. Conducted in eight quarterly sessions over two years, the program brings together laity and clergy to foster personal

—Kate Frentzel

Luther College Book Shop Phone 563-387-1036 or 1-888-521-5039 www.lutherbookshop.com • Diploma frames • Textbooks, tradebooks • T-shirts, sweatshirts, caps • Mugs, keychains, flags • Luther music CDs • Luther rings, pendants Kristina Nienhaus ’13, music major, Fort Atkinson, Iowa

Spring 2013 Luther Alumni Magazine

Campus News

Two-year series of events puts Shakespeare in campus spotlight Humanities. The recipient of that endowed professorship devotes some of his or her professional time to a project that enhances humanities education. “One of the fundamental strategies in the humanities is to focus on individual thinkers and creators and make sense of their place in the larger picture,” Muggli says. “I tend not to be hagiographic and see heroes everywhere I look . . . but there’s some individual greatness here that’s worth looking at.” The “our” part of the Our Shakespeare project is meant to reflect the common investment we all have in this great artist. Muggli began his popularizing campaign in fall 2011 with a real attention-getter: reading two Shakespearean sonnets every day at 12:05 p.m., working through all 154 of the sonnets. “On bright sunny fall days, up to 35 people were sitting out in the leaves to listen. A couple of wrestlers came and got other people from the team to come. There was never a day when there wasn’t at least one person. Even one heavily raining day, one of my most faithful followers came out in a raincoat. That was

What comes to mind when you think about Shakespeare—if you think about him at all? Yellowed parchment, an inky quill, maybe a marble bust, and an inch-thick layer of dust? Or maybe, at the mere mention of the Bard of Avon, your stomach tenses, your brow breaks into a sweat, and you emit a labored groan? Professor of English Mark Muggli suspected as much, which is why he began the Our Shakespeare project at Luther. “I had this feeling that Shakespeare is supremely visible culturally, in curriculum and advertising, in idioms, phrases, and language. He’s extremely visible, but a lot of people have hesitation or haven’t had serious exposure since high school. For some, it’s a pretty challenging experience. Part of the idea was to make him reaccessible to the college community in a way that might remind people that they were actually interested in Shakespeare.” What allowed Muggli to stage the project, a two-year series of events and articles that wrapped up this spring, was the Dennis M. Jones Distinguished Teaching Professorship in the

DEVELOPMENT NEWS

Elise (Kline) Christopherson ’08, Elisabeth Ann Photography

Get Down, Give Back event benefits scholarship fund

Barbara Meyer ’87 and her band, Imaginary Numbers, set the mood with classic jazz standards.

Luther Alumni Magazine

Flappers, mobsters, and other dolled-up alumni, parents, and friends of Luther gathered underground at the Wabasha Street Caves in St. Paul, Minn., on Nov. 16, 2012, for the fourth annual Get Down, Give Back Scholarship Benefit. Proceeds from the event added more than $18,000 to the endowment, bringing the Twin

meant to raise a little visibility— I was a little bit huckster-ish about it,” he admits.

Mark Muggli

Muggli also ran summer workshops for faculty in which he combined book discussions with performances in the region, for example at the American Players Theatre in Spring Green, Wis. He recollects, “I had people from biology, physics, chemistry, music, art, theatre, English—a very strong sprinkling of people from most major disciplines. Those were some wonderful conversations—people are a little different in the summer, a little more relaxed. I was hoping, of course, not just to get some faculty into it themselves, but that maybe when they’re teaching in the fall, it would slip out. There are a lot of issues in these plays that people can introduce in the classroom if they want to.”

Cities Young Alumni Scholarship Fund to more than $70,000. Jenna Gieseke ’09 and Liesl Koehnen ’09 co-chaired this year’s volunteer-driven benefit. Gifts-in-kind included dessert from Dan Milis ’06 of Mila Gelato Catering, graphic design by Anna (Dyrud) Wedekind ’07, auctioneering by Gregg Luther ’90, and photo booth and photography by Elise (Kline) Christopherson ’08 of Elisabeth Ann Photography. Save the date for the fifth annual event, Friday, November 22, 2013, at A’BULAE in historic Lowertown, St. Paul.

Sometimes Muggli himself introduced Shakespeare into the classrooms of his colleagues, for instance by talking to students about the English sonnet before their professor taught a lesson on the Spanish sonnet, or by talking to a linguistics class about the etymology of a passage from one of Shakespeare’s plays. He also organized a chapel series using Shakespeare as a platform to explore religion and faith. Muggli hosted film screenings and wrote a series of articles for Chips. His articles conversationally explored everything from the genre-bending—and gender-bending—quality of Shakespeare’s plays to the idea that while adaptations of Shakespeare are a dime a dozen, the bard himself was a great adapter. Muggli says the high points of his project were the productions. “You can do as much as you want with making Shakespeare more visible to people,” he says, “but unless you have performance, you’re missing something very fundamental.” The English professor sent out a memo to several of his colleagues suggesting that they consider Shakespeare for up-

To learn how you or your business can get involved, contact Bethany Krepela ’95, leadership giving officer, at biermabe@luther.edu or visit luther.edu/getdowngiveback. — Bethany (Bierman) Krepela ’95 Thanks to the Get Down, Give Back sponsors, including: Luther Blue Sponsor ($2,500) • Air Motion Systems Platinum Sponsor ($1,000) • Sears Imported Autos Gold Sponsors ($500) • Kosama Complete Body Transformation (Downtown Minneapolis) • Michelle Monson ’06, CFP©,

Campus News

coming productions, and they were receptive. Last fall, theatre professor Robert Larson and guest artist director Kristen Underwood directed Much Ado about Nothing, and associate professor of dance Jane Hawley ’87 worked with Muggli to develop a dance performance called A Tragedy like Macbeth. In addition, Muggli’s English/Theatre 261: Shakespeare Performed class staged an abridged production of Twelfth Night. Several other colleagues across departments led book discussions centered on these plays and on As You Like It, which was performed this spring by the renowned Acting Company as part of Luther’s Center Stage Series. Muggli doesn’t give the impression that he thinks Shakespeare is sacred—his staging of Much Ado about Nothing was set in a post–World War II world. And neither does he think that Shakespeare is hard to access— he’s just misunderstood. “I’m not going to argue that there aren’t some unusual words and some intensely obscure moments, but basically he was an extremely popular playwright in his own time and, given a little bit of a chance, he’s extremely popular now.” Muggli notes that though Luther’s production of Much Ado

was set in the 1950s, they needed to change only three words to make it contemporary, swapping “holster” for “scabbard,” for example, since the actors weren’t using swords. A common misconception, Muggli says, is that Shakespeare was an “old-fashioned kind of writer, that he represents high art of a codified and stratified sort. In fact, he is a highly experimental writer. In play after play, he moves into new territory in story development and the way he plays with structure and language. He invented a lot of our language and was very linguistically avant-garde.” Why Shakespeare continues to be popular, Muggli speculates, is because “he had an amazingly broad and deep understanding of human character and human situations. . . . His work has a kind of universality that evokes or speaks to great particulars of our own lives. It has a kind of quality that makes people, whether young girls in Iraq or old men in Hawaii, recognize things about themselves in these situations, in these words.”

Stonebridge Group, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans • WinkIt—Where Movie Scenes Become Shopping Dreams! Underwriters: $1,500 • Bleed Blue—Luther College Men’s Tennis Alumni $500 • Tristan ’01 and Beth (Heroux) Cox • Christian ’05 and Kristen (Neve) Klein ’05 $200 • Twin Cities Young Alumni Council members: Kaia (Nordal) Sherburne ’04, Heidi Christian ’99, Liesl Koehnen ’09, Scott Hamman ’95, and Julie (Lyng) Jass ’90

Celebrating Sesquicentennial Fund success

deferred gifts. (See highlights of the Sesquicentennial Fund in

This spring, the college hosted 18 events throughout the country to celebrate the success of the Sesquicentennial Fund and to honor the Richard Torgerson presidency. Alumni, faculty, and friends from coast to coast have gathered for these festive celebrations. The Sesquicentennial Fund, a five-year $50 million funding initiative, concluded on Dec. 31, 2012, with more than $57 million in outright support, pledges, and

Sesquicentennial Fund as of 12/31/12

Goal

Endowment

$17,993,700

$20,500,000

Current Support

$17,422,500

$10,000,000

Capital/Facilities

$ 6,881,376

$ 7,000,000

Total Outright

$42,297,576

$37,500,000

Planned Gifts

$14,858,148

$12,500,000

Grand Total

$57,155,724

$50,000,000

Learn more about the project: luther.edu/english/ourshakespeare

You may be speaking Shakespearean English without even knowing it It’s easy to think that Shakespeare is all wherefore, whence, and prithee. All hie, hither, and anon. But did you know that he’s responsible for eyeball (Tempest), moonbeam (Midsummer Night’s Dream), and puking (As You Like It)? Here are more words and phrases that wouldn’t be common parlance today had they not appeared first in the works of Shakespeare. • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

all that glitters is not gold (Merchant of Venice) the be-all and the end-all (Macbeth) bedazzled (Taming of the Shrew) break the ice (Taming of the Shrew) dead as a doornail (Henry VI, Part 2) employer (Much Ado about Nothing) fortune-teller (Comedy of Errors) good riddance (Troilus and Cressida) it was Greek to me (Julius Caesar) in my heart of hearts (Hamlet) in my mind’s eye (Hamlet) in a pickle (Tempest) kill with kindness (Taming of the Shrew) Knock knock! Who’s there? (Macbeth) laughable (Merchant of Venice) love is blind (Merchant of Venice) not slept one wink (Cymbeline) one fell swoop (Macbeth) own flesh and blood (Hamlet) pomp and circumstance (Othello) salad days (Antony and Cleopatra) sea change (Tempest) set my teeth on edge (Henry IV, Part 1) too much of a good thing (As You Like It) wild-goose chase (Romeo and Juliet) the world’s my oyster (Merry Wives of Windsor)

—Kate Frentzel

the Transformed by the Journey summary report on page 55.)

Spring 2013 Luther Alumni Magazine

Campus News

DONOR SPOTLIGHT

Alumna Chris Warren ’74 looks forward to Phonathon call

On Phonathon nights at Luther, students and staff gather on the “garden level” of Loyalty Hall. This is the place where volunteer student callers are well-trained and well-supplied with soda, snacks, scripts, and a deluge of support from fellow team captains, Phonathon chairs, and development and alumni relations staff. But if you are a first-time caller, picking up the receiver to place that first call can be daunting. The phone feels so heavy! You need to “be yourself” and be engaging. You have to remember to dial “9” first. But don’t pause after dialing “9” and “1,” and then accidentally dial “1” again . . . because campus security and the Decorah Police Department will come to the door, thinking someone has an emergency and has called 9-1-1. So you review the class year, giving history, and employment information again, working up your courage. There’s just so much to remember! For many students, making Phonathon calls is easy. But a development staff member will sense a nervous caller’s hesitation and quietly retrieve the giving information card for a loyal donor, such as Chris (Schaumberg) Warren ’74 of Weslaco, Texas, and say, “Why don’t you call this alumna? I’m pretty sure she’s waiting for your call, and I promise you she will give.” The phone call is made and happily answered. The pledge is secured! And time in the Phonathon room is momentarily suspended for this new caller. A warm conversation between Luther grad and Luther student goes on for just a bit; a smile is shared; the jitters have evaporated. Warren looks forward to these annual Phonathon calls, and she so enjoys visiting with students. “When you are so far from the Midwest as I am in Deep South Texas, and get a call from a Luther student, it is wonderful to hear about what is going on back on campus,” Warren says. “It also is fun to tell them about our balmy weather, when they are usually suffering through the snow and ice. And I especially enjoy speaking with English majors and education majors, so

Luther Alumni Magazine

“I especially enjoy speaking with English majors and education majors, so that we can compare interests and stories.” that we can compare interests and stories.” Warren has the heart of a teacher. It’s been almost 40 years since she graduated and headed south to Texas to teach English at Weslaco High School. She taught all four grade levels and all types of students through the years. “I enjoyed teaching American literature most of all, but I also had fun with vocabulary, grammar, and writing,” Warren says. “I love meeting former students who tell me how they love reading, or are good writers, and thank me for what I taught them in the classroom.” Warren also believes in her alma mater. Luther helped her obtain an Iowa teaching certificate, which was then honored in Texas. After she landed securely in Weslaco, the education department added several South Texas school districts to the teacher recruitment program. Quite a few Luther teachers answered the call and came south to teach in neighboring communities in the 1970s and ’80s.

Warren is an advocate for the liberal arts. “In this fast-changing world, the more grounded we can be, the better we will be prepared to meet life’s challenges and adjust to the demands life puts on us.” Her advice to Luther students? “Pack as much as you can into your college years and then go out and meet the world.” Warren continues to meet the world. After 29 years of teaching at Weslaco High School, she retired and maintains an active volunteer schedule: Friends of the Library, Delta Kappa Gamma Society International, service on the Chamber of Commerce committee of Weslaco Beautiful, and volunteering at Frontera Audubon Society, a 15-acre urban preserve where international visitors come to walk the trails, view birds and butterflies, and experience the wonderful South Texas habitat. And for 39 years—without interruption—Warren has been answering the calls from students and supporting the Luther College Annual Fund. “When I got my teaching job, I began giving annually to Luther. It became my tradition. I also enjoyed making my gift go further when I was able to add the Lutheran Brotherhood matching contribution. I have my career because of my Luther education, and this is just a small way that I can give back and assure that Luther will still be there for students in the years to come.” And for as long as students volunteer for Phonathon, Warren will be there ready to answer the phone in South Texas, reminisce a bit about life and learning and the liberal arts at Luther College, and make her pledge. Chris Warren has the heart of a teacher. She also exudes the joy of being a steadfast donor. We give thanks for her and for all alumni like her, who have made giving annually to Luther College part of their personal tradition. —Ann Sponberg Peterson Learn more about giving to Luther at (800) 225-8664 or luther.edu/giving.

Campus News

Student News

Mabry ’14 named Udall Scholar Callie Mabry ’14 was named a Udall Scholar on March 27, one of 50 selected from a pool of 488 candidates across the country. A 14-member independent review committee selected this year’s group of Udall Scholars on the basis of commitment to careers in the environment, Native American health care or tribal public policy, leadership potential, academic achievement, and record of public service. Mabry, the daughter of Kevin and Kathy Mabry of Fort Collins, Colo., is majoring in environmental studies and history at Luther. She plans to work for a nonprofit organization focusing on advocacy and community work on environmental issues. Each Udall scholarship provides up to $5,000 for the scholar’s junior or senior year.

Greiner ’14 granted Goldwater Scholarship Alexander Greiner ’14 has been granted a $7,500 Goldwater Scholarship based on academic merit. He is one of 271 students to receive the scholarship out of

a pool of 1,107 candidates. The Goldwater Scholars were selected from a field of mathematics, science, and engineering students who were nominated by the faculties of colleges and universities nationwide. The scholarship will cover the cost of tuition, fees, books, and room and board up to $7,500 per year. Greiner, the son of Michael Greiner and Michele Greiner of Fairfield, is majoring in biology and chemistry. He aspires to earn his medical and doctoral degrees through a medical scientist training program.

Two students named Peace Scholars Cate Anderson ’14 and Maggie Steinberg ’15 have been selected as Peace Scholars for the 2013– 14 academic year. The two will spend seven weeks this summer studying peace and conflict resolution in Lillehammer and Oslo, Norway. Luther is one of six colleges founded by NorwegianAmerican immigrants in the 19th century that sponsor the annual summer Peace Scholars program in Norway. The program is designed to deepen students’ understanding of the central issues and theories regarding conflict, war, and peace. Anderson, who is majoring in French and history, with a minor in English writing, applied for the program in search of an opportunity to study in a country known for peacemaking and reconciliation. She has been drawn to solving neighborto-neighbor conflict during her time at Luther. Steinberg, majoring in political science and English, was also drawn to studying conflict resolution and peace studies with like-minded people in Norway. During their stay in Norway,

June 17–Aug. 2, they will be required to blog regularly about their studies and experiences at peacescholars.wordpress.com.

Students honored at Entrepreneurial Showcase The following students were recognized at the annual Luther Entrepreneurial Showcase, held March 19 in the Peace Dining Room of Dahl Centennial Union. Minh Nguyen ’14, a computer science major from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, received the Accenture Scholarship, which recognizes a student who has demonstrated academic excellence while majoring in computer science, management, ecnomics, or mathematics. Katie Berner ’14, a management major from Whitehouse, Texas, received the E-Club Entrepreneurial Leadership Prize, which is given to a current EClub member in recognition of leadership contributions at Luther.

’13, a chemistry major from Mayer, Minn., $5,000; Chris Norton ’14, a management major from Altoona, Iowa, $2,500; Lindsay Sheridan ’13, a music major from Brookfield, Wis.; and Dan Fernelius ’13, a music major from Crystal, Minn., for the Water Street Music Series, $2,500.

ATHLETICS

Winter sports standings Men’s basketball IIAC champions 11–3, 18–8 overall After earning the Iowa Conference Champions, the men’s basketball team swept the Iowa Conference’s end-of-season awards: Tyler Wedemeier ’13 was selected Most Valuable Player, John Androus ’14 was named Defensive Player of the Year, and head coach Mark Franzen was named Iowa Conference Coach of the Year. In addition to Wedemeier and Androus, Zach Matos-Pritchard ’13 was named first-team all conference. Women’s basketball IIAC 5–9, 13–13 overall In their first conference tournament appearance in four years, the women’s basketball team finished the season with a tough overtime loss for a record of 13–13 overall. Taylor Johnson ’14, who led the Norse in scoring and rebounding, was named to the IIAC all-conference first team; Meagan Koepnick ’15 and Nellie Nelson ’13 were named to the second team.

Justin Ratzlaff ’13

Chris Norton ’14

The Daryl and Audrey Erdman Prize for Entrepreneurship was awarded to Justin Ratzlaff

Men’s swimming and diving IIAC champions The men’s swimming and diving team finished the season in second place at the Liberal Arts

Spring 2013 Luther Alumni Magazine

Campus News

all conference honors: Nick Clark ’13, John Donovan ’16, Jack Espeset ’16, Devin Gilbertson ’14, Kurt Hellman ’16, and Logan Langley ’13.

Championships, clinching its 10th IIAC championship title. The Norse were named an NSCAA 2012 Fall AllAcademic team for the 10th year in a row. Women’s swimming and diving IIAC champions The Norse swimmers and divers claimed their ninth Iowa Conference championship in as many years, blowing the competition away with 869 points at the Liberal Arts Championships in February. Zoe Johnson ’16 was named the Liberal Arts Championship Female Diver of the Meet, and she qualified for the NCAA III diving regional, placing 11th in the three-meter and ninth in the one-meter diving competitions. Clare Slagel ’16 qualified for NCAA III Women’s Swimming and Diving national championships and earned AllAmerica honors twice over for her efforts in the 100 backstroke and the 200 backstroke.

DAVE BLANCHARD

Men’s Indoor Track and Field Sixth in IIAC championships After placing first in their first meet of the season, the Luther men’s indoor track and field team went on to place sixth at the IIAC Indoor Championships with six athletes earning

Tricia Serres ’16, shown in a spring meet, broke Luther’s mile record during the indoor season.

Luther Alumni Magazine

Women’s Indoor Track and Field Second in IIAC championships The women’s indoor season wrapped up with two first-place meet finishes and a secondplace finish at the IIAC Indoor Championships. Twelve athletes posted all-conference performances: Leah Broderick ’15, Jayne Cole ’14, Anna Hennessy ’13, Marea Holkesvik ’16, Annie Klepper ’13, Maggie Pierson ’14, Addy Rickels ’13, Tricia Serres ’16, Christina Storlie ’13, Kelsey Strand ’15, Hannah Theisen ’16, and Kayla Uphoff ’14. Serres earned All-America honors with a fourth-place finish in the mile, with a school-record time of 4:50.50, breaking her old record set previously this year. With this honor, Serres becomes the first Luther athlete to earn All-America honors in the mile of either gender and the first to earn All-America honors indoors for Luther since 2005. Wrestling IIAC 4–3, 12–8 overall The Norse finished the season with a dual meet record of 12–8, earning team championships in the Chuck Porter Duals and the Matman Invite. Seven wrestlers were named to the IIAC All-Conference team: Garret Bonte ’15, Jayden DeVilbiss ’15, Trent Flegel ’13, Dakota Gray ’16, Evan Obert ’15, Nick Pearch ’15, and Kyle Windquist ’13. Obert was also named IIAC Wrestler of the Week. Bonte, DeVilbiss, Flegel, Obert, and Windquist competed at the NCAA III National Championships. Flegel became a two-time All-American, and Obert and Windquist earned their first All-America honors.

Hafner = family + football Luther’s new head coach breaks rank with Penn dynasty, sets his sights on Norse culture of success

aron Hafner is a family man. “My day is family and football. If I’m not working on football stuff, then all I want to be doing is spending time with my family,” says Luther’s new head football coach. For the next few months, he’ll have to settle mostly for the football half of that equation. His wife, Katy, a kindergarten teacher, is finishing out her teaching obligations before moving with the couple’s two girls, Allie (13) and Andie (9), from Oskaloosa, Iowa, to join her husband in Decorah. Hafner left what he describes as a dream job. For seven years, he had been the offensive coordinator and offensive line coach at William Penn University, where his brother Todd was head coach and his dad was athletic director. The three Hafner men formed a coaching trifecta that led the Statesmen to a record of 28–6 over the past three years, winning Midwest League championships in 2010 and 2012 and qualifying for the NAIA national tournament in 2012. Hafner’s offense was ranked in the top five nationally from 2008 to 2012, setting the singleseason rushing record of 4,476 yards in 2010. Hafner also received Midwest League Assistant Coach of the Year honors in 2008 and 2010. “I really hadn’t been looking for a job,” Hafner says. “I had a lot of great things going on, it was a great family atmosphere, my wife had a good job, we’d bought a lake house with the extended family. We had all the family things that you could ever imagine.” But a visit to Decorah for a game a couple of years ago sparked something. Hafner says, “I remember my wife and I talking about the idea that if the head coach job ever came open, that would be something that we would be interested in. It was the atmosphere and how nice the people were—it was just a really cool place. Well, this November it came open, I applied for it, and here we are.” Hafner has inherited a complicated coaching situation that follows the massive turnover of the football coaching staff this fall, and he’s the first to admit that he faces some challenges. “I think the biggest challenge is just trying to set up a culture for our kids to be successful. We have to make sure that academics are the priority at all times, but we also want to make sure that football is very important in these kids’ lives. We’re going to expect them to get more involved with the weight-training program. We’re going to set a mentality of practicing a little bit tougher and being more physical in practice. And hopefully when they develop this discipline in the weight room and on the practice field, we can translate that into Saturday afternoons.” Understanding that a sudden change in leadership can leave student-athletes confused, Hafner sat down individually with each of the 60 students on the team’s roster and exchanged expectations. Another early priority was to flesh out his staff with three new coaches. He says, “The diligence that we put into hiring people was to make sure we found coaches who have the same goals that I have, which is that we’re here for the kids and we’re here to develop young men into men of integrity and character. And I found coaches who have those same goals. Now when we can find those types of student-athletes, then that’s going to translate into wins and losses.” Recruiting student-athletes, which is a year-round endeavor, becomes more difficult in a year that’s experienced dramatic coaching-

staff turnover. “The people who were here—Paul Hoffman and Mike Tangen—did their best at recruiting,” Hafner says, “but it’s always hard when you don’t know who the head coach is going to be, you don’t know what philosophy he’s going to have. “If you’re trying to sign between 30 and 40 kids,” he continues, “you have to recruit between 800 and 1,000 kids, because you’re not going to get every kid that you recruit, and on top of that you have to find the kids that best fit your system. And we’ve had to go out and try to create those relationships with those kids in the time that we lost in having a new head coach. So it’s just been crazy. We basically had a month and a half before award letters went out—not just from our school but from other schools we’re competing against. So that’s a challenge, but the coaches here have done a great job, and we’re going to continue to recruit all the way up until camp starts in August.” Before transitioning to college football, Hafner coached and taught math at the high school level for 10 years. “My wife would tell you right now that she enjoys her husband more as a college coach than as a high school coach,” he says. “And that’s because the relationships that we have with college kids are more impactful for their future. It’s like I tell our recruits, ‘We’re trying to make you a good husband and a good dad and to teach you leadership skills that you can carry into your workplace.’ “Those are the things that we try to provide our kids, because they’re really close to that point in their lives. So when they leave here, the academic side of things on the upper campus will take care of itself—we know they’re going to walk out of here with a good academic background. What we want to provide here is the leadership and discipline and work ethic that they can translate with the academics to make them successful people.” —Kate Frentzel Luther head football coach Aaron Hafner gets his game face on with daughters Andie and Allie.

Spring 2013 Luther Alumni Magazine

EMILY VOSS ’13

Campus News

J-term transports minds Whether they’re crafting a short story or a Scandinavian spoon, exploring Mary Shelley’s Europe or the ecology of Ecuador, students in Luther’s January Term classes quickly learn a subject in depth. Classes provide history and other context and give students the ability and opportunity to question and critique, to add their own voices to the discussion. The stories that follow are a sampling of the courses offered this past January.

Courageous students flex their writing muscles

aaron Lurth ’08

Brave. That’s how authors Jane Hamilton and Athena Kildegaard described the students they taught at Luther last winter. The award-winning authors each taught a creative writing course during the 2013 Janu-

Best-selling author Jane Hamilton says the best thing about the one-class J-term format was that “The students were all mine. They were not rushing off to calculus or biology. It was wonderful.”

Luther Alumni Magazine

aaron Lurth ’08

ary Term. In an intense, three-week session that Hamilton likened to a marathon, students filled page after page with poems, short stories, and short plays, revising their work at night based on exercises done in class. In Hamilton’s class, each student gave a presentation on a different genre—fantasy, dystopian, graphic novel, and more. They wrote poems based on an element from the short story they’d written the first week. Kildegaard’s students composed poems in different forms, on different subjects, with different speakers, always aiming to fill their writing with images, she said. “They’re fabulous,” Kildegaard said of her students during week three. “They’re funny, smart, and willing to try everything, and you don’t find that everywhere, especially with creative writing classes. They just go for it.” Kildegaard has written three books of poetry: Rare Momentum, a collection of 62 Fibonaccis, formal poems based on the mathematical sequence of the same name; Bodies of Light, a finalist in 2011 for the Minnesota Book Award; and Cloves & Honey, a volume of love poems, written one a day for a year. She is a lecturer at the University of Minne-

About the challenging class, Athena Kildegaard cites poet Rosario Castellanos: “Writing a poem and sharing it with the world is like tearing your heart out and putting it on the table for everyone to see.”

sota, Morris, and has taught writing to students of all ages. Atlantic magazine called Hamilton “among the most graceful and thoughtful writers to work the fertile ground that is the Midwestern family.” The author grew up in Oak Park, Ill., the youngest in a family of five children. Home now is an orchard farmhouse in southeast Wisconsin. Hamilton’s first two novels, The Book of Ruth and A Map of the World, were Oprah’s Book Club selections. The Book of Ruth also won the PEN/Hemingway Foundation Award for first fiction. The New York Times named her novel Disobedience a Notable Book of the Year in 2001, and the Chicago Tribune, Washington Post, and Seattle Times all declared her book When Madeline Was Young one of the best of 2006. Hamilton’s latest book, Laura Rider’s Masterpiece, is her foray into comedy. The novelist’s students read 10 short stories during J-term, in addition to reading about and discussing 16 short plays and writing their own one-act plays. More like a workshop than a class, the course challenged students to grow as writers and develop discipline, said Eve Christensen ’14. Christensen said she flexed writing muscles farther than she’d known she could. “There’s no messing around with this type of class,” she said. Like Kildegaard, Hamilton was impressed with her students’ willingness to tackle any challenge, from reading their own short stories aloud to performing their plays in class. “They’re such good sports,” she said, “and they had so much bravery.”

’08 aaron Lurth

A monster good trip Pack light, students in the January Term class In Frankenstein’s Footsteps read at the top of their syllabus and itinerary. Good advice for this fast-moving tour of London, Switzerland, and Italy. The course retraced Mary Shelley’s journey from childhood to her authoring of Frankenstein, visiting sites associated with her and her literary circle, which included John Keats, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and Lord Byron. Amy Weldon, Luther associate professor of English, taught the class. She instructed her students to think about what they felt as they encountered the atmosphere of each historic place they visited, with their knowledge of Frankenstein and the Keats/Shelley circle in mind. Katherine Mohr ’14 created a memoir of the traveling course in scrapbook form, full of ticket stubs (Tower of London, Westminster Abbey, Venice’s Doge’s Palace, the Vatican Museum), snapshots (the Ponte Vecchio, a villa where Lord Byron spent a summer and where Frankenstein was conceived, artisans at work in an Italian glass factory), and notes about what the class was doing (viewing Vermeers, Monets, and Van Goghs in London’s National Gallery; visiting John Keats’s home; riding a cable car in Chamonix, France; and touring historic—and beautiful—sights throughout Rome).

Religion class creates space online for its own questioning voices The blogosphere is a progressive place, full of dissenting and alternative voices challenging tradition, right? Not always, as students discovered in the 2013 January Term class, Bible Blogging, taught by Guy Nave, Luther associate professor of religion. The class set out to find out what religion bloggers were talking about and found, Nave says, “that most of the people who had online voices had offline religious authority. They were pastors, ministers, bishops, et cetera.” Bloggers who identified themselves as Christian were largely affirming tradition, not opening it up for discussion. Where were the dialogue and dissenting voices from people like students in the class? Many in the Nave’s class had been raised Christian, he says, but now had questions about religion and the church. He says the class asked, “What’s the responsibility of those of us who consider ourselves to be Christian to say, We are Christian, and these are the issues we have with our tradition? We

Spring 2013 Luther Alumni Magazine

expect those who are outside to critique, but where is the critique from those who are inside?” The students began to ask how they could develop their own voices with blogs that grappled with what it means to be a teenager, a college student who’s conflicted about religious views or religious identity or Christianity. By the end of J-term, the class had developed six blogs, each fueled by four student writers. The bloggers discussed topics that ranged from the difficulty of fitting church

services into a busy schedule—and the guilt that then arises—to analysis of Bible verses with respect to environmental stewardship. The blogs are here: • • • • • •

faith101blog.wordpress.com christianidentitycrisis.wordpress.com conflictedcollegechristians.wordpress.com religiality.wordpress.com theologicaltree.wordpress.com thebookof4men.wordpress.com

Whether or not Nave’s students continue to add their questioning voices to the blogosphere, their interaction with the online world and in their own classroom has assured them that it’s okay to critique tradition, and that they are in good company. Kaymi Lang ’16 says she took the class to fulfill a curriculum requirement, but got a lot more out of it. “The most significant thing I learned was that I’m not alone—I’m not the only person questioning faith. There are people out there feeling the same way I do,” she says.

Exploring tropical ecology, from cloud forests to the Galápagos The Ecology of Ecuador January Term class taught by Kirk Larsen, Luther professor of biology, immerses biology students in the ecology, evolution, and natural history of Yasuni National Park in the lowland Amazon rainforest, the montane Andean cloud forest, and the Galápagos Islands, while exposing them to some of the customs and cultures of the Ecuadorian people, Larsen says. “During the course we visit a variety of

Luther Alumni Magazine

tropical environments in one of the most biodiverse countries on the planet, and students often come back profoundly changed,” he says, “having experienced both the incredible diversity of life, as well as seeing major environmental changes taking place.” Katrina Okerstrom ’13 calls the trip an eye-opening experience. “I have grown tenfold as a scientist,” she says. “Learning from one of the most amazing ecosystems in

the world has changed the way I think. We met the most welcoming people who are truly passionate about their work.” Katrina Okerstrom ’14 and Joe Marshall ’14 take notes on a very young Galápagos giant tortoise and a giant tortoise egg at the Charles Darwin Research Center tortoise breeding center within the Galápagos National Park on the island of Isabella. Katelynn Richman ’15

The pieces shown here were created in the 2013 class and photographed by class member Emily Voss ’13.

Practical art teaches Scandinavian culture Participating in an ice cream party might seem like a piece-of-cake final exam. But to pass Harley Refsal’s 2013 January Term course, students had to have carved their own spoon—and it had to work. Still doesn’t sound too difficult? First the class had to cut down a tree. With help from Luther’s Facilities staff, the students brought down a boxelder tree already slated to be removed. Although considered to be a “weed tree” by many, boxelder is a hardwood that lends itself nicely to carving woodenware, says Refsal, Luther professor emeritus of Scandinavian folk art. He began teaching this particular course, Scandinavian Fine Handcraft, more than 20 years ago and has continued to teach it the past three January Terms, after retiring from full-time teaching in 2010. Students sawed, then split the tree into billets that they could carve. The green wood is easy to work, Refsal says, like carving into a hard potato or carrot. When the carving is complete, the piece is cured, or dried, in a controlled environment, in this case, a bag made of exactly three layers of newspaper taped shut on three sides. The three layers provide just the right porosity to wick out moisture quickly. A spoon dries in three to four days. “When you tap the spoon on a hard surface and it makes a thudding sound, it’s still green. When it makes a clicking sound, it’s dry,” Refsal says.

Few of his students came to class knowing how to use a carving knife. Before they could create functional spoons, they had to peel carrots—or pretend to. Wearing a Kevlar glove for protection, students learned what Refsal calls the grammar and vocabulary of carving through practicing old-time whittlers’ tricks. After getting the feel of the special short-bladed carving knife through “peeling” the wood, students learned to carve balls and other shapes. One of the first utensils they created was a sandwich spreader. At the start of the course, Refsal talked about the history of Scandinavian fine handcraft and what defines art in that region. Students learned that until the past couple of centuries or so, Norway was nearly the poorest country in Europe. The country was agrarian, without access to the precious metals, jewels, and sumptuous building materials that went into great art in southern Europe. Norwegians put their artistic skills to work on the utensils and furniture that they carved from the resource they did have—wood. Later, while the class sat carving, Refsal spoke of how the items they were making were the bearers of the broader Scandinavian culture, how they derived from the economy, politics, geography, climate, and growing season. So as the students carved their sandwich spreaders, they learned that open-face sandwiches were a staple of the Scandinavian diet and thus the spreaders were ubiquitous.

After their utensils had cured, the students decorated them with a technique called kolrosing, making shallow incisions into the wood and filling the cuts with powder made from tree dust or finely ground coffee. Class projects also included creating Sami-inspired bracelets of reindeer leather, crafting children’s toys such the Swedish dala horse, figure carving in 3-D, working their way through Refsal’s book Whittling Little Folk. But the final test of what students had learned in the class was a practical one to match the functionality of Scandinavian art: the carving they’d made may have been pretty to look at, but could it move slippery ice cream from bowl to mouth? — Ellen Modersohn

Spring 2013 Luther Alumni Magazine

Discovering by Ellen Modersohn

The woman behind the revelation that a meterorite once crashed here

the crater

Scientific data shows that Decorah sits above a meteorite crater about three and a half miles wide. Courtesy of the U.S. Geological Survey

Luther Alumni Magazine

cientists think Decorah sits above a three-and-a-half-mile-wide crater created by a meteorite impact about 470 million years ago. The 55-foot-wide space rock that exploded over southern Russia in February was a pea compared with the one that smashed into what is now Luther’s hometown. Research on the area’s geology has been going on for years, but made national news on Feb. 18 when a Washington Post article reported the most recent findings. A meteorite hit the northern Iowa bedrock so hard that it shattered tiny grains of minerals, according to Bevan French, an adjunct scientist at the National Museum of Natural History. He is known as one of the world’s foremost crater hunters. Using a simple microscope, the Post reported, French has observed a sample of this “shocked quartz”—dozens of parallel cracks striping quartz crystals no larger than mustard seeds. Scientists believe an extraterrestrial impact is the only impulse strong enough to shatter quartz crystals in this manner.

Long before attracting the attention

of a prominent scientist and national media, the unusual geology of the Decorah area was under examination by a woman the Post also mentioned—Jean Young. The article referred to Young as an amateur geologist. But the onetime Luther geology curator was more than that. If not for her, a rumor about a coal seam, and a keen-eyed fisherman, the crater may never have been discovered. Young was born in Philadelphia. She had an undergraduate degree from Oberlin College and a master’s degree in geology from the University of Iowa. Her specialty was paleontology. That interest is what brought her to northern Iowa in the late 1960s. She was working on her Ph.D. thesis on a particular trilobite, one of the ancient sea creatures found in fossil form in this area. While never a formal member of Luther’s faculty, Young did serve as a de facto geology instructor, assisting Richard Kellogg, now professor emeritus of physics; teaching a few January Term courses; and serving as the curator of Luther’s geology collection from 1990 until her death in 2007. When she became curator, Young was in her midfifties. With her long gray hair, she was a familiar, if quirky, figure on campus. Alumni may remember her rolling a shopping cart full of rocks between Valders and the geology collection’s home in Preus Library.

photo Courtesy of the U.S. Geological Survey

Former Luther geology curator Jean Young, opposite, was fascinated by the strange shale that well drillings brought up from beneath Decorah. In search of an outcrop of the curious stone at ground level, she found it, above, in the Upper Iowa riverbed. Now called Winneshiek shale, the rock formed when an ancient seaway flooded the region and poured into the crater, leaving behind sediment that hardened.

Her connection to Luther began around the early 1970s. Kellogg was assigned to teach a geology course in the fall of 1971, and he enlisted Young to give him a crash course on the local rocks. Kellogg says Young helped him with projects too numerous to count. He recalls the two of them driving his old station wagon around the countryside with a gravity meter mounted in the back seat. The meter measured differences in gravity possibly caused by nearby geologic formations. Birgitta Meade ’84, Luther instructor in education, got to know Young when Meade began teaching earth science at an area middle school. Meade had heard that no one knew more about the geology of northeast Iowa than Young. “There was a sort of legend that you could blindfold Jean and take her anywhere in northeast Iowa and she would be able to identify what formation was in front of her,” Meade says. Jon Jensen ’89, Luther associate professor of philosophy, has similar memories of Young. He returned to Luther in 2002, charged with building an environmental studies course, and enlisted her help in a summer program. Young accompanied students—some as young as third grade—to a quarry north of Highlandville, Iowa. She set up a chair under an umbrella and welcomed a steady stream of students curious about the rocks and fossils they’d found. For years Young made a meager living by driving the old evening mail route up to La Crosse, Wis., for the postal service. Meade recalls that Young had been married twice

and had children who live back east, but in Decorah she lived with her dogs in a dilapidated house outside of Highlandville, Iowa. Young was passionate about more than geology. She was devoted to her dogs, and she joined in the annual bird count conducted by the Cornell (University) Lab of Ornithology. She helped organize Decorah’s food cooperative when it was a buying club housed in a small building in Decorah and known as Oleville in honor of the landlord. Some of her artwork—geometric designs that she often sold during Nordic Fest—is in Luther’s fine arts collection and in the homes of area residents. And she was on the board of the Ryumonji Zen Monastery in Dorchester, Iowa, where her ashes are buried.

Young became increasingly hobbled by arthritis over the years, eventually able to get around only by leaning heavily on two canes. Her persistence in hunting down the answers to her scientific questions remained strong, though. In the late 1990s, now in her sixties, too crippled to move easily and relying on others to drive her, she was trying to map the structure of St. Peter and Jordan sandstone layers in the Decorah area. She used well-drilling data from the U.S. Geological Survey, and Kellogg recalls, “She wore out two printers one summer printing out data.” Giant binders full of well-drilling reports covered the desk she used in a corner of his Valders office. Young also examined the material that drills brought up in the Decorah area, and Spring 2013 Luther Alumni Magazine

she found rock she’d not seen before. She reported her findings to Robert McKay, a geologist with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources’ Iowa Geological and Water Survey, with whom she’d collaborated in the past. McKay started Robert McKay logging some of the well samples and also saw what he called the “weird material.” “I said, ‘Jean, we’ve got this unusual shale in a number of wells, let’s see if we can find it in the outcrop (exposure at the land surface),’ ” he recalls.

Young turned to local lore and a

Decorah native’s deep knowledge of the natural landscape. Friends remember Young saying she’d heard about a man in Freeport, east of Decorah, trying to burn what he thought was a low-grade coal that he’d mined nearby. Could that coal-like rock be the same odd shale found in the well drillings? In November 2004, Young enlisted the help of Darrell

all these unusual fossils in it.” The next step was to determine how far the shale extended. The wells that had churned up the shale had to be accurately located. The Geological Survey hired Young for that project, and she hired Luther students to drive her, help find the wells, and locate them using GPS coordinates and their elevation from sea level.

Henning, retired director of the Vesterheim Museum, who grew up in Decorah, knew a lot about the archeology of the area, and had an eye for unusual rocks. Henning says Young asked if he had ever run across an outcrop of rock that looked something like coal. Sure he had, while fishing. Henning says he guided Young and McKay to a spot along the Upper Iowa River where the darkcolored shale was exposed, and they collected samples. In a 2007 article, Decorah Newspapers quoted Young about the discovery: “I kept saying, ‘I can’t believe I’m seeing this.’ Looking at the slab lying on the ground, I thought, ‘That is not supposed to be there.’ It’s not the normal sequence of rock units for this area.” Late in 2004, initial samples of the shale went under the microscope of Paul Liu, a colleague of McKay’s at the Geological Survey and a specialist in Ordovician graptolites, which are extinct organisms that lived during the Paleozoic Era. Liu searched the shale for graptolites, but instead found conodonts, fossil organisms very useful for time correlation in ancient rocks. McKay says, “So that shale that Jean had been following in these drill cuttings and that I’d been logging now all of a sudden is a shale that we don’t know of anywhere else in the state, we don’t know that it exists anywhere else, and we’re finding

One of her Luther student drivers,

Katie McVey ’06, had also worked with Young in the geology collection. She drove Young during the summer of 2005, and in addition to tracking down the wells, Young would guide McVey to places with interesting rock formations and fossils. “We’d drive 15 minutes out of our way, and I’d ask Jean if she was lost. ‘No, no,’ she’d say. ‘I just want to show you this road cut on the edge of this river. It’s really good for this kind of fossil.’ Or, ‘This is my favorite trilobite spot.’ She just wanted to share,’’ McVey says. “We may not have gotten to one of the wells we wanted to get to that day, but we ended up with a bag full of brachiopods.” McVey, a biology major, went on to graduate school at Boise State University. She is now a wildlife refuge specialist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Utah. From Young she learned how to use a dissecting microscope, which she’d later use in grad school, and she also gained a love for fossil hunting. “I miss collecting at all those places,” she says.

Photo courtesy of Robert McKay

For several years, Young collabo-

Katie McVey ’06 (right) helps Jean Young collect samples of Winneshiek shale along the Upper Iowa River. McVey helped research the shale and is listed as an author, along with Young, Iowa geologists Robert McKay and Paul Liu, and others, on a paper about the rock and the ancient fossils it contained presented to the Geological Society of America in 2006. It was her first scientific paper credit.

Luther Alumni Magazine

rated with McKay and Liu on poster papers about the Decorah geology, which they delivered at scientific meetings. By fall of 2006, they knew enough about the shale to give it a name—Winneshiek Lagerstätte—and the whole group drove to Salt Lake City to present a paper at the national GSA meeting. “I was concerned about Jean going on that trip to Utah,” Kellogg says, “because she had a lot of health difficulties by that time.” During the following winter Young’s health worsened. She had a hip operation in the late spring of 2007. There were complications, and Young passed away in the Aase Haugen Homes in Decorah on June 28, 2007. By that time, though, the investigation had momentum. A year later, McKay says, “We had a hypothesis that this was a possible meteorite impact basin.” The thought was

Photo courtesy of Bob Modersohn

For a couple of months this past winter, the U.S. Geological Survey flew electromagnetic equipment over Decorah to map the circular meteorite impact crater. The shale that fills the crater is electrically conductive.

This photo and photo of Young on page 18 courtesy of Brigitte Meade ’84.

that the shale had been deposited after an ancient seaway flooded the entire region and poured into the crater, leaving behind sediment that hardened, preserving the fossils of sea creatures not found in the surrounding rock that date to about 470 million years ago. By 2010, the researchers were developing what McKay calls definitive evidence of a meteorite impact basin. They’d documented the shale and the circular basin and strongly suspected the presence of schocked quartz in breccia—a rock composed of rock fragments cemented together by a fine-grained matrix— under the shale. The suite of unusual fossils that Liu was finding, along with the impact-crater hypothesis, was enough to secure a National Science Foundation grant. But they still needed that last crucial documentation of the shocked quartz in samples from the hidden basin beneath Decorah. Geologists who work on impact structures realized in the 1960s that grains of quartz sand may retain a signature of the energy that’s released when a meteorite makes it through the atmosphere and hits the ground, McKay says. “Bevan French has spent a large part of his career working on that stuff. So I was very happy when I sent him photos and samples, and he said, ‘Yeah, this looks very promising. I’ll work on it.’ ” This past winter, a recently developed electromagnetic technique mapped what is now called the Decorah Impact Structure. Data from an electromagnetic system flown over the area show a circular crater, the upper portion of which is filled with electrically conductive shale. Paul Bedrosian, a geophysicist with the United States Geological Survey, told the Decorah Journal, “The shale is an ideal target and provides the electrical contrast that allows us to clearly image the geometry and internal structure of the crater.”

Katie McVey laughs a little when asked to describe Jean Young. “She was definitely particular in her ways, but she knew that she had an important job to do. Without her, there would have been no geology collection, there would have been no driving force behind this.” Jensen says, “It’s very possible that without Jean’s knowledge and persistence and field work, nobody would have discovered this crater.” Birgitte Meade ’84, Luther instructor in education, says Jean Young loved working with schoolchildren. Here, Young helps a middle school student identify a fossil in a quarry north of Highlandville, Iowa. Spring 2013 Luther Alumni Magazine

by Kate Frentzel photos by Aaron Lurth ’08

The New Preus

One-Stop Information Shopping in the Modern Library

he shape of information—and the way that people access it—has changed radically in the 21st century. Nowhere is this more obvious than at Preus Library. What was once a cloister of academic research is now a hub of integrated services aimed at successful learning, teaching, and working. The Preus staff, which once comprised mostly librarians, now encompasses IT personnel in a merged organization called Library and Information Services (LIS). The Writing Center, Student Academic Support Center, Student Support Services, and the Speech and Debate Center—all natural companions to the library—have also found a home in the building. This means that a student can walk into Preus with only an idea for a paper, get help locating sources at the Research Help Desk, find materials online or in the stacks, use a computer (or get computer help if hers crashes), receive tutoring and revision advice, and walk out with a polished paper or presentation. That’s a condensed timeline, of course, but the idea holds: Preus is a one-stop destination for students who want to do quality work. Or, as Paul Mattson ’81, executive director of LIS

Electronics • Computers • Cameras • iPads • Kindles • Nooks • Projectors •Video cameras

Luther Alumni Magazine

would say, “We support a student through all cycles of a project.”

The library many of us grew up with was a physical place where you could go to find carefully vetted, reliable sources. This is still the case, but it’s complicated now by a digital dimension. Mobile devices and PCs allow students to access a flood of information from wherever they happen to be, so libraries have the additional task of helping patrons discern quality sources from the firehose of information that the Internet offers. One way that Preus responds to this challenge is through a dedicated “first-year experience librarian,” Germano Streese. It’s his job to think about how first-year students can be successful throughout their Luther careers, starting with a library research 101 session that Streese and his colleagues present to every first-year student during the Paideia research unit in the spring semester. During a recent session, Streese walked students through available online databases, and he started by teaching them how not

Media

• Bestselling books • Interlibrary loan • Classics • DVDs • Dictionaries • Journals • Magazines

to conduct academic research. “What’s the first thing you do when you want to know something?” he asked the class. “Google it!” “Okay, and what’s the first thing that comes up when you Google it?” “Wikipedia.” “Okay, so you go to Wikipedia, where maybe you can learn something. But did you know that anyone can change or create an entry on Wikipedia? You can edit an entry, I can edit an entry—in fact, I frequently edit entries.” The students, unsure, shifted a little uncomfortably in their seats. They shot their classmates sidelong glances, eyes narrowed with suspicion. “Yeah, but don’t you, like, have to be a member or something?” one young man finally asked. “Yes, you do need to be a member, and all you need to be a member is an e-mail address.” After this mind-blowing moment, Streese guided students through Preus’s online catalogs, teaching

Eddy Atwell, public services coordinator, helps the campus check out these items and more.

them how to use smart search terms to pull in helpful results. Streese later explains, “Access to our catalog is easier now, but what do you do with thousands of articles? Instead of students trying to navigate this sea of information themselves, we can help with some paddles.” Like all librarians at Preus, Streese has connections with certain campus departments, with whom he regularly confers. As a native of Brazil, he was eager to partner with the Diversity Center. Last fall, he participated in a “The Librarian Is In” program, an initiative, he says, administered in the Center for the Arts, Koren, and the Diversity Center “to get in touch with students and be able to serve them where they are. The idea is to be there, where the students are, and offer them an opportunity to chat with a librarian. They can ask me research questions, we can chat about soccer, or we can have a serious conversation.” Students with limited exposure to academic libraries may view them as a place where authority converges, which can be intimidating. But this weekly contact demystifies librarians. Streese says, “If a student has

Librarian Germano Streese reaches out to students around campus with programs such as a library research 101 session for Paideia. When students later see him in the library, they already know him and will more readily ask for his help. seen me in the Diversity Center and we’ve had a conversation, he can come to the library and say, ‘Oh, I know that guy! I can ask him a question.’”

Preus has created other inventive positions to meet 21st-century challenges. Jennifer Rian, innovative services librarian, explains her job: “It’s this really unique

position within the library field that explicitly states, ‘We’re hiring you to adapt to change, to bring change, to invent.’ A lot of the work I’ve been doing relates to events, programming, social media, how we connect with the community, and how we view our virtual and physical space. But my job is really changing all the time—it’s both exciting and sometimes a little chaotic.” One element of Rian’s job is to suss out initiatives that might benefit the Luther

Miscellaneous

• Bike Share bicycles and helmets • Ergonomic mice and keyboards

Spring 2013 Luther Alumni Magazine

community, and these often take the shape of tailor-made library and digital instruction. For example, she recently learned that students had questions about online reputations. So Rian developed a workshop on online reputation management, encouraging students to think about how searchable their online information is and teaching them to use tools like Google+ and LinkedIn to take control of their virtual identities. “We assume that students who have grown up in a connected, technological world have a greater knowledge of these tools and resources than they may actually have,” she explains. “They have a working knowledge, they’re able to do a lot of things, but where is that background and education that teaches them, this is how you think about information, this is how it’s created, how it’s organized, how it’s edited? “All of the advances in technology are wonderful,” she continues, “but they also come with their own set of problems, and we need to be there to help negotiate that.” One of these problems, Rian has learned

from the extensive canvassing she does, is isolation. “Some people feel very alone when it comes to technology and informationseeking, and I think we’ve created this attitude in our society that we should be very self-sufficient. People on campus should know that LIS is here for them. We’re here to teach and to share and to learn and to support. And that can be powerful, because often it’s people feeling overwhelmed by these tools and all of these options that prevents real growth from happening.”

Having helmed the library’s front

gate—the circulation desk—since 1991, Eddy Atwell, public services coordinator at Preus, has an excellent vantage point from which to notice its changes. Besides books of all types, Preus now circulates less conventional items, such as digital and still cameras, iPods with microphone attachments, laptops, netbooks, iPads, e-readers, and even a stable of bicycles. Luther used to administer its

Bike Share Program from the Union, but since lending and tracking are specialties of Preus, the program transitioned to the library. For the most part, the oversight has gone smoothly, but sometimes a bike gets away. Atwell says, “Overall it’s a minor issue if you think about the number of times they circulate, but I’ve found bikes in town and ridden them home, stolen them back because I know they’re missing. And those yellow bikes, I can spot them a mile away. I’ll see one and say, ‘I bet that’s number three,’ and sure enough, it is. Even if it’s in somebody’s yard, I’ll jump on it and ride it back.” Similar to the Bike Share Program, when Greg Lonning ’83, director of Luther’s Nena Amundson Lifetime Wellness Program, saw that people with ergonomic issues needed to access specialized equipment, he partnered with Preus. Luther staff can now test-drive everything from a vertical mouse to a split keyboard before asking their departments to purchase one. Preus is a proving ground for all sorts of equipment. Currently Atwell’s office hosts an overhead device that can project threedimensional objects onto any flat surface. Faculty can reserve this for classes, perhaps using it for an anthropology lecture on Stone Age toolmaking or to help biology students examine bone density in a cross-section of tibia.

Claude Mertzenich, associate

Innovative services librarian Jennifer Rian manages the lower level’s graffiti board, a large movable whiteboard that asks patrons to interact with conversation prompts by posting responses on it, creating a dialogue among visitors and staff.

Luther Alumni Magazine

professor of chemistry, is a perfect example of the synergy that can develop between faculty and the library. In 2008, Mertzenich began teaching a J-term course, Chemistry 185: Kaboom!, which explores explosive materials and explosive moments in history. The class comprises all first-year students and many non-chemistry majors—students with little experience in discerning reliable chemistry sources. “Chem 185 really crystallized my need for the library,” he says. After realizing that many students’ only source for a project was the very first link that came up on Google, the professor knew he had to intervene. He asked technical services librarian John Goodin to give a presentation on library sources, and this led to the requirement that his students meet at least once with a reference librarian and use what he calls “Preuscertified” sources. (Incidentally, the library staff liked this designation enough to have it printed on coffee mugs.)

The Claude Cam—a web camera borrowed from the library—allows associate professor Claude Mertzenich to more easily coach chemistry students from his office. If a student calls with a question, he says, “I just point the camera down, and they can see what I’m writing.”

“The presentations after John Goodin stepped in were at a much higher level,” Mertzenich recounts. “All of the resources, personnel, books, and articles that are available to students—this elevates the course.” Part of Mertzenich’s strategy for efficient learning involves podcasting his Chemistry 114, 151, and 152 classes. The training and the equipment he used—a radio transmitter and receiver as well as a web camera—were courtesy of LIS. For students who have to miss class owing to sickness, athletics, or ensemble tours, the online lectures are invaluable, and they also prove handy for students who want simply to reinforce the day’s lesson. Because Mertzenich expects class homework to be done electronically, and because he’s sensitive to students who may not have touchpads or laptops (which he estimates as about one-third of his students per semester), he’s made iPads available to his students during class time, again courtesy of the library. Perhaps Mertzenich’s quirkiest use of library resources, and the one that’s gained him the most renown, is the Claude Cam. If the professor is in his office, the camera is on; if the camera is off, then he’s not available. “If you have a question, check the Claude

Cam, see if I’m in, and drop by. I used to have office hours, but I don’t see the point now.” Because chemistry involves solving problems that are visual, Mertzenich also uses the camera if a student calls with a question. “I just point the camera down, and they can see what I’m writing.” Other teachers similarly rely on the library staff to help them integrate new technology into their classroom. Recently, some have become interested in flipping their classes, which entails recording the lecture portion of class so that students can watch it as homework, reserving actual class time for discussion, review, and collaborative work.

The mission of LIS will always

be to help people work and teach and learn as effectively as possible, and as the world continues to digitize, this mission will entail a growing amount of technology and electronic resources. But as virtual as the world is becoming, the people who work in Preus still see the college library as a brick-and-mortar building where people can come to study, work, and learn. They recognize the value in

carving out quiet space in a world in which bleeping, buzzing, clicking, and talking have become mere background noise, and to this end they’re considering adding to the library a “deeply quiet space,” which would not permit eating, talking, or the use of electronic equipment. And they also don’t want students to forget the serendipity that can transpire through good old-fashioned browsing. “You can self-select so much on the Internet, over time it can really narrow your world,” Atwell says. “Some of the books that have meant the most to me, I just happened to walk by in the stacks. I wasn’t even stopping in that subject area, but somehow it caught my eye. And the next thing I know, I’m reading an author I never heard of before. Students don’t always realize that there can be value in just pulling down different books and looking at them. It’s fun to help them discover that serendipity.” Mattson summarizes it another way. “We’re eager to have a student’s thinking evolve,” he says. “In a way, that’s the skill we’re trying to impart.”

Spring 2013 Luther Alumni Magazine

Study Away Photos

Andrew Ruud ’15. International Studies Abroad program in Salamanca, Spain; spring 2012. Cathedrals of Salamanca. “It is unusual for a city to have two cathedrals, but Salamanca indeed has two. One dates from the 12th century while the other is from the 16th/17th century. This picture was taken on the other side of the Río Tormes and includes one of the principal bridges leading into the city.”

Sarah Thell ’13. Nottingham Program; 2011–12. A canal in Venice, Italy. Thell visited Venice during her spring break in April 2012.

Anna Arbisi ’14. Green Germany; January Term 2013. This photo was taken in Hamburg, Germany. In many countries, locks attached to bridges, fences, gates, or other public fixtures are a popular symbol of a couple’s love.

Maggie Pierson ’14. Islam in Europe: Western Responses to the Muslim “Other”; January Term 2013. “We traveled in Germany, Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, and Belgium. This picture was taken on a canal tour in Amsterdam. These houses are called the dancing houses because they are built crookedly. They are a fun, authentic part of the city and showcase the architecture of Amsterdam.”

Luther Alumni Magazine

Jason Knutson ’13. Architecture in Copenhagen; Danish Institute for Study Abroad; summer 2012. Knutson’s classmates explore the Your Rainbow Panorama, a skywalk on top of the ARoS Kunstmuseum in Aarhus, Denmark, designed by Olafur Eliasson.

Hylia Gao ’14. Green Germany; January Term 2013. “During our trip, we had a home stay with some local high school students near the city of Hamburg. On our free day, our host student took us to the St. Martin’s Church in Hamburg. We climbed hundreds of steps to the roof and got a great view of the city. This photo is of the sunset over the Hamburg harbor.” Jason Knutson ’13. Architecture in Copenhagen; Danish Institute for Study Abroad; summer 2012. An apartment house in Southern Ørestad in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Spring 2013 Luther Alumni Magazine

Paige Clark ’15. Spanish for Medical Professionals (Ecuador); January Term 2013. Kara Pederson ’15 looks out at cloud elevation over Saraguro National Park in Ecuador.

Luke Hanson ’14. Sustainable Development and Social Change; Jaipur, Rajasthan, India; SIT Study Abroad; fall 2012. “I took this photo on an excursion to the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand. The family is from a group of pastoral nomads called the Van Gujjars, who herd goats in the forests of North India. A large group of Van Gujjars had set up camp by a wide riverbed near the base of the Himalayas, following their customary route during the changing season. I had the good fortune to sit with this family a few minutes as the mother happily went about her tasks.” This photo earned third place in the Fans Choice category of the 2012–13 Off-Campus Study Photo Contest of the Associated Colleges of the Midwest. See the contest gallery here: lczine.com/ACMphotos.

Luther Alumni Magazine

Peter Douglas ’14. Ecology of Ecuador; January Term 2013. A shower at the Santa Lucia Eco-Lodge in the Andean cloud forest in Ecuador. “The water for the shower comes from a river five miles away by a small aboveground pipe. The water is then heated by solar power. The lodge is on the top of a mountain that looks down on an ecological reserve. Our class stayed here for four days to study the life there. This view was very uncommon because the lodge and forest are at an elevation and location such that they are almost always in a cloud (see photo opposite).”

Elizabeth Laferriere ’13. Traditional Medicine and Healthcare Systems, Madagascar; SIT Study Abroad; summer 2012. “I took this photo from our Land Rover while we were sitting in traffic en route to our neighborhood, Ivandry. We had been trying to practice our Malagasy, the native language of Madagascar. As we were sitting there, I decided to strike up a conversation with the woman sitting with her children by the side of the road. It was one of my first full conversations in Malagasy, and I was so proud and excited that I asked if I could take a picture. The woman smiled, corralled her children, and I snapped the picture right as traffic started to move. It’s amazing how something as simple as a conversation can bring people together, even if it’s just for a short time.”

Spring 2013 Luther Alumni Magazine

Haylee Elvendahl ’13. Malta and the Mediterranean; spring 2012. Quinn Meyer ’13 leaves the Luther Norse mark in Morocco’s Saharan Desert sand.

Justin Ratzlaff ’13. Methods Practicum, teaching chemistry; Ambergris Caye, Belize; January Term 2013. “This panorama was taken on the beach along which I biked every morning and afternoon to travel to and from school. It captures the beauty of Belize.”

Sophia Ristau ’15. Environmental Politics and Policy in the Pacific Northwest; Holden Village, Washington; January Term 2013. Copper Creek with a fresh blanket of snow.

Luther Alumni Magazine

Devon Hovey ’15. Environmental Politics and Policy in the Pacific Northwest; Holden Village, Washington; January Term 2013. “On a hike up to Big Creek Basin, we had stopped for a water break and everyone happened to be looking up in awe at the same time; it was a great moment to capture.”

Benjamin Harney ’15. Tales of the Sea; the Virgin Islands; January Term 2013. “This picture was taken on the back side of Jost Van Dyke, the smallest of the four main islands of the British Virgin Islands, at Foxy’s Taboo. This was my favorite spot on the trip to just sit on the dock and relax.”

Maria Brown ’13. South Africa: Culture and Healing; January Term 2012. Colorful swim huts line the shore of Cape Town’s beach coast.

Spring 2013 Luther Alumni Magazine

Alumni come full circle by Kate Frentzel photos by Aaron Lurth ’08

Jen (Rovang) ’95 and Matt Anderson ’96 Moved from: O’Fallon, Ill. One day, Jen and Matt Anderson asked themselves, “If we could live anywhere, where we would we choose?” Their answer was unanimous, and Matt, a computer consultant who had been working in St. Louis, Mo., arranged to work from home—in Decorah. Jen taught high school math for a number of years before transitioning to staying home full time with the couple’s two children, Gabriel, 10, and Rebecca, 7. She gestures at the dozens of boxes of Thin Mints that line the perimeter of the living room at the pinnacle of Girl Scout season and jokes, “We moved 400 miles so I could be cookie mom here!” Joking aside, Matt and Jen, who moved in spring 2012, agree that it has been wonderful for their family. Matt’s shorter (well, zero) commute has meant more family time and “more fun time in general,” he says. Both Jen and Matt were cross-country runners at Luther, and in a strange twist of fate, they ended up moving into the house of former cross-country coach Kent Finanger ’54. Even stranger, Matt remembers attending an alumni event years earlier in that very house. “Someday we’re going to live in a house like this,” he told himself. And someday they did.

Luther Alumni Magazine

So often we update readers on Luther alumni who have disseminated far and wide. This time we turn our attention away from the diaspora and to the homeland. Here, a few simple stories of Luther alumni who left the area after graduating, but then decided to return and reestablish a life in Decorah. Maybe their examples will motivate some of you who dream of doing the same.

Sarah (Henning) ’87 and Phil Iversen ’87 Moved from: Indianapolis, Ind. Sarah and Phil Iversen traveled widely before their path delivered them back on Decorah’s doorstep. After graduating from Luther, Sarah spent a year as a nanny in Norway. Meanwhile, Phil was earning his master’s degree at Iowa State University. When Sarah returned, the couple married, and Phil finished his Ph.D. He then lined up a postdoc opportunity that sent them to Australia for a year. “She wanted to see sheep,” he explains—and a glance around the bountiful yarn store that Sarah established on Water Street reveals why. Eventually the couple landed in Indianapolis, where Phil worked for Eli Lilly and Company’s research division, discovering new medicines. But with high schools bursting at the seams in Indianapolis, the Iversens decided that moving was the best decision for their children, Martin and Carl Anders, now 20 and 17. In 2003, Phil received permission to telecommute for Lilly, and the couple returned to Decorah. Sarah had been focusing on motherhood, but when a friend decided to liquidate her homegrown yarn business five years ago, Sarah sensed an opportunity. She bought the entire stock and a few months later set up the Blue Heron Knittery in a sunny downtown storefront that has since become a social epicenter. As the light filters gently through the windows of the shop one early spring morning, Phil folds his hands on a table and says, “Just discovering and rediscovering all the great things about Decorah, from Center Stage events to Park and Rec programs to the teachers in the schools, who have been really helpful—I’d say Decorah’s even better now than when we were in college.”

Spring 2013 Luther Alumni Magazine

Kim (Carlson) Bonnet ’02 Moved from: Dubuque, Iowa Kim stayed away from Decorah for five years. She worked full time at Prudential Retirement in Dubuque, Iowa, and picked up part-time work as a waitress. “It’s hard for me to tear myself away from this profession,” the co-owner of Rubaiyat restaurant admits. It was during this time that Kim met her husband, Andy, who worked in the kitchen where she waitressed. “When Andy and I met, we both had this passion for food and wine and knew that someday we’d like to have our own place. We thought that Decorah would be a good fit for what we were looking to do.” Before making the move, however, Kim said, “I called the people that I knew here and told them what we were thinking about doing. All of them told me that I was crazy, but ‘If there’s anyone who can do it, you can. And if you can make it work, this will be something that the community will support.’ That was the motivation I needed.” When a building on Water Street that suited their purpose came up for sale in 2006, they took the leap—and they haven’t looked back. Bonnet says, “We’re exposing people to food they’ve never tasted before, new preparation styles, and new beers and wines from all over the world. It’s fun to see people open up and try new things. I think if it’s presented to them, people here are going to take a risk. I think this community is much more cutting edge than other communities its size. Decorah is a great fit for a place like this.”

Luther Alumni Magazine

Tom Marquardt ’91 Jill (Johnson) Marquardt ’91 Moved from: Milwaukee, Wis. After obtaining his doctor of podiatric medicine degree in Chicago, Tom and his wife, Jill, wanted to return to Decorah, but opportunities were scarce. So Tom established a private practice in Milwaukee, and the couple settled into family life and raising three boys, Isaac, 16, Henrik, 14, and Lars, 12. When he got a call in 2006 from Winneshiek Medical Center asking if he wanted to join the group, Tom says, “It was a bit of a . . . shock is not the right word. It took us by surprise. We had started our family, my career was doing well in Milwaukee—life as we knew it was good! But we spent some time and weighed the pros and the cons and made the decision to move to Decorah. And it’s been just fantastic, we absolutely love it. Our boys are thriving in the school system, there’s plenty of opportunity for them to engage in sports and art and church and music, and I’ve been able to actively practice in my chosen career. It’s been a great thing. “Having a private practice in Milwaukee sounds cool, maybe,” he laughs, “or maybe not. In any case, coming here in some ways probably looked like a step back professionally, but I’ve had great career growth in affiliating with the Mayo Clinic. “And practicing in a smaller town, there’s a greater sense of responsibility, which creates a greater sense of community. In a bigger city, there’s more anonymity, and you can hide behind that, and that can be good or bad. When it comes to patient care, a smaller town is a good thing. We’re held accountable maybe at a different level, which is only good. If you’re doing surgery on someone who you’re going to see around, that raises the stakes. It absolutely does.”

Spring 2013 Luther Alumni Magazine

Alumni News

The Roseway under sail in the Virgin Islands. kate Wood

“Hey, Luther!” Chance meetings in the Caribbean

Luther Alumni Magazine

Roseway for a week and a half in the Virgin Islands. The Tales of the Sea course combines reading maritime literature with experience crewing on a 137-foot wooden sailing vessel. For 11 days, students eat, sleep, work, read, and write on the Roseway, sailing to over a half dozen islands in the British and U.S. Virgin Islands. The program’s first year, in January 2012, Roseway and her complement of Luther students put into Cruz Bay, St. John, for time ashore. There were plenty of Luther T-shirts to be seen continued on page 38

PHOTO COURTESY OF NICK PREUS ’69

By Nick Preus ’69 Associate professor of English Luther people are rarely surprised when they run into alumni under the most improbable circumstances almost anywhere in the world. If the past two years of the January Term class Tales of the Sea are any gauge, Luther students should expect to run into Luther alumni. This past January was the second time that I had taught the Tales course. Along with Elizabeth (Spencer) Finanger ’06, off-campus programs adviser in Luther’s Center for Global Learning, I took students sailing on the historic schooner

Rachel Hodapp ’13 (left) with Amy Rieffer ’12 at the Taino petroglyphs on St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands.

Alumni News

Celebrating Luther Sweethearts

hether they arrived at Luther College together, first spotted each other while walking across the campus lawn, or met after graduation, 5,878 alumni made up Luther couples at presstime. Recently, the Development Office asked for their stories. Here are several:

Karin (Knutsen) ’61 and Clay Lyon ’61, Pebble Creek, Ariz. “I was born in Bergen, Norway. In 1950, after World War II, our family immigrated to Winnetka, Ill. I attended New Trier High School, graduating in 1956. I chose to attend Luther College because its heritage was rich with Norwegian history, and it had a small, very lovely campus. “I met a young man by the name of Clay Lyon. He was from Albert Lea, Minn., played basketball and baseball at Luther, and was, I thought, a fairly nice, handsome young man. “In March 1958, Clay called me to say he had an emergency in that he was supposed to babysit Coach Kent ’54 and Lucia Finanger’s two boys, Mark and Phillip. His roommate was supposed to help him but had a test the next day, so he had to babysit alone. He claimed he didn’t know anything about taking care of children and asked if I could help him out. I thought this was a new line I hadn’t heard before, and he asked so politely that I said yes. That was the beginning of our

dating, and two years later we were engaged. We were married on Nov. 24, 1961. “We will be celebrating 52 years of marriage in November. We have two daughters, Pamela and Elizabeth, and four grandchildren, Isabella, Gabriella, Finn, and Dalton. Now we live in Pebble Creek, Ariz., after living in Palos Verdes, Calif., for 29 years and Minnesota prior to that. The reason we moved to Pebble Creek was retirement, which brought us full circle from Luther. Clay came to Pebble Creek to play in a golf tournament for Luther put on by Coach Kent Finanger. Clay and I have lived in Pebble Creek, very close to Coach Kent and his second wife, Lois.”

Lois (Erickson) ’58 and Kenneth Peterson ’57, Minneapolis, Minn. “I first noticed Lois at Holt’s Dairy. I figured out what her name was so I called her and was able to make a date. We enjoyed many movies and long walks. This was 1957. We were married in June 1959 and have been sweethearts ever since. We will celebrate 54 years in June. It was the best thing that happened at Luther. Our degrees were important also.” Deborah (Corey) ’73 and Joe Wemette ’73, North St. Paul, Minn. “We met during registration in September 1969 and were married in May 1973. In

between: Core, Mabe’s, Dante’s, 4th Meals, papers, blue books, and changing majors. Now, 40 years later: two careers, two kids, a family total of eight degrees, and gratitude for Luther—being where it all began.”

Larayne (Rahn) ’73 and David Olson ’73, Sioux City, Iowa “David and I met the Sunday before finals (Dec. 10, 1969). Nobody wanted to study, so everyone was outside having a snowball fight. David says I hit him with an ice ball—I claim innocence to this day! We started dating that J-term, and we were married in August 1971. As I tell David, it seems like only 41 minutes—under water!”

Marilyn (Knudson) ’50 and Francis Peterson ’49, Decorah, Iowa

“Sixty-four years ago, Marilyn accepted a diamond engagement ring from me. We were in the C. K. Preus Gymnasium at the west end, after a basketball game. She was waiting for me to shower and get dressed. From there, we walked to Larsen Hall, because all females had to be checked in by 10 p.m.!”

Jill (Nelson) ’88 and Ronn Thomas ’87, Lakeville, Minn. “Ronn and I knew each other for a while (I even set him up with my friend!), but it was not until we had Cost Accounting together that our romance began. Wonderful memories of walking to the Whippy Dip together, suckers in my SPO, and hikes in the beautiful Decorah parks. Even after 23 years of marriage, we still love going to Luther’s Homecoming and sharing our memories with our son!” Read more stories of love at Luther at sweethearts.luther.edu. If you’re considering making a gift to Luther College, consider this: one gift made together counts as support from two alumni, which helps strengthen Luther College’s alumni participation and makes a difference for future Luther sweethearts and all students on campus. Visit givenow.luther.edu.

Spring 2013 Luther Alumni Magazine

Alumni News

continued from page 36 among the group, and almost immediately someone called out, “Hey, Luther!” Ashley Ladlie ’05 ran over with her dog and introduced herself. After graduating with a major in English, Ladlie had worked a corporate job in Minneapolis, but then was “bitten by the tropical crazy bug,” she says. Loading up her Toyota Corolla, she migrated south from latitude 45° to St. John, USVI, latitude 18°. A stint as a barista gave way to becoming property manager at Serendip Vacation Condos above Cruz Bay, a position she has held for two years. Ladlie, a Phi Beta Kappa graduate in English and political science, has discovered she has a “knack for management,” a talent she feels is enhanced by her Luther education, with its emphasis on open-mindedness and curiosity. She plans to continue her interest in writing, and living the island life, which she describes as “absurd and beautiful.” In 2013, Tales of the Sea again stopped at St. John. On a hike to Reef Bay through the deep forest of a national park, the group came over a rise into a sacred site of the culturally extinct Taino people. Again a voice called, “Hey, Luther!” and the students were greeted by Amy Rieffer, a 2012 grad in an-

thropology. Rieffer is interning with the National Park Service, analyzing artifacts and helping with the museum at Cinnamon Bay. She works with Dr. Ken Wild, the main authority on early peoples of the island, who gave the Luther students an impromptu lecture on the site’s Taino petroglyphs. Rieffer and Wild were helping a team from the University of South Florida create a digital scan of the rock carvings, the most recently discovered of which could date as far back as 400 BCE. Rieffer said her experience in the anthro lab at Luther was a definite asset for her work in the archaeology of the island, especially since she is working directly with artifacts in the island museum collection. She says she “loves the idea of doing archaeology in a national park setting,” and hopes to to use her degree “to the fullest,” whether in a career with the park service, in a museum, or with a cultural resource management firm. Living and working on the Roseway was a rich experience for the J-term students, but so was meeting recent grads on the island. The students saw firsthand that Luther graduates do interesting things in unexpected places, an impression that just might expand their own horizons. See the ship’s log at lczine.com/rosewayblog. See photos at lczine.com/rosewayphotos.

Class Notes

1951 BETH (LIEN)

WATERFALL traveled to Scotland last summer and is planning a trip to Norway this spring. She recently returned from Boston, where she saw her granddaughter, Sophie Waterfall, perform the role of Clara in The Nutcracker Ballet. Next semester, Waterfall will study the history of animation at Dartmouth College.

1954

for women’s athletics and in implementing Title IX.

1958 ALLEN HERMEIER

celebrated his 50th year as a Lutheran minister. Hermeier has served congregations in Northwood, Atlantic, Burr Oak, and Fort Dodge. He has also worked with “Brothers in Blue” prison ministry for 35 years. He is pastor at Waterloo Ridge Lutheran Church in Dorchester, Iowa.

1960 WARREN BOE retired

from the Tippie College of Business at the University of Iowa. He had been a professor of information technology in management sciences since 1970.

1962 STANLEY IVERSON HAM PETERSON published the book Physeal Injury Other than Fracture, the sequel to Physeal Growth Plate Fractures. During 2012, he lectured at the Cleveland Clinic and in Cannes, France, and Scottsdale, Ariz. In April, he was the invited speaker at the MidAmerica Orthopedic Corporation Meeting in Amelia Island, Fla.

1956 PAUL JOHNSON

of Hollywood, Calif., recently completed visiting every official nation of the world, totaling 195 countries. Johnson has also has been to more than 75 islands. Some of his favorite destinations were Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Myanmar, Mexico, and Cuba.

1957

of Moorhead, Minn., is coauthor of the Latin reader and grammar textbook Fabulae Graecae: Ritchie’s Fabulae Faciles.

1965 MICHAEL NESSET

traveled to New Zealand to visit his daughter and son-in-law and wrote a travelogue, “Wish You Were Here?” which was published in the Minneapolis Star Tribune. During the 10-day trip, Nesset visited a regional park on the North Island’s west coast and also flew to Queenstown in the South Island. Michael teaches English at Century College in White Bear Lake, Minn.

1966 ELAINE

(BRANDSGARD) and RICHARD JAEKE ’65 are retired and live in Windsor, Wis. She also directs the adult choir and two tone choirs at her church and is the accompanist for a senior citizens vocal choir in Madison.

PHOTO COURTESY OF NICK PREUS ’69

1967 DAVID BERGESON

Ashley Ladlie ’05 (third from right) with Jordan McGown ’14, Allison Bluhm ’13, Willie Leadblad ’14, Jeff Thompson ’14, and Evan Larson ’13.

Luther Alumni Magazine

retired as CEO of the Fallbrook (Calif.) Chamber of Commerce.

1968 JEANNE (WHITE) DOROTHY MCINTYRE was featured in the article “Hop on the Bus, Girls, It’s Your Turn to Play,” in the Rochester (Minn.) Post Bulletin for her important role as an advocate

ACHENBACH retired as school liaison for grades 1–6 at Arlington Heights (Ill.) Memorial Library.

Alumni News

1971 SHARYL (HANSON)

ENGELHARDT of Adel, Iowa, retired from Wells Fargo Private Bank as vice president and trust and fiduciary specialist. KARL HAGMAN of Windsor, Colo., earned the Chartered Advisor for Senior Living (CASL) credential from the American College.

MIRIAM NESSET lives in Falmouth, Maine, and has published four books. Her most recent novel, Sea Smoke, is a love story and mystery told against the backdrop of Maine’s mast industry. Her current project, The Pizza Ladies, is due out this fall. RUSS SAVRE is a self-employed consultant in Durham, N.C.

1969 DAVID ELLINGSON

was named a GreenFaith Fellow and will join the GreenFaith Fellowship Program in the class of 2013. The program is the only United States comprehensive education and training program to prepare lay and ordained leaders from diverse religious traditions for environmental leadership. Ellingson is a professor of children, youth, and family studies at Trinity Lutheran College in Everett, Wash.

NAN HIRLEMAN AALBORG was named director of contextual education at Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary in Berkeley, Calif. JIM MCCAFFREY is an owner and chef at McCaffrey’s Dolce Vita restaurant in Decorah and also celebrated the launch of his new book, Mississippi Mirth, in December 2012. GARY MCKERCHER is director of the San Diego Master Chorale. He directed the chorale in “Water Passion after St. Matthew” at the Playhouse in La Jolla, Calif., in collaboration with the La Jolla Music Society’s SummerFest last year. CONNIE (MARLOW) and STEVEN OVERHOLT ’68 live in La Crosse, Wis. He retired as an otolaryngologist at Gundersen Lutheran Clinic.

CATHY (WEIST) and VAUGHN SCHWEITZER live in Chanhassen, Minn. She is an inventory and central purchasing manager. He is the senior software engineer for SuperValu Inc.

KATHLEEN GAARE-WIESE is an educator at Adams School in Creal Springs, Ill.

KATHY (MOHLIS) SEVERSON owns a home boutique called Accents in historic downtown St. Cloud, Minn.

1973 DEBORAH (HAFNER) DEWINTER is pastor at First Evangelical Lutheran Church in Poughkeepsie, N.Y.

DAN HOFFMAN works in the golf pro shop at Hilton El Conquistador Golf and Tennis Resort in Tucson, Ariz. BONNIE MCCLAIN is major gifts director for the Greater Twin Cities United Way in Minneapolis.

1974 TERRY BIZZELL is

the director and founder of Atlanta Consumer Advocate in Lovejoy, Ga. He is also an American Bar Association certified mediator. EDIE COPLEY is Regents’ Professor and director of choral studies at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, Ariz.

MARGI PREUS is an author of books for children and young adults. She read from her most recent historical thriller, Shadow on the Mountain, last November at Dragonfly Books in Decorah. The book recounts the adventures of a 14-yearold Norwegian boy named Espen during World War II. After Nazi Germany invades and occupies Norway, Espen and his friends are swept up in the Norwegian resistance movement. Espen gets his start by delivering illegal newspapers, then graduates to the role of courier, and finally becomes a spy, dodging the Gestapo along the way. During five years under the Nazi regime, he gains—and loses—friends, falls in love, and makes one small mistake that threatens to catch up with him as he sets out to escape on skis over the mountains to Sweden. Preus

DIANE (WALSH) MATSON retired as managing director at Harmony Assisted Living in Stoughton, Wis. She serves on the board of directors of Skaalen Retirement Services and is its liaison to Christ Lutheran Church.

1970 CARIN

(MALMANGER) ALLHISER retired from teaching after 14 years as a professor of biology and zoology at the University of Wisconsin–Fox Valley in Menasha, Wis. GRETCHEN ANDERSEN is the director and a teacher at Heartwood Renaissance Academy in Three Rivers, Mich. LOUISE (SPIELMAN) and JIM STROMBERG ’69 live in Houston, Minn. She is the pastor at St. Paul’s UCC/ELCA Church in Lewiston. He is the senior help desk specialist at the Mayo Foundation–Mayo Medical School.

BRUCE TAMMEN is artistic director of the Chicago Chorale, which earned the number one spot in the Chicago Classical Review’s list of the top performances of 2012 for its performance of Rodion Shchedrin’s cantata “The Sealed Angel” last November at Hyde Park Union Church. The Review stated that “under Tammen’s scrupulous direction, the Chicago Chorale delivered a glowing, idiomatically Russian and beautifully sung performance.”

1972 BONNIE

(SCHILLING) ANDERSON is the executive assistant to the COO for the University of Kansas Physicians in Kansas City.

George Kuh ’68 (left) and Tom White ’68 ran into one another when Kuh visited Concordia University Irvine to speak to Concordia campus representatives, faculty, and staff. Kuh is chancellor’s professor emeritus at Indiana University–Bloomington and is an adjunct professor of education policy at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is also on Luther’s Board of Regents. White is program director with the Master’s in Coaching and Athletic Administration program at Concordia University Irvine. Spring 2013 Luther Alumni Magazine

Alumni News

incorporates archival photographs, maps, and other images to tell this story based on the real-life adventures of Norwegian Erling Storrusten, whom Preus interviewed in Norway. BARBARA SCHULTZ is the supporter care officer for United Christian Broadcasters in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England. ALAN ULRICH is CFO for the Guam Memorial Hospital Authority in Tamuning, Guam.

1975

JOHN BAILEY is CFO at Golden Gate Petroleum in Martinez, Calif. LORENZO CREIGHTON works for MGM Resorts International in Las Vegas, focusing on the company’s efforts in developing markets in the eastern United States.

MARILYN JOHNSON is senior investment writer for Principal Financial Group in Des Moines, Iowa.

REBECCA HANNA teaches fourth grade at South Winneshiek Elementary in Ossian, Iowa.

JAN (JONES) WALLECK of Overland Park, Kan., retired from teaching after 35 years.

CARL STECKER of Savannah, Ga., is director of Diakonia with Global Mission, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

1976 GARY ALSHOUSE is managing partner of Muzak Focus Four in Pelham, Ala.

DAVID OLSON is an underwriter with Zurich North America in Minneapolis.

1977 STEVE AMUNDSON

is professor of music and conductor of St. Olaf Orchestra in Northfield, Minn. He has composed 17 original works and produced several arrangements. There have been nearly 750 performances of his pieces, including by the Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, and Houston Symphonies, as well as by the BBC Philharmonic of London.

LINDA (MOUCHA) DAVIS retired from the Western School District in Barry, Ill., where she taught K–12 art for 35 years. She, her husband, and 15 rescued cats are restoring their 120-year-old brick home in Pittsfield, Ill.

MARK ROWE is the manager of Huawei Technologies in Atlanta.

NAOMI JACOBS is a professor of English at the University of Maine in Orono.

CHRISTINE (MOUILLE) HAMMACHER of Sipplingen, Germany, teaches French for Inlingua.

Luther Alumni Magazine

teaches elementary physical education at McKinley Elementary School in Des Moines, Iowa.

account executive for Strategies Ltd. in Appleton, Wis. TERESA (KASTAD) and MARK STEEGE ’82 live in Rochester, Minn. She is an early childhood special education teacher for the Rochester Public Schools. He is the chief financial officer for Titan Ventures. ANDREA (NELSON) STREUFERT is the international programs officer for the University of Western Ontario Faculty of Law in London, Ontario, Canada.

self-employed farmer and ceramic artist in Glen Huon, Tasmania, Australia.

JOAN (ENGELSTAD) BOISSONNAULT is orchestra director at Heim Middle School in Williamsville, N.Y. CHERYL (ROBERSON) CARRUTHERS is supervisor for information and technology with the Area Education Agency in Marshalltown, Iowa. KEVIN COSTELLO of Madison, Wis., is a water treatment technical specialist with Hydrite Chemical.

CHARLIE BUSCH is the project manager for CIGNA Healthcare in Denver. She is also the president of the Washington Park Neighborhood Association and was featured in the article “Busch Finds Her Small Town in the Heart of the City” for Profile magazine. NANCY (HERMEIER) HERSHFIELD is the assistant dean of development and alumni relations at De Paul University College of Law in Chicago.

and owner of a pottery business called Dancing Cat Arts. He makes and sells bowls, vases, wine chillers, and other useful and beautiful objects. His work can be found at Agora Arts in Decorah.

1979 KEITH ELLINGSON

1981 DAN PLOENZKE is an

1982 LISA BRITZMAN is a

1978 ERIC HOLEY is founder

JACKIE (HANSON) and JIM HUTCHINS ’76 live in Sleepy Eye, Minn. She is a homemaker, writer, and artist. He is an optometrist at Lifetime Eye Care Center.

1980

TOD BROMAN retired from teaching and is the activities director for West Central Valley High School in Stuart, Iowa.

MARGIE (SWIGGUM) LITTLE is a long-term care behavioral health coordinator for Mercy Care Plan in Phoenix, Ariz. STEVE HEXOM is the operations director and morning personality on KBUR Radio for Pritchard Broadcasting in Burlington, Iowa. He is also the longest continuous RAGBRAI rider-reporter. He has reported on RAGBRAI since 1980 and is among a select group of riders who has ridden every day of RAGBRAI for the past 33 years.

KIRSTEN (BRAATEN) and BRUCE WILDER live in Albuquerque, N.M. She is director of lay ministries and small groups, and he is senior pastor at Faith Lutheran Church. He was appointed to the board of directors of the New Mexico Wildlife Federation, founded in 1914 by Aldo Leopold, author of A Sand County Almanac (required reading in the former Freshman Studies Program at Luther!).

joint and multinational environments. The center also includes the Air War College, Air Command and Staff College, Squadron Officer College, International Officer School, and Support Squadron.

SCOTT HANSON was named major general and is the commander of the Carl A. Spaatz Center for Officer Education and the Air War College at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama. The Spaatz Center directs Air Force officer professional education, as well as research and outreach that produces leaders for

JOAN MEYER is the financial aid director at La’ James College in Fort Dodge, Iowa. JIM WHITESELL is the associate head men’s basketball coach for the St. Louis University Billikins.

Alumni News

“Dog whisperer” insists there’s no magic to it

henever Curtis Johnson ’84 is doing his job, people can’t help but stare. That’s because twice a day Johnson’s work has him taking a pack of up to 18 dogs for a four-mile walk around his Minneapolis neighborhood. “People are always curious,” Johnson says. And that curiosity leads folk to ask some pretty ridiculous questions, including “Are those all your dogs?” Of course, Johnson has a humorous response: “Yes, they’re absolutely all my dogs, and I have a dozen more at home in my basement. I’m a dog hoarder, and my house smells fantastic.” In reality, Johnson has two black labs at the southwest Minneapolis home he shares with his wife, Lisa (Villareal) Johnson ’86, and a young daughter. Their house is also home base to his dog training and walking business, Citizen Kanine, which he started in 2007 after working informally with a few dogs from the neighborhood. Whether it’s behavioral issues or determining which breed of dog is right for a family, Johnson’s expert canine skills have led his clients to call him the “dog whisperer.” Surprisingly, that’s not a title the former marketing professional necessarily embraces. “It implies there’s some mystical, magical thing about what I do,” says Johnson, who also coaches cross country and track

and field at Minneapolis’s Washburn High School. “Really what I do is the basic stuff—commands, keeping dogs very active, mentally engaging them, challenging them to work hard, to pay attention and stay focused. That yields calm, attentive dogs. It’s somewhat flattering to be called the ‘dog whisperer’ and the comparisons to Cesar Millan, but I don’t want people to be dismissive of what they can do on their own, even if they’re not a ‘dog whisperer.’ It’s simple, basic stuff. I just happen to be doing it with 16 dogs.” Currently, Johnson’s got a waiting list of pups and people in need of his services, so advertising isn’t a necessity. Regardless, walking more than a dozen well-behaved dogs at once is advertisement enough. And only one thing keeps him from his twice daily dog walks. “Lightning,” he says. “It’s about the only thing that stops us. I’ve got a great app on my phone that helps me track storms.”

is time well spent. 2. Socialize your dog properly. There is good socialization and bad socialization. If the dog(s) you are interacting with are not behaving in a way that you want your dog to, find other dogs to engage with. 3. Love your dogs unconditionally but treat them conditionally. You want them to feel that they have jobs and they are earning their keep. They need to sit and stay before eating, entering or exiting the house, or greeting guests. Time spent daily on simple tasks pays huge rewards over time. 4. A tired dog is a good dog. Get your dog lots of structured physical and mental exercise. Teach your dog how to walk on a loose leash and provide him with games and mental challenges. 5. The greatest treat you can give your dog is your undivided attention and healthy affection. You will always have this treat with you! —Amy Carlson Gustafson

Top tips for dog owners Johnson advises people who feel they need help with their dog to contact a professional. Here are his top five tips for dog owners. 1. Invest time before getting a dog. Research breeds, breeders, and rescue organizations before making any decisions. Time invested before bringing a dog into your life

Above: Curtis Johnson ’84 takes his canine charges out for a turn around the neighborhood. Curtis’s brother, Dan Johnson ’80, took this photo. See more of his photography at picturingpeace.zenfolio.com.

Spring 2013 Luther Alumni Magazine

Alumni News

1983 DAGNY BRANDT teaches voice at Highland (Ill.) Community College and is the director of the Highland Community College Children’s Choir.

in Anchorage. He is working on the Alaska Science Center’s walrus project to understand how climatechange-induced reductions in seasonal ice cover in the Chukchi Sea may influence the Pacific walrus population.

NANCY (NIELSEN) HUNSICKER earned a master’s degree in engineering management from St. Cloud State University. She is the senior sourcing program manager for Medtronic Inc. in Minneapolis.

JON TOLLEFSON is partner at Stonebridge Bank in Minneapolis.

1984 KIRSTIN (CARLSON) TODD is an architect at Todd Architecture LLC in Denver.

KARI TOLLEFSON ESPINOSA and PETER ESPINOSA ’81 live in Edina, Minn. He is vice president and general manager of global sales with CSC Consulting Inc. JUDY (IVERSON) and PETER YLVISAKER live in Marion, Iowa. She is a medical technologist at St. Luke’s Hospital. He is creative director for GoDaddy.com.

DAN MONSON is a research wildlife biologist for the U.S. Geological Survey at the Alaska Science Center

MICHAEL OSTERMEYER ’83 is among 38 attorneys at the national law firm of Quarles & Brady LLP who were named by Wisconsin Super Lawyers magazine as among the top attorneys in Wisconsin for 2012. No more than five percent of lawyers in the state are selected for inclusion in Super Lawyers.

1985 SARAH STORVICK

and TIMOTHY KUNAU ’86 live in Minneapolis. She teaches at Wayzata Senior High School. He is the supervisor of enterprise solutions for Be The Match (National Marrow Donor Program). MARK STRAND is an associate professor teaching courses in public health for the School of Pharmacy at North Dakota State University in Fargo.

1986 WILLIAM BARTH

is vice president of fraud and investigations at Thomson Reuters in Washington, D.C. SARAH (MILBRANDT) DAY is senior account executive for Ventana Medical Systems, Tucson, Ariz. BRAD JERMELAND is superintendent of the Odgen (Iowa) Community School District.

For the fourth year in a row, Team Norse Force competed in a two-day, approximately 200-mile continuous relay. In honor of their fourth and graduating year, they were joined in November 2012 at both the start and finish of the RAGNAR Vegas relay by longtime Luther College cross-country coach Kent Finanger ’54 and his wife, Lois. This year Team Norse Force placed ninth out of 518 finishing teams and second in the master’s division. Team Norse Force is made up of 10 former Luther cross-country runners: Doug Nelson ’82, Brian Brown ’89, James Rothert ’90, Aaron Romine ’91, Eric Bryhn ’91, Dean Haugen ’91, Jeff Bouman ’91, Lars Anderson ’92, Mike Anderson ’92, and Eric Goers ’93; one former Luther swimmer, Tom Marquardt ’91; and yes, believe it or not, one 1992 Wartburg College graduate, Todd Houge. Matt Veldey ’92 has competed with Team Norse Force for the last three years but was unable to compete this year because he is on active duty in Afghanistan.

Luther Alumni Magazine

She is a stay-at-home mom. He teaches biology and chemistry at Broadway High School.

1987 JULI (VILLESVIK)

BAECKER is CEO of WinkIt in Stillwater, Minn. She also serves as a board member with the Plymouth Church Neighborhood Foundation. CHUCK ELLINGSON is administrative assistant for Martin Luther Church in Milwaukee. DAN FINANGER is manager of wellness operations for Optum Health in Charlotte, N.C. JEFF MAHNKE is information technology manager for Cambia Health Solutions in Portland, Ore. KATY (SAUERS) and MATTHEW MAKER ’89 live in Decorah, Iowa. She is a certified nurse midwife and is taking six months to serve Mother Health International at its MHI birth center in northern Uganda. Fifty miles from the nearest hospital, the center does about five births a day and teaches midwife students, both international and local. He will stay in Decorah as a pharmacist at Donlon Pharmacy. FAYE (PEDERSON) SWENSON earned an M.B.A. degree from London Business School and is customer success manager for Reeher LLC in St. Paul, Minn. KRIS SWENSON is professor and chair of the department of English and technical communication at Missouri University of Science and Technology in Rolla. NATHAN VOGES is a sales consultant for Bob Rogers Travel in Woodridge, Ill.

1988 MIKE FLITTIE of

Birch Bay, Wash., is vice president of IS and customer logistics for PLZ Aeroscience Corp.

DALE KRUSE is a doctoral student in vocal performance at the University of Minnesota. He is director of the Cedar Singers Men’s Choir at Augsburg College in Minneapolis. He is also the conductor of the Minnesota Opera’s Project Opera and Children’s Chorus. JULIE JOHNSON PEÑA and PAUL PEÑA live in Minneapolis.

PAUL HANSTEDT received Virginia’s State Council of Higher

Alumni News

Education Outstanding Faculty Award. He is a professor of English at Roanoke College in Salem, Va. ALANA (BANG) and DAN HETLAND ’89 live in Ankeny, Iowa. She is a librarian at the West Des Moines Library. He works for Kraft Foods Global Inc. TODD OBERG is director of the teacher preparation program, graduate coordinator for the new Master of Arts in Education program, and a professor of mathematics at Illinois College in Jacksonville, Ill. He is also the president of the Illinois Mathematics Teacher Educators Association.

CLARK SHAH-NELSON is the senior instruction designer and team lead at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Center for Teaching and Learning in Baltimore.

DAVE WORKMAN is an attorney and owner of Law Offices of David J. Workman in Torrance, Calif.

KRISTEN (RAMSEY) THIGPEN was named the Elementary Teacher of the Year for the Granbury (Texas) Community School District. She teaches first grade at Oak Woods School.

1989

1992 STEPHANIE

AMY (LARSEN) and MICHAEL KRULL ’87 live in Reston, Va. She is a speech pathologist for Fairfax County Public Schools. He is cofounder of Resilient Corporation and adjunct professor of politics and public policy at Georgetown University.

MATT BEATTY is the president of military and government markets for Carlson Wagonlit Travel in Minnetonka, Minn.

LOIS FORDE-KOHLER is the section head at Procter and Gamble in Jackson, Mo.

JULIE (MASON) PELLEGRINO is the senior accountant for Hirsh Industries in Urbandale, Iowa. BRAD SIM is a dentist with Barry D. Gerst, DDS, PA, in Minneapolis.

1990 BERGETTA

(BERKLAND) BEARDSLEY is the director of investor relations and women’s leadership connection for the United Way of Central Iowa in Des Moines. CHAMI (SELBY) and DREW DELONG ’82 live in Decorah. She is a special education consultant for Keystone AEA. He teaches mathematics in the Decorah Schools. JILL NEPPER is a change and training analyst at Treasury Wine Estates in Napa, Calif.

1991 BOB PALMER is

the chief ranger at Effigy Mounds National Monument in Harpers Ferry, Iowa.

AGRESTA is a global director and leader of social and digital media for MSLGROUP North America in New York.

Luther alumni who work at UnitedHealth Group and Bethany (Bierman) Krepela ’95 did a night of community service at Second Harvest Heartland in February. Pictured (left to right) are Mukesh Agarwal ’91, Joy Wenthold ’02, Lisa Benrud ’91, Krepela, Matt Hauge, and Sarah (Thimjon) Hauge ’06.

MARK JUHL is the president of Jaytech Inc. in Fridley, Minn. He is also on the board of directors for the International Trade Organization Association of Water Technologies. BECKY KING-KAPRICH is the senior health informatics and product service coordinator for Telligen Information Technology in West Des Moines, Iowa. CINDY (BROWN) and KLINT KJELDAHL ’91 live in Maple Grove, Minn. Cindy teaches first grade for the Osseo Area Schools. Klint is director of laboratory operations at Fairview Riverside Hospital. ANDY POTTS is the research coordinator at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics in Iowa City. TODD TRAVAILLE earned a master’s degree in business administration from Bellevue University. He is operations manager for USA Insulation Omaha in Omaha, Neb. KELLI (DUNNE) WINCHESTER is a business analyst for Aviva USA in Des Moines, Iowa.

Andrea (Hanson) Carter ’94 (left) and CNN Morning Express anchor Robin Meade at the third annual Patrick Warburton Celebrity Golf Tournament. Carter operates her own marketing and public relations business, Andrea Carter & Associates, in La Quinta, Calif. She served as board member and public relations director for the tournament, which was held March 1–3 in Palm Springs. Calif., and raised $727,000 for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Dozens of celebrities, including Alice Cooper, Kim Carnes, Luke Perry, Steve Garvey, David Spade, and Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong, performed or made appearances at the weekend events in Palm Springs.

Spring 2013 Luther Alumni Magazine

Alumni News

1993 MARTIN HALOM is pastor at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Bloomer, Wis.

MARY (CUMMING) HOSKINS is new business coordinator for Assurant Employee Benefits in Kansas City, Mo. JENNY SOROM HYNEK teaches first grade for the Reedsburg (Wis.) School District. MARK LYON is a regional sales consultant for Ameriprise Financial in Arden Hills, Minn. CHRIS (KULIG) and JEFF PFUND ’92 live in Madison, Wis. She is a researcher for the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He is assistant director of financial aid at the university.

1994 PAUL BROWNELL is

the defensive coordinator for the Franklin High School football team in El Paso, Texas. SUSIE COLE earned a juris doctorate from the University of Missouri–Columbia. She is a physical therapist at Aegis Therapies in Redding, Calif. CHAD FRANK of River Falls, Wis., is the account manager at Overland Solutions Inc.

KARI (JOHNSON) HEIMDAL works at Okoboji Elementary School. She recently developed a new curriculum for the district that was featured in the Dickinson County News and Spencer Daily Reporter. The program, called ACT—Adapt, Create, Think, is a new method for inspiring original ideas.

1995 SHAWN BUSBY is a

consultant for IBM Corporation in Rochester, Minn. SARA (ECKBLAD) and MATTHEW FRICK ’94 live in Rochester, Minn. She is a human resource systems analyst for the Mayo Foundation–Mayo Medical School. He received the 2012 Carmen Award for Excellence in Citizenship, which recognizes outstanding contributions in radiology at Mayo Clinic. He is a physician and the senior associate consultant for the Radiology Department at Mayo Clinic. ANDREW GALUSKI is manager of Sumisho Computer Systems USA in Irving, Texas. JULIE JENSEN is associate director of health information services for Partners in Health in Rwinkwavu, Rwanda, while on sabbatical from Luther. KRIS KINSEY is senior lecturer for

the department of psychology and faculty of health and life sciences at the University of the West of England in Bristol. REBECCA (BORKE) RUTTER is pastor at Sharon United Methodist Church in Plainfield, Ill.

1996 MELISSA (GEURTS)

BARKLEY is the professional development writer for Renaissance Learning in Wisconsin Rapids, Wis. BECKY (PARTINGTON) BERKLEY is band director at St. Mary’s School in Owatonna, Minn. RENEE (RITTMANN) and ERIC MERTEN live in Waverly, Iowa. She is a computer programmer with Thrivent Financial for Lutherans. He is assistant professor of biology at Wartburg College. MELISSA (HAGEN) and SEAN TARPENNING live in Eau Claire, Wis. She is a stay-at-home mom. He is a dentist for Herbert Dental. He was a member of a nine-person team that traveled to Ghana as a part of Operation Dignity to provide dentistry in March 2013. ANDREA (WEHRMACHER) WILKERSON is the audit manager for KPMG in Minneapolis.

1997 ALINA (SABATKE)

BAILEY is the clinical care supervisor for The Birth Center in Minneapolis. CHRISTINA (WEBB) and JAMES DEEDS ’99 live in West Des Moines, Iowa. She is an office assistant at KCL Engineering. He is partner and an electrical engineer at the company. MELANIE (ANDROS) AND DREW DIXON ’99 live in St. Peter, Minn. She is a family physician for Mayo Health Systems. He is a data center engineer for Solbrekk Inc. TURENA JOHSON LANE and TODD LANE ’95 live in Baton Rouge, La. Todd is an assistant men’s and women’s track and field coach at Louisiana State University. He also traveled to the London 2012 Olympics to coach one of his athletes.

Abdul Knowles ’97 (right) with Lobsang Sangay, political leader of the Tibetan government in exile. Knowles was the 2012 Harvard Law School Visiting Graduate Research Fellow. He is an ESEC teacher at Beijing Foreign Studies University.

Luther Alumni Magazine

HEATHER (CROWELL) LANGAN is an associate in ministry and director of learn

ministry for the Lutheran Church of the Nativity in Arden, N.C. JODI (SPITTAL) SIEGEL teaches Spanish for the Minnetonka (Minn.) Public Schools. ALI (BROOKS) WEBER is a registered nurse at Cardiologists LC in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

1998 CHRISTOPHER

CANNON is manager of health care access at the National Alliance of State and Territorial AIDS Directors in Washington, D.C. AMY (HAMMEL) CLARK is a private client banker with JP Morgan Chase Bank in Mount Prospect, Ill. JILL HOCKENMEYER is a clinical psychologist at the VA Central Iowa Health Care System in Des Moines. BRI (BABCOCK) and LEIF HVIDSTEN live in Plymouth, Minn. Leif is a systems engineer at St. Croix Solutions. KEVIN MALLON is chair of the social studies department at Hoffman Estates (Ill.) High School.

REBECCA (JOHNSON) MCCLINON is a physician extender at Olympia (Wash.) Orthopaedic Associates. ELYSSA (LOSEKE) MORRIS is a registered nurse at Peace Health Southwest Medical Center in Vancouver, Wash. CARA PRESLEY-KIMBALL is violence recovery program coordinator for Fenway Health in Boston. JASON RAUSCH is director of vocal music at Decorah High School and president-elect of the Iowa Choral Directors Association. KAT SHANER earned a Th.D. degree from Harvard Divinity School. She is assistant professor of the New Testament at General Theological Seminary in New York. AMANDA (GRALAPP) SILL is a property appraiser for Watonwan County, Minn. STEPHANIE (BEY) and BEN STEINES ’97 live in Decorah. She teaches math at Decorah High School. He is auditor for the Winneshiek County Treasurer’s Office.

Alumni News

Training for leadership In May, three Luther College alumni will graduate from the Leadership Greater Rochester (LGR) program. LGR is a comprehensive 10-month leadership development course created by the Rochester Area Chamber of Commerce. The program’s mission is to develop emerging leaders through participation in personal, professional, and community-awareness activities designed to encourage individual responsibility for taking an active leadership role in the future vitality of the greater Rochester area. Active involvement in the class community-impact project, a reading for leading component, developing a personal mission statement, and community-board observations are additional requirements for graduation. Pictured left to right: Angie (Johnson) Richards ’01, Jake Vaith ’10, and Keri (Johnson) Ostby ’00

ANDREA WHITE MARINAS is owner of Andrea White Pilates in Santa Monica, Calif.

1999 BOB CHAPLIN is vice president of systems engineering for Vital Support Systems in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

ERIC CUTLER recently performed in the Metropolitan Opera’s production of Les Troyens, Hector Berlioz’s five-hour epic, in New York City. KAREN ERCEG is a pharmacist at Aurora West Allis Medical Center (Wis). COREY HOODJER is a marketing and communications consultant for Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield in Des Moines, Iowa. AMIT JOHAL is director of endoscopy in the Gastroenterology Division of Geisinger Medical Center in Danville, Pa. JENN LEE is assistant professor of psychology at Mount Mercy University in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. She is also an adjunct assistant professor of nursing at the University of Iowa. LINDSEY (SMITH) MUNSON is director of web services and graphic design for Total Media in Bettendorf, Iowa. ADAM NELSON is an academic adviser at National American University in Burnsville, Minn.

SARAH (TVEDT) POOL is a nurse manager for the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. ERICA (LOYNACHAN) SCHNEDLER earned a master’s degree in teaching from the University of St. Mary. She teaches first grade at Brookview Elementary in West Des Moines, Iowa. SIRI and JON STROMMEN CAMPBELL ’98 live in Hillsboro, N.D. She is pastor at Our Savior’s Lutheran Church. He is choir director at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Moorhead, Minn. His music compositions have been published by Augsburg Fortress, Concordia Publishing House, and Morningstar Music. He is also a doctoral student in choral conducting at North Dakota State University.

RACHEL KREGER earned a master’s degree in mental health counseling from Capella University. She is a diagnostician and therapist at Accend Services in Duluth, Minn. ANGELA (SPARTZ) O’KEEFE is senior cost accountant for Boston Scientific in St. Paul, Minn. KERI (JOHNSON) and BRETT OSTBY ’01 live in Rochester, Minn. She is the head of technical services at Roanoke County Public Library. He is a research specialist for the Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation at Virginia Tech.

2000 PAM HOVE is solid

waste coordinator for the City of Hopkins, Minn. MORGEN (ELLERBUSCH) and MARK JUEL ’94 live in Baxter, Minn. She earned a doctorate in counseling psychology from Texas Woman’s University and is a psychotherapist for Nystrom and Associates. He works for Lutheran Social Services of Minnesota. KLAYTON KMETT is an engineer for the Union Pacific Railroad in Des Moines, Iowa.

CHAD REINERTSON published the book Don’t Start Your Own Business. The day the book went live on Kindle, Forbes Magazine called Chad to interview him for the article “Could You Write a Book? Should You? (Read This First).” Chad is an account executive for Axiom Financial in Salt Lake City. BOB ROSS is the owner of RossGraf Consulting in Verona, Wis.

MARIE SEGRE is art institute manager at the Young At Art Museum in Davie, Fla. KELLY SMITH is vice president of tax development at 2nd Story Software in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. JENNIFER (GILBERT) WOLBRECHT is development director for the Metropolitan Park District of Tacoma, Wash.

2001

MOLLIE BUSTA LANGE of Ridgeville Corners, Ohio, was named the Favorite Female Vocalist by the International Polka Association. She is a member of the polka bands SqueezeBox and the Jim Busta Band and is the host and creative director of Mollie B Polka Party on RFD-TV. MEGAN (MATTINGLY) and JIM COX ’00 live in Farmington, Minn. She is the choir teacher at Black Hawk Middle School. He is the choir teacher at Eagan High School.

Spring 2013 Luther Alumni Magazine

Alumni News

JON HEEREN earned a master’s degree in educational leadership from St. Mary’s University of Minnesota. He teaches mathematics at Central High School in St. Paul, Minn.

AMANDA HAMP was featured in the five-minute documentary film Hours with Amanda, produced by Luther postdoctoral teaching fellow in communication studies Thomas Johnson and student Michael Crowe ’13, which screened at the Oneota Film Festival. Hamp is assistant professor of dance at Luther College. SUE (BUCKHEISTER) HANSON is senior lecturer in biology and course coordinator at Carroll University in Waukesha, Wis. RYAN HEMME is associate service fellow with the Centers for Disease Control, Dengue Branch, in San Juan, Puerto Rico. DAN MIKKELSON works for Kraft Foods in New Ulm, Minn.

BETH (HUINKER) and CHRIS HODEN ’00 live in Dubuque, Iowa. He works in new product development for John Deere Dubuque Works. JEFF JULSON is an immigration officer for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in South Burlington, Vt. ALEX JUNK is senior systems administrator for the University of Iowa in Iowa City. PAUL KARTMAN earned a juris doctorate from William Mitchell College of Law. He is loan administration manager for Wells Fargo Home Mortgage in Minneapolis. AMBER (FAHNING) and JOE KISSNER live in St. Paul, Minn. She is headquarters store operations manager for Target Corporation. He teaches biology, anatomy, and physiology at Eagan High School.

JOSH NORRIS earned a doctor of musical arts degree in choral conducting from the University of Nebraska. He is assistant professor of music and director of choral activities at McPherson (Kan.) College. MICHELLE OLSON is a general dentist for All Care Dental in Leawood, Kan. MARK ROBINSON is theater manager and technical director at Holton-Arms School in Bethesda, Md. ROBYN (SIEDSCHLAG) and AARON WANGBERG live in Winona, Minn. She is assistant physics professor at St. Mary’s University of Minnesota. He was granted tenure as associate professor of mathematics at Winona State University.

ANGELA (OLDENBURG) KUENY was awarded the Nena Amundson Distinguished Professorship for 2012–14. She is assistant professor of nursing at Luther College. MATT LINDEMANN is a sales executive and product specialist for Vygon Ltd. in London, England.

2002 KATE (LAWRENCE) BAKER is a voiceover agent for Moore Creative Talent in Minneapolis.

NATE CANTON is the OSR for Sabic Polymershapes in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. KIERSTEN HANSON is a special consultant for Drammen Kommune in Drammen, Norway.

Luther Alumni Magazine

doctoral teaching fellow in communication studies Thomas Johnson and student Michael Crowe ’13, which screened at the Oneota Film Festival. Moore is an assistant professor of art at Luther College. KATYA OUCHAKOF is associate pastor at McFarland (Wis.) Lutheran Church and an on-call chaplain for area hospitals. DAVID PENDERGAST is a registered foreign lawyer for Davis Polk & Wardwell in Hong Kong. SELINA (KURTH) QUANDAHL was awarded the Compassionfirst Award for her work as a home health nurse for Winneshiek County Public Health Nursing Service in Decorah. The award is presented to a home health or hospice caregiver who exceeds expectations for kindness, dedication, and compassion for others. NIKKI (LUCHAUER) SCHATTNER is a piano instructor in Anderson, Ind. BEN SMITH is manager for CVS Pharmacy in St. Paul, Minn.

KATY DANE was named the teacher of the month at Byron P. Steele High School in Cibolo, Texas, for her work with the school’s production of Little Shop of Horrors. DEREK DISTIN was selected to compete in season three of MasterChef on the Fox network. Derek is an independent sales representative of medical devices in Sun Prairie, Wis. BETSY DREIER is a reading tutor for Minnesota Education Corps in St. Paul, Minn. BRANDON FRASEUR was elected the South Central District Representative for the Iowa Choral Directors Association (ICDA). He is director of choral activities at Solon (Iowa) Middle School and coaches eighth grade volleyball and high school girls’ basketball and golf. KAREN (MEYER) GOBLE is the participations accounting manager for American AgCredit in Greeley, Colo.

ELIZABETH (NICKLAY) and JORDAN STADHEIM ’05 live in Stillwater, Minn. She earned a master’s degree in nursing from the University of Minnesota and is a registered nurse at Regions Hospital. She is also an athletic trainer for Fairview Health Services. He is an auditor with the Minnesota Department of Revenue.

EMILY (WENZEL) GUTIERREZ is the commodity manager for Emerson in Eden Prairie, Minn.

LINDSAY (HOFFMAN) STELLINGA teaches elementary music for the Davenport (Iowa) Community School District.

KRISTA MAHLER is manager of community outreach for Connections Education in Baltimore.

AUDRA (BURK) and JEREMY VANN live in Rockford, Ill. He is the head men’s soccer coach at Rockford College. CHRISTA CARLSON VELTRI and CARLO VELTRI live in Northfield, Minn. She is a stay-at-home mom. He earned a doctorate in clinical psychology from Kent State University and is assistant professor of psychology at St. Olaf College.

2003 CARRIE ANDERSON BEN MOORE was featured in the five-minute documentary film Hours with Ben, produced by Luther post-

BJORN BERG is a branch manager for US Bank in Des Moines, Iowa.

earned a master of divinity degree from Wartburg Theological Seminary. She is the pastor at Gethsemane Lutheran Church in Baldwin, Wis.

MIKE KNIPPER earned a master’s degree in athletic administration from the University of Central Missouri and is assistant athletic director for media relations at the university in Warrensburg, Mo.

KATIE (FLETCHER) and ALEX MARTINSON live in Woodridge, Ill. She is a lactation consultant and childbirth educator for OMG Women’s Healthcare. He is a postdoctorate fellow at Argonne National Laboratory. MEGAN SALLEY coauthored a chapter for the textbook Governing Illinois: Your Connection to State and Local Government. Megan is a communications specialist at Highland Community College and a job coach at Ombudsman Educational Services for the Rockford (Ill.) Public School District. COLLEEN SCHMITT and TIM HAMMOND live in Grinnell, Iowa. She teaches English at Grinnell Middle School. He is the assistant

Alumni News

men’s and women’s swimming and dive coach, natatorium coordinator, and director of intramural sports at Grinnell College. SHANNON (YOUNG) WEGNER is a speech-language pathologist for the Richfield (Minn.) Public Schools. JENNA WHEELER ANDERSON is a pediatrician for the Mayo Clinic Health System in Austin, Minn.

2004 JESSE (PETERSON)

and JON AANESTAD live in Cambridge, Mass. She earned a master’s degree in human resources management from Suffolk University. She is a human resources supervisor for Skadden, Arps, Slate, Maegher & Flom LLP. He is a selfemployed musician. MATT BERG earned a master’s degree in educational theory and practice from Arkansas State University. He teaches high school social studies at Wasilla (Alaska) High School. ANNA BLEM earned a master’s degree in nursing from St. Catherine University. She is a nurse practitioner at Regions Hospital in St. Paul, Minn. NICOLE (OLIVER) DAEGER is a fiduciary relationship specialist with Wells Fargo Bank in Minneapolis. ELLIE DOLAN is senior engagement manager for General Mills in Golden Valley, Minn. ANNA HAUGEN was ordained at St. Mark Lutheran Church in Salem, Ore. She is pastor for the Underwood (N.D.) Lutheran Parish. ANNIE HIBBS and ERIK ULNESS live in Minneapolis. Annie is a women, infants, and children’s nutritionist for CEDA. Erik is senior accountant for Target Corporation. TOM JOHNSON is a CPA with Fireaway Inc. in Minnetonka, Minn. BRENDA RENGSTORF of Redwood City, Calif., is a nurse practitioner at Stanford Medical Center. ALICE SANDAHL and ANDY MEYER live in Seattle. She teaches French at Perkins School. He teaches 10th and 12th grade humanities at the Northwest School. BETHANY (OPPRIECHT) and BRENT SEISER live in Gays Mills,

Attending the seventh annual Luther Lunch at the Iowa Music Educators Association Conference in Ames, Iowa, were David Haas ’06, Ryan Person ’05, Ted Schacherer ’08, Eric Layden ’08, Matthew Drees ’10, Joseph Svendsen ’06, Anna (Plagman) Davis ’04, Luther assistant professor of music Andrew Last ’97, Jesse Bunge ’11, Shelly Schaeufele ’92, Christa Braga ’05, Bethany Seedorff ’05, Luther Dorian music coordinator Jim Buzza, Ryan Deignan ’10, Peggy Hamilton ’07, Katherine (Loher) Anderson ’10, Erin Torkelson ’09, Jeanine Link ’10, Jaclyn (Ohnemus) Hussey ’11, Nicole Brown ’07, Anna Kenyon ’12, and Cara Stone ’05.

Wis. She teaches kindergarten for the North Crawford School District. He is orchard field manager for Sunrise Orchards Inc. KAIA (NORDAL) and ERIK SHERBURNE ’01 live in Roseville, Minn. She is assistant director of admissions at Hamline University. He is quality manager at Advanced Molding Technologies. JONATHAN THOLEN works in financial and credit risk assessment at U.S. Bancorp in Minneapolis.

grade-level coordinator at Singapore American School.

2005 ELISE CHESLEY is

director of youth and family ministry at Our Savior’s Lutheran Church in Sioux Falls, S.D. LINDSEY HOODJER is a social worker for Iowa Hospice in Johnston, Iowa.

CODY TIGGES is a pediatric critical care medicine fellow at LeBonheur Children’s Hospital in Memphis, Tenn. JIM TRIPP teaches Spanish for the Spring Grove (Minn.) Public School District and is trail manager for Decorah Human Powered Trails. MEREDITH (WELTON) and NATHAN VOIGHT ’03 live in Mount Vernon, Iowa. She is an elementary teacher for the College Community School District. He is senior manager of financial planning and analysis with Rockwell Collins. TRENTON WILLIAMS earned a master’s degree in science from the State University of New York. He is

CRYSTAL RAIBER is an attorney at Lynch, Greenleaf, and Michael LLP in Iowa City, Iowa. DANIELLE SCHMIDT earned a master’s degree in business administration from the Minnesota School of Business. She is a recovery technical specialist for Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota in Eagan, Minn. ERIN WALDING is a middle school English-as-a-second-language teacher at Prairie Seeds Academy in Brooklyn Park, Minn.

2006 BRIE CORFMAN

SARAH KOCH is director of social innovation for the Case Foundation in Washington, D.C. ALISON MEIER and JOEL GENTES live in San Francisco. She is user-experience strategist for Gotomedia. He works in network relations for the iTunes Store. ERIK OLSON is athletic director and school-data strategist at Roald Amundsen High School in Chicago.

earned an American Society of Quality Six Sigma Black Belt Certification. She is a senior process expert for Essentia Health in Fargo, N.D. KATY (RECKNAGEL) COWDY is branch manager for Educators Credit Union in New Berlin, Wis. MAGGIE ENGELHARDT and MARK HADDINGER ’00 live in West Des Moines, Iowa. He is a loan servicing specialist for Wells Fargo Home Mortgage.

Spring 2013 Luther Alumni Magazine

Alumni News

JILL (KNUTSON) GIEROK is a registered nurse for the University of Minnesota Medical Center in Fairview. JOCELYN JANSEN HERBY is a teacher for the Waconia (Minn.) Public Schools. SETH JOHNSON earned a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Colorado– Boulder. He is a financial analyst for the Brocade Corporation in Broomfield, Colo. LONNIE NORWOOD is lead music instructor at Options Laboratory School and conductor of the Chicago Children’s Choir in Chicago. JOHN VOSS is a building consultant for Kiwi Builders in Land O’Lakes, Wis.

Ryan Fordice ’08 (left) is the Elsa Marty Entering Ministry Fellow in the master of divinity program at the University of Chicago Divinity School. He was awarded an international ministry study grant for travel to the TurkeySyria border region to research roles of religious communities in the Syrian refugee crisis. While on a day trip to the remote cliffside Sümela Monastery in the mountains of northeast Turkey, Fordice had a chance encounter with Luther alumni Ed Rauk ’63 and Luther Rauk ’98.

CARMEN (CROCKETT) and JOHN WILLIAMS live in Eagan, Minn. She earned a master’s degree in business administration from Augsburg College. She is account manager for partner sales at SPS Commerce. He earned a postbaccalaureate degree in paralegal studies from Kaplan University. He is a loan portfolio analyst for Northmarq Capital.

2007 ANNA BINGHAM is executive assistant for ClearWater Performance Group in Lanesboro, Minn.

TIMOTHY BRUETT is a project development associate for Manhattan Concert Productions in New York. KELSEY COCHRANE teaches third grade for the Madison Elementary School District in Phoenix, Ariz. ANNE (STENSVOLD) CURLEY earned a degree in accounting from St. Mary’s University. She is accounts payable clerk for Sterling State Bank Corporate Headquarters in Rochester, Minn.

Tim Carroll ’07 (left)and Luke Wigle ’07 met up while working for Hurricane Sandy relief. Carroll was deployed with the Utah Conservation Corps and Wigle with the Washington Conservation Corps.

Luther Alumni Magazine

MIKE ECKBERG is assistant women’s soccer coach for the University of Wisconsin–River Falls and a brokerage assistant for Wells Fargo in Minneapolis. ADAM FRYE is assistant cross country and track and field coach for Hamline University in St. Paul, Minn.

HEATHER JOHNSON earned a master’s degree in education from the University of Wisconsin–La Crosse. She teaches four-year-old preschool for the Tomah (Wis.) Area School District. AMY (KRISTAPOVICH) LOGAN is a GIS analyst for Iowa State University in Ames. SARAH MELIN THOMPSON and MATTHEW THOMPSON live in Fargo, N.D. She works for the Wells Fargo-Distribution Strategic Services Group and is a member of the Wells Fargo leadership development program. She is also a United Way volunteer and serves on the Design Planning Team for the Sanford Fargo Medical Center Project. He is a business attorney with the Vogel Law Firm and a member of the Fargo/Moorhead/West Fargo Chamber of Commerce Leadership Development Program. CARMEN (CLINE) and TONY RANGEL ’08 live in New Brighton, Minn. She is senior associate of contract administration and operations for Galliard Capital Management. He is choral director at Robbinsdale Armstrong High School. KATE REIMAN is a verbal behavior therapist and assistant operations manager for the Holland Center in Minnetonka, Minn. ERICA (SVIEN) and MIKE SWENSON ’06 live in Maple Plain, Minn. She is a special education teacher for the Saint Anthony, New Brighton School District. He is a biologist with HDR Engineering.

2008 MATT ENG earned a

master’s degree in education from Iowa State University. He is an academic advisor at the University of Hawaii at Manoa in Honolulu. LAURA GORTON earned a master’s degree in Christian education from Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia. She is director of children and youth ministries at Christ the King Lutheran Church in White Bear Lake, Minn. AJ GREGG earned a D.C. degree from the University of Western States Chiropractic College. He is a doctor of chiropractic medicine at Munderloh Chiropractic in Flagstaff, Ariz.

Alumni News

DREW HAEFNER is a business analyst for John Deere in Waterloo, Iowa. ARAYLLA (JENSEN) HENNIGAR is cytology assistant manager at the Marshfield Clinic (Wis). TONY LARSON is a criminal defense and family law attorney for Rosengren Kohlmeyer Law Office Chtd. in Mankato, Minn. JONATHAN PEDERSON is an athletic trainer for Ankeny (Iowa) Physical and Sports Therapy. STEPHANIE VOS earned a master of divinity degree from Luther Seminary. She is the resident chaplain at Park Nicollet Methodist Hospital in St. Louis Park, Minn.

2009 LIZ ERICKSON is a

registered nurse at Ramsey County Public Health in Maplewood, Minn. ASHLEY (BEEK) FARLEY is territory sales specialist for Advanced System Inc. in Waterloo, Iowa. She is also the administrative assistant and marketing manager for Winneshiek County Celebration of Life in Decorah. JAKE MADRINICH is the owner of Minneapolis Kosama in Minneapolis. ANDREA (JOHNSON) and ALEX MIERAU live in Minnetonka, Minn. She is a physical therapist for the National Dizzy and Balance Center. He is the supervisor of purchasing for Polaris Industries. JENNY SLETTEN is senior care associate for Cigna Health Solutions in Eden Prairie, Minn. ADAM TULKKI works at Holden Village in Chelan, Wash. VALERIE WEAVER teaches Spanish at the Academy for Science and Agriculture in Vadnais Heights, Minn.

2010 CARSON CHRISTEN earned a master’s degree in exercise physiology from the University of Northern Iowa. He is an exercise physiologist for FasCat Endurance Coaching Company in Boulder, Colo.

JEN (MORGAN) HAZEN teaches music in the Minnetonka (Minn.) Public Schools.

EMILY HOERMAN earned a master’s degree in education from the University of Northern Iowa. She is the school psychologist for the Heartland Area Education Agency in Ankeny, Iowa. WILLIAM LIU is a cinematographer at Valparaiso University (Ind.). ERIN LUNDE KEENAN and SEAN LUNDE KEENAN ’09 live in Leavenworth, Wash. She is a communications associate at Upper Valley MEND (Meeting Each Need with Dignity). He works for AmeriCorps. ERIK MALMQUIST is a graduate student and graduate assistant at the University of Nevada–Reno. SARAH PALM is a group retiree services project manager for UnitedHealthcare Retiree Solutions in Minnetonka, Minn.

Left to right: Julia (Stuebner-Holt) Salzman ’08, Luther associate professor of music Jacob Lassetter (featured soloist), Luther associate professor of music Karen Kanakis (featured soloist), Mark Mowry ’93 (featured soloist), and Marissa Brengman ’06 performed Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass with the Choral Arts Ensemble in Rochester, Minn.

NORA SHAFFER earned a master’s degree in music with distinction in clarinet performance from DePaul University. She received honorable mention for her performance of the Nielsen Clarinet Concerto in the university’s concerto competition and has competed with Lake Effect Clarinet Quartet at the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. She is an active freelance musician and teacher in Chicago. BECKY (PETER) STOLEE teaches elementary music at Prairie Seeds Academy in Brooklyn Park, Minn. AUSTIN TEGELS is a corporate analyst for the CBE Group in Cedar Falls, Iowa.

Courtney Greenley ’11 and Steven Thai ’11 attended the 57th inauguration of the president of the United States in Washington, D.C.

EMILY (GUEMMER) TURNER teaches Spanish for the Centerville (Iowa) Community School District.

2011

FELECIA DEJONG teaches special education at Orchard Place Campus School for the Des Moines (Iowa) Public Schools. BRETT EPPERSON is associate director of vocal music at Jefferson High School in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He is also a regionally performing professional musician. JACLYN (OHNEMUS) and PATRICK HUSSEY ’12 live in Iowa City, Iowa. She is assistant choir director at Xavier High school. He is a medical student at the University of Iowa.

Left to right: Luther alumni Louise Vivant ’12, Daniel Nytes ’09, Vanessa Abbe ’04, Efe Mensah-Brown ’10 (front), Nana Ahwoi ’04, Jim Kowitz ’03, and Liza Demmer ’09 work for Ernst and Young in Minneapolis.

Spring 2013 Luther Alumni Magazine

Alumni News

Senior Giving Campaign: Class of 2013

ach year, hundreds of seniors make a pledge to give back to Luther after they graduate.

This year, Lisa and Bill Reece ’03, have pledged their support, too, challenging the Class of 2013 to join them in giving back. Together, they will have an impact on Luther for generations to come.

ALLISON MOEN is running coach at Foot Traffic Running Club in Portland, Ore.

NICOLE WILSON is staff auditor for DISH Network in Englewood, Colo.

RACHEL RUDEEN is an admissions counselor for Buena Vista University in Storm Lake, Iowa.

2012 PETER BEIERWALTES

We pledge. They pledge. It's that simple. Giving to Luther is a great way to show that you believe in this place. Visit givenow.luther.edu to make a gift today.

DEREK BROIN is a software development intern for Mobile Realty Apps in Minneapolis.

MAX GARTNER is an associate developer at Magenic Technologies in St. Louis Park, Minn. HANNAH JANAKY is a residential counselor with Quakerdale in New Providence, Iowa.

is a research assistant at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit.

MICHAEL NOLTNER works in technical services for Epic Systems in Verona, Wis.

EMILY COCHRANE is a field organizer for Organizing for America in Keene, N.H.

PAIGE OFSTEDAHL is an AmeriCorps member at Neighborhood Centers of Johnson County in Iowa City, Iowa.

SETH DUIN works in external relations for VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America) at College Possible in St. Paul, Minn. SALLY EA is rehabilitation coordinator for Lutheran Volunteer Corps Transitional Resources in Seattle.

Skiing together in Colorado in January were (left to right) Dustin Noble ’11, Des Moines, Iowa; Ryan Bouslog ’11, Duluth, Minn.; Bradon Reyerson ’12, Denver, Colo.; and Kevin Bokoski ’11, Denver, Colo.

Luther Alumni Magazine

HAYLIE FERCHO is district project specialist for Farmers Insurance Group in Madison, Wis.

MATTHEW STUMP, bass-baritone, won second place in the 25th annual Dallas Opera Guild Vocal Competition in March. Stump is

Alumni News

pursuing a graduate degree at the University of North Texas College of Music. He is a four-time NATS (National Association of Teachers of Singing) competition winner and a Brudos Family Opera Prize winner. SAMANTHA STYKEL works in technical services for Epic Systems in Verona, Wis.

2000 MATT BROWN and Sarah Larson, Nov. 10, 2012

2008 ANNELISE BERG and

DAN MIKKELSON and Diane Guggisberg, July 7, 2012

STEPHANIE GRACE and Rolf Krueger, Aug. 25, 2012

2002 TANA FIELD and Todd

ETHAN GREV and Beth Larson, Oct. 20, 2012

Kristin Beecher, June 25, 2011

Marriages

ANNE-MARIE HANSON and Manuel Rojas, Dec. 7, 2012

1968 GINNY MILLER and

KATE LAWRENCE and Robert Baker, Nov. 17, 2012

1969 JACK BROMAN and Tracie Heim, Oct. 12, 2012

1978 ROBIN ERSLAND and Kimberly Long, Oct. 6, 2012

JIM POTTER and Sandra Fillhouer, Dec. 26, 2011

1982 MARK FALDET and

NIKKI LUCHAUER and Lance Schattner, July 3, 2012 DAVID PENDERGAST and Melanie Prodigo, July 3, 2011

2003 EMILY BECKER and Ben Thompson, July 7, 2012

ERIK SILL and Sarah Schlueter, Sept. 15, 2012

Kristen Underwood, Nov. 21, 2012

AMANDA SPILDE and Bret Maki, Oct. 29, 2011

1984 ELAINE GEIGER and

2004 KATIE BATTON and

Tara Beck, Sept. 2, 2011

1988 JULIE DEREUS and Michael Henszey, Aug. 18, 2012

MICHELLE MASTERSON and Dave Patava, May 23, 2011 KAREN OLSON and Darlene Petit, May 14, 2012

1992 TODD TRAVAILLE and Kelly Wolff, Sept. 10, 2011

1995 ANDREW GALUSKI

and Michelle Corley, Aug. 14, 2012 JAMES METCALF and Mandy Gambuto, May 21, 2011

1997 AMY MORGAN and Jay Apfel, Oct. 6, 2012

JAMIE PALMERSHEIM and JASON LANE, Nov. 16, 2012

1998 CARA PRESLEY and Tracy Kimball, Sept. 3, 2011

Amy Kling, July 21, 2012

2001 CHRIS GROSS and

Goselin, Sept. 18, 2012

Tom Gillman, July 6, 2012

2007 ALEX KINDRED and

TYLER DRAHEIM, Sept. 23, 2012

HANNAH HUINKER and JOHN SCHROEHER, Aug. 18, 2012 MARTHA KLASEN and Justin Ranek, July 28, 2012 DAN MCADAM and Emily Muirhead, Sept. 4, 2011 NICKY SCHNEIDER and Matthew Poznicek, Oct. 8, 2011 KATIE SHAW and Myles Brandt, June 23, 2012

2009 JESS BOESE and Shane

SARAH KOLMAN and Scott Keen, Sept. 14, 2012

2005 ANN JENSEN and Kyle

KATE NESS and JOHN AMAKYE ’08, July 6, 2012

LAURA BETH RIEHMAN and Matthew Alvarez, Sept. 15, 2012

2006 CARMEN

CROCKETT and JOHN WILLIAMS, Oct. 6, 2012 KATIE HOPP and Michael Caterino, Sept. 24, 2011 JILL KNUTSON and Joe Gierok, Aug. 25, 2012 KATHRYN RECKNAGEL and Chad Cowdy, Sept. 1, 2012 SARAH SCHULTZ and Brian Doyle, July 20, 2012

BRANDVOLD and JOE ROSHOLT, Sept. 29, 2012 JORDAN MEYER and TIM ZAHRTE ’12, June 15, 2012 EMILY RASMANN and DON STEIN, Nov. 10, 2012 CAITLIN STEINBERG and Thomas Schlabach, Dec. 27, 2012

2012 CASSIE HOLSTAD

and Logan Willmert, Aug. 18, 2012 TARA WANGBERG and Jr Bachmeier, Aug. 25, 2012

2013 CARRIE GAUL and Chad Kostohryz, Oct. 27, 2012

Births and adoptions

GAOXUE HER and ALEX STOPPEL, Sept. 28, 2012

KATHERINE ITES and Ben Wacker, May 6, 2012

LINNEA MUELLER and TREVOR HUINKER ’04, Sept. 4, 2011

2011 HANNAH

AMANDA DAHLSENG and DARIN MONROE, Oct. 20, 2012

KRISTIN JOHNSON and Stefan Soberg, Jan. 5, 2013

RYAN KOCH and Andrea Miron, Oct. 6, 2012

JILL WOLF and RILEY MCDOWELL ’12, June 9, 2012

Purdie, Sept. 29, 2012

Collin Olewine, Oct. 12, 2012

Birney, Feb. 9, 2013

MEGAN WEIRATHER and Nick Warneke, Aug. 6, 2011

JACKY RIVERA and Hugo Ramirez, Jan. 14, 2012 CAROLINE ROSEN and Nicholas Heuer, Aug. 12, 2011 AMY SCHNEIDER and CAMERON WEBB, Sept. 29, 2012

1990 RACHEL

(KINTZINGER) and Tom Harpham, a son, Ethan Aaron, August 2012

1991 KRISTEN

(SIMONSEN) ’91 and Steve Huckaby, a son, William Edward, born January 2011, adopted December 2011

1993 RONDI (SWANSON)

and GEOFF GOELLNER ’90, a son, Luke, April 2011

2010 ALESHA ARNDT and

Cari and MARK LYON, twins, a daughter, Morgan, and a son, Maxwell, September 2011

SARA HANSSEN and Kathryn Thompson, Oct. 20, 2012

LISA (BRINKMAN) and Andrew Sinanan, a son, Andrew Brinkman, October 2012

Aaron Gierhart, Dec. 28, 2011

STEPHANIE LUNDBY and Thomas Lantry, Sept. 10, 2011 MICHAEL PIGMAN and Jens Petersen, Aug. 12, 2012

1994 FLORA VAN

WORMER, a son, Heshel Shalom, October 2011

KRISTIN PORTER and NEAL PETERSEN, Sept. 15, 2012

Spring 2013 Luther Alumni Magazine

Alumni News

1995 KENDA (JOHNSON) and James Davis, a daughter, Genevieve Ellisa, December 2011

Kelly and DARREN O’CONNOR, a daughter, Reagan Grace, September 2012 Jennifer and CHRIS ROVN, a daughter, Madeline Joy, February 2012

1996 KARA (PETERSON)

and Greg Whittaker, a son, Elwood, April 2012

1997 KRISTIN GEHRELS

and JARED HECK, a son, August James, August 2011 TURENA JOHNSON LANE and TODD LANE ’95, a son, Miles William, August 2012 ALI (BROOKS) and Dustin Weber, a son, Cameron Charles, February 2012

1998 JULIE (JENSEN)

and Thomas Assel, a son, David Thomas, July 2012 AMANDA (DREWS) and Bennett Deacy, a son, Marshall William, November 2012 SUZANNE (DABROSKI) and James DeKay, a daughter, Samantha Grace, June 2011 Laura and KEVIN MALLON, a daughter, Tessa, June 2011 KYE (JOHNSON) and Ryan Nicholls, a daughter, Annika Kye, December 2012 STEPHANIE (BEY) and BEN STEINES ’97, a daughter, Karissa Lynn, February 2012

1999

SARAH (MCCLAIN) and Kyle Cassias, a son, Charlie David, August 2012 SARA (SCHEEVEL) and Taylor Harwood, a daughter, Cora Rose, September 2012 Natasha and RICK MAST, a son, Sebastian, May 2011 MACKENZIE (ROUTH) and Ian McNaughton, a son, Graham Scott, October 2012

Luther Alumni Magazine

LINDSEY (SMITH) and Anthony Munson, a son, Abi Anthony, born April 2011, adopted April 2012

LAURI (FERRIE) and Rob Rester, a daughter, Maya Renee, December 2012

LORI (STORK) and BRENT RYAN ’00, a daughter, Julia, August 2011

BETH (JONES) and Tony Runkle, a son, Tate Newton, February 2012

ERICA (LOYNACHAN) and Randy Schnedler, a daughter, Morgan, May 2011 HANNA (WEIERS) and BEN TOMHAVE ’98, a son, Rafael Colton, November 2012

2000 Jenny and JOHN

HIERLINGER, a son, William, December 2011 CHRISTINE (WILLIAMS) and Jeremy Hinz, a daughter, Tessa Jean, October 2012 WENDY (MOELLERS) and Keith Huinker, a daughter, Kinley Claire, Dec. 28, 2011 RACHEL KREGER, a daughter, Everly Jane Kathryn, born December 2009, adopted September 2011 BONNIE (THORSON) and DYLAN MICHEL ’98, twins, a daughter, Chloe, and a son, Alex, October 2011 Kim and RYAN NIEDFELDT, a daughter, Harper, January 2013 Caitlin and BRENT OLSON, a daughter, Gael, February 2011 KELLY SMITH, a son, Elijah Ntimansiemi, born Jan. 24, 2010, adopted April 2011

LESLIE (DYBDAHL) and TIM (VEEDER) VEEDAHL ’02, a daughter, Claire Ellen, October, 2012

2002 Erica and ROY

BROWN SARTIN, a daughter, Ava, May 2011 TANA FIELD and Todd Goselin, a daughter, Adelaide Elisabeth, January 2013 Karen and PAUL KARTMAN, a son, Colby Michael, March 2012 CHRISTINA (DENNY) and DAVE KRUSE ’00, a daughter, Eleanor Boel, November 2011

MEGAN CHERRY DAMAN and Michael Daman, twin sons, Harrison and Walter, September 2012 SUE (BUCKHEISTER) and Karl Hanson, a daughter, Molly, October 2012 Diane and DAN MIKKELSON, a son, Alexander Joseph, January 2012

ANN (DEHNING) and Andy Hintz, a daughter, Shelby Lynn, January 2013 MARISSA (WARNKE) and Rob Kamrowski, a son, Grayson, August 2012 RACHEL (YOW) and KYLE KNOEPFEL ’04, a son, Isaiah, February 2012 SARAH (ROBINSON) and Ryan Lee, a daughter, Avery, June 2012 LINDSAY (MOSS) and NIGEL MILLARD, a daughter, Halle, May 2012 CAMI (CONOVER) and Rand Misekow, a son, Stig, April 2012 KARIAN (LEE) and Kyle Mulford, a daughter, Elsa Marie, January 2012

NIKKI (LUCHAUER) and Lance Schattner, a son, Lucas Gray, February 2012

KJERSTI (ELLISON) and Danny Nayar, a son, Leif Daniel, November 2012

JULIE (DUHME) and Dustin Vande Hoef, a son, Tyson Craig, October 2011

ANDREA (KERNDT) and Ethan Pole, a daughter, Eloise Nola, December 2012

ANDREA (BORNEMAN) and Nicholas Weber, a son, Emmitt Joseph, August 2012

Amber and BRONSON POWER, a son, Daynen Robert, January 2013

2003

KERSTEN (COOK) and John Reich, a son, Everett John Carl, November 2012 AMANDA (ZINCHUK) and Andrew Schuett, a son, Elijah Walter, February 2012 STEPH (BECKER) and NATE VELDMAN, a son, Grant, October 2012

JENNIFER (GILBERT) and Steve Wolbrecht, a son, Ezra Samuel, October 2012

BELVERUD, a daughter, Nora Charlotte, January 2013

ANGELA (DEMMER) and Derek Hietala, a daughter, Aviella Marie, November 2012

Melanie and DAVID PENDERGAST, a daughter, Isabelle Michelle, August 2012

JENN (POTTER) and MATT WALKER ’99, a son, Nathaniel David, Dec. 8, 2012

2001 Kim and SHAWN

Erin and PHIL HAUG, a daughter, Yona Solveig, May 2011

2004 Miranda Maldonado ROBYN (GRUSSING) and Gene Bach, twin sons, George and Henry, December 2011 JODIE (JANSEN) and Mitchell Campbell, a daughter, Hazel Katherine, June 2011 KAREN (MEYER) and Aaron Goble, a daughter, Haley Marie, January 2012

and JON BUTLER, a daughter, Adaline JoAnn, August 2012

NICOLE (OLIVER) and Alex Daeger, a daughter, Brooke Elaina, July 2012 KARI (MOHS) and Mitch Kusek, a daughter, Virginia Mae, April 2012 LINDSAY (HAGEN) and DANIEL RIEBE ‘03, a son, Gavin, September 2012

Alumni News

BETHANY (OPPRIECHT) and BRENT SEISER, a daughter, Kendal, November 2012

KAREN (EGAN) and Eddie Frick, a daughter, Caitlin Corrine, February 2013

EMILY (KNUTH) and TIM STORK, a daughter, Ellen Adrianne, November 2012

MARITA HERKERT-OAKLAND and Eric Herkert-Oakland, a son, Miles LaVerne, July 2012

AMANDA (RECK) and Matt Thoendel, a daughter, Elizabeth Esther, September 2012

LACEY (CURTIS) and ERIK IVERSON ‘08, a daughter, Grete Benedikte, February 2013

KARISA (JENSEN) and Daniel Thompson, a daughter, Myla June, July 2012

MICHELLE (OSTERHAUS) and SAM MCDONALD, a son, Jude Thomas, April 2012

JENN (WHITE) and NATHAN WARREN ‘05, twins, a daughter, Hannah, and a son, Nicholas, December 2012

LAURA (ELLIOTT) and Joel Nelson, a daughter, Angela Jane, September 2012

KATIA (BEINIK) and JOSH WESTGAARD ’03, a son, Jackson Joshua, February 2011

2007 SUSIE (BISSEN) and

ZACH ESKER, a daughter, Lilianna Elizabeth May, March 2011

TIFFANY (JONES) and MATT WOGSLAND ’97, a son, Joshua Lance, September 2012

JILL (ROLLINS) and MARCOS GRANO DE ORO ’06, a son, Henric, November 2011

2005 SARAH (ROUSE) and

JILL (HORAN) and Derek Nelson, a son, Grady Joseph, October 2012

BRIAN CLARK, a daughter, Norah Josephine, November 2012 MELISSA (SCHMITT) and Christopher Diveley, a son, Paul Christopher, August 2012, deceased January 2013 LIZA (HANSON) and Ross Dormady, a daughter, Ellory Hazel, October 2012 ANA (MEYER) and PETE ELIASON ’03, a daughter, Vera Mae, September 2012 Kristyne and GARRET GREV, a son, Michael Paul, August 2012

MELISSA (SCHNEIDER) and Travis Stueve, a daughter, Makenzie Mae, January 2013

2008 LYDIA (HAUG) and Michael Muehrer, a son, Lucas Michael, September 2012

AMANDA (LUDWIG) and Thomas Severson, a daughter, Abigail Christine, October 2012

MICHELLE (KOHLMANN) and NICHOLAS BONIFAZI ’05, a son, Jeremiah, August 2012

ELISE (HOEHN) and CLAYTON WARD, a daughter, Adeline Rose, November 2012

OLAF G. BORGE of Great Falls, Mont., died Dec. 20, 2012, age 92.

ROBERT EARL “DOC” REYNOLDS of Redwood Valley, Calif., died Nov. 30, 2012, age 92.

Jillian and ERIK ROCKWELL, twin daughters, Clara Kay and Ella Jean, April 2012

1943

BLAIR (ERNST) and Thomas Sadler, a daughter, Caroline Christine, January 2013 JENNY SLETTEN and Aaron Hagen, a son, Oliver Jack, October 2012

in Memoriam

Full obituaries are online at luthermagazine.com.

1937

1939

CRISTINA BRUSA and Matthew Pellmann, a son, Matteo Andrew, June 2012

1942

JEANETTE (MUSKE) and JORDAN PIDDE ’08, a son, Jonah Richard, September 2012

ALY (HOSCH) and Tyler Petrich, a son, Otto Charles, April 2011

AIMEE (HARTMAN) and Kris Oyen, a son, Gunnar, March 2011

ABERNATHY, a daughter, Jolie, December 2012

Joel Farley, a son, Easton Edward, July 2012

BRITTANY (GREGOIRE) and Daniel Rosas, a son, Jaime Oliver, August 2012

HELENE (TORVOLD) and Espen Guldbrandsen, a son, Sander, August 2012

2006 Abby and KYLE

2009 ASHLEY (BEEK) and

ADOLPH “BUD” HERSETH, who served as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s principal trumpet for 52 seasons (1948– 2001) died March 16, 2013, at age 91. More about his life and work will appear in the fall 2013 issue of the Luther Alumni Magazine.

ANTOINETTE H. O. (BAKKE) GOOD WEBB of Decorah died March 10, 2013, age 95.

1947

DAVID THOR LARSON of Cresco, Iowa, died March 4, 2013, age 94.

1948

ISABELLE MARY (COLLINS) NASBY of Ossian, Iowa, died Dec. 24, 2012, age 94.

MARJORIE SIGNORA (LUNDE) BOHLEN of Allison, Iowa, died June 14, 2012, age 88.

DONNA (GUTTEBOE) HANKE of Mankato, Minn., died Feb. 19, 2013, age 89.

HELEN EILEEN (STOEN) OLSON of Sioux Falls, S.D., died Feb. 3, 2013, age 86. NORDIS ELIZABETH WANBERG of Towner, N.D., died Nov. 18, 2012, age 91.

Spring 2013 Luther Alumni Magazine

Alumni News

1950 PAUL EDWARD

ANDERSON of San Diego, Calif., died Dec. 22, 2012, age 89.

1954

ROBERT L. ANDERSON of Farmington, Minn., died Sept. 15, 2012, age 83.

ERVIN AUGUST BEHSMAN of Grand Forks, N.D., died Nov. 20, 2012, age 86.

1952

1953

1956

WALLACE LUNDEEN of Seattle died Aug. 26, 2012, age 84.

MERRYNELL “NELL” (FARNSWORTH) ROLLAND of Mesa, Ariz., died Jan. 20, 2013, age 78.

MARILYN (HOLMAN) REUTER of Harmony, Minn., died Dec. 28, 2012, age 81.

R. DWAYNE WOLSTAD of West Salem, Wis., died Dec. 29, 2012, age 79.

ROBERT YLVISAKER of Minneapolis died Dec. 17, 2012, age 81.

ILA MAE “MICKEY” (HJELLE) SCHUMACHER of Hudson, Wis., died Feb. 6, 2013, age 81.

Luther Alumni Magazine

1962 ALTA LUCILLE

(SIMONSON) MCCARTHY of Glendale, Wis., died Feb. 24, 2013, age 70.

1957

1960

1961

DEAN D. CHRISTEN of Rochester, Minn., died Dec. 13, 2012, age 77.

JERRY LEE of Seattle died June 28, 2011, age 73.

1966

1985

PAUL ESPE of Burt, Iowa, died Oct. 20, 2012, age 72.

CHARLIE EARL STEPHENS of St. Paul, Minn., died Nov. 1, 2012, age 52.

ROB H. EHRHARDT of Cedar Falls, Iowa, died Sept. 4, 2011, age 46.

WILLIAM “BILL” VOLLMAN of Paris, France, died Jan. 11, 2013, age 50.

1967 LARRY D. LOSEN

of Middleton, Wis., died Nov. 17, 2012, age 67.

1968

1969

1972

1975 OLGA JUSTINE ROE TANDE BELGUM of San Luis Obispo, Calif., died, Jan. 8, 2013, age 92.

1983

1963 ARLEN ZEMKE of

Diamondhead, Miss., died Feb. 24, 2013, age 71.

EDWARD S. CARLSSON JR., of La Crosse, Wis., died Dec. 25, 2012, age 86.

EDWARD ULSETH of Akron, Ohio, died Dec. 15, 2012, age 83.

JOSEPH HOSLETT KVAASE of Lake Elmo, Minn., died May 26, 2012, age 79.

1996 PAUL PEARSON of St. Peter, Minn., died March 8, 2013, age 67.

JOHN CLEMENT STORTZ of Waterloo, Iowa, died Nov. 21, 2012, age 65.

DONIS WHALEN of Decorah died Jan. 2, 2013, age 62.

PENELOPE N. (NOBLE) ALLEN of Decorah died Feb. 2, 2013, age 59.

2001

ADAM J. CHRISTOPHERSON of Marion, Iowa, died Jan. 4, 2013, age 38.

JOHANNA OLSON of Bend, Ore., died Jan. 3, 2013, age 33.

Summary Report

The Sesquicentennial Fund All Giving by Gift Designation $57,155,724

Transformed by the Journey A Sesquicentennial Strategic Plan for Luther College Luther College’s sesquicentennial strategic plan, Transformed by the Journey, was launched in 2008 and concluded in December 2012. Significant progress was made fulfilling the planning goals and the accompanying $50-million fundraising initiative, The Sesquicentennial Fund, which garnered an impressive $57 million in gifts, pledges, and planned gifts. This success occurred in spite of the national economic downturn that occurred shortly after the funding initiative was launched. The strategic plan’s two dozen planning recommendations focused on a broad range of college operations and programs. It has been gratifying to see what has been accomplished in four years, particularly in the area of environmental sustainability. Significant accomplishments at Luther were recognized in 2010, when the college was one of eight schools in the nation to earn an A grade on the College Sustainability Report Card, and in 2012 when the college received Second Nature’s Climate Leadership Award.

n Endowed Student Scholarships 39% $ 22,234,983 n Designated Current 18% $ 10,579,090 n Annual Fund 15%

$ 8,296,235

n Campus Building Projects 12% $ 6,881,376 n Academic Endowment 9% $ 5,020,111 n Facilities, Technology, and Other Endowment 7% $ 4,143,929

Transformed by the Journey was the second comprehensive strategic plan completed in President Richard Torgerson’s tenure. The college moves forward from a position of strength, thanks to the collective efforts of Luther staff, faculty, alumni, parents and friends who are remarkable in their dedication to this college. Their commitment to students helps ensure a bold and bright future for this community of faith and learning. Luther Alumni Magazine

Fiscal Health

Academic Programs

n Task Group 150, a yearlong

n A $1.5 million grant for science education from the Howard Hughes Medical

study of Luther’s cost/ pricing model, resulted in 44 recommendations establishing program benchmarks, cost reductions totaling more than $3 million, and ideas for program investment. n A College Resource Council was formed, providing greater transparency and understanding on campus of Luther’s financial reality. n A reconfigured advising program, a ROAD (Registration, Orientation, and Advising Days) program for new students, and Care Network and PowerAlert programs raised first- to second-year persistence to 88%.

Institute. n Invitation to join the Associated Colleges of the Midwest. n A new Italy-based semester program, Earth and Environment, in

collaboration with Carleton College and Lawrence University. n Addition of Mandarin Chinese courses. n Creation of Torgerson Center for Nordic Studies with an endowed faculty position in Norwegian language and modern Nordic studies. n Increased numbers of students participating in job shadowing, internships, or research projects on or off campus (67% of 2011 graduates). n A $169,000 grant from the Roy J. Carver Charitable Trust for a spectrometer. n Two Teagle Foundation Value-Added Assessment Grants, and a critical thinking initiative with the Wabash Center for Inquiry, providing valuable data on writing, critical thinking, and student engagement. n The addition of two new majors—International Studies and Intermedia Arts—and a new track, Classical Studies. n Since 2009, Luther student honors and awards have included a Rhodes scholarship, three McElroy fellowships, 13 Fulbright awards, seven NCAA postgraduate scholarships, a Udall scholarship, and a Goldwater scholarship.

Marketing and Enrollment n Centralized leadership for communications and marketing. n Expanded visibility through major web enhancements, a social media

strategy, the use of videos, and event streaming. n National PBS broadcasts of Christmas at Luther in 2008 and 2012. n Steady increase in enrollment of U.S. students of color (7.8%) and

international students (5.3 %). n I-35 Corridor initiative aimed at attracting more students from high-

population centers in Iowa. n An alumni referral initiative, a recruiter in Chicago, “Shadow Days” and other new campus visit programs. n Development of partnership agreements with five community colleges to help boost transfer enrollments.

Environmental Sustainability

Facilities and Grounds

Energy/Carbon Footprint Reduction

n Renovation of Valders Hall of

n Endorsement of campus carbon footprint reduction goals by the Board of

Science and Miller and Dieseth residence halls. n Resurfacing of the outdoor track. n Cafeteria remodeling. n Construction of an aquatic center, a $6.39 million project, to be completed by summer 2013. n Addition of Bentdahl Commons and Farwell Clearing, both in keeping with landscape designer Jens Jensen’s 1911 vision for Luther. n Creation of a comprehensive land stewardship plan, appointment of a Land Use Committee, and the hiring of an instructor who manages Luther’s natural land areas. n Installation of new outdoor campus signage. n Creation of new roads in the central part of campus.

Regents: 50% by 2015, 70% by 2020, and carbon neutrality by 2030. n A 33% reduction of Luther’s carbon footprint in the past eight years. Energyrelated emissions have declined 36.7% through major investments in energy efficiency, a switch to natural gas as the sole heating fuel, the installation of a 1.6 megawatt wind turbine, and small annual purchases of carbon offsets from a local community wind project. n The leasing of a utility-scale, 280 kilowatt (kW) solar photovoltaic array that is powering Baker Village. Another 20 kW array will be installed near Baker Commons in 2013. n A “sustainability house” for students which is powered by a donor-funded 4 kW solar array. n Reduction of college fleet emissions through hybrid cars, electric maintenance vehicles, and a truck powered by compressed natural gas. n Reduction of student vehicle emissions through a bike share program, a shuttle service in town and to major airports during breaks, and a U-Car share program. n Conversion of cafeteria waste vegetable oil into biodiesel, which is used to power lawn and garden vehicles. Sustainable Practices n Adoption of a trayless cafeteria, significantly reducing food waste. n Reduction of landfill waste due to a robust recycling program. n Decreased water consumption (24% in the past four years). n A compost collection system is in place, diverting compost from the landfill

and improving the soil in Luther gardens. n The goal of having local and identifiable-source foods make up 35% of total

food purchases will be met in 2013, thanks to Sodexo’s partnership. n Adoption of policy to purchase FSC-certified (Forest Stewardship Council),

50% post-consumer content paper. n Adoption of Energy Star Policy, Green Building Policy, and Green Cleaning

Policy. n Installation of dashboard that provides real-time electricity, water, and heat

use data for many buildings.

Programming n A Center for Sustainable Communities focuses on energy, food and

health, education, and land management. $3.4 million of a $5 million goal has been raised to support personnel and programs. n A deferred gift has been secured to endow a chair in environmental studies. n A dozen sustainability summer internships are offered, including two “greening church” internships.

Office of the President 563-387-1001 www.luther.edu/president Luther College 700 College Drive Decorah, Iowa 52101

The Sesquicentennial Fund All Giving by Donor Source $57,155,724

n 35% n 27% n 14% n 8% n 5% n 5% n 4% n 2% n >1%

Alumni Regents Friends Corporations Parents Faculty/Staff Foundations Other Churches

$ 19,907,303 $ 15,575,924 $ 7,907,530 $ 4,345,559 $ 2,845,681 $ 2,632,788 $ 2,429,727 $ 1,327,384 $ 138,828

Luther Alumni Magazine

grants secured for sustainability initiatives n $978,200—U.S. Treasury Department awarded to Luther College

Wind Energy Project, LLC. n Two-year post-doctoral fellowship in the area of English and

Environmental Studies by the ACM-Mellon Foundation. n $225,000—Iowa Office of Energy Independence funded efficiency and energy conservation projects on campus. n $85,979—Iowa Department of Natural Resources funded the installation of a permeable parking lot to reduce storm water run-off. n $750,000—U.S. Department of Energy, Wind and Hydro Program funded energy-related improvements in the renovation of Miller and Dieseth and a 20 kW solar photovoltaic demonstration system at Baker Commons. n $500,000 grant and $1,302,000 guaranteed loan—U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Energy for America Program awarded to Luther College Wind Energy Project, LLC. n $445,000—Margaret A. Cargill Foundation funded student sustainability internships and the Center for Sustainable Communities. n $45,000—Rocky Mountain Institute supported a campus greenhouse gas reduction initiative focused on energy conservation.

President’s Council N

ot long ago, Luther mailboxes were stuffed with a postcard from a student majoring in English. She was soliciting the campus’s participation in a narrative poetry project. We were to write down on the blank side of the postcard our most vivid and profound memory while at Luther College and return the card to her through campus mail. This was a simple request, but it made this “softy” get choked up. As I complete my time at Luther, I can’t begin to choose only one memory. It is when you leave a place that you realize all the treasures you carry with you. Judy and I have been profoundly shaped by the faith and learning mission of this college and the people who fulfill that mission with such devotion and generosity. I thank all the donors listed in this report for their wonderful generosity during the past calendar year. As you know, Luther has just completed a five-year project—its most recent strategic plan and accompanying fundraising initiative, the Sesquicentennial Fund. We surpassed the $50 million goal, garnering an impressive $57 million in gifts and commitments from more than 14,700 donors— once again demonstrating that Luther enjoys a broad base of support from its many constituencies. These marvelous gifts at all levels support capital improvements, academic programs, and critical student scholarships. Beginning in 2014, the threshold level for President’s Council membership will increase from $1,000 or more in contributions during a calendar year to $1,500. Since the initiation of the President’s Council in 1992, the $1,000 level has been unchanged, yet the purchasing power of $1,000 has decreased to less than $670, in comparable dollars. After 21 years at the current level, the Board of Regents recommended increasing the recognition level to better respond to the financial challenges the college and our students face. Younger alumni—those who have graduated within the past 10 years—will have the opportunity to become members of the President’s Council for gifts of $750 or more in a calendar year. I thank the faithful members of the President’s Council, and I invite your continued generosity in supporting Luther’s mission. Judy and I will be forever grateful for having had the opportunity to lead and serve Luther College. It is a remarkable community, one that lives out its mission with great integrity. “Thank you” is the best prayer we can offer as we express gratitude and humility for the many who have supported us in our calling. We stand as witnesses to the marvelous way Luther changes lives. Soli Deo Gloria!

Richard L. Torgerson, Ph.D.

Important changes to the Luther College President’s Council In its 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 has been in effect for the past 21 years, since the creation of the President’s Council giving society in 1992. Starting January 1, 2014, all gifts to Luther in a calendar year—January 1–December 31—of $1,500 or more will qualify for recognition in the Luther College President’s Council. Another change to the President’s Council, which is already reflected in this year’s list of givers, is the addition of a new level to recognize gifts of $5,000-$10,000. The new level is called the President’s Affiliates. Donors who contribute gifts of $1,000$4,999 are recognized as members of President’s Society. Finally, to encourage leadership giving among Luther’s most recent graduates, a new membership level of President’s Council, the President’s First-Decade Society, will be 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 will be eligible for membership in President’s First-Decade Society, beginning in January 2014; alumni from 2005–2015 will be eligible in January 2015, and so on.

Spring 2013 Luther Alumni Magazine

President’s Council The following pages list the 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, 2012, and also those who have provided $100,000 or more to the college cumulatively through December 31, 2012. 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 additional 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, 2012. 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.

The Larsen Circle Recognizes those whose cumulative gifts given as of December 31, 2012, total $1,000,000 or more.

INDIVIDUALS Bruce ’68 and Janis (Zube) Altorfer ’70 Arthur and †Helen Austin ◊†E.E. “Ray” ’59 and Shirley (Klingsheim) Bentdahl ’59 David Carlson ’85 David ’63 and Brenda (Landsgard) Carlson ’73 R. Eric ’61 and Cynthia (Aal) Carlson ’63 †Bert and †Bernice Cross †Bert and †Mildred Dahl †Edward Dahly Shelby and Gale Davis †Ervin and †Phyllis Johnson Orville and Kathleen Johnson Douglas ’82 and Shelly Kintzinger Jewel Kintzinger Day and Burtwin Day †John Kintzinger †Leon and †Helen Koebrick David ’64 and Camille Kundert Bradley ’86 and Jane (Dalen) Miller ’86 Neal ’59 and Gerry (Mosby) Nottleson ’59 †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 Candy (Grimm) Altorfer ’73 †Arthur ’30 and †Mary Louise Bergee 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 †Tilmar Moilien ’34 Donald Nelson Weston Noble ’43 Marti (Tomson) ’84 and William Rodamaker Arne ’80 and Ruth Sorenson *O.J. 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 Bank of the West (formerly Community First National Bank) Bruening Rock Products, Inc. ◊Decorah Bank and Trust Fred Carlson Company, Inc. IBM Corporation R.J. McElroy Trust Roy J. Carver Charitable Trust Teagle Foundation Incorporated

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

The Preus Circle Recognizes those whose cumulative gifts given as of December 31, 2012, total $500,000 to $999,999.

ESTATE GIFTS Estate of Patricia Gunderson Estate of Leo Schafee

The Olson Circle Recognizes those whose cumulative gifts given as of December 31, 2012, total $250,000 to $499,999. INDIVIDUALS Anonymous (3) Jutta F. Anderson †Glenn ’39 and †Delia Bergland †Harald ’25 and †Helen Bestul

NOTE: The President’s Council Life Members lists (pp. 60–62) recognize donors whose CUMULATIVE giving to Luther College has reached $100,000 or more as of December 31, 2012. All other lists (pp. 62–71) recognize donors who have given $1,000 or more to Luther College in the past calendar year—January 1–December 31, 2012—ONLY.

Luther Alumni Magazine

President’s Council †John ’33 and Mildred Breiland ’33 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 ◊David ’64 and Pat Miller Glenn Nelson and Mary Jane Borelli †Walter ’50 and Virginia Nelson †Carleton ’49 and Barbara (Orwoll) Nordschow ’49 ◊Donald ’48 and Dorie Olson Curtis Reiso ’54 †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 †Ollie ’49 and Pipka Ulvilden Michael Voltmer ’74 †Russell and †Margaret Wicks Michael and Barbara Wigley Robert and †Jean Wigley 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 *Howard Hughes Medical Institute 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, 2012, total $100,000 to $249,999. INDIVIDUALS Anonymous (2) †Maynard ’39 and Minerva Aaker H. George and Christine Anderson Jeffrey Anderson ’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 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 †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 Westlyn Derrevere †Walter Magnuson Ronald ’57 and Marilyn (Lokensgard) Martinson ’57 Paul ’81 and Miri (Peterson) Mattson ’81 †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 *Roald ’54 and Ruth Nelson Stephen ’81 and Kari Noltner Alan ’61 and Linda Nordhem †Hildred (Kronlokken) ’54 and Franklin Norman

Spring 2013 Luther Alumni Magazine

President’s Council 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 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 Joan (Catlin) ’63 and David Totten 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 Enwei Xie ’94 and Lynn Tonglao †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 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 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 The Joyce Foundation W.K. Kellogg Foundation Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company The William Penn Foundation Research Corporation Dr. J.E. Salsbury Foundation S.C. Johnson Wax Fund Inc. Spahn & Rose Lumber Company

*Attained Life Membership and President’s Circle membership during the 2012 calendar year lPresident’s Council life member(s) whose cumulative giving increase from last year resulted in a move to the next President’s Circle level

President’s Council Calendar Year Donors President’s Executive Cabinet Recognizes those whose gifts given from January 1, 2012, to December 31, 2012, total $50,000 or more. INDIVIDUALS Anonymous °Bruce ’68 and Janis (Zube) Altorfer ’70 °Rich ’74 and Candy (Grimm) Altorfer ’73 Lois Ansett †E.E. "Ray" ’59 and Shirley (Klingsheim) Bentdahl ’59 °Ronald ’59 and Gene (Flom) Calgaard ’58 °R. Eric ’61 and Cynthia (Aal) Carlson ’63 Shelby and Gale Davis °David ’64 and Camille Kundert David ’64 and Pat Miller William ’68 and Kaye Nelson °Neal ’59 and Gerry (Mosby) Nottleson ’59 °Marti (Tomson) ’84 and William Rodamaker °Arne ’80 and Ruth Sorenson O.J. and Patricia Tomson Betty Witte ESTATE GIFTS Estate of John Christopher ’37 Estate of Harlan Flatjord Estate of Patricia Gunderson ’70 Estate of Marvin Nystrom

Luther Alumni Magazine

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

President’s Associates Recognizes those whose gifts given from January 1, 2012, to December 31, 2012, total $25,000 to $49,999. INDIVIDUALS Anonymous °Ruth Drews ’76 and Dean Peckham °Helene (Rowe) Furst ’48 Spencer ’44 and Patricia Gedestad Ingeborg (Bader) Goessl ’60 °Jan (Engle) ’62 and John Gray °Katherine Johnson-Becklin and Jay Becklin °Ellen (Hanson) Lindop ’46 °David and Patricia Meyer °Steven Schaver ’76 and Asunta Eizaguirre Sterling Thompson ’50 °Joan (Catlin) ’63 and David Totten David ’58 and Florence Tuff Jerry ’57 and Barbara Twedt Larry ’83 and Jane Winter °Enwei Xie ’94 and Lynn Tonglao ESTATE GIFTS Estate of Ann Hillman °Estate of Paul Klutman Estate of Mary Margaret Roberts ’44 CORPORATIONS AND FOUNDATIONS Honda Motorwerks IBM Corporation Iowa College Foundation

President’s Academy Recognizes those whose gifts given from January 1, 2012, to December 31, 2012, total $10,000 to $24,999.

INDIVIDUALS Anonymous Hazel (Milbrath) Amundson ’39 °Steven ’74 and Paulette (Engel) Barnes ’74 Evelyn Barritt °Rebecca (Nelson) ’67 and George Bauman °Charles ’73 and Ann (Christensen) Beatty ’75 Mildred Breiland °Alvin ’54 and Marion Brekken °Renee (Anderson) ’72 and Charles Brown °Russell Bruemmer ’74 Wilfred ’53 and Ruth (Jensen) Bunge ’51 John Carlson °Evelyn (Henderson) Costley ’41 John and Carole Lea Cotton Dennis Day ’65 David ’71 and Jenee (Nelson) Dettmann ’72 °Jonathan ’90 and Dawn Doering °Peggy and Bryan Ettestad °E.D. and Helen Farwell James Field ’54 Leon and Linda Gregg Larry and Diane Grimstad °Ronald and Lisa Have °David ’66 and Carole Hoyem Dan Huebner Helen (Peterson) ’52 and Jack Hustad °Glen ’70 and Kathy (Selzer) Johnson ’71 °Orville and Kathleen Johnson °Stephen ’63 and Susan Kraabel Mary Kust °David ’69 and Julie Larson °Sandy and Mick Lee ’57 °David Lietz ’88 and Suzette Westlyn Derrevere David Lubben ’74 and Nancy Kwam

°Paula (Hermeier) ’76 and Kurtis Meyer ’76 °Bradley ’86 and Jane (Dalen) Miller ’86 Jodi Bofenkamp Mongan ’96 and Matthew Mongan Bjorn ’64 and Margot Monson °Roald ’54 and Ruth Nelson Stephen ’81 and Kari Noltner °Chip ’82 and Jari Norris °Timothy ’87 and Molly Oitzman °Marsha (Weckwerth) ’82 and Lee Olch K. Richard ’71 and Carol (Kershner) Olson ’72 °Steven ’68 and Connie (Marlow) Overholt ’71 °J. Robert ’78 and Barbara Paulson Drew and Cheryl Pellett Colleen (Voehl) Peterson ’58 °Marit (Running) ’58 and M. Franklin Pudas °†Norm ’50 and Darlene Rosholt °Marilyn (Haugen) ’66 and Jeff Roverud ’66 °Walter ’59 and Amelia Rugland George ’59 and Kaye Running °Rebecca (Linnevold) ’71 and Robert Shaw Melvyn ’63 and Ingrid (Jacobson) Smith ’63 °Susan Sorlien ’73 and Thomas Jones °Terry ’62 and Suzanne Sorom Karen (Mathews) ’65 and Mark Stuart °Richard ’72 and Jane Theiler °Brad ’81 and Meg Thompson °Diane (Baum) ’72 and Gaylord Thormodsgard °Richard and Judith Torgerson °Judith (Johnson) ’88 and Paul Vijums Marjorie (Running) ’66 and George Wharton Joseph ’80 and Greer Whitters

“

As a lifelong Lutheran, I have a special appreciation for the foundation Luther provided me during my college years. Thanks to this foundation, plus the excellent education received and the many quality friendships formed, I’ve been blessed in my working career over the years. We are grateful and want to give back to Luther, to allow others the opportunity to attend this great place.” —Jonathan Doering ’90 (shown with wife, Dawn)

Spring 2013 Luther Alumni Magazine

President’s Council ESTATE GIFTS Estate of Karen Berg ’65 Estate of Bartlett Butler Estate of Robert and Dorothy Faust Estate of Marion Olson ’48 Estate of Floyd Sollien CORPORATIONS AND FOUNDATIONS The Margaret A. Cargill Foundation Roy J. Carver Charitable Trust Col. L.C. Christensen Charitable and Religious Foundation Davis United World College Scholars °ExxonMobil Foundation Kinney-Lindstrom Foundation Inc. Opus Design Build, LLC °Wells Fargo

President’s Affiliates Recognizes those whose gifts given from January 1, 2012, to December 31, 2012, total $5,000 to $9,999. INDIVIDUALS Roger ’53 and Lois Amundson Jutta F. Anderson °M.C. Anderson ’54 Ann (Gulsvig) ’67 and John Bergstad Matthew Birkenholz ’03 and Kelly Woods Birkenholz ’03 Susan (Maclay) ’64 and Paul Blackman °Ronald and Ann Bolinger °Quentin and Inez Boyken John ’59 and Dorothy Brugge °David Carlson ’85

°Keith Christensen ’80 and Dawn Deines-Christensen ’82 °Matthew ’88 and Lisa Christian °Craig Cornelius ’74 and Ann Hadden-Cornelius Eric ’99 and Julia Cutler Donald ’68 and Joanne Davidson °Wendy (Jaycox) ’92 and Thor Davidson ’93 J. Kent ’62 and Carol Dougherty °Lois (Brandt) Drews ’49 Randa Duvick ’78 and Dave Grosnick °Donald and Glenda Eggerling °Dennis ’68 and Jean Flatness Jerry Freund and Ann Highum °J Bruce ’62 and Cosette (Cross) Goetsch ’63 C. Carlyle ’55 and Mary (Kittelsland) Haaland ’56 °Mark and Barbara Hanawalt Richard Simon Hanson ’53 Mark ’71 and Lois (Lebakken) Helland ’71 Richard ’65 and Joann (Harr) Hemp ’65 Dayton ’79 and Amy Henderson James ’70 and Linda Peterson Herman ’75 Brian ’98 and Patricia Johnson °Jonathan ’85 and Sandra (Neitzel) Joppa ’87 Douglas ’82 and Shelly Kintzinger °George Kuh ’68 °Ronald ’61 and Jean Lee °James ’79 and Janis (Miller) Lovell ’80 Jeanie and Paul Lovell Joel ’88 and Laurence Ludvigsen Jon Lund °Victoria (Dahly) ’73 and Randal Miller ’73 Suzanne (Roverud) ’96 and Corey Mineck Paula (Bedford) ’68 and Paul Moucka

“

As business owners in the Decorah community and parents of a recent graduate, we are firm believers in the strengths of Luther College. We choose to direct our support to the college out of appreciation for the good Luther does in our community.” —Jim and Bridget Casper, Casper Plumbing and Heating

°Betty Rikansrud Nelson ’57 Jan Nelson ’70 °Millard and LaVonne Nelson °Riddell Noble ’57 °Franklin Norman °A. Richard ’59 and Martha (Smith) Olson ’59 Thelma Overholt °Betty (Fey) ’55 and Merle Peterson Alexander Platt Matthew ’02 and Rebecca Poock Mark ’95 and Hadley Ritter °Janet Robertson ’60 °Curtis ’60 and Ann (Knutson) Rotto ’61 Dale ’62 and Catherine Ruosch Robert ’68 and Dell Ann (Kappus) Sathe ’68 °Corey ’98 and Tonya (Schwers) Schmidt ’97 °Thomas ’73 and Julie (Hedlund) Seidelmann ’73 Thomas ’67 and Mary Severson Lynn ’61 and Mary (Frost) Steen ’62 Carol Steinmetz Scott ’89 and Laura (Anderson) Stevens ’92 °Robert ’58 and Janet (Purmort) Tollund ’73 °Paul ’73 and Rebecca (Larson) Torgerson ’73 °Thomas ’62 and Juanita Vaaler °Lance ’79 and Shari Vander Linden Cheryl Westrum Bressler ’79 and Richard Bressler Amy Wrightsman ’01 °James ’81 and Jodi (Palma) Young ’81 ESTATE GIFTS Estate of Gerald Drake Estate of Shirley Hansen Estate of Sharon (Wells) Hotchkiss ’59 Estate of Bjorg (Rinvold) Jackson ’59 Estate of Lloyd and Susie Loven Estate of Richard Thomsen ’59 CORPORATIONS AND FOUNDATIONS Bank of the West Casper Plumbing and Heating Deco Products Company Eaton Corporation Kimberly Clark Foundation

Luther Alumni Magazine

President’s Council

“

At Luther, we experienced the best aspects of a small, liberal arts college—professors and coaches who cared and inspired us to learn, the opportunity to participate in athletics, and lifelong friendships. It’s only natural to give back to a college that gave us so much.” —Adam ’93 and Linnea (West) Benson ’95

Luther College Woman’s Club Lutheran Community Foundation °Microsoft Corporation °Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company Winneshiek County Community Foundation Winneshiek Medical Center

President’s Society Recognizes those whose gifts given from January 1, 2012, to December 31, 2012, total $1,000 to $4,999. INDIVIDUALS Anonymous (10) °Minerva Aaker Scott Addington ’69 °Darrin ’90 and Amy Ahrens Sherry (Braun) Alcock ’82 Moid ’01 and Amanda (Jack) Alwy ’01 °Lloyd and Barbara Amundson Richard ’64 and Barbara (Moen) Amundson ’65 Beverly (Leonard) ’62 and Thomas Anderson ’63 Dennis and Corinne Anderson °H. George and Christine Anderson °James ’50 and Ruth (Aas) Anderson ’50 Jim and Pat Anderson James ’74 and Patricia Anderson Jeffrey ’84 and Mary Ellen (Palmquist) Anderson ’84 Kenneth Anderson ’58 Roger ’48 and Amme Anderson °Ronald ’57 and Lorna (Haugland) Anderson ’60 Avis (Lovell) Andre ’57 Peter and Lisa Androus °Karen Angell ’80 °Jack Anundsen

°Jeffrey ’89 and Angela (Carlson) Arndt ’88 David and Candace Arp °Karl ’51 and Sylvia Aschim Mel ’67 and Brooke Ashland Sharon (Zumdahl) ’70 and Stanley Asp Julie (Jensen) ’98 and Thomas Assel °Glenn ’62 and Karen (Swain) Austad ’62 °Michael ’65 and Karen (Wardell) Austad ’64 °Sally Swab Austin ’70 and Bradford Austin Eric Baack °Barbara (Kleene) ’72 and Daniel Babine °Ruth Ann Bachman ’75 and Thomas Gallagher Shirley Baker Daniel Baldwin and Anne Bulliung John Bale °John ’83 and Karla (Nelson) Balk ’83 °Roger ’71 and Peggy Bang °Robert ’87 and Connie (Huisinga) Barrett ’87 Steven ’74 and Nancy Barry Eugene and Aneila Barth Janet (Hellie) Barth ’50 °Timothy Bartness ’75 °Ann (Birdsall) ’71 and Byron Beasley °Marion ’75 and Peggy (Hall) Beatty ’74 °Matthew ’92 and Kristine Beatty Andrea Beckendorf ’93 °Loren ’59 and Betty (Eide) Behm ’57 °Peter Behrens ’90 and Jana Zimmerman ’89 William and Patricia Beierwaltes °Naomi (Flugstad) ’44 and Owen Bekkum °Glenn ’79 and Kirsten (Davig) Benidt ’79 Adam ’93 and Linnea (West) Benson ’95 W. Craig and Barbara Benson Alvin ’61 and Lois (Stole) Berg ’62 °Donald ’56 and Barbara Berg Dean ’74 and Nancy (Stoneman) Berkas ’74 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 °Dennis ’64 and Suzanne Birkestrand Carol Birkland ’67 and Thomas Woxland °Richard ’71 and Louann (Peterson) Bjorlo ’67 °Donald Blockhus ’51 °Nancy (Larson) Bluemel ’62 Michael ’96 and Jennifer (Usgaard) Bockenstedt ’96 °Erik ’87 and Anne Boe °Warren ’60 and Maryellen (Amundson) Boe ’61 °David Boileau ’76 and Shirley Kirschbaum °Kimberly (Carlson) ’02 and Andrew Bonnet Larry Bonney ’85 Steven ’72 and Beverly (Ulstad) Borgstrom ’72 °Carol Borson ’61 Jake ’61 and Shirley Bostrom °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 Alan ’55 and Sally Brudos Eric ’85 and Ginger (Felland) Brudos ’85 John ’53 and M. Jean Bruemmer Amy (Carlson) ’92 and Keith Bruening ’80 Gregory ’78 and Karen Bruening Paula Brugge ’83 and Charles Spetland †Adolph ’34 and †Doris (Erickson) Buckneberg ’35 Marilyn (Myrah) Bunge ’51 Mary Bunge Docken ’79 and Don Lucas °Don ’53 and Joan Bungum °David Bunt ’78 °Adam Burk ’06 Doug and Sue Burks °Julie (Rovang) ’63 and Donald Burton °Barbara Butler Jonathan Butler ’04 Ruth Caldwell and Uwe Rudolf Lori Koch Cannestra ’82 and Paul Cannestra David ’63 and Brenda (Landsgard) Carlson ’73

Spring 2013 Luther Alumni Magazine

President’s Council Hans ’76 and Carol (Crissinger) Carlson ’76 Jean (Flom) Carlson ’58 Joyce Carlson °Robert Carlson ’71 and Connie Wooldridge Michael ’85 and Susanne Carney Becky (Murray) ’75 and James Carpenter °Kevin ’87 and Stacie (Olson) Carpenter ’90 James Chafoulias °Larry ’65 and Karen (Aaker) Chellevold ’65 °Augustine Chen ’55 Addison Choi ’11 Walter ’68 and Aleta (Reckling) Chossek ’69 °Bernard ’73 and Betty Christ °Dennis ’63 and Ann (Henningsgaard) Christ ’66 †Dean Christen ’57 and Ardis Fiskerbeck Christen ’59

°Ralph ’49 and Jane Colrud Lori (Beckman) Conway ’83 °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 °William ’62 and Judith (Ream) Davis ’62 °Leilani Hovden De Muth ’61 Jean Dickson ’89 Rodney ’80 and Lisa Dir °Mark ’70 and Vicki (Mohlis) Donhowe ’70 °Michael Dorner ’86 °Thomas and Paula Dosland °Gregory ’61 and Carol Dotseth Jeffrey ’80 and Joni Dotseth °Erik ’85 and Ellen (Paulson) Dovre ’86 Louise Dovre Bjorkman ’82 and John Bjorkman °Alice (Ranum) ’49 and Leonard Drake Sue (Franzen) ’78 and Jack Drilling

“

The $1.5 million award from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute places Luther among some of the nation’s best colleges. Our successful proposal emerged when we brought together two of Luther’s strengths—science and education. This collaboration is helping future scientists and science teachers carry out research with Luther faculty, and future elementary teachers to be better prepared to teach science.” —Eric Baack, Luther assistant professor of biology

Daniel ’68 and Pamela Christensen °Rodney ’79 and Deborah Christensen °Ronald ’61 and Judith Christian Birgitte (Povelsen) ’73 and John Christianson Anne (Marking) ’62 and Myrvin Christopherson °Jon ’84 and Janeen (Fowler) Christy ’93 °Leofwin and JoBeth Clark °Marcia (Wangberg) ’82 and Stephen Clark °Heather Clefisch ’94 and Nate Zolik °Peter and Sandy Cochrane °David ’80 and Wendy (Hillesland) Coe ’80 Martin ’91 and Michele Cole Richard and JoAnn Cole

Samuel Drong ’04 and Rebecca Franklin ’05 °Douglas Duin ’77 and Ann Hill Duin ’77 Shannon (Miller) ’95 and DeLane Duval °Duane and Linda Eaton Richard ’64 and Patricia (McCullough) Edwards ’63 °Jay ’82 and Gail (Werner) Egenes ’83 °Tami Ehlers ’01 °Eldon ’56 and Frances (Smith) Ellefson ’59 °Jean Ellefson ’57 Gary ’59 and Jannell Embretson Charles Enge ’58 °Charles ’73 and Janice (Knutson) Engebretson ’74

H.G. ’57 and Marcia (Borreson) Engebretson ’58 Edgar and Joyce Epperly Daryl ’61 and Audrey (Pederson) Erdman ’61 °Karla (Luzum) ’89 and Lindsay Erdman Karen (Kiland) ’61 and Daniel Erlander Peter ’81 and Kari Tollefson Espinosa ’84 Juanita Etter °Joann (Halvorson) Evans ’52 Jodene Evans ’84 °Duane Everson ’62 David ’79 and Rachel (Andersen) Faldet ’78 Ronnald Farland ’62 and Jose Aceves °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 °Elizabeth Fiskerbeck Bruening ’58 °Bob ’66 and Lynne Fjelstul Scott ’83 and Ann Fjelstul °Timothy ’67 and Janet (Strube) Fleming ’67 °James ’64 and Judith (Larson) Fogdall ’65 °Larry ’62 and Marilyn Fogdall Luther ’49 and Ilene (Knutson) Forde ’46 °Donna (Ellefson) ’57 and Fredric Fortney °Craig Fox ’83 Gene Frank ’69 Kevin ’00 and Kimberly (Turner) Frantz ’00 °Ronald ’61 and Karen (Paulson) Fretheim ’63 °Terence ’56 and Faith (Luzum) Fretheim ’56 Jim and Rita Friest °Wilmer ’48 and Margaret (Nelson) Fure ’48 Laurie Gage ’73 Andrew Galuski ’95 and Michelle Corley William and Katherine Gamble Joseph and Catherine Garcia-Prats Daniel ’92 and Amy Getsch Blair Gibson and Sicily Tan John and Marilyn Gilbert °Gary ’74 and Sandra Gilderhus Daniel Gjelten ’74 and Lisa Burke ’85 °Eric Goers ’93 and Kerri Doeden Goers ’93

Luther Alumni Magazine

President’s Council Nancy Gossell ’74 °John and Lois Graf °Steven ’76 and Julie (Huntting) Grandgeorge ’77 °Janice (Sprung) ’59 and Donald Gratz °Lloyd ’65 and Mary Beth (Sandstrom) Gravengaard ’65 Michele (Anderson) ’93 and Robert Graves Andrew ’92 and Carrie Gray Phyllis Gray ’73 °Kristopher ’82 and Kathryn (Willi) Gregersen ’81 Larry and Zylpha Gregerson Maryln (Johnson) Grimm ’50 Ben and Padrin Grimstad °Joseph ’98 and Ann Grimstad °Richard ’50 and Eileen Grindeland °David ’85 and Janet Gross °Laura (Stordahl) ’03 and Tyler Guenzel °Delores Gustafson °Barbara (Lee) ’52 and Eugene Haak Corey and Michelle Haaland Ross ’95 and Nori (Greenlee) Hadley ’97 James ’72 and Susan (Hammond) Haemker ’74 °Suzanne (Knoll) ’65 and John Hales Dale ’81 and Teresa (Bell) Hallberg ’82 Cindy Hangartner ’90 °Larry ’68 and Jane (Hoplin) Hansen ’68 °Thomas ’77 and Joyce Hansen Bradley and Marion Hanson °Eugene ’59 and Naomi (Borreson) Hanson ’61 °Minnard ’38 and Carol Hanson Paul ’85 and Yumi Hanson °Rhys ’56 and Kathleen Hanson °Scott ’80 and Rhonda Hanson °Lori Happel-Jarratt ’89 and Al Jarratt Steven ’84 and Denae (Erdman) Harder ’87 °Debra (Lietz) ’87 and Andrew Hare °Harold and Beverly Harris °J. Bruce ’48 and Beverly Harstad °Brian and Julie Hart °Jon and Mary Hart °Chryss (Syers) ’76 and Mike Hartman °Lee ’84 and Linda (Rosholt) Hash ’85 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 °Gene ’63 and Suzanne Haugland

°Irene (Schulz) ’53 and Chester Hausken °George ’97 and Nicole (Voss) Hawkinson ’98 °Richard ’53 and Christine (Rotto) Hefte ’53 Alan ’58 and Joanne (Hamberg) Heggen ’59 °John ’62 and Susan Helgeland Adrian ’41 and †Evelyne Helgeson °Thomas Hellie ’75 and Julie Olds David ’76 and Sue 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 °Sheldon ’52 and Renee (Aust) Hermanson ’54 Gene ’53 and Ruby (Totman) Hermeier ’53 °Adolph ’43 and Avis Herseth Norma Hervey °Lloyd ’43 and Donna Herwig Michael ’81 and Rhonda Hicks °Lavern ’49 and Jean Hillesland Steven ’79 and Jacki (Johnson) Hinrichs ’79 °Agnes (Grevstad) Hjelle ’60 °Michael Hjelmeland ’01 Mark and Catherine Hoerth °Ardith Hoff °Barry ’83 and Lisa (Schulz-Fincke) Hoff ’83 Betty Hoff ’60 Donald and Mavis Hoffman °Pat Holman ’72 and Philip Wangberg ’70 °Janice (Anderson) ’57 and Roger Horn °Marguerite (Agena) ’64 and Max Horn Robert and Arlene Houlihan °Louise (Naeseth) Hubbard ’39 Christopher ’89 and Jennifer (Jenkins) Hubbs ’95 Steven ’00 and Mindra (Freeman) Hudak ’00 °Craig ’84 and Annick Ibsen °Philip ’87 and Sarah (Henning) Iversen ’87 °Alfred ’49 and Christabel (Adix) Jacobs ’49 °Karl ’72 and Jerrine Jacobsen

Steven ’69 and Edith (Held) Jacobsen ’69 Julie (Lyng) ’90 and Herman Jass ’89 °Lawrence and Mildred Jensen °Mark and Mary Johns Arthur ’67 and Jacqueline Johnson °Charles and Doris Johnson John ’83 and Lucina Johnson °Kent ’83 and Lee (Knoernschild) Johnson ’85 Kirk ’82 and Kerry (Kramer) Johnson ’83 °Scott Johnson ’80 and Naomi Nowland ’80 °Theodore ’50 and Barbara Johnson Tracy Johnson ’92 William Johnson Beth Jones Donald and Cynthia Jones °Lori Jones ’83 °Timothy Jones and Annie Cardelus David ’92 and Holly Jorde °Shirley (Stark) ’61 and Travis Jorde °Brian Jorgensen ’80 and Richard Pietz °Karen Julesberg ’60 °Curtis and Edith Julson Michael ’98 and Heidi (Hingeveld) Jung ’00 David ’68 and Rayna Kaasa Haldis (Solem) Kaasa ’81 Kevin ’00 and Tamara (Swenson) Kampfe ’02 Blanche Kangas 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 °Michael ’89 and Julie Kinsel °Wayne ’61 and Alyce Kivell Christian ’05 and Kristen (Neve) Klein ’05 °Helen (Legler) ’59 and Hans Kneubuhler °Harriet Knudson °Norlie Knudson ’64 °Kenneth ’62 and Judith (Hestenes) Knutson ’61 °Mark and Therese Knutson William ’70 and Carolyn (Peterson) Kobler ’70 °Jessica (Wrobel) ’03 and Preston Koenig Joanne (Gray) Kolstad ’53 °Walter ’49 and Helen Korsrud

Spring 2013 Luther Alumni Magazine

President’s Council Christopher Kramer ’91 Douglas ’73 and Sandra Kratz °William ’54 and Suzanne Krohn Dennis and Holly Kruger Michael ’87 and Amy (Larsen) Krull ’89 °Timothy and Sarah Krumm °Jon Kucera ’74 and Susan Graham °Richard Kundel Michael ’78 and Amy (Kiesler) Kust ’78 °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 °April Ulring Larson ’72 and Judd Larson ’74 °Brian ’00 and Rachel (Forde) Larson ’99 Conrad ’52 and Florence (Holien) Larson ’54 °Marcy (Petersen) ’96 and Eric Larson °O. Dale ’61 and Patricia Larson Robert and Marilynn Larson Rob and Sandra Larson Reginald and Jerilyn Laursen Ping-Yee ’69 and Judy Law °Dale ’95 and Amanda (Neal) Lawrence ’95 °Rebecca (Knutson) ’79 and Lee Lawrence °Lisa Laxson ’91 and Curt Clifton °George and Erin Lederhaas °Elaina Lee ’94 James and Catherine Lee °Jon ’62 and Stefani (Monson) Lee ’62 Ronald Lee ’62 and Marie Bender-Lee Vivian Lee Chris Lee-Thompson ’75 and Sylvia Lee-Thompson °Lois Leffler ’59 Dale ’87 and Lisa (Nguyen) Lensing ’86 °Ann Leon ’75 Cary and Mary Lewis °Gerald Liedl °Richard ’60 and Dorothea (Nybroten) Lind ’62 Dennis ’71 and Barbara Linderbaum

°Susan Linner ’76 °Willard ’37 and Yvonne Linnevold °Jerrold ’62 and Elizabeth Lokensgard David ’59 and 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 Russell ’58 and Juanita (Zeman) Loven ’56 Warren Luckner ’68 and Mary Carr Luckner Barbara Lueder ’70 °Ross Lund ’97 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 Lyle ’94 and Christopher Lyle Dale and Kathleen Lyndahl 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 Thomas ’91 and Jill (Johnson) Marquardt ’91 °Robert and Margaret Marshall Michael ’81 and Julia Martin °James and Karen Martin-Schramm °Kate Martinson °Phil and Lynn Martinson Ronald ’57 and Marilyn (Lokensgard) Martinson ’57 °John and Rebecca Mason Paul ’81 and Miri (Peterson) Mattson ’81 °Stephen ’68 and Margeen (Bolson) Mau ’69 °Timothy ’84 and Mindy McCarthy °Gregory ’95 and La Donna (Hoornstra) McGohan ’95 Chad ’93 and Theresa McShane James and Helen Meehan °Bruce ’52 and Rosella (Gjere) Melaas ’52

Sherwood Mellom ’49 °John and Marcia Metzger °Brenda Severson Meyer ’83 and Brian Meyer Edward and Ilse Meyer Scott and Ruth Meyer °Todd ’93 and Nicole Michaels Donald ’62 and Shirley Mills David and Bridgette Mitchell °Joel Mjolsness ’74 and Jory Segal Kathryn Ulvilden Moen ’41 Martin Mohr and Mary Lou Hull Mohr °Duane ’68 and Kirsten (Monson) Monick ’68 John and Ruth Monson Luther ’51 and IvaNell (Mundt) Monson ’51 °Thomas ’77 and Ann (Johnson) Monson ’78 °Katherine Moody ’01 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 Thomas and Jean Murray °Michael Musgrave ’86 °Roselle (Olson) Naeseth ’44 Robert ’65 and Ann (Aaker) Naslund ’66 °A.P. ’43 and Borghild (Teigland) Nassen ’43 James Neal ’01 and April Rowe Neal ’01 °Carolyn (Nuttall) ’62 and James Nelson °Connie (Jolstad) Nelson ’60 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 Corinne and Harland Nelson Jayme (Rutledge) ’87 and Daniel Nelson °Jeffrey Nelson and Susan Anderson-Nelson John ’58 and Arlene (Olsen) Nelson ’56 °Lloyd ’51 and LaVine Nelson

Luther Alumni Magazine

President’s Council Luther ’64 and Marilyn Nervig °Timothy ’82 and Jayne Ness °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 Darryll Noble Evelyn (Fesenmeyer) Noble ’44 Stephen ’73 and Linda (Hedstrom) Noble ’73 Weston Noble ’43 Charles Nolop ’62 °Kenneth Noonan ’85 and Carrie Askew Noonan ’86 °Michael ’77 and Linda Norderhaug °Alan ’61 and Linda Nordhem Deborah Norland ’75 and James Bovee Sylvia (Schey) Norland ’47 Russell and Anna Norris °Andrew Nottleson ’90 and Lizabeth Diekema ’90 °Jonathan Nowland ’83 and Christi Munson Nowland ’80 °Ronald ’54 and Frieda (Mindrum) Nowland ’54 °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 Kennedy-Ode ’94 °Milford ’52 and Marjorie Ofstun Barbara O’Grady Janice Oldenburg ’76 and Jon Ninnemann °Kristen (Kollmorgen) ’88 and Lon Olejniczak Jeffrey Olinger ’85 and Heidi Miller-Olinger °Christine Olsen ’78 and Tom Roth Paul ’65 and Jeanne Olsen °Carole Olson Dale ’74 and Anne (Kruse) Olson ’74 °David ’79 and Siobhan Olson °Donald ’48 and Dorie Olson Duaine Olson °Eric ’85 and Virginie Olson °Helen (Stuepfert) ’69 and John 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 Brad and Debra Orvis Michael Osterholm ’75 and Barbara Colombo Michael Ostermeyer ’83 and Cynthia Zautcke ’85 °Dan ’89 and Theresa (Anderson) Owens ’89 Estate of Alice Paulson °Jeffrey ’81 and Nancy Paulson John ’88 and Sherry (Schmidt) Paulson ’88 Joseph Paulus ’89 Allen ’69 and Karen (Anderson) Peckham ’69 David ’02 and Melanie Pendergast

“

Luther College holds a special place in our hearts. We appreciate the launching pad Luther provided and the soft landing Decorah provides each time we return. Giving back is a way to express our gratitude and pave the way for future leaders. — Jackson Ode ’93 and Cara Kennedy-Ode ’94

Mark ’82 and Catherine (Eichmann) Penning ’83 °Dale and Judy Peter Nels Petersen Roger Petersen and Susan Sandholm-Petersen °Gregory Peterson ’83 and Ann Sponberg Peterson °Hamlet ’54 and Suzanne Peterson °Karen (Nilsestuen) Peterson ’65 Luther Peterson ’61 Paul and Deaun Peterson Marit (Ness) ’91 and Frank Piacente Steven ’77 and Marcia (Hoff) Pitzenberger ’78 Connie Plaehn ’75 David ’93 and Rebecca Poetker Steven ’78 and Solveig (Storvick) Pollei ’79 Donald Potter °Penelope (Smith) ’77 and David Pratt David ’43 and Ann Preus °Jonathan ’61 and Mary Preus ’63 °Mark ’81 and Mary Pribbenow °Paul Pribbenow ’78 and Abigail Crampton Pribbenow °David ’83 and Karen Quinby °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 °Douglas Reasa ’61 Vaho Rebassoo and Maura Oneill Richard and Jill Reed Brett ’81 and Michele (Wylder) Reese ’81 Robert and Donna Reifschneider °Mark ’67 and Dianne Reinsmoen °Scot Reisinger ’96 and Heather Schacht Reisinger ’96 °Curtis Reiso ’54 Phillip and Ruth Reitan Brian ’98 and April (Johnson) Remfrey ’98 Sharon (Rose) ’71 and James Rendack Mary Lynn (Swenson) ’79 and David Rettig °Harry and Sharon Ritter °Lucile Roberts ’42 Kletus ’51 and Lois Rood Waldron ’58 and Arlene (Riegel) Rosheim ’59 °Robert ’51 and Lucille Rosholt

Spring 2013 Luther Alumni Magazine

President’s Council David ’59 and Joy Roslien °Myrna Ross Hans ’90 and Mary (Mathews) Rotto ’90 Kathryn (Hermanson) Rotto ’57 Alma Rotto-Morgan ’61 °Richard ’61 and Julaine Rud °Marion (Bjerke) Rude ’52 °Peter Rudolf ’84 and Sherry Holtz Loyal and Marilyn Rue Steven Runde ’97 Brent ’00 and Lori (Stork) Ryan ’99 Kevin ’72 and Leslie (Smith) Sand ’74 °Britt Sather ’78 Harlan ’82 and Sonja Satrom °Paul ’73 and Nancy (Fredrickson) Savre ’73 °Robert ’53 and Avis (Nelson) Savre ’53 °Russell Savre ’68 °Scot and Debra Schaeffer °Alan and Mary Schaffmeyer °Marlin ’58 and Ann Scheib Sylvia (Nervig) ’66 and Donald Schmid William ’62 and Ann Schmid °Darrell Schmidt ’80 and Julie Mall °J. Stephen ’68 and Lin (Mathieu) Schmidt ’70 °Jeffrey Schmidt ’87 and Berit Nelson Schmidt Kari (Amundson) ’92 and Robert Schmidt °Brad Schmugge ’93 °Susan (Riley) ’90 and Mark Schneider ’90 °Peter and Diane Scholl °Paul ’43 and Camille Schroeder Paul ’98 and Jody (Daubendiek) Schulte ’98 °Fred ’54 and Lisa Schultz Jack ’61 and Helen Schultz °Ruth (Hove) ’82 and Randal Schultz Jill (Monis) ’97 and Thomas Schwanz °David ’77 and Dawn (Hovden) Schweizer ’78 Helen Schweizer Carolyn and John Schwendeman °Scott Searl ’94 Robert Seaver ’57 °†Ronald Seaver ’54 °Sara (Gunther) Sersland ’70 Ellie (Stack) ’94 and Brian Shaw °Stephen ’71 and Katie (Kvale) Sheppard ’71 Erik ’01 and Kaia (Nordal) Sherburne ’04

Margaret Sherve ’73 °Anjela Shutts ’93 and Peter Kitundu °Karen Smith ’72 °Steven ’95 and Maria (Bringer) Smith ’95 °Carol Solheim ’72 and Peter Santiago °Allan ’60 and LaVonne (Leng) Solomonson ’61 °Larry ’63 and Aniko Solomonson °Allen ’63 and Judith Soltow Ryan Sommers ’04 Dorothy Bergeson Sorenson °Steve ’72 and Susan Sorenson °C. Robert ’66 and Sondra Sperati °Dirk ’00 and Sarah (Long) Stadtlander ’00 °Richard Staff ’69 °John Stalbaum ’67 °Keith ’70 and Connie (Dummermuth) Steere ’68 °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 Randy ’77 and Deborah (Kruger) Stockman ’77 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 Bruce ’68 and Marcia Lynn (Wagner) Sundet ’69 James ’72 and Sue (Capretz) Symonds ’72 °Adam Syverson ’02 °Henry ’67 and Marlene Syverson Diane and James Tacke Eugene ’66 and Miriam (Nelson) Takle ’66 Denize Tan Peter ’57 and Leila Tan °Aaron ’00 and Heidi Thiese

°Myron ’80 and Diane Thiese Chad ’92 and Melissa (Bonikowske) Thomley ’93 °Douglas Thompson Joe and Rhonda Thompson James ’86 and Kathy (Winter) Thomsen ’85 Jack Thomson Robert Thomson Ronald ’73 and Chris Throndsen °Charles ’72 and Noreen Thurston °Matthew ’01 and Jaime (Rowe) Titus ’00 °John and Karen Tjostem Paul ’69 and Elizabeth (Tenold) Tokheim ’70 °Mary Townswick ’75 Terry Trimpe ’70 °Geoffrey ’94 and Dalia Trullinger George ’51 and Phyllis (Rossing) Trytten ’52 °Anita (Buss) ’61 and John Turck Christopher ’92 and Charity D.R. Tyler Harold ’69 and Lynette (Ellingson) Usgaard ’70 °Sara Uthe Holm ’99 and Eric Holm °Lee ’78 and Maggie Valenta °Karin Van Dyke Tony ’06 and Laura (Monson) Vanden Heuvel ’08 °E.C. Vanderwalker ’41 Steven Vick ’73 W. William Vinson Joann (Hove) Voltmer ’73 Michael Voltmer ’74 °Norris Waalen ’72 and Hollis Krug Waalen Marilyn Wahlberg °Howard Walker °Harold ’62 and Jane (Baker) Wallestad ’61 °George ’63 and Joyce (Behrens) Wallman ’65 °Solveig (Johnson) Walstrom ’70 Ruth Ward Schraeder ’88 and Neil Schraeder °Mark Wardell ’68 °Andrea (Borneman) ’02 and Nicholas Weber Kevin and Kenda Wedemeier Jonathan Wee ’88 and Leah Vriesman ’88 °Donna (Wangsness) ’64 and James Weigle Annie Weilgart ’75 Caroline (Hjerleid) ’62 and James Weis °Mitchell West ’77

Luther Alumni Magazine

President’s Council °Lucas ’07 and Sarah (Nesheim) Westby ’07 Jeffrey ’79 and Barb Wettach °Jody Wettach ’86 Joy (Andresen) ’65 and John Wetzel °Carolyn (Forde) White ’61 °James ’70 and Irene Whittington °Kyle ’92 and Kristine (Hukey) Wiese ’91 °Genevieve (Fosdahl) Wilberg ’56 °Debra Wilson ’71 and Peggy Brenden ’76 °Robert Wilson ’75 Rolland ’60 and Sharon (Jacobson) Wilson ’60 °Christina (Vignec) Winch ’63 °Warren Wind ’58 °Leigh Wold ’52 and Solveig Misner Michael ’70 and Rosann Wold Aaron Wrobleski ’99 and Kristin KahleWrobleski ’99 Richard ’50 and Joanne Ylvisaker °Jamison Young ’99 Robert ’61 and Carol (Freshwater) Zaiser ’58 °Robert ’67 and Jeanne (Engler) Zaske ’67 Joel ’79 and Jodi Zellmer °Judy (Henriksen) Zetterberg ’72 °Nichelle Zimmer ’90 ESTATE GIFTS Estate of Frederick Halverson ’39 Estate of Angeline Jacobson Estate of Bernice Rise Estate of Ruth Steinmetz CORPORATIONS AND FOUNDATIONS A&J Petersburg Agency Alpha Beta Psi American Century Investments American College Health Foundation American Legion of Iowa Foundation Association for Computing Machinery, Inc. °ATK The Barry Foundation Bethany Lutheran Church, Leland, Ill. Boeing Company °Capital Group Companies Inc. °Cargill Inc. Covidien Employee Matching Gift Program Cozumel Properties LLC Culver’s of Decorah

Decorah Veterinary Clinic Deere & Company °Dell Charitable Trusts °Dell Giving °Deloitte & Touche Foundation °Edward W. Dosh Law Office Erdman Engineering P.C. °Ernst & Young Foundation Arlin C. Falck Foundation °First Lutheran Church, Decorah, Iowa Fjelstul Funeral Home Follett Higher Education Group °The General Electric Foundation °General Mills Foundation °Google Matching Gifts Program Gundersen Lutheran Medical Center Inc. Hacker Nelson & Company P.C. The Harley-Davidson Foundation Inc. Harman Realty Hawkeye Stages Inc. Hormel Foods Corporation Hotel Winneshiek Ingersoll Rand Iowa Rotocast Plastics Inc. °John Deere Foundation Johnson & Johnson Luce-Bergeson Endowment Fund Luren Singing Society Madison Community Foundation °The Medtronic Foundation °The Merck Company Foundation °Meredith Corporation Midwest Group Benefits °Nationwide Foundation Olson Explosives Inc. °Our Savior’s Lutheran Church, Calamus, Iowa °Owens-Illinois Inc. The Presser Foundation Scandinavian Association of Greater Kansas City Spahn & Rose Lumber Company Charitable Foundation Storey Kenworthy Company Subway T-Bock’s Sports Bar & Grill Wicks Construction Inc. Xcel Energy

President’s Visionaries Recognizes those who have established planned gifts of $2,000 or more from January 1, 2012, to December 31, 2012. Roger ’53 and Lois Amundson Glenn ’62 and Karen (Swain) Austad ’62 Ruth Ann Bachman ’75 and Thomas Gallagher Anne (Marking) ’62 and Myrvin Christopherson Jessica Ellis ’98 Ruth Fjelstad Nancy Gates-Lee ’72 and Robert Lee Elsa Groe ’64 Thomas Hellie ’75 and Julie Olds Kerry Knodle ’72 Kenneth ’62 and Judith (Hestenes) Knutson ’61 Andrea Kruse ’08 William and Yvonne Kuhlman James and Catherine Lee Ronald Lee ’62 and Marie Bender-Lee Russell ’58 and Juanita (Zeman) Loven ’56 Richard ’75 and Kristen (Sterenberg) McKlveen ’75 Richard and Kristine Meunier William ’68 and Kaye Nelson Dale and Sunny Nimrod Jeffrey ’03 and Karin (Hanson) Ninnemann ’03 Richard and Carolyn Parmelee Richard ’69 and Donna Rima Solveig (Johnson) Walstrom ’70

° Leadership Trust member (gifts totaling $1,000 or more to the Luther College Annual Fund in the past calendar year, January 1, 2012–December 31, 2012) † deceased 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 1-800-2 ALUMNI or e-mail giving@ luther.edu so we may correct our records.

Spring 2013 Luther Alumni Magazine

Endpage

These photographs arrived in the mail in February from Janet Sand Pinch ’62. “I do not remember if a contest was included or if it was just for fun,” she wrote. She suspects the photos are from the late 1950s or early ’60s. Luther archivist Rachel Vagts found no information about the sculptures, but did discover, via the Pioneer archives, that there was no snow in Decorah in winter 1960. If you know the story behind these photos, send it to us at magazine@luther.edu or Luther Alumni Magazine, Luther College, 700 College Drive, Decorah, IA 52101. And if you have your own Luther mystery photos that you’d like help identifying, feel free to send those too.

Luther Alumni Magazine

photos courtesy of Janet Sand Pinch ’62

What’s the story behind these photos?

Calendar Sesquicentennial Fund Celebration and Torgerson Tribute Monday, May 13 Brown Deer Golf Club Coralville, Iowa

A Torgerson Tribute: 14 Years of Mojo from the Get-Go! Thursday, May 16 Luther College

Heritage Club Dinner

Kirk Johnson ‘82

Saturday, May 18 Luther College

Commencement Sunday, May 19 Luther College

Concert Band Companion Tour to Iceland and Norway May 20–31 Hosted by President Rick and Judy Torgerson

Sailing the WineDark Seas Cruise May 26–June 8 12-day Mediterranean Empires Cruise hosted by professor of classics Philip Freeman and Alison Dwyer

Norse Athletic Association Benefit Golf Tournament Monday, June 10 Oneota Golf and Country Club Decorah

Discover Spain and Portugal on the Portuguese Camino Tour July 10–24 Hosted by Luisa and Peter Forsgren ’82

Dr. Michael Osterholm ’75 (right) talks with (left to right) Mike Hemstad, Liz (Lee) Heinecke ’89, and Doug Rutherford at the March 22 Luther College Lunch Connection in Minneapolis. Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, was the featured speaker.

Weston Noble ’43 Alumni Choir July 21–25 Luther College

Lutherlag July 21–26 Luther College

Friends of Luther College Wrestling Golf Outing

Pre-game Gathering: Football versus Wheaton College

Luther College Lunch Connection in Des Moines

Saturday, September 21 Wheaton, Illinois

Friday, November 8 Windsor Heights (Iowa) Community Center

Luther College Lunch Connection Friday, September 27 Center for Changing Lives Minneapolis

Luther College Lunch Connection Friday, November 15 Center for Changing Lives Minneapolis

Friday, August 9 Jackson Heights Golf Club Jackson Junction, Iowa

Alumni Council Meeting Friday, October 4 Luther College

Get Down, Give Back Scholarship Benefit

Luther College Lunch Connection in Des Moines

Homecoming

November 22 A’BULAE St. Paul, Minnesota

Friday, September 13 Windsor Heights (Iowa) Community Center

Family Weekend

October 4–6 Luther College

Black Alumni Reunion October 4–6 Luther College

Christmas at Luther December 5–8 Luther College

September 20–22 Luther College 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!

LU T HER A

Nonprofit Org. U.S. Postage PAID La Crosse, WI Permit No. 909

LUTHER PHOTO BUREAU

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

Save the date: Homecoming 2013 Friday, Oct. 4–Sunday, Oct. 6, 2013 • • • •

Don’t miss the parade Class reunions The big game A friendly round of golf for fun

• • •

Jazz at Marty’s All-college picnic Symphony, Band, and Nordic in the CFL

• •

Aquatic center dedication Get the full schedule at www.luther.edu/homecoming.