SPRING 2016
Imagine Fellowships 14
First-year student Yeabsira Bekele emulates one of the tiny portraits behind her as English professor Lise Kildegaard snaps her photo. Paintings of prominent authors by artist Mark Hoffmann are on display in the Center for Faith and Life through May 22. Each of 12 author portraits pairs with an image of something associated with that author—seven of the 12 authors were read in Paideia classes over the past year. Kildegaard holds the Dennis M. Jones Distinguished Teaching Professorship in the Humanities and sponsored this and other projects involving small works of art this year. Another exhibit, “The Little Show,” on display in Preus Library, juxtaposes small works from the Luther Fine Arts Collection with examples of “Square Stories” written by Danish author Louis Jensen. Senior Anna Johnson curated the show. Read about two more Jones Projects on page 8.
Editor Ellen Modersohn Luther Alumni Magazine Volume 49, Number 3, Spring 2016
Managing Editor Kate Frentzel
Published by Luther College
Designer Michael Bartels Contributors Sherry (Braun) Alcock ’82 Dave Blanchard
Sue (Franzen) Drilling ’78 Kathy Ferrie Sara Friedl-Putnam Michael Hagstrom ’17 Annalise Johnson ’18 Kirk Johnson ’82 Aaron Lurth ’08 Danny May ’17 Judy Riha Julie Shockey Trytten ’01 Ann Sponberg Peterson
Luther Alumni Magazine welcomes articles and signed letters to the editor; submissions may be edited for style, clarity, or length. Inquiries and submissions may be sent to the Editor, Luther Alumni Magazine, Luther College, 700 College Drive, Decorah, Iowa 521011045; magazine@luther.edu; phone (563) 387-1350. Class Notes submissions and changes of address may be sent to the Alumni Office at the address above. Alumni news may be emailed to the Alumni Office at alumni@luther.edu. Questions and concerns about the magazine may be emailed to magazine@ luther.edu.
Contents Features 14 Imagine: If you had $5,000 toward a learning experience, what would you do?
The Imagine Fellowships ask 10 students each year to think creatively about what sort of learning would most benefit them, and then help make it happen.
20 KWLC—reaching more, teaching more
Developing their craft, journalism skills, and creativity, students are helping KWLC grow as a campus voice and resource.
24 Study away photo essay
This past year, Luther students have studied away in places ranging from Vietnam to France to Cuba to Argentina. See the world through their eyes, and read their thoughts on their favorite shots.
Departments 2 President’s Letter 3 Campus
ANNIKA VANDE KROL ‘19
30 Alumni
Alumni Office (800) 225-8664; (800) 2 ALUMNI Admissions Office (800) 458-8437; (800) 4 LUTHER Web luther.edu luther.edu/magazine Copyright Luther College 2016
34 Class Notes z 48 Marriages 49 Births/Adoptions z 50 In Memoriam
52 President’s Council 64 Endpage Calendar (inside back cover) Share magazine stories online
The alumni magazine is online in a mobile and shareable format. Share stories through email, Facebook, Twitter, or Google+ at luther.edu/magazine. Cover illustration by Mark Marturello
President’s Letter
Campus News Our students share what and how they learn in programs that take them around the world
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Each year, hundreds of Luther students travel the world in our study abroad courses. More than two-thirds of Luther graduates have studied overseas as part of their Luther education.”
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In the Luther College mission statement, we affirm our commitment to a “way of learning that moves us beyond immediate interests and present knowledge into a larger world.” Luther’s curriculum and co-curriculum provide students many opportunities to explore ideas, places, and possibilities in ways that inspire new thinking, integrative learning, promising discoveries, and innovative solutions. In this issue of the Luther Alumni Magazine, we highlight two Luther programs that offer students these opportunities: our signature study abroad program and our new Imagine Fellows program. Each year, hundreds of Luther students travel the world in our study abroad courses. More than two-thirds of Luther graduates have studied overseas as part of their Luther education. Luther faculty plan and lead courses in Asia, Europe, the Americas, Africa, the South Pacific—virtually every corner of the world—and Luther students may participate, too, in courses offered by one of our affiliated organizations, such as the Associated Colleges of the Midwest. During January Term 2016, Luther students and faculty ventured to six continents, experiencing cultures and ways of thinking very different from our campus culture. Among the 14 international J-term classes offered, Luther students and faculty studied language and culture in Cuba, stability and change in Vietnam, art and cultural perspectives in Italy and France, and strategies for peace in Norway. In this issue of the magazine, we share with you photos from students in these courses and what they were thinking as they took the photos. To experience these courses even more fully with our students, I encourage you to explore their J-term course blogs posted on the Luther website: luther.edu/jtermblogs2016. Working with their faculty advisers, some students plan international internships that give them experience working in other cultures and often communicating in other languages. Luther students intern, for instance, in companies in Europe, in schools in Asia and Africa, and in clinics and not-for-profit agencies in the Caribbean and South America. While Luther’s study abroad program has
long been a signature strength of the college, the Imagine Fellowships program was begun only a few years ago with generous gifts to the college. This new program offers students opportunities to plan and pursue independent learning experiences beyond the campus, helping them to integrate their on-campus learning with learning in the larger world. In this issue of the magazine, we feature profiles of Imagine Fellows that show the amazing range of creative projects and experiences the Fellows pursue as they explore their passions and discover possibilities. JD Davis ’15, who became interested in the U.S. prison system through his social work and other courses, used his fellowship to study prisons in Norway, taking advantage of opportunities to interview Norwegian inmates, correctional officers, prison chaplains, researchers, and reintegration workers. Shayla De Jong ’16, who plans to start a pipe organ master's program in the fall, spent her fellowship studying the North German organ tradition in Europe. She spent a month studying German at the Goethe Institute, saw dozens of organ performances, took an organ master class, and was even able to play a few of the European instruments. The new Imagine Fellows program and our longtime signature study abroad program are just two of the ways that the Luther curriculum and co-curriculum invite and challenge Luther students to “move beyond immediate interests and present knowledge into a larger world.” Exploring new ideas, possibilities, and perspectives as they discover new places in learning both in and beyond the classroom, Luther students are equipped to understand and engage in a changing world and to serve with distinction for the common good, whether close to home or in the far corners of the world. Soli Deo Gloria!
Paula J. Carlson President, Luther College
Campus News David Judisch awarded St. Olav’s Medal Opening Convocation in February had an extra celebration as David Judisch, Luther professor emeritus of music, was awarded the Royal Norwegian Medal of St. Olav by Norwegian honorary consul Quentin R. Boyken, on behalf of His Majesty King Harald V of Norway. St. Olav's Medal is awarded in recognition of outstanding services rendered in connection with the spreading of information about Norway abroad and for strengthening the bonds between expatriate Norwegians and their home country. The Royal Norwegian Embassy in Washington, D.C., announced that Judisch was chosen for his extraordinary leadership of the Norwegian American male choral movement for more than 30 years. Judisch's accomplishments include: • Since 1984, he served as director in chief of the Norwegian Singers Association of
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America and Sangerfest (June 9–11, 2016, in Sioux Falls, S.D.). Since 1975, he has been the director of the Luren Singing Society, the oldest Norwegian American male chorus, now in its 148th year. He directed the Luren Singers in performances held as part of every royal visit to Decorah since 1975. He has led numerous Norwegian Singers Association of America tours to Norway. Through his years of service as a Luther professor, he has helped the Luther music program become and continue to be one of the most highly regarded music programs in the nation. He has appeared as a baritone soloist in at least 12 countries and 28 states, has sung more than 40 baritone operatic roles, and has performed at the Royal Palace in Oslo.
BREANNE PIERCE ’16
Norwegian honorary consul Quentin R. Boyken (right) presents St. Olav's Medal to David Judisch, Luther professor emeritus of music.
New data science major to intersect with many other disciplines Luther will add data science as a major this fall. Touted as the “sexiest job of the 21st century” by the Harvard Business Review, data science is the study of how to extract meaning from data. It’s concerned with the collection, preparation, analysis, visualization, management, and preservation of large collections of data and the information it provides. Data science requires technical skills related to databases, programming, visualization, and statistics as well as nontechnical skills such as communication and ethical reasoning. “The data science major is the most exciting thing that has happened since I’ve been a faculty member at Luther. This major lets us reach out and really show how computer science and math are integral parts of the modern world of big data. The career opportunities for data science grads are virtually limitless,” says Brad Miller ’86, Luther professor of computer science. Nearly every business, industry, and service arena is attempting to understand and lever-
age a huge amount of digital information that, in most instances, did not exist five years ago. Big data, the trillions and trillions of bytes of digital information generated by millions of
digital media platforms, has the potential to affect almost every industry. According to the proposal approved by Luther’s Board of Regents, the goal of the data science program is to create what's known as “unicorns,” talented graduates working at the intersection of multiple disciplines. In many ways a liberal arts college is the perfect environment for a data science program, where intersections between multiple areas of study are intentionally created. The new major integrates techniques and theory from such fields as mathematics, computer science, probability and statistics, machine learning, pattern recognition, communication, and ethics. The combination of the major’s courses and a capstone research experience prepares students to understand and act, combining quantitative analysis with awareness and thoughtfulness. Students focus on data sources, manipulation and management of data, interpretation of data, and the impact of data.
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Campus News
Five professors granted tenure, four become full professors In February, the Luther Board of Regents approved tenure for Maryna Bazylevych, sociology/anthropology/social work; Kate Elliott, visual and performing arts; Anne-Marine Feat, modern languages, literatures, and linguistics; Holly Moore, philosophy; and Elizabeth Steding, modern languages, literatures, and linguistics. Bazylevych, Elliott, Feat, and Moore were also promoted to associate professor, as was Scott Hurley, religion. The board approved promotion to full professor for Spencer Martin, music; Brad Miller ’86, computer science; David Thompson, modern languages, literatures, and linguistics; and Loren Toussaint, psychology. Maryna Bazylevych Bazylevych has taught at Luther since 2010. She holds a bachelor’s degree in English philology and translation from the Technological University of Podillia, Khmelnytsky, Ukraine. Bazylevych earned her master’s and doctoral degrees in anthropology from the State University of New York at Albany. She teaches in the Anthropology Department and the Women and Gender Studies Program, focusing on the topics of medical anthropology, body and health, and postsocialism. Her recent research focuses on the anthropology of Eastern Europe, most specifically post-socialist and millennial Ukraine. She is the editor of Anthropology of East Europe Review, and she received funding from the H. George and Jutta F. Anderson Faculty Development Fund for her fieldwork research project, “Hippocratic into Hypocritical: Reinterpretation of Hippocratic Oath in Ukraine.”
Kate Elliott Elliott has served in the Visual and Performing Arts Department since 2010. She holds bachelor’s degrees in studio art and art history from St. Olaf College, and she earned a master’s degree in art history and a doctoral degree in American art history from the University of Iowa. Her teaching philosophy fosters visual literacy and builds critical thinking, while introducing students to the history of art. She seeks to draw connections between the history of art and contemporary media culture, encouraging students to question the “truth” of images. Elliott’s courses range from art foundations to methods, gender in art to ethics in art, and American art to Pleolithic, Gothic, and Renaissance art. Anne-Marine Feat Feat began teaching in the modern languages, literatures, and linguistics in 2006. Her courses include Intermediate French, Francophone Literature and Culture, and Introduction to French Culture. Feat holds a bachelor’s degree in Celtic studies and teaching French as a foreign language and a master’s degree in English from the Université de Bretagne Occidentale. She earned a doctoral degree in Irish studies from the Université Michel de Montaigne.
Holly Moore Moore has been a professor in the Philosophy Department since 2010. Her coursework focuses on ancient philosophy and 20thcentury continental philosophy. She is especially interested in questions of philosophy—whether ethical, metaphysical, or aesthetic. Her most recently published work is “Animal Sacrifice in Plato’s Later Methodology,” which appears as a chapter in Jeremy Bell and Michael Naas’s 2015 Plato’s Animals. Moore is also at work on projects for the journals Philosophy and Rhetoric and Polis: The Journal for Ancient Greek Political Thought, and she is writing a book, Plato’s Mimetic Method. She earned bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees in philosophy from Pennsylvania State University, Villanova University, and DePaul University, respectively. Elizabeth Steding Steding has served in the Modern Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics Department since 2013, regularly teaching language courses, 20th-century German Literature and Culture, Making Decisions for U.S. Schools, and Advanced Teaching Methods. She holds a bachelor’s degree in German from Alma College, a master’s degree in German language and culture from the University of California–Santa Barbara, and a doctoral degree in German studies from Michigan State University.
Kraus to continue as dean In late December 2015, Luther’s Board of Regents approved the reappointment of Kevin Kraus as vice president for academic affairs and dean of the college. Kraus had held that position as a term appointment concluding at the end of the 2015–16 academic year. Kraus says, “It is a privilege to serve in this role. Every day I am reminded of the importance of our work together, providing powerful
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learning experiences for students. The chance to work with so many passionate, smart, altruistic people is a true joy.” Kraus joined Luther’s biology faculty in 1989 and has served as dean since July 2011. The Dean’s Office works to maintain the college’s academic mission and is responsible for all academic policies and procedures. The Dean’s Office also oversees implementation of the curriculum, staffing of academic programs, and promotion of programs, policies, and facilities designed to enhance learning.
Campus News
Luther College Book Shop Phone (563) 387-1036 or (888) 521-5039 lutherbookshop.com
Dancing with the Luther Stars Three Luther professors took a step (and kick and slide and turn) outside of their comfort zone to compete in the first Dancing with the Luther Stars event, April 23, in the Center for Faith and Life. About 500 people attended the show, sponsored by the Ballroom and Swing club and Student Activities Council. Club members Sara Ranscht ’16, Cody Arndtson ’17, and Elizabeth Hurley ’16 choreographed dances and trained their partners, assistant professors of music Andrew Last ’97 and Jennaya (Rogers) Robison ’96 and assistant professor of psychology Justin Sprung, respectively. Each couple performed two dances, one smooth (think waltz, foxtrot, tango) and one rhythm (think triple step swing, West Coast swing, cha-cha). The audience voted online, using VoxVote.com and the CFL’s new enhanced wi-fi capabilities. Their votes combined with judges’ scores to determine the winners. It was close, according to event coproducer Berit Breed ’17, but Robison and Arndtson were declared the winners. Emcees Jeni Grouws and Grant Preheim ’18 presented a trophy. Breed says the student groups plan to do it all again next year, providing they can find another slate of willing professors.
Top: Members of Luther's Ballroom and Swing club take the stage along with the Dancing with the Luther Stars competitors. Above, Gary Dahl and Meg McClure ’15, who served as judges along with Julie (Satre) Shockey Trytten ’01, Luther director of media relations, give one performance a 10. Dahl is a cofounder of Dahl Dance in Rochester, Minn. McClure teaches at Dahl Dance.
Kayla Ingvalson ’17 Elementary education (endorsements in middle school science, social studies, and reading) Winning dancers Jennaya (Rogers) Robison ’96, assistant professor of music, and Cody Arndtson ’17
Your source for Norse apparel and more! Spring 2016 Luther Alumni Magazine
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Campus News
Four alumni named to Luther Board of Regents Four new regents have been appointed to the college’s Board of Regents: Jeffrey Anderson ’84, Sandee (Neitzel) Joppa ’87, Michael Osterholm ’75, and James N. Young ’81. Jeffrey Anderson, M.D., is a partner and shareholder at Associated Anesthesiologists, a 40-physician singlespecialty group practice in Des Moines, Iowa. Anderson’s personal practice focuses on neonatal, pediatric, and cardiac anesthesia. He served on the Luther Parents Council from 2011 to 2015. Since 2008, he has served as a mentor to preprofessional students at Luther. Anderson lives in Johnston, Iowa, with his wife, MaryEllen (Palmquist) Anderson ’84. They are the parents of Erik ’15 and Krister. Sandee Joppa is a human resources executive and president of Joppa Consulting, an executive coaching and consulting firm based in Plymouth, Minn. She is president of the Human Resources Ex-
ecutive Council, an organization of human resources leaders from Twin Cities–area companies, and a guest lecturer at the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management. She serves on Luther’s Parents Council. Joppa lives in Plymouth with her husband, Jon Joppa ’85. They are the parents of Ben '16 and Bryan. Michael Osterholm is Regents Professor and director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. He holds the McKnight Presidential Endowed Chair in Public Health at the University of Minnesota. In 2005, Osterholm was appointed to the National Science Advisory Board on Biosecurity. In 2008, he was named to the University of Minnesota Academic Health Center’s Academy of Excellence in Health Research and appointed to the World Economic Forum Working Group on Pandemics. Osterholm is a member of the National Academy of Medicine and the Council on Foreign Relations. He is a frequent consultant to the CDC, World Health Organization, National Institutes of Health, Food and Drug
Administration, and the Department of Defense. He lives in St. Louis Park, Minn, and has two children, Erin and Ryan. James N. Young is chief financial officer and a member of the board of directors of Ally Bank, a $100 billion direct bank with full service deposit products. Ally Bank has been named “Best Online Bank” by Money Magazine for five years. Young is a member of the Northfield Real Estate Fund investment committee and served on the board of the Juvenile Protective Association in Chicago. He lives in Edina, Minn., with his wife, Jodi (Palma) Young ’81. They are the parents of Katherine and Alexandra. Anderson, Joppa, and Young joined the Board of Regents in February, while Osterholm will begin his service as a regent in May.
Center for Ethics and Public Engagement has a new name and a new director, Victoria Christman
Fawcett, Campbell are Peace Scholars for 2016
Beginning in August, Victoria Christman, associate professor of history, will serve as director of Luther’s Center for Ethics and Public Engagement. She succeeds Greg Jesson, who has served as the center’s director since 2012, and founding director John Moeller. Founded in 2006 as the Center for Ethics and Public Life, the center’s mission is to enrich the liberal arts education students receive at Luther “by engaging them in ethical reflection about the many challenging issues that affect the public—locally, nationally, and globally. By encouraging and supporting deep reflection about ethical matters and responsible citizenship, the center helps students connect the pursuit of learning with what it means to live a meaningful life.” The center’s new name is an outcome of a 2015 re-visioning process. The revised name underscores the intellectual orientation of the center’s work and its focus on fostering student engagement with civic life. Since 2005, Christman has been a professor in Luther’s History and International Studies departments.
Betsy Fawcett ’17 and Nathan Campbell ’18 were selected as the 2016 Luther Peace Scholars. Peace Scholars spend a week in early summer at the Nansen Dialogue Centre in Lillehammer, Norway, and then go to the Oslo International Summer School with 500 students from more than 90 countries. Students also complete a research project on a peace-related topic. The goal of the program is to deepen understanding of conflict and war around the world.
Betsy Fawcett ’17
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Campus News
1517–2017 the
REFORMATION of everything Exploring a movement that changed the world
Commemorating the Reformation, exploring its impact today The year 2017 marks the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, which began on Oct. 31, 1517, when Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany, and plans are underway at Luther College for a multifaceted commemoration. Robert Christman, associate professor of history, is on the planning team. He explained in a post on the college blog, luther.edu/ ideas-creations-blog: “As Luther College grapples with questions of identity in the changing world of higher education, the Reformation offers a wealth of ideas, concepts, and approaches that can ground us in our past, inspire us as we face the future, and at the same time not constrict or limit us. Broad engagement with it can help us better understand ourselves and more cogently articulate the ethos of Luther College. For all of these reasons, we will spend 2017 revisiting the Reformation.” Major events are scheduled for spring and fall semesters in 2017 to explore how the Reformation still speaks to us in the 21st century. Below is a partial list. For updates, please visit luther.edu/ reformation-2017. February 2: Convocation speaker will be Elizabeth Eaton, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America. March 21–April 1: The college will sponsor a two-day symposium to address the Reformation’s continuing impact on the church as it interacts with the wider world. Among the speakers will be Nadia Bolz-Weber, author and pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America. She will hold a plenary address in which she presents her vision of the role of the church in broader society as that vision connects to its Reformation roots. Oratorio: The spring event will also include a Saturday, April 1, performance of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Mass in B-minor by Luther’s Nordic Choir and Symphony Orchestra, including 12 alumni soloists. The Mass will then be performed Sunday, April 2, at Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis. At Luther, the conference will conclude Sunday morning with a celebratory worship service.
Luther sophomore selected for year at London School of Economics Matias Velastegui, Luther sophomore from Baños de Agua Santa, Ecuador, has been accepted to the London School of Economics for the 2016–17 school year. A 2013 graduate of United World College-Maastricht, Velastegui is the son of Jose Fabian Velastegui Andrade of Baños
May 21: The Commencement speaker will be John Nunes, theologian and former director of Lutheran World Relief. October 31: The college will devote the entire community’s energies to an investigation of the Reformation, its historical impact, and its continuing influence in religion, education, academic disciplines, social and political thought, art and music, and many other areas of life. Professor Brad Gregory of the University of Notre Dame will address an opening convocation with a presentation titled “Why the Reformation Still Matters (Whether We Want It to or Not).” Marty Haugen ’73, renowned composer of liturgical music for both Catholics and Protestants, will offer workshops. And faculty from across the disciplines as well as other members of the broader Luther community will present, perform, and discuss the Reformation and its varied legacies. This event will be open to the public and free of charge. November 11: A festive, traditional St. Martin’s Day Dinner will be held in Peace Dining Room. Art exhibits March 30–May 21: “Before the Foundations,” digitally manipulated photography by Skip McKinstry, Center for Faith and Life. “Before the Foundations” is a series of images on paper, based in photography and digital collage, exploring the considered cost of creation, the loss of innocence, free will and God’s sovereignty, the struggle to function in a wild and overgrown world separated from its source of life, and redemption. McKinstry says about his work: “I believe that art, like people, provides little theophanies— unique, reflected light (and refracted light), insights into the nature of God.” Oct. 2–Dec. 3: “Sola Scriptura,” mixed-media art and archival objects from the collection of Sandra Bowden, Center for Faith and Life.
de Agua Santa. He is majoring in economics and philosophy and minoring in management at Luther. Beginning in September, Velastegui will partake in a yearlong study abroad program at the London School of Economics. Velastegui is involved in the Philosophy
Society, Model United Nations, and KWLC radio and is a member of the executive board of the Student Senate at Luther. He is also a member of Luther’s Diversity Council and the Campus Life Committee. He plans to pursue a graduate degree in areas related to public policy, economic development, and political economy.
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Campus News
SHORT SHORTS
E
Jones projects focus on the small and
artful
nglish professor Lise Kildegaard has fostered a celebration of great art in small packages through her Dennis M. Jones Distinguished Teaching Professorship in the Humanities. Two of the projects engaged students in creating their own works of art in partnership with poet and video artist Todd Boss and with printmaker and book artist David Esslemont. Boss grew up on a cattle farm in Wisconsin and now lives in Minneapolis. He has been publishing poetry since 2008, and he also expresses his poems through films called Motionpoems. Kildegaard says Boss writes beautiful, interesting, rich poems that are short lyrics. “Then he wears a different hat as the executive artistic director of what he calls the world’s only film poetry company. He is part of an artistic endeavor that is making films that are connected to contemporary poems,” she told Chips, the Luther student newspaper. The films—each two or three minutes long—have been screened at festivals, cinemas, libraries, museums, bookstores, and schools worldwide. How they turn out is influenced not only by the poet, but by animators, filmmakers, and composers. Motionpoems.org, which Boss cofounded with filmmaker Angella Kassube, regularly releases new videos. Kildegaard arranged for Boss to teach a 2016 January Term class about Motionpoems, the poet’s first collaboration with college students, she says. “They’re recording the videos, they’re developing original scores, they’re putting that all together in a month’s time,” Boss says in a video about the class created by Luther’s Video
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PHOTOS BY BOB MODERSOHN
Campus News
Jake Porter '17 rolls ink on a linoleum block print that he designed and created to accompany a Square Story by Louis Jensen. Opposite: linoleum block prints accompany Square Story texts in a small book produced by artist David Esslemont and Luther students. Below, left: Esslemont shows Jake Porter '17 how to roll out the ink to prepare it for printing. Below, center: Porter, with Lars Johnson '16 and Esslemont, creates a print using a press designed by Orville Running. Below, right: Porter checks to see if the back of his print is smooth.
Bureau. The students learned firsthand from poets in addition to Boss, and he brought in professionals working in music composition and production, voice over, sound design, filming, editing, and more. A Motionpoem by sophomore Isaiah Cammon, junior Elizabeth Daly, and senior Nick Arnold, based on the poem “The Plastic Saint” by Athena Kildegaard, was shown at the March 4 launch party for Athena’s book of poems and prose poems, Ventriloquy. Students from the J-term class drove up to St. Paul for the event. Another visiting artist, British printmaker, designer, bookbinder, and publisher David Esslemont, spent several days in residence during spring semester. Esslemont, who lives north of Decorah, worked with six students to create a chapbook based on six of the Square Stories of Danish author Louis Jensen. Five students created linoleum-cut prints to illustrate the Square Stories: seniors Tessa Kraus and Lars Johnson, and juniors Maxwell Green, Savannah Horn, and Jake Porter. Riley Samuelson, a senior, assisted Esslemont in binding the book. The pages were printed on a cylinder press designed by Orville Running, who headed Luther’s Art Department for 30 years, beginning in 1946. Not all of the student illustrators had made a print before, and Esslemont taught each step along the way. He demonstrated how to roll the ink—listening to the roller’s sh-sh-sh to determine when the ink was spread thinly enough. Then he showed how to apply just the right amount of pressure through the press—not so much that the print block dented the paper. Esslemont and his team of students aimed to create 30 copies of the approximately 8½-by-5½-inch books. One copy may find a home in the Rare Book Room of Preus Library. Every two years, the Jones Professorship is awarded to a Luther faculty member who honors the values and traditions of the humanities, enriches the intellectual life of students, and provides academic leadership in the humanities. The Jones Professor devotes time to a project that will enhance humanities education. —Ellen Modersohn Video and photos: Watch student Motionpoem films and see more photographs of the Square Stories book creation process posted with this story at luther.edu/magazine.
Spring 2016 Luther Alumni Magazine
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COURTESY OF KAREN MARTIN-SCHRAMM
Campus News
Karen Martin-Schramm looks back on her years with the President’s Office There is laughter, and there are tears. But mostly there is gratitude as Karen Martin-Schramm reflects on two decades of service as executive assistant to three Luther presidents: Jeffrey Baker, Richard Torgerson, and Paula Carlson. “I really feel like it has been a calling—that all my gifts have been used in this job,” says Martin-Schramm, who stepped down in March. “I am so thankful to have had this opportunity, to have been able to contribute to the college in so many different ways.” Martin-Schramm joined Luther’s staff in 1996, three years after her husband, Jim Martin-Schramm, joined the college’s religion faculty. She had just wrapped up a yearlong stint organizing the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize Forum, hosted by Luther, when the college’s newly elected president, Jeffrey Baker, hired her as his assistant. Though she already had a decade of administrative experience—including two “fascinating” years with the National Council of Churches in New York City, during which she met Billy Graham, Desmond Tutu, and many other prominent faith leaders—Martin-Schramm says she still had much to learn as she settled into the college’s executive suite. “The suite in the Union was new, I was new, and Jeff was new,” she says. “It was the two of us, armed with some boxes of materials, and together we had to figure out how to run the President’s Office.” Figure it out they did, but their productive partnership came to an abrupt and painful end when Baker was diagnosed with lung can-
Karen Martin-Schramm with Wangari Maathai, Kenyan environmental and political activist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, during the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize Forum at Luther.
cer in 1998. “Jeff made such an impact here in such a short time,” she says. “The outpouring of support was incredible, as was his strength, once he became ill.” Richard Torgerson, Baker’s successor, was quick to spot—and employ—Martin-Schramm’s project-management and organizational talents when he arrived in 1999. Over the next 15 years, she helped coordinate two multipleyear strategic planning processes, orchestrated numerous special events (including a visit by the king and queen of Norway in 2011 and the years-in-the-works sesquicentennial celebration that same year), helped develop the college’s first integrated communications and marketing plan, oversaw numerous executive searches, directed a campus signage redesign, planned three more Nobel Peace Prize Forums (NPPF), and worked directly with the Luther Board of Regents. Closest to her heart, Martin-Schramm says, was her work with the NPPFs and the Luther regents, whom she describes as “down-to-earth, dedicated, and exceptionally giving.” For 20 years, she prepared meeting agendas and background materials, attended those meetings, and served as campus liaison
with the college’s governing board. “The best boards are the ones that reflect the character of the institution, and our regents really do reflect Luther’s student-centered spirit of community,” she says. “Working with the board has been one of the most fun, inspiring, and rewarding parts of my job.” Equally rewarding was her work with the four Nobel Peace Prize Forums hosted by Luther. As forum organizer, Martin-Schramm was instrumental in bringing Nobel Peace Prize laureates such as Kenyan environmental and political activist Wangari Maathai (2006) and Iranian attorney and human rights activist Shirin Ebadi (2011) to campus. “I firmly believe that the forum changed students’ lives,” she says. “It’s a big, big deal just to be in a room in Decorah, Iowa, with a Nobel laureate.” While she says an administrative career in Lutheran higher education has felt like destiny—“One of my grandfathers served as president of Texas Lutheran College, the other received an honorary doctorate from Luther, so it’s in my DNA”—it’s time, MartinSchramm says, to take on new challenges. This summer she and her husband will accompany a dozen Luther students to England, where the couple will serve as codirectors of the college’s Nottingham program for the coming year. “I didn’t have a lot of interaction with students on campus, so I’m really looking forward to getting to know several of them during our time in England,” says MartinSchramm, flashing her trademark smile. “And when we return to Decorah, who knows what’s next?” —Sara Friedl-Putnam
Projects for Peace accepts two projects proposed by Luther students Both Luther proposals submitted to Davis Projects for Peace for 2016 have been accepted. This year’s Davis United World Scholars from Luther are sophomores Mwayi Promise Pankuku and Cheragh Ali Yazdani and first-year Mustafa Muhammadi. Each project will receive $10,000 from Davis Projects for Peace. Pankuku plans to coordinate construction Mwayi Pankuku of safe and private rest-
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room facilities for girls and boys at a school in Malawi’s Nkwema village. The current lack of permanent facilities deters girls, in particular, from pursuing their education. Yazdani and Muhammadi intend to buy benches and tables for the Paymori School in Afghanistan’s Bamyan Province. Students there attend classes sitting on the floor of their school, Ali Yazdani which is cold. Many fall
ill as a result. The Luther students will also arrange a peace dialogue at the school. A friend who is a manager with the group Afghanistan and Progressive Thinking will help arrange the dialogue. The discussion will include different levels of difficulty, to allow participation by all ages of students. Each year Davis Projects for Peace, for undergraduates at American colleges and universities in the Davis United World College Scholars Program, invites students to design grassroots projects that can be implemented to build peace around the world.
Campus News
Quote, Unquote Campus speakers, spring 2016
“If you don’t understand the other side’s argument, then you don’t have a basis for your position.” —ROBERT GEORGE, Princeton University law professor, who, with Cornel West, philosophy and Christian practice professor at Union Theological Seminary, gave the spring Distinguished Lecture “The Bond of Truth Seeking: Friendship and Integrity in an Age of Ideology”
“When you go to places where there’s abuse and neglect you will find yourself experiencing things you did not know were as important to you as they are, and you will see that you have the power to change things. You can’t discover that
“It is absurd that many educators and parents still distinguish between a time for learning and a time for play without seeing the dynamic link between the two. ” —DAVID GOULD, Obermann Center Public Scholar at the University of Iowa, who gave the talk “Play, Passion, and Purpose: A New Arc for Education” at Opening Convocation
“I have never equated light with knowledge and truth as absolute. Darkness for me is a truer truth. The truth that knowing all is a seduction and a farce, and through their immaterial but significant presence, shadows expose that fragility and hubris.” —ANNIE KATSURA ROLLINS, who gave the talk “A Life in Shadows: Art, Creation, and Research in Chinese Shadow Puppetry”
from a distance.” —BRYAN STEVENSON, founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative, who gave the Farwell Distinguished Lecture “American Injustice: Mercy, Humanity, and Making a Difference”
“Colorblindness actually is the underlying challenge that’s based in the All Lives Matter movement. When they say all lives matter that’s a way of saying ‘We’re not going to address race,’ when in fact a complete and fundamental denial of the significance of race is happening all the time, as soon as you say it.” —TRICIA ROSE, Africana Studies professor and director of the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity at Brown University, who spoke on “Making Black Lives Matter” for the Black History Month lecture Spring 2016 Luther Alumni Magazine
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Campus News ATHLETICS
Slagel credits balance, team support for success in the pool Clare Slagel ’16, a biology major and champion swimmer from Hempstead High School in Dubuque, Iowa, is a 10-time All-American with two national championships. She has also collected a long list of additional honors over her four years at Luther that reflects her ability to balance hard work in both academics and athletics. “I think a big part of being able to manage your time is communication,” Slagel says. “But I also think that it’s coming into the season knowing that you have to sacrifice certain things to be able to have your main focuses be on swimming and academics.” As much at home in the water as she is studying in Valders or Sampson-Hoffland, Slagel has dedicated herself to swimming five to six months of the year, including two-a-day practices four times per week for most of the swim season. That dedication has paid off. In March, she qualified for the NCAA Division III national championships for the fourth year in a row. Slagel qualified in the 500 freestyle, 100 backstroke, and 200 backstroke events. She
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finished the championship meet as national runner-up in the 100 backstroke, becoming a four-time All-American in that event. She finished fourth in 2013, third in 2014, and was the national champion in 2015. Slagel finished ninth in the 200 backstroke and won the consolation final. She was the national champion in 2014 and finished third in 2013 and 2015. This year, her 500 freestyle preliminary time put her in 12th position, and she chose not to swim the consolation final. Slagel also earned All-America honors as a member of the 200 medley relay team with Erin Connolly ’14, Lexi Scharmer ’16, and Emily Anderson ’17 that placed seventh in 2014. In February 2016, Slagel was named the Liberal Arts Championships Swimmer of the Year, becoming the first athlete in the history of the championships to earn the title four times. She says her teammates and coaches contributed in a big way to her individual success. “I’ve had this experience at Luther that I’ve never had with any other team before,” Slagel says. “And I think it’s because of the environment [of the team]. I feel like this year we’re closer as a team than we have ever been.” She continues, “It’s hard sometimes because you get so tired. And that’s the culture of swimming: you’re always going to be swimming exhausted. But it’s hard not to be motivated and it’s hard not to be dedicated when you have such a strong team behind you.” With a strong academic record as well, Slagel is also a three-time Iowa Conference Winter Sports All-Academic Team honoree, a three-time CSCAA (College Coaches Swimming Association of America) Scholar AllAmerican, and has twice been named to the CoSIDA Academic All-America team. Reflecting on her collegiate career, Slagel says, “It is difficult to be done with college swimming,” Slagel says. “But I am incredibly grateful for the opportunities that I have had. I loved competing at [nationals], and having the chance to race so many remarkable athletes will always be a highlight.” She says she’ll continue swimming, but mostly for pure enjoyment. “I love the sport of swimming, and I love the culture of swimming, but I also love the idea of swimming,” Slagel says. “I think I’ll always continue swimming—more for the enjoyment of the sport.” Slagel’s next step will be to attend graduate school for veterinary medicine at Iowa State University. —Danny May ’17
Online video: Slagel and Serres discuss college busy-ness and the beauty of teamwork at luther.edu/magazine.
For Serres, every meet celebrates recovery from injury Tricia Serres ’16 is always on the run. The biology major and star cross country and track runner packs classes, work study, and a rigorous training plan into each day—a routine that has brought her major success. Between cross country and track, the Platteville, Wis., native has a national title and 10 All-American honors to her name. Most recently, Serres placed fourth in the mile at the NCAA Division III National Championships, her third All-American honor in that event. “[Being an All-American] is definitely really special,” Serres says. “It’s a work in progress, and I’ve just tried to enjoy the process of it all. I feel very blessed.” Despite her dedication, Serres’s passion for running and her blooming career saw a major slowdown in the late winter/early spring of 2015, when a serious iliotibial band injury sidelined her for several months, threatening to jeopardize her entire track season. “It was definitely challenging, not only physically, but emotionally,” Serres says. “When your teammates are training and you’re not, that’s tough.” She says it took a lot of patience and persistence, but the experience helped her be a stronger runner and athlete overall. Serres eventually overcame the injury and captured the national title in the 1,500 meters at the NCAA III National Championships in May 2015. Coming back from the injury, every meet was a celebration of being able to run, Serres says. “Going into the national meet, I just looked at it as, Wow, this is crazy that I’m here. Whatever happens, happens—I’m just going to be a tough competitor. It was very special.” Serres says she was drawn to Luther by its welcoming community and also because of some incentive from her father, Rob Serres ’82. “I always felt very welcomed,” Serres says. “[There’s] a great community here, and that was something that I really wanted to be a part
Campus News
Drew Van Anrooy ’16 needed a change in his life. The star wrestler transferred to Luther from Division I Oregon State University after his redshirt sophomore year, looking to revamp both his academics and his athletics. It paid off. After finishing runner-up in the 141-pound weight class at the 2015 NCAA Division III National Championships, Van Anrooy captured the national title in the same weight class in 2016. He is now a two-time AllAmerican in addition to his national title, with a career record at Luther of 50-3. “I couldn’t have ended my competitive collegiate career in a better fashion,” Van Anrooy says. “I feel incredibly blessed to call myself a national champion for the rest of my life.” Drew and his brother Reed Van Anrooy ’17 accompanied one another in their move to Luther, where they were joined this year by younger brother Cole Van Anrooy ’19. Three years of Division I wrestling had left Drew feeling unbalanced and single-minded. “I wanted to have a little bit better balance [in my life],” Drew says. “I felt like wrestling was my whole life—[it was] everything I focused on. I wasn’t able to get involved in anything else, really. I wanted a better education as well as a social life, and I thought that I could achieve that at the Division III level.” Drew explained that his father, Mike, was a wrestler at a Division III liberal arts college, which helped sway Drew to pursue a similar path. Drew was drawn to Luther, specifically, by its combination of excellence in academics and in wrestling. Drew says that he, his father, and Reed looked at where teams had finished at the national tournament the previous year as well as how the school rated academically. “Luther was up there,” Drew says. “We went on some
BOB MODERSOHN PHOTO
—Danny May ’17
Tricia Serres ’16 trains while recovering from an injury in 2015.
PHOTO BY CALEB WILLIAMS, D3PHOTOGRAPHY.COM
Transfer to Luther brings the fun back to wrestling
of. . . . I knew there would be lots of opportunities to pursue other passions and interests, and I think it’s been a great fit for me.” Postgraduation, Serres will pursue physical therapy by enrolling in graduate school at Clarke University in Dubuque, Iowa. “I’ve always loved how the body moves, and physical activity, and helping people,” she says. “And I feel like [physical therapy] is a great career avenue for that.” As for running, Serres plans to continue the competitive training and running that have become essential to who she is.
Drew Van Anrooy ’16 displays his NCAA Divison III championship trophy on the winners stand.
visits and liked Luther the best.” Transferring to Luther, Drew says, has made wrestling fun again. “We have a lot of fun as a team,” he says. “I just felt like I could trust the whole coaching staff, and that was a big part to letting me just focus on my wrestling.” As he closes out his time at Luther, the biology major, who hails from Roseburg, Ore., plans to take a year off from schooling before attending medical school. He would also like to coach wrestling at some level. “I’d like to stay involved with the sport,” Drew says. —Danny May ’17
• Follow Luther athletics results at luther.edu/sports. • Stream events live and on-demand at portal.stretchinternet.com/luther. • Sign up for eScores, a free Norse athletics results program at luther.edu/sports-information.
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by Kate Frentzel illustrations by Mark Marturello
Imagine Fellowships If you had $5,000 to design a learning experience for yourself anywhere in the world, what would you do?
This is the question posed to the 10 students that Luther selects as Imagine Fellows each year. The Imagine Fellowship comes with few restrictions, giving students great latitude to envision what kind of experience will have the most impact for them, the biggest caveat being that the experience has to happen off-campus. Terry Sparkes, associate dean, says, “It offers the opportunity to explore beyond the confines of courses or campus, to engage in something meaningful that helps them just a little further—or a lot further!—down the road of discovering how to match their gifts and skills with a sense of direction.” While the fellowships are merit-based, they offer an opportunity to students who might not otherwise be able to study abroad. JD Davis ’15, who used his fellowship to study Norway’s prisons, says, “At all the college fairs, they talked about the great study-abroad opportunities that Luther has, but I knew that financially that was something I would never be able to do, so when I learned about the Imagine Fellowship, I knew it could be my one opportunity to get out of the country and discover a new culture and a new place.” In some cases, the fellowship is a factor in college selection. Karin Hecht ’16 says, “I don’t want to overemphasize it, but the Imagine Fellowship was one of the big reasons I decided to come to Luther. Nowhere else would have given me an opportunity to design my own experience, especially one that would take me abroad.”
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GIFTS AT WORK
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“Imagine Fellowships are unique to Luther College in the creativity, freedom, and entrepreneurialism they encourage in students’ pursuit of learning. Fellowships are funded by donors who are enthused by the vibrant vision of the fellows.” —Ann Sponberg Peterson, director of development, principal gifts
The fellows profiled here used their funds to volunteer, test career goals, grow their craft, explore their spirituality, and deepen their sense of social justice. They had to learn to navigate and make decisions. They had to be flexible and open-minded to adapt to new situations. They had to think creatively when things didn’t always go according to plan. But that’s what the fellows valued most about their experiences. Cole Puffer ’15 says, “I grew in some intangible and inexplicable ways, and that was a very important part of this fellowship for me.” Davis says, “My Imagine Fellowship really challenged the way I thought about the world. I like to think in black and white—that there’s the right and the wrong and the good and the bad—but this was a great opportunity for me to realize that there’s a lot of gray out there.” Shayla De Jong ’16, who explored the pipe organ tradition in Europe and plans to study the instrument in graduate school next fall, says, “I like to think of my Imagine Fellowship as an experience that stems off in many directions in my life. It connects my past to my present to my future, to where I’m going next.” To explore giving opportunities at Luther, visit luther.edu/giving.
One of the pinnacles
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Discovering the cradle of organ music
hayla De Jong ’16, a music major and German minor, spent her fellowship in Germany and The Netherlands researching the North German organ tradition, which holds tremendous influence over organ culture. She focused on the instruments of Arp Schnitger, a prolific craftsman who built more than 160 organs. She met with a number of professional organists, saw dozens of organ performances, took an organ master class, and was even able to play a few European organs. De Jong has been accepted into three pipe organ master’s programs; she will start one next fall. A hotbed of organists in Iowa De Jong grew up outside of New Sharon, Iowa, a town of about 1,300 that remarkably boasted several pipe organists. She started learning the instrument in high school, and by the time she got to college, she was interested in connecting with the wider world of organ music. “I knew my own story, but it was very serendipitous,” she says. “But Europe is where it all began, and so many students in the educational system there are flourishing under famous organists.” So De Jong planned an Imagine Fellowship that would take her to the cradle of organ culture in North Germany and The Netherlands. She leveraged her time abroad to study for a month at the Goethe Institute in Dresden and fulfill the language requirement for a German minor. “It goes hand in hand with everything you should know as an organist,” she says. “German and French are the languages we’re supposed to study.”
of De Jong’s trip was the time she spent at the St. Jacobi church in the heart of Hamburg, home to Schnitger’s most famous organ. Not only did she get to help tune the instrument, but she was able to play it.
The organ as teacher One of the pinnacles of De Jong’s trip was the time she spent at the St. Jacobi church in the heart of Hamburg, home to Schnitger’s most famous organ. Not only did she get to help tune the instrument, but she was also able to play it. Of the experience, she says: “It was a little daunting, but it was also a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. And it was absolutely sublime. Something I’ve learned at Luther in my lessons with Dr. Gregory Peterson ’83 is that the organ teaches you just as much as a teacher will. You can sit down and feel what sounds good and what doesn’t based on the acoustical space and the keyboard and pedalboard. European instruments are different from American instruments, and because they’re older, there are certain things you can’t play on them.” Class with a master De Jong also took a master class in Amsterdam with renowned organist Jacques van Oortmerssen, from whom she learned more about the symbolism in Bach’s music and how an instrument’s touch can inform a player’s expressiveness, as well as how to be expressive without injuring yourself (there are many competing tensions in the body while a person plays). As De Jong says, “The organ is an intense instrument!”
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“He looked at me and said something profound: ‘We started using these machines, and we forgot how to be doctors.’”
Researching the intersection of technology and humanness
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rowing up the son of two physicians near Rochester, Minn., Cole Puffer ’15 developed an early interest in science and medicine. He spent his Imagine Fellowship engaged in a comparative-data study conducted between clinicians at Mayo Clinic in Rochester and Akershus University Hospital in Norway. The study investigated the effectiveness of a filter that fits into the interior vena cava, which carries blood to the heart, and reportedly helps prevent pulmonary embolisms in trauma patients. What it means to be human Puffer started at Luther with a strong affinity for neuroscience but quickly gained an appreciation for the study of the mind through less scientific means. “I have a deep interest in what it means to be human,” he says. “My first year of classes at Luther ignited that sense of wonder, in particular Paideia and my first-year J-term, Big Questions.” By the time he had to plan his Imagine Fellowship, Puffer was more interested in the philosophical, rather than medical, side of neuroscience and humanness. “I was attacking that interest from a different angle,” he says. “What I wanted to learn more about through my fellowship was the research process and how it was done in a hospital setting.” What it means to be a doctor Through his fellowship, Cole worked with physicians at Mayo Clinic to design the study and its databases, as well as an unbiased method of collecting data at the participating institutions. Then he went to the Akershus University Hospital for two months, where he spent two or three days a week doing data collection and the other days shadowing Norwegian doctors in different parts of the hospital. “I had no clue I’d be able to do that,” he says, “but it ended up being an incredible experience.”
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One day, Puffer was shadowing a cardiologist while he monitored a patient who’d undergone minor surgery. The doctor was using an ultrasound machine on the patient’s lower leg but then set it down abruptly, frustration clouding his face. After the consultation, Puffer says, “He looked at me and said something profound: ‘We started using these machines, and we forgot how to be doctors.’” What it means to be both “That moment really influenced me,” Puffer says, noting that it sparked a new interest in combating the negative role that technology sometimes plays in doctors’ offices. “For example, because of the requirement of electronic medical records, doctors are spending more time typing and less time talking to patients, which has resulted in less satisfaction in both doctors and patients, and I think it’s responsible for higher rates of physician burnout.” But he recognizes that electronic health records will play an increasingly important role in the years to come, and he’s been helping an oral surgery office convert its records from paper to electronic while he waits to start medical school at the University of Minnesota–Duluth in August. “In my future career,” he says, “I really want to strive—partially as a direct result of going on this fellowship experience—to have a human touch in my practice and my relationship with my patients. They’re coming in in a vulnerable state—they’re going to the doctor because something is wrong—and the more you can greet that with both techonology and a sense of humanity, the more it helps them feel confident in themselves and their treatment, which leaves both parties better off.”
Solving for y with the help of a pilgrimage
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rika Storvick’s fellowship was an exploration of spirituality. Now a senior, she entered Luther as a math major, but “took a couple of religion classes and fell in love,” she says. For the first portion of her fellowship, she walked the French part of El Camino de Santiago, a famous pilgrimage. She followed this experience with two weeks at Plum Village, a Buddhist monastery near Bordeaux. She ended her fellowship with a week at Taizé, a Christian monastery in Burgundy. From solving for y to engaging her faith Storvick loved math in high school and considered majoring in it at college, but religion classes at Luther taught her to look deeper, which encouraged her to double major in religion. “There’s something different between attending church services and engaging your faith in an academic setting. Luther’s Religion Department taught me to question and look deeper and challenge assumptions people make about religion,” she says.
“Every night in each hostel or gîte, we had a chance to share why we were doing the pilgrimage, and a powerful realization for me was that even if we didn’t speak the same language, we interacted in a meaningful way. I learned a lot about the importance of community and how so much can be learned from someone you don’t necessarily identify with.”
Storvick’s fellowship proposal combined a lot of the interests she’d developed through Luther’s religion program. “I wanted to learn what a pilgrimage was and how a spiritual journey can bring people together,” she says. “At Plum Village, I got the chance to engage with what I’d learned in my classes on Buddhism.” She was able to test what she’d learned in her classes on interfaith dialogue there and at Taizé, which, the week Storvick was there, hosted a gathering in honor of one of its founders that included world leaders from the European Union, the United Nations, and other organizations. You can’t walk a pilgrimage backward “My original plan was to walk El Camino backward, but that kind of goes against the spirit of the pilgrimage,” Storvick says, “because part of its purpose is to meet people and travel together. To be a part of the community, you have to do it forward.” Storvick learned a lot about the power of community during her pilgrimage. “I appreciated meeting so many different people on the journey,” she says. “Every night in each hostel or gîte, we had a chance to share why we were doing the pilgrimage, and a powerful realization for me was that even if we didn’t speak the same language, we interacted in a meaningful way. I learned a lot about the importance of community and how so much can be learned from someone you don’t necessarily identify with.” Being present in the moment During her Imagine experience, Storvick went from a Christanity-centered pilgrimage to a Buddhist monastery, from walking up to 30 kilometers a day to sitting still and meditating four hours a day. She reflects, “The monastery was all about mindfulness and being present in the moment, but that was an attitude also prevalent in the pilgrimage. Sometimes you’re just thinking, I have to get up this hill.”
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Researching incarceration and personal reformation
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fter developing an intense interest in the U.S. prison system, JD Davis ’15, a social work major, used his fellowship to travel to Norway, visiting a wide range of prisons, from Norway’s most secure facilities to halfway houses that are integrated into the community. He interviewed inmates, correctional officers, prison chaplains, researchers, and a community group that helps released convicts reintegrate. Davis is currently serving as an AmeriCorps VISTA member in the Twin Cities, helping released convicts successfully reenter society, and he was recently accepted into law school at the University of Minnesota. “It lit a fire in me” Although he grew up in Lino Lakes, Minn., home to a 1,300-man correctional facility, Davis’s interest in the U.S. prison system was sparked his first year at Luther, when Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow, came to campus to talk about how the sorts of restrictions that were in place during the Jim Crow era are essentially being re-created in the U.S. prison system. “I was blown away by all that was happening,” Davis says, “and it lit a fire in me for learning more.” Davis took every opportunity to research the prison system: “I was able to incorporate that interest into my classes each semester and find ways to write papers on prisons and penal philosophy. Also, Britt (Hellgren) Rhodes ’96 always takes her Social Work 101 class to the correctional facility in Prairie du Chien, Wis., and I went with that group almost every semester. I helped drive students there and back.”
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“Inmates in Norway are not treated differently from any other citizens, they’re just removed from society for a time. The way I like to think about it is that in Norway, incarceration is just a time out.”
Norwegian prison tour In June of 2014, Davis used his Imagine Fellowship to travel to Oslo to spend a month in Norway touring prisons and conducting interviews. “It was my first time being out of the country, so that alone was an amazing experience,” he says. But what made an equally big impression on Davis was the Norwegian philosophy of incarceration. “Inmates in Norway are not treated differently from any other citizens, they’re just removed from society for a time,” he says. “The way I like to think about it is that in Norway, incarceration is just a time out. You still have access to everything you always had outside of prisons; you just need time to go to a different place and receive services to reform yourself so that your crime doesn’t happen again. Norwegian inmates don’t even wear special uniforms; they wear street clothes in prison. That alone says a lot about what they’re doing over there.” Rejecting the status quo Davis’s current position on the Goodwill– Easter Seals Minnesota’s ReEntry Team leaves him working with what many would call a broken system, but he remains resolute: “This is definitely my thing. I’m still very passionate about it. And the Imagine Fellowship really helped me solidify this passion, and it also continues to inspire me, because by going to Norway, I was able to see that things can be different within prison systems. The status quo isn’t the only way. So I want to continue to work with our prisons and try to create real change here.”
Empowering communities through long-term volunteering
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arin Hecht ’16, a psychology and English double major, spent her fellowship working with the Los Martincitos Senior Citizen Center in a shantytown in Lima, Peru. Participants in the program often live in harsh conditions with little support. The center provides two meals a day, social activities, basic medical care, a literacy school, and home wellness visits. Using her fellowship to volunteer “One stereotype about psych majors is that they like to help people,” Hecht says, “and that’s definitely why the major appealed to me.” It’s also why Hecht structured her Imagine Fellowship around volunteering. She’d visited her older brother when he was working with the Peace Corps in Peru, and she decided to volunteer in that country with Cross-Cultural Solutions (CCS), a nonprofit organization that Hecht says models some of the same values. Through CCS, Hecht ended up working last January with Los Martincitos, which serves about a hundred abuelitos, as the elderly participants are called. On days when the center was closed, Hecht accompanied the program director on home visits, checking in on people who couldn’t make it to the center and inviting new people to join. The problems that the abuelitos faced, such as poverty, isolation, and lack of access to medical care, exist in the U.S. but are amplified in Peru, Hecht says. She witnessed some heart-wrenching situations, such as a woman who’d broken her ankle and would have been bedridden for life were it not for the simple medical intervention of the center, which provided pain medicine and monitored healing.
She witnessed some heartwrenching situations, such as a woman who’d broken her ankle and would have been bedridden for life were it not for the simple medical intervention of the center.
Helping in ways that have an impact Hecht is glad that her fellowship was an emotionally difficult experience: “It was good that it pushed me out of my comfort zone and allowed me to consider this other facet of poverty in developing nations.” She continues: “One of the fears I had going in was that sometimes these short-term volunteer experiences are not helpful. People show up for a week, make friends with the kids, leave a week later, and think they saved the world. I tried to pick a program that would minimize that. The programs I was working with didn’t rely solely on the people coming in. They had full-time staff members, and we’d come in to help them for as long as we could.” Hecht cares about making sure that her efforts have an impact. “So many people from first-world countries like to throw money and resources at developing nations,” she says, “and though that can help, sometimes it can end up hurting because you don’t have a good concept of what the people actually need or want or what impacts the politics of that country will have on your help. You need the ability to work within the system, which means asking the people who actually live there what they need and want.”
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THE VOICE OF LUTHER by Kate Frentzel photos by Michael Hagstrom ’17
In his deep radio voice, Bruce Larson recites the once-standard station break of KWLC: “You’re in tune to the radio voice of Luther College, KWLC, Decorah.” Larson, who is on staff as the station engineer but was a KWLC DJ in the late 1960s, recalls: “The very first time I was on the air, they put me in a studio, and the only thing I did was give a station break. I was armed with this phrase—it was written down on a piece of paper—and Dan Olson ’67, the DJ, gave his back-announce to whatever record he was playing. Then he pointed at me, the light came on, and I had a lump in my throat while I delivered that line. That was the beginning. And by the end of my freshman year, I was combo-ing” (engineering and broadcasting at the same time). Larson describes a scene straight from radio’s golden days. But while the technology, programming, and promotional aspects of the station have evolved in the past few decades, the effect of KWLC on the students who work for and listen to it remains just as powerful.
in November 2014, and his goal is to teach students—14 of whom work in paid roles and 50–60 of whom are volunteer DJs—to become not only creators but also promoters. “The station is an outlet for creativity—the students produce a beautiful thing, so they learn to be craftsmen and journalists,” he says. “But I really want to move to a model of teaching them to be independent producers, where they create a beautiful show and promote and sell it as you would in any media or entertainment industry. I want them to make a product that they can take with them and market.” MUSIC CURATORS
According to Grouws, the traditional college station tries to bring in genres of music that aren’t amenable to commercial radio. “We try to capture a diversity of tastes,” he says, citing a show on Scandinavian rock, another on video-game music, and a third astonishingly specific show featuring German rap. Grouws recognizes that in a digital age, RADIO REACH when people can stream music for free and On good days, KWLC general manager Daqueue up podcasts on demand, radio is vid Grouws says, the station’s signal reaches becoming a rarefied medium, but he thinks almost to La Crosse, Wis. KWLC operates on KWLC offers something valuable: “We bring the AM band but also streams its programan editorial intelligence. We’re curators. We ming, which means that people can listen can help find music our audience doesn’t worldwide. In addition to its original shows, even know they like. Students spend a lot KWLC streams chapel and Sunday morning of time selecting music, but their services and select live campus shows are only an hour each sporting events, which are week, so what they choose board-operated by workstudy students hired for to play matters to the task. them.” Grouws beWhat’s more, came KWLC Grouws says, CT: A F FUN went on it’s station manager KWLC students
C nd KWL 1926, a llege n ir i 3 co to the a of only 1 country t a e e on s in th he Gre t on stati rge from with an e n o i m e onal ress Dep educati . AM icense l
VOICES FROM THE PAST KWLC alumni work in several media and communications fields, among them radio, television, film, and sound engineering and production. KWLC alumnus Mark Heistad ’79, who now acts as faculty adviser at Morningside College radio station KMSC, says, “There’s no end to what I learned at KWLC beyond broadcasting (though I learned a whole lot about that). The station introduced me to different forms of music and gave me a glimpse of the news business. I learned about professionalism and a tremendous amount about leadership.” Says Brian Newhouse ’80, managing director of Minnesota Public Radio’s classical programming, “I literally got my start in radio because a guy didn’t show up for his shift. Radio was not on my radar at all at the time. . . . But the thing is, I found I liked it, got intense satisfaction when something I did on the air connected with a listener and they called or wrote to tell me so, and it was a way for me to be hands-on with music I adored. . . . The initial thrill of connecting this beautiful music to the life of just one listener at a time—that’s still why I do it, and why I feel so lucky to have quite literally stumbled into this career through the KWLC front door.”
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one requirement of the minor is to work on news at either KWLC or Chips for two semesters. The station has amped up its technical resources in anticipation of the journalism students, upgrading to the newest Adobe Audition software and adding a sound station where students can mix in sounds from field recordings. RADIO TEACHES
Jack Ross ’17, KWLC’s co-station manager, hosts a rock music show on Tuesday nights at 10 p.m. Ross is one of more than 60 student DJs who broadcast each week on KWLC.
“coach listeners. They’ll say, ‘Listen to this part’ or they’ll point out connections between songs. So you have a knowledgeable companion.” In an age when listening options—good and bad—are near limitless, it saves a lot of time and money to have a curator willing to sift through the chaff to find the wheat. Having one that can educate you into the bargain? Priceless. TALK RADIO
Sophomores Colin Landsteiner and Daniel Melaas-Swanson have one of KWLC’s few talk sports shows. And although their show is strictly volunteer, they do a lot of footwork for it. They cover Luther, collegiate, and national sports, and they court expert opinion. On their program, they’ve hosted columnists from USA Today, the Washington Post, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, the Denver Post, and the Charleston Post and Courier. For their pre–Super Bowl coverage between the Carolina Panthers and the Denver Broncos, they even pulled off a phone interview with Denver Bronco safety David Bruton. Of course, they also interview hometown athletes, like Luther basketball player Anna Madrigal ’17 and soccer player Melisse Chasse ’17.
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Although Landsteiner’s love of sports knows no bounds, he appreciates the eclectic KWLC lineup. “When I first got here, there were shows in four or five music genres, but the station seems more diverse now in terms of programming.” In fact, one initiative on Grouws’s agenda is to increase the amount of news and talk programming at the station. “We’re trying to create a public affairs presence with more news journalism, more sports journalism, and more talk radio. And we’re starting to experiment with new narrative forms of journalism.” KWLC’s spring on-air schedule features several news shows, including This Week at KWLC, a music-discussion show that explores the music industry, from trends, tours, and new videos to more philosophic discussions, like musicians’ rights, for example in the Spotify–Taylor Swift dustup, in which the singer pulled her music from the low-royalty music-streaming site. Grouws is also initiating a top-of-the-hour news segment that recaps both local and international news. The goal is to expand it into an hour-long current events program. In what promises to be a win-win situation, Luther added a journalism minor last fall, and
Sylvester Mhlanga ’16 might have the most diverse musical tastes of anyone on campus. A management major from Swaziland, his favorite musician is country singer Don Williams. Other list-toppers include new age Enya, Irish rockers U2, singer-songwriter Townes Van Zandt, and reggae. Mhlanga hosts both a reggae show and a world music show, and he’s also the station’s music journalism editor. He puts out a print and digital monthly newsletter, which means overseeing a stable of writers and learning a thing or two about email marketing. Mhlanga, who volunteered as a DJ until last summer, when he became a paid studentworker, says, “In Swaziland, where I grew up, radio DJs are like celebrities. So when I got a chance to work in radio, it was a big deal to me.” He continues, “It was a challenge when I started. I was never someone who looks for the opportunity to speak in public. When you broadcast at the station, there are only one or two people, but it feels like a lot of people are watching you.” Mhlanga used to work for Luther’s custodial department, and after he delivered this spring’s Convocation address as president of the International Student Union, his former supervisor shared how surprised and impressed she was to see him at the podium, given how quiet he’d been before. “I’ve come a long way from being someone who minds their own business to public speaking,” he admits. Many of the KWLC students have a similar ease about them. They’re comfortable in their skin. They’re confident. They don’t say “um” or “like.” They don’t hem or haw or use other stalling techniques when asked a question. “Working at KWLC has honed my skills of how to think on the fly or play off mistakes,”
T: FAC abilN U F its o owes ontent t C L c W s m e — , K g duat strea ti y to 2004 gra am Dron S e , thre ’Abreo nssen— a gD Crai nd Matt J e it their d a a ct. m who ior proje sen
says Marlene Jones, rock music director. “I’ve always been a good extemporaneous speaker, but now I think on my feet very quickly,” agrees Emma Cassabaum ’16, KWLC’s co-station manager and news director. Both Jones and Cassabaum manage and train other students—as station director, Cassabaum manages and trains upward of 60 of them—and their positions obviously engage their managerial, leadership, scheduling, and organizational skill sets. But with great responsibility comes great perks, and, owing to a combination of canny timing and media savvy, Cassabaum has gotten to interview such greats as famed Iranian graphic novelist Marjane Satrapi and South African musical icon and freedom fighter Hugh Masekela. Another perk? “I get to watch our DJs evolve from their audition to the end of year,” she says. “They completely blossom.” On the sound side, Erin Bradley works as KWLC’s recording technician, recording Luther ensembles and visiting musicians who come to the studio. As part of its promotional efforts, the station has started putting out an annual CD featuring these recordings. Bradley recruits the bands, sets up a time to record, records, edits the recordings, sends out the tracks for burning to CD, and designs the CD. “Organization is key,” she says. “I was not an organized person coming into this job, and you’d be surprised how quickly that turned around.” The position has also taught Bradley some people skills. “There is a stereotype about musicians being moody, and that doesn’t change even in the recording studio of a college campus,” she says dryly. “So I’ve been learning to work with different personality types and different expectations—and also a wide variety of sounds.” Bradley plans to work as a technician in the D.C. area next year while she considers entering an audio technician master’s program. “Radio is a dying art, and it shouldn’t
RADIO SURFACES
be,” she says. “There’s so much you can get out of it, from learning to manage your time and organize your thoughts quickly to diving into new music, especially, when it comes to Luther, into music you may not get in the major.”
KWLC occupies the sub-basement level of Dahl Centennial Union, and most KWLC students agree that a top priority is making the station more visible on campus—“bringing it out of the basement” is a phrase they regularly deploy. To that end, they’ve increased promotion both on campus and social media, and they’ve started staging wildly popular outdoor music events each semester. Jones explains, “We’ve put on more events over the past couple of years, and we’re tying to come to the surface with more promotional things. A lot of people at Luther don’t know about KWLC, but there are so many doors it can open. It’s different from any other club because there is no strict formula—you can do what you want with it. That creative freedom has been so rewarding.” Some of the most powerful recent changes at KWLC have nothing to do with its content, but rather with its appearance, from a new digital billboard that hangs outside the station offices to a new coat of paint on the office walls. Bradley says, “It’s not only a physical renewing—it’s also renewing the spirit of the radio station. It’s not just forgotten in the basement. From the events we throw outside, to the promotions, to the digital billboard with the face of the DJ who’s currently hosting on it—it’s a cool opportunity that was hidden before, and we’re turning it into something inviting.”
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Ryan Goos ’16 spent spring 2015 with the Spanish Studies Abroad program in Córdoba, Argentina. He got this shot during a trip that he took with friends to Los Glaciares National Park in El Chaltén, Argentina, in the Patagonia region. They traveled in the park for a week, doing day hikes to the bases of various mountains.
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Emily Holm ’17 studied in Norway during summer 2015 as a participant in the Peace Scholars program. Holm’s group stopped only briefly at this small Norwegian town, but she says this photo became one of her favorite shots from the summer.
Learning
Uyen Truong ’16 studied in Norway in spring 2015 through the University Studies Abroad Consortium. She is shown here at Pulpit Rock (Preikestolen) in a photo taken by Australian classmate Gloria Liang. Truong says: “This breathtaking scenic point is 604 meters above the Lysefjord, and it took my friend and me about two hours hiking to reach the place.
It was really refreshing to be there and feel the closeness to nature, one of the Norwegian characteristics I learned of during my time there.”
via immersion A study away photo essay
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Megan Oliver ’19 spent January Term 2016 in New Mexico with the Education 185 class doing observation in area schools. While exploring Red Rock Park in Church Rock, N.M., she says, “Some of us were very intrigued by this little narrow passageway between these huge red rocks.”
To learn about Luther’s study away opportunities and read about the 2016 January Term classes, visit luther.edu/global-learning. See more student photos at luther.edu/magazine.
Olivia Heitz ’16 participated in the Associated Colleges of the Midwest’s London and Florence: Arts in Context program in spring 2015. Traveling in Germany, she took this photo at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp in Oranienburg, 22 miles north of Berlin. She says:
“As I was facing the sunken doors of the gas chambers, I caught a glimpse of a ghostlike figure peering back at me.
Soon after I jumped backward with a racing heart, I realized it was my own reflection in the dusty windows. The eerie sensation never left me as I finished walking the grounds of the camp.”
Vicky Torrillas Pizzorno ’17 was on Luther’s yearlong Nottingham Program in 2015–16 and shot this photo at the University of Nottingham. Writing from England, she says, “I took this picture because the weather here is completely different than in Decorah. Fog is something that’s interesting to me, and I felt that this picture symbolized my experience here in Nottingham, first being a bit lost and confused but then came clarity.”
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Aaron Fargo ’16 was part of the J-term 2016 Paideia 450 class, Stability and Change in Vietnam. He shot this photo when the class was in the Mekong Delta and paddled in some of the traditional boats that traverse the delta’s canals.
Erin Ellefsen ’17 got this shot while with the course Art and Cultural Perspectives: European Art History, Gothic, Renaissance, and the New Media Art, traveling in Italy and France during J-term 2016. Pictured is course instructor Richard Merritt, Luther professor of art, in the Musée de l’Orangerie in Paris. Ellefsen says: “I took this photo because Monet’s Water Lilies is such a famous work that we got the privilege of seeing in person. It was an exciting moment.”
Andrew Braun ’18 took the course Language and Culture in the Spanish-Speaking World during J-term 2016. “On a relaxing Sunday afternoon, we had the opportunity to go horseback riding in the beautiful farming region just outside of Salamanca,” he says. “As our guides helped us get saddled up, the afternoon sun made things seem almost majestic.” Spring 2016 Luther Alumni Magazine
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Laura Johnson ’17 studied in Cape Town, South Africa, in fall 2015 with a Marquette University service-learning trip and took this photo at a walk to celebrate Women’s Day in South Africa. She says: “The NGO that I worked for, the South African Faith and Family Institute (SAFFI), played a major role in organizing the event. Over 8,000 people participated on this walk through downtown Cape Town in solidarity and in support of women all over the world. It was truly a surreal experience, walking hand in hand with women of all backgrounds and colors and beliefs. It was beautiful. My friends are holding the SAFFI banner on the far left, and the mountain in the back is called Devil’s Peak.”
Johanna Beaupre ’18 traveled to Cuba during J-term 2016 with the course Language and Culture in the SpanishSpeaking World. She says: “I took this photo one afternoon on our way home to our casas particulares (host homes). It had rained much of the trip, and this hint of sunshine after the rain was the start to our beautiful final weekend in Cuba. I like this photo because it shows a typical Havana neighborhood with its criss-crossing wires and diverse architecture, along with the classic old car that everyone expects of Cuba.”
Olivia Heitz ’16 participated in the Associated Colleges of the Midwest’s London and Florence: Arts in Context program in spring 2015. She was in Venice during the Carnevale and shot this photo of a participant.
“This woman’s enthusiasm and joy for the Venice Carnevale is unmistakable.
The colorful flowers surrounding her perfectly emulate the sense of wonder and happiness that fills the streets (and canals) in Venice,” Heitz says.
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Miranda Joslin ’17 took the J-term 2016 class English Theatre: Mirror of Society and the Human Condition. This photo was taken at the Tower of London, shortly before sundown. “I found myself fascinated with the architecture of the London skyline, and this photo was taken to capture the breathlessness that I felt in a moment when I truly got the chance to stop and look. It was the right lighting, the right time, a beautiful city, and I felt an overwhelming sense of joy that I was the one standing there to witness it,” Joslin says.
Alumni News
Alumni News
Cycling trip to the “end of the earth” helps build houses through Winneshiek Habitat Ben Harney ’15, Jon Williams ’15, and Kai Ashland ’14 became violently ill in Mexico, biked in seemingly endless triple-digit heat in Guatemala, and battled freezing temperatures in the mountains of Peru. But, Ashland says, overcoming those challenges was all part of the experience of spending six months (to the day!) cycling 5,000 miles through nine countries, from the northern border of Mexico to the “end of the earth” in Ushuaia, Argentina. “Sometimes home sounded really good, but instead of making excuses, we continued on,” he says. “I think Jon and Ben would agree that completing this trip is among the greatest accomplishments of our lives.” Williams, an experienced white-water rafting guide, and Harney, an avid backpacker, had tossed around the idea of doing an adventure trip together as early as their first year at Luther. But it wasn’t until September 2014—the start of their senior year—that
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the two settled on cycling together through Central America and South America. “Jon was the instigator,” Harney says. “But it didn’t take much to convince me.” Ashland, a salmon fisherman and Boundary Waters enthusiast, soon signed on as well. All three quickly agreed to use the trip to raise funds for a cause in which they believed. Winneshiek County Habitat for Humanity fit the bill. “We raised about $9,600 total, including just shy of $6,000 for the local Habitat chapter,” says Ashland, an active member of Luther Habitat for Humanity while on campus. “The Luther and Decorah communities were both very generous.” The remaining donations helped defray the cost of the trio’s adventure, including the purchase of an MSR international stove, an extensive first aid kit, and rugged Surly Troll mountain bikes able to carry up to 50 pounds of gear. “Those bikes are like the Land Rover of bicycles,” Williams says, noting they aver-
aged between four and six hours a day in the saddle. “They were able to get us anywhere we wanted to go.” Their route took them along muddy gravel river beds, desolate backcountry roads, high mountain passes, and busy city thoroughfares, while at the same time showing them some of the most stunning scenery in the world—from the coasts of Mexico and the rain forests of southern Ecuador to the glaciers of Patagonia. “No matter where we were, the scenery was engaging,” Harney says. “And because terrain changed so often, it was also very challenging.” The English-Spanish language barrier also posed challenges. “Every country speaks a different dialect of Spanish, so it was always changing,” Williams says. “Still, our Spanish skills were good enough that we were able to get to where we wanted to go.” They made connections they will never forget. In northern Mexico a family saw that the men were struggling and offered them food
Alumni News
Jon Williams ’15, Kai Ashland ’14, and Ben Harney ’15 cycled from the northern border of Mexico to the “end of the earth,” Ushuaia, Argentina.
and a place to sleep for the night. In southern Mexico a man gave them keys to his apartment so they could rest up while coming and going as they pleased. And in Guatemala a boy and his mother spotted the three exhausted cyclists resting under a tree and brought out bananas, oranges, and loaves of fresh-baked cornbread. “The food just kept coming and coming,” Harney recalls. “They shared what little they had with us, three American strang-
says. “It was our Luther experience that challenged us to not only act upon this dream but also learn as much as we could while staying true to our core values along the way.”
ers, because they thought we needed it.” Appreciation of such sincere hospitality, Williams says, was just one of many life lessons the trio took from spending half a year so far away from the comforts of home. He is thankful for the opportunity to have seen so much of the world with two of his closest friends, as well as for the role their Luther education played in shaping the experience. “Luther was at the very root of this trip,” he
—Sara Friedl-Putnam Read more about the trio’s cycling adventures, at endoftheearth2015.blogspot.com.
Five Luther alumni English majors returned to campus in February for an event called At Work in the World. The five took up “conversation stations” to talk with current students about life after Luther with an English major. Participants included Rebecca Klug ’95, Erika Strandjord ’06, Jordan Wiklund ’07, Laura Fuller ’10, and Jaci Wilkinson ’12. Graduating senior Jenna Nelson attended part of the event and says it was a great opportunity to learn firsthand how English majors have developed careers in the real world. “Seeing these recent grads navigating the post-grad phase with so much ease gives me confidence in my future endeavors after graduating from Luther with a degree in English,” she says. Rebecca Klug gave the keynote address. She is director of marketing at the Delaware Contemporary, a leading regional art museum in Wilmington. Klug double majored with anthropology and went on to earn a master’s degree in anthropology from the University of Iowa. She previously served as communications specialist for the Delaware Coalition Against Domestic Violence, nonprofit accounts manager for a tech consulting firm, production editor for one of the nation’s largest historic preservation firms, and editorial assistant for the anthropology journal American Ethnologist. Strandjord is assistant professor of English
LUTHER PHOTO BUREAU
Alumni talk about life after Luther with an English major
Rebecca Klug ’95, director of marketing at Delaware Contemporary, a leading regional art museum in Wilmington, speaks at the event dinner.
at Concordia College–Moorhead with research and teaching interests in digital media theory and composition, professional and technical writing, rhetorical theory, gender studies, and folk art and Scandinavian handicrafts. After graduating from Luther, she earned a master’s degree and doctorate from the Ohio State University. Her teaching at Concordia–Moorhead includes a course on digital media composition, and she has both supervised and created extensive digital media projects.
After Luther, Wiklund earned an M.F.A. in creative writing from Hamline University. The founder and editor-in-chief of Luther Review, a student-run magazine on campus, Wiklund is now a freelance writer and editor who has contributed to various literary magazines. His essay “When You Meet My Father” was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in nonfiction. He has published a book, Craft Beer for the Home Brewer (Voyageur Press, 2014), and currently has a book manuscript under review: Cribbageland: The People, Craft, and Culture of a Curious Game. A visiting instructor in English at Luther, Fuller earned an MFA in creative writing, nonfiction, from the New School in New York City. Her master’s thesis was a collection of personal essays titled Love in the Time of Cauliflower: Essays about Loss and Vegetables. Fuller has taught at the American School of Dubai and worked as communications coordinator at Seed Savers Exchange in Decorah. She was also commissioned to write narrations for the world premiere of a performance by the Manhattan Chorale at Lincoln Center in New York, in which she sang. A visiting assistant professor of library sciences at Luther, Wilkinson earned an M.S. in library sciences (academic libraries) from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Her interests are in academic librarianship, reference and instruction, user experience research of virtual and physical spaces within the library, and marketing.
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Alumni News
At 10 years old, Amir became the resident bee expert in his low-income neighborhood in Des Moines, Iowa. The fifth-grader could tell his friends and neighbors what bees do and how they pollinate and relate to sources of food. He worked alongside beekeepers and explained to people in the community why local hives should be left alone. Amir was able to do all this because someone made a connection with him on his terms. Someone thought to ask him what his interests were and helped him develop them. Being an ambassador for bees contributed to his sense of self-worth, the feeling that he could make a difference. Creating connections like this is at the heart of what three Luther alumni are doing in the Des Moines area: helping wounded children get on their feet, learn to trust, and find a successful path in life. Amy (Ostrander) Croll ’97 is cofounder and executive director of Community Youth Concepts, which brings service learning and career-based mentoring to kids in grades 4–12 across 19 schools. Gladys Noll Alvarez ’80 is the trauma informed care project coordinator at Child Guidance Center, the children’s mental health center branch of Orchard Place, which provides inpatient, outpatient, and community programs for more than 10,000 children. Alvarez specializes in trauma and works with children from newborn to age eight. Toby O’Berry ’97 is the director of Iowa Homeless Youth Centers, giving homeless youth ages 16 to 22 a safe and free place to live for up to two years while they pursue education and jobs. The centers work with about 500 youths a year. Suzanne (Roverud) Mineck ’96, president and CEO of the Mid-Iowa Health Foundation, brought the group together for a Luthersponsored Lunch Connection last February called “Giving Hope and Fostering Resilience.” Many of us are lucky to live in cities, like Des Moines, that rate highly as places to live and raise families, but Mineck says there are still thousands of children in Iowa alone who live in poverty and have no idea where they are going to get their next meal. MidIowa Health helps support organizations like the ones at which Croll, Alvarez, and O’Berry work, and Mineck gets a firsthand look at how they build supportive connections to counter
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. . . When they have that food-andshelter thing solved, then they really open up and start thinking about how to better themselves and start to trust.” The renewed ability to trust makes these teens more receptive to connections that can set them on paths to education, jobs, and continued stability. Croll made a connection with bee expert Amir through Community Youth Concepts. She saw it as a way to help him develop confidence in himself. When he felt like he mattered, he developed responSpeakers at the February Lunch Connection in the Des Moines area: sibility. “We find Amy (Ostrander) Croll ’97, cofounder and executive director of Commuwhen we engage nity Youth Concepts; Toby O’Berry ’97, director of Iowa Homeless Youth youth and we come Centers; and Gladys Noll Alvarez ’80, trauma informed care project alongside them, we coordinator at Child Guidance Center of Orchard Place. don’t experience the major behavthe adversity in children’s lives. ioral issues,” she says. Rather than simply Alvarez is a trauma informed care coorinsisting a child do something or act a certain dinator at Orchard Place. Knowing that a way, Croll and her staff seek out the child’s child has been through some kind of trauma, interests. “Let’s tap into what you’re interested whether physical or mental, helps caregivers in first, then it’s our job as facilitators and provide better care. And having a connection adults to build lessons around what the kids with someone who really cares about them is are interested in,” Croll says. crucial for all children, Alvarez says: “We all She attended a beekeeping class with Amir need at least one person who cares whether we and brought beehives to the CYC offices—“not show up or not. Ideally that’s our family, but something I ever anticipated we would have,” for some kids it’s not. It could be a neighbor, she says. But because she paid attention to a Sunday school teacher, a coach, or just a a little boy who had no one else to listen to kind person. If you are kind to someone, that him, he is now a valued expert in his neighreleases the endorphins in their brain and borhood. He knows he matters, and that helps helps them be more positive.” the whole community. Toby O’Berry, at Iowa Homeless Youth Centers, says he sees homeless teens and young adults whose experiences have caused Reconnect and learn at Luther’s them to lose trust in adults. They can’t make Lunch Connections the connections they need to build stable Lunch Connections happen several times a lives. “It used to be that when those kids came year in the Des Moines, Iowa, area and in in it was, Okay, we have to get you a job, how do Minneapolis. Join with other Luther alumni we figure that out? But you can’t do that sucfor a catered lunch and intriguing speakers. cessfully until you treat the underlying issues,” Visit luther.edu/alumni/events for upcoming O’Berry says. “You can’t even talk to them events in the series. until they have the basics they need to survive. BOB MODERSOHN PHOTO
Alumni help at-risk youth find paths to safety and success
Alumni News
FIRST PERSON
Revisiting the Christian retreat Hothorpe Hall While vacationing in England last fall, my wife, Donna, and I returned to Hothorpe Hall, where I was honored to have spent a year (1966–67) as a Luther volunteer. Hothorpe is an English manor house in central England first built in 960. During the Second World War, the hall was used as a children’s home for youngsters evacuated from London. Ten years later, when Central European refugees—some of whom had been persecuted for their faith—fled to England, the Lutheran Council of Great Britain was formed to give some unity to this influx of Lutherans. The council purchased Hothorpe, which by this time was in considerable disrepair, to be used as a retreat and conference center for spiritual growth and renewal, particularly among young people. Rev. Jerry Moe ’49, who died in October 2015, was the first Hothorpe director. He arranged for Luther to send two volunteers to work at the hall for a year, cementing a close relationship between Luther and Hothorpe that spanned a quarter century. Hothorpe’s special relationship with Luther was further strengthened in 1966 when Rev. Marlyn Sundheim ’60, himself a Luther volunteer, returned to Hothorpe as director. It is said that one cannot go back because the past is in the past. So it was not surprising that so much has changed at Hothorpe over these 50 years, and yet, at its core Hothorpe remains very much intact. The gate houses that flanked the entrance to Hothorpe for centuries are still there and occupied, but the entrance has been moved a quarter mile down the road from the hall’s home village of Theddingworth. As you drive up, the hall looks exactly the same on the exterior, as does the adjacent chapel. Inside the hall, the green, blue, and round rooms are still known as such and continue to be used for meetings, special gatherings, and afternoon tea. The view from the green and blue
Hothorpe Hall as it looks today.
rooms of green, rolling English countryside is still so peaceful. The kitchen, with its large wood-burning stove and ovens where many volunteers toiled daily, is gone. It has been replaced by a modern, much larger facility in an annex. The large, walled-in garden and greenhouse that fed Hothorpe’s visitors and where I spent much of my time, is gone, built over with a new complex of suites and bedrooms. The stables are no longer recognizable, as they have been extended to provide a spacious dining room. The sauna, our favorite gathering place on Saturday evening, is gone too. Rose gardens grown by the gardener, Oscar, in the front and side of the hall, which were special, are also gone. Perhaps the biggest change is Hothorpe’s staffing. When I was there, five permanent staff ran Hothorpe—a director, a housekeeper, a secretary, John (the Polish cook), and Oscar (the Latvian gardener)—supported by two Luther volunteers and up to 15 or 20 university volunteers from the continent during the summer. Today Hothorpe, which hosts retreats for church groups and others, has up to 40 full-time staff and 60-plus part-time staff. Of course, Hothorpe now has about 23,000 guests each year. While it is truly a business now, at its core Hothorpe is still a Christian conference center, where visitors come to experience spiritual refreshment and fellowship. Reflecting back on Hothorpe’s purpose and the opportunity it provided Luther vol-
Donna and Richard Larson ’68 also visited Stonehenge on their trip to England last fall.
unteers to learn through service to understand and value diverse cultures, customs, and beliefs, I can’t help wondering if Luther will find new opportunities for its present generation of students to serve and support our 21st-century refugees. —Richard Larson ’68
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Alumni News
CLASS NOTES
1943 Albert Nassen of Dallas celebrated 70 years of ordination last September. 1952 Harold Peterson sings
Class of 1964 Pi Sig members and spouses gather for 18th year Luther President Paula Carlson and Rev. Dr. Thomas Schattauer joined 15 Luther couples for dinner at the Chase Hotel in Walker, Minn., on Sept. l7, 2015, the first night of their annual four-day gathering. This was the 18th gathering of the class of 1964 Luther friends who were Pi Sig members or honorary members. The gathering included a day at Itasca Park, a tour of Concordia College Language Villages near Bemidji, and time on Kabekona Lake, and it closed with a Sunday worship service at Trinity Lutheran in Laporte, Minn., where Maddy (Preus) Lawrence ’64 is the organist and choir director. Tom ’64 and Maddy Lawrence and Luther ’64 and Marilyn Nervig hosted the group. Next year the group is scheduled to gather in Kansas City and will be hosted by Dennis ’64 and Suzanne Birkestrand. The class of l964 set a Luther College record for its 50th class reunion with a class gift of $2,045,338. Class of 1964 Pi Sig gathering, back row (left to right): Linda (Ladd) Messer ’64, Steve Messer ’64, Bonnie (Curtis) Behnken’ 64, Barry Behnken, Dick Edwards ’64, Donna (Wangsness) Weigle ’64, Jim Weigle, President Paula Carlson. Front row (left to right): Linda Matter, Jim Matter ’64, Pat (McCullough) Edwards ’63, Judy (Larson) Fogdall ’65, Jim Fogdall ’64, Thomas Schattauer.
Luther alumni and friends participated in the January tour titled In the Footsteps of Egeria: A Holy Land Pilgrimage to Places, Peoples, and Peace, through Wartburg Theological Seminary. This photo was taken at the Church of the Beatitudes on the Sea of Galilee and near the ancient Christian town of Tabgha. Front row (left to right): Elinor (Nelson) Llewellyn ’63, Jane Kemp, and Marilyn (Miller) Anderson ’62. Back row (left to right): Dave Llewellyn, George Orness ’67, Carole (Rust) Orness ’69, Duane Everson ’62, and tour leader Rev. Dr. Thomas Schattauer.
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in the ALC Celebration Choir and in SATB and TTBB quartets, plays in the ALC Bell Choir, and narrates the Sun City Concert Band and West Valley Pops Band. He preaches three Sundays per year at Sunflower RV Park and serves on the executive resident board at Royal Oak Life Care Community in Sun City, Ariz.
from 1968 to 1998 and made six appearances at the IBA and MMEA conventions in Iowa and Minnesota. James Ringlien is retired in Maumee, Ohio. Cynthia (Vasey) Smith of Steuben, Wis., writes a weekly column, “Kickapoo Ramblings,” for mwnews.net.
1959 Linda (Switzer) Lasota of Athens, Ala., sings with the Huntsville Community Chorus. 1963 James Ricketts retired as director of the Virginia Beach (Va.) Convention and Visitors Bureau, capping a 42-year career with the city. 1965 Thomas Kruse is
retired and narrates audiobooks and commercials for Tom Kruse Voice Over in Brookfield, Wis.
1961 Jake Bostrom of Menomonie, Wis., was inducted into the Fellowship of Christian Athletes Hall of Champions, becoming the first person from Wisconsin to receive the honor. Others in the fivemember 2015 class included Anne Graham Lotz, daughter of evangelist Billy Graham, and NBA star Bobby Jones.
Tom Haugen of Decorah was selected from nominees in Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan to be honored by the National Federation of State High School Associations for his distinguished service to American high school music programs. He is a music education student teacher supervisor at Luther College. Prior to his current position, he was a high school band director for 38 years in Minnesota and Iowa. His concert and jazz bands received top ratings in all state, regional, and national contests
Paul Olsen is professor of English and men’s cross-country and track and field head coach at Augustana College in Rock Island, Ill. Olsen was featured in an article in Runner’s World for coaching cross-country at Augustana for 50 years last November. In March, Olsen was the keynote speaker at the annual Student-Athlete Advisory Committee Norse Awards at Luther College and honored as the inaugural recipient of the Alumni Coach of the Year Award. Gary Peer of Spring Hill, Kan., is a professional wildlife photographer. His photos can be found at westernimagesphotography.zenfolio.com.
1966 John Bodensteiner is
professor of neurology and pediatrics and consultant in child and adolescent neurology at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.
1968 Richard Boyum teaches at Senior College in Asheville, N.C.
DECORAH NEWSPAPERS, SARAH STANDBERG ’87
Alumni News
Bruce ’66 and Dana (Nelson) Blatti ’65 sent in this shot of a special Christmas gift for their grandchildren, back row (left to right): Sam, Jacob, Evan, Carson, Averie, Emma, and (front) Anna. The children’s parents are Lisa (Blatti) Amundson ’92, Shannon (Boyd) ’96 and Brian Blatti ’96, and Laura (Blatti) ’98 and Joe Vogel.
On Dec. 20, 2015, Bill Kuhlman, Luther professor emeritus of music, played a recital at the Iglesia Anglicana, the historic Anglican Church in Vaparaiso, Chile. Pictured here are (left to right): Yvonne and Bill Kuhlman and Ann (Ulrich) ’73 and John Walker ’73, who hosted the Kuhlmans. Behind them is the organ that was a gift from Queen Victoria to the English members of the Anglican Church in the early 1900s.
When these alumnae from the class of 1967 met in Boise, Idaho, last year to celebrate their 70th birthdays, they took this photo with a gift of book bags they’d received from Luther’s Admissions Office. Front row (left to right): Sonja (Anderson) Bennett, Ruth (Sorensen) Younger, Jo (Kurtz) Stensaas, Linda (Johnson) Haerter, Nancy (Lee) Isaacson. Back row (left to right): LaVonne (Forland) Welch, Karen (Knutson) Gross, Ann (Halweg) Coplen, Paulette (Lutz) Kutschat, Diane (Schultz) Kinneberg, and Suzanne Williams Howard.
A National Geographic program featuring a giant fossilized 467-millionyear-old sea scorpion found on the Hildebrand property near Decorah aired on Jan. 31. The story was posted in the Decorah Newspapers and included this picture, back (left to right): Jake Hildebrand ’02; Josh Hildebrand ’02; their parents, Jane (Greene) Hildebrand ’74 and Steve Hildebrand ’73. Front (left to right) Josh’s children, Hans, Lars, and Asta; and Iowa Geological Survey researchers Paul Liu and Bob McKay with a replica of the sea scorpion. The Decorah segment, “Scorp-zilla,” is part of episode 4, “The Day the Sky Fell,” in the series The Strange Truth.
John Wahlquist ’70, Bill Kobler ’70, Carolyn (Peterson) Kobler ’70, and Marlene (Nesheim) Winkie ’60 were all members of last summer’s Weston Noble Alumni Choir and came from not only the same city but also the same church, Our Savior’s Lutheran Church in Rockford, Ill.
Glenn Henriksen ’74 played piano and Vanessa Libbey ’14 sang during an art auction to benefit Luther at the home of Shirley (Klingsheim) Bentdahl ’59 in Scottsdale, Ariz., last January. Artwork for the auction was donated by art dealer Don Peterson ’55. Henriksen and Libbey are pictured at the prayer breakfast for the Kent Finanger ’54 11th Annual Golf Classic in Goodyear, Ariz., in March, where they also performed.
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Alumni News
1970 Shirley (Ellingson) Schroeder of Caledonia, Minn., is retired. 1971 Tim Becker teaches at Southern Oregon University in Ashland.
Barbara (Tidball) Fonkert of Roseville, Minn., is retired. Sheryl Hansen of Columbus, Ohio, is retired.
1972 Stan Brandt of Ridgeway, Iowa, is retired.
Tom Dahle is the sound supervisor, designer, and member of the board of directors for the Phipps Center for the Arts in Hudson, Wis., for theatrical productions and live sound reinforcement and mixing. He has directed the Phipps Festival Chorus for 25 years, including two performances at the Wisconsin Choral Directors Convention. He has directed the Phipps Choral Society for more than 20 years. He sings in the adult choir at Trinity Lutheran Church and formerly sang with the Minnesota Chorale and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra Chorale. Marilyn Johnson is senior investment writer for Wells Fargo Asset Management in Menomonee Falls, Wis.
1976 Terry (Young) Arons is a retired social worker in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Gail Heffner-Charles is the president of the Columbus Damenchor, a women’s chorus in German Village, Columbus, Ohio. Karl Jacobsen is an investment adviser for Jacobsen’s Complete in Decorah.
1973 John Holt is a pastor at
First Lutheran Church in Albert Lea, Minn. He is a chairman of the National Board of Directors for the Evangelical Lutheran Good Samaritan Society and a member of the Good Samaritan Society’s Board of Directors. David Morrison of Hudson, Wis., is retired. Bill Nordmark retired after 35 years as an ELCA pastor. He is now a literacy tutor for St. Paul (Minn.) Public Schools with Experience Corps.
1974 Angie (Geilfuss) Swetland of Eagan, Minn., is retired. 1975 Beth (Thompson) Benvenuti of Palm Beach, Fla., retired as magnet programs coordinator and International Baccalaureate Programme coordinator at Suncoast High School. She and her husband, Dino, are forming Life’s Changes, a 501c3 nonprofit organization, to provide wigs and other items to cancer patients. Beth will serve as director.
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Luther Alumni Magazine
Susan Anderson Arthur is an accountant at CJBS in Northbrook, Ill. Bradford Braley is pastor and head of staff at First Presbyterian Church in Cedar Falls, Iowa. Kim Brunssen of Westmont, Ill., is retired from choral directing at Andrew High School in Tinley Park, Ill. Dan Canton is city administrator for the city of Monona, Iowa. Anne Clotfelter is a nurse practitioner in breast oncology for the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Tom Coon is vice president of agricultural programs for Oklahoma State University in Stillwater. Geri (Grimm) Dirth of Ruskin, Fla., was inducted into the Minnesota High School Track and Field Coaches Hall of Fame.
Rick Ironside is executive director of Linn Mar Community Schools in Marion, Iowa. Bill Johnson is a retired social worker in Lino Lakes, Minn. Marilyn (Bruss) Lee is a selfemployed piano and voice teacher and a receiving clerk at SSE Music in La Crosse, Wis. Susan Linner of Lakewood, Colo., is retired. Kurt Meyer of Edina, Minn., was elected to the board of trustees for the Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum and Heritage Center.
Jim Fowler is senior pastor at Trinity Lutheran Church in Vermillion, S.D., and secretary of the board of directors for Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago. John Kalkwarf is professor of advanced English for the Global Medical English Program at Sungshin Women’s University in Seoul, South Korea, and the chief academic officer for Global Academic Learning Environments in Seoul. Douglas Lohafer is a health physicist at New World Environmental in Livermore, Calif.
Julia Natvig is an occupational health nurse at Archer Daniels Midland in Clinton, Iowa. Norma (Steadham) Ostlie is a registered nurse clinical manager at Robland Home Health Care in St. Paul, Minn. Tina (Allen) Rasmussen is teaching pastor at Zion Lutheran Church in Des Moines, Iowa. Mark Schori is a sales representative for Midwest Hardwood Corporation in Maple Grove, Minn. Ross Sutter of Minneapolis performed in the show Julglädje at the American Swedish Institute in Minneapolis in December. Randy Teymer is dean of students for Pleasant Valley School District in Bettendorf, Iowa. Betsy (Penrod) Thompson is the owner and manager of Thompson’s Fresh Produce and Wares in Sterling City, Texas. Andy Whitford Holey is a professor of computer science at St. John’s University in Collegeville, Minn., and the College of St. Benedict in St. Joseph, Minn.
1978 Larry Reis of Fort Atkinson, Iowa, is a naturalist for the Winneshiek County Conservation Board. He received the 2015 Aldo Leopold Award from the Iowa Association of Naturalists and the Iowa Conservation Education Coalition for his excellence and leadership in environmental education. Deb (Olson) and Gordon Sellers ’76 live in Hawarden, Iowa. She is a clinical consultant for McKesson Connected Care and Analytics/ Extended Care Solutions. He is supply and distribution manager for Center Fresh. Keith Williams is the senior vice president of human resources at WPS Health Solutions in Madison, Wis.
Dan England is a licensed clinical social worker and clinical director of Lee Memorial Behavioral Health Center in Fort Myers, Fla. Dan Hanger is manager of applications and surveillance at Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. Patricia Hauslein of St. Cloud, Minn., is retired. Alan Henningsgaard is a selfemployed consultant in Minnetonka, Minn.
1977 Mark and Lois
(Dunleavy) Finanger of Decorah attended the 11th Annual Kent Finanger ’54 Golf Classic in Goodyear, Ariz., in March.
1979 Hans Brattskar was appointed Norway’s ambassador and permanent representative to the United Nations and other international organizations in Geneva, Switzerland.
Alumni News
Amy (Waalen) Hansen of Amery, Wis., is retired from education. She works part time for Target Corporation and spent the summer of 2015 working in Rocky Mountain National Park. Paul Morlock is the vice president of human resources at the Children’s Hospital of the King’s Daughters Health System in Norfolk, Va.
1980 Tom Maakestad is the owner and artist at Maakestad Studio in Marine on St. Croix, Minn. His St. Croix River paintings are on display at the Groveland Gallery in Minneapolis.
the Al Schulte Award in 2000, the Voice for Children award in 2008, and the Michele A. Moore Award of Distinction in 2011. In 2015, she published Grandma Mary Says Things Happen, a guide to help children who experienced trauma, published by Xulon Press. She is also organizing the sixth annual Psychological Trauma and Juvenile Justice Conference for Orchard Place, and she manages the Trauma Informed Care project website.
Bill St. Angelo of Flower Mound, Texas, produced the documentary Back in Brooklyn with August Sky Films. Joe Whitters is executive partner at Frazier Healthcare Partners in Menlo Park, Calif.
1981 Wendy (Mueller) Barton is a pediatrician for ThedaCare in Appleton, Wis.
Bill Musser was elected treasurer for the national board of the Council on Botanical and Horticultural Libraries, the leading professional organization in the field of botanical and horticultural information services. He is the research librarian for Seed Savers in Decorah. Gladys Noll Alvarez is the trauma informed care project coordinator at Orchard Place Child Guidance Center in Des Moines, Iowa. She received her master of social work degree from the University of Iowa, is an Iowa licensed independent social worker, and is involved in two yearlong learning collaboratives through the National Child Traumatic Stress Network. Alvarez is a member of the CAN Prevention Council, Professional Consultation Team, Steering Committee for the Regional Child Protection Center, Model Court Team in Polk County, Zero to Three Safe Babies Court Team in Polk County, and she is an active member of United Methodist Women and her church, focusing on children’s issues. She won
Brian Bergum is pastor at Lord of the Valley Lutheran Church in Granby, Colo. Beth Gardner is senior publications editor for Dictionary of American Regional English in Madison, Wis. She directs the vocal choir at Covenant Lutheran Church, is one of the directors of the Stoughton (Wis.) Festival Choir, and plays trumpet in the Stoughton City Band. Wendy (Erickson) Gay is a registered nurse clinical research supervisor for Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. Jenny (Antony) Haun of Sparta, Wis., is an on-call assistant for Edward D. Jones and Co. Gregg Hemish of Apple Valley, Minn., is the tech lead for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota. Laurie Heyer is senior vice president and chief operating officer of Blue Cross of Idaho in Meridian.
Hanewall ’78 racks up the laughs In 1996 John Hanewall Jr. ’78 and his wife, Luan, were looking for something to do as a couple. Instead of turning to traditional partner hobbies like cooking or ballroom dance, they donned colored wigs and red noses and started clowning. While it might sound like they chose clowning on a whim, Hanewall’s parents were also clowns. “That was the impetus,” John Jr. says. “We saw them as mentors and saw how fun it was. As we say, it’s a lot more fun being in the parade than watching it.” In addition to parades, Hanewall and his wife perform as Luther (yes, Luther!) and Lu-Cee at a range of community events and programs, from YWCA Family Fun Nights to corporate picnics to nursing homes. Hanewall has delighted thousands of spectators through his clowning and has racked up scores of awards, including the 2015 Midwest Clown Association award for All Around Clown (he also won the title in 2008 and 2011). According to Hanewall, judging for the top honor includes three categories: makeup; single skit, in which a clown performs a solo prepared bit; and paradeability, in which clowns take turns traveling down a 200-yard “parade route” lined with people. In addition to his funny business, Hanewall is director of the Rock County (Wis.) Development Disabilities Board, where he oversees contracted services with 50 agencies and a $32 million budget. “It certainly is a different frame of mind when you’re clowning versus sitting as an administrator,” he says. But sometimes the two worlds collide, for example when Hanewall trots Luther out for a day-services program. Hanewall also teaches psychology courses at Upper Iowa University, where Luther occasionally guest lectures. “When I’m teaching counseling techniques, an eight-week course, Luther goes in for a night as Professor Luther Von Fritzeneric and teaches about dealing with stress management,” he explains. Stress management indeed—just try saying “Professor Luther Von Fritzeneric” with a straight face.
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Alumni News
Scott Kramer is pastor for Lakeridge Lutheran Church in Seattle.
1985 Khouanlakhone Phouthakesone is a sales associate for Home Depot in San Diego.
Sharon (Jerdee) Marker of Clive, Iowa, is retired.
Ronnie Raju is counsel for Wilkinson Barker Knauer LLP in Washington, D.C.
Brenda (Trott) Nomeland is a registered nurse at Avera Clinic in Milbank, S.D. Gary Nordmoe is senior purchases associate for Sunny Delight Beverages Co. in Cincinnati.
Dick Plummer is chief financial officer for Lake Elmo Bank in Lake Elmo, Minn.
Mary (Tangen) Peterson teaches special education at West Delaware High School in Manchester, Iowa.
1983 Dorothy Baumgartner is director of the Student Success Center at the University of Washington in Bothell.
Dan Ploenzke is account executive for Precision Press, Taylor Label Division, in Savage, Minn. Kathryn (Onda) Tart is founding dean and professor at University of Houston in Sugar Land, Texas. Ruth (Hanson) Thom is advanced academics coordinator at DaVinci Academy of Arts and Science in Blaine, Minn. Erik Torkelson of New Lenox, Ill., is retired. David Vohsman of Colorado Springs, Colo., is senior staff software engineer for Blackhawk Network. Sharon (Kugel) Zimmerman was awarded the 2013 Tennis Family of the Year by United States Tennis Association–Missouri Valley. She is retired in Towanda, Kan.
1982 Lynn Mickelsen Dwyer
was named 2016 Educator Partner of the Year for New London–Spicer School to Career Opportunities Partnership Endeavor. She is the school social worker at New London– Spicer (Minn.) Schools.
Ian Mizzi is the director of Mizzi Organization in Blata, Malta. The organization has acquired 50 percent of local IT Consultancy, InFusion Solutions Ltd., making this the first venture into the IT and digital work for the Mizzi Organization. Cindy (Vanderford) Penney earned a doctorate of nursing practice from the University of Iowa. She is vice president of nursing at Mercy Hospital in Iowa City, Iowa.
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Luther Alumni Magazine
Gregory Hager is director of the Computational Interaction and Robotics Lab, the deputy director of the NSF Engineering Research Center for Computer-Integrated Surgical Systems and Technology, and the Mandell Bellmore Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Johns Hopkins University. Last fall, Hager testified before the congressional Research and Technology Subcommittee about a report written by a working group he co-chaired for the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. Robin (Friedrichsen) and Scott Hanson ’81 live in Farmington, Minn. She is finance director for the city of Farmington, and he is a development lead and Kforce consultant for US Bank. Kent Savre is a major general in the U.S. Army and commander of Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri. Morten Warland is director and CEO at Stavanger Symfoniorkester in Stavanger, Norway.
1984 Sara (Baumgardner) Vaughn teaches math at Northwest Middle School in Greensboro, N.C. She is a 2015 North Carolina state finalist for the Presidential Award of Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching, administered by the National Science Foundation on behalf of the White House.
1986 Mari Danielson was inducted into the 2015–16 NAPW VIP Woman of the Year Circle by the National Association of Professional Women. She was recognized for her leadership in agriculture and food production. Danielson is sales manager for J&J Family of Farms in Nogales, Ariz. Michael Dorner earned a Ph.D. in higher education administration from the University of Minnesota. He is vice president for finance and chief financial officer at Concordia University in St. Paul, Minn.
Christopher Hansen is technical lead for GreatAmerica Leasing Corp. in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and was the recipient of GreatAmerica’s Outstanding Achiever Award. Jill (Gandrud) and Mark Peterson ’88 live in Bothell, Wash. Mark is a wealth manager for Thrivent Financial. Mark Ries of Andover, Minn., is a software engineer for Infor in New York.
1988 DeeAnne (Schultz) Marlow is senior vice president of human resources for Grief Inc. in Delaware, Ohio.
Alessandro Raniolo is representative director for Ralph Lauren Corporation Japan in Tokyo.
Karen (Schmidt) Schlindwein of Waukesha, Wis., is executive director of Chosen Inc. and is coauthor, with her daughter, Amalie Bowling, of Dear Lois: Our Adoption Journey. The book takes a unique perspective on adoption through letters written to the birth mother that chronicle the life of the daughter as she grows up, taking readers on an emotional journey from the heartache of infertility and miscarriage to the joy of a family created through adoption. Polly (Anderson) Wiebke is administrative assistant at Trinity Lutheran Church in Owatonna, Minn.
1987 Darren Anderson is
commercial credit manager for Wells Fargo Bank in St. Paul, Minn. Juli (Villesvik) Baecker is dean of aligned learning at Hill–Murray School in Maplewood, Minn. Jean Daywitt earned certification in special education from Upper Iowa University. She is a special education instructor for Howard–Winneshiek Schools in Cresco, Iowa.
Anne (Hendryx) Scafuri is a human resources business partner for ARAG in Des Moines, Iowa. Beth Ylvisaker is a piano teacher and accompanist for Ivanhoe (Australia) Grammar School.
1989 Amy (Schroeder) Fisher teaches biology and is assistant athletic director at Faith Lutheran High School in Las Vegas. She also coaches girls’ volleyball and was named the Nevada State Coach of the Year for the fourth consecutive year. Her teams have gone 125-46 overall and 48-0 in conference play the last four years. Paul Reimann is a business development consultant for Sun and Fun Motorsports in Iowa City, Iowa.
1990 Bergetta (Berkland)
Beardsley is director of development for Mercy Medical Center Foundation Office in Des Moines, Iowa. Lynda (Rothe) Eckheart teaches middle school art for Glenwood (Iowa) Community Schools. Lisa (Lensing) Hart is quality control reviewer for the state of Iowa in Des Moines.
Alumni News
Kathy (Butterbrodt) Metcalf is a home educator and co-op teacher in Hudson, Wis.
Bradley Kadel is assistant professor of history at Fayetteville (N.C.) State University. He is the author of Drink and Culture in Nineteenth-Century Ireland: The Alcohol Trade and the Politics of the Irish Public House. Sara (Eckheart) Morton is director of development at Genesis Development Employment Services of Central Iowa in Boone. Cheri (Koenig) and Thomas Satre live in Sauk Rapids, Minn. Cheri does display work for local organizations and sells artwork on Etsy at etsy.com/shop/Cjksatre. Thomas is program director of the University of Minnesota St. Cloud Hospital Family Medicine Residency. He is also editor in chief of the Help Desk Answer Project for Family Physicians Inquiries Network. Sara White earned an administrative license from the University of St. Thomas and an education specialist degree in curriculum and instruction from Capella University. She is director of teacher development for the Minnetonka (Minn.) School District.
1991 Jorgen Andersson of Loddekopinge, Sweden, is CEO of Solera Group, a large Nordic drinks distributor.
Mavis (Gizzi) Palmer is a patient educator at University Hospitals Portage Medical Center in Ravenna, Ohio. Luther alumni helped prepare and serve a Thanksgiving meal to more than 165 folks from the Wet Mountain Valley at Rainbow Trail Lutheran Camp in Hillside, Colo., last fall. Top row (left to right): Susan (Lorenzen) Fisk ’90, Dave Fisk ’94, Ben Jarvis ’13, David Keller ’09. Bottom row (left to right): Megan Gress ’14, Amanda Peck ’14, Jordan Jensen ’14, and Lauren (Kraus) Keller ’06, Luther admissions counselor. Kristin Gosselink is an associate professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Texas–El Paso.
Cynthia Bane is professor of psychology at Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa. Matt Evenson is sales representative for Henry Schein Dental in Winona, Minn.
Jon-David Hague is director of client services and partnerships for Cerego in San Francisco.
Kristie (Fjelstad) Falk is a family and consumer science educator at Rio Community School District in Rio, Wis.
Lora (Lorenzen) Hefty is a perioperative surgical nurse at Sartori Memorial Hospital in Cedar Falls, Iowa.
Derrik Gagliardi of Minneapolis had an exhibition of his paintings in Java John’s Coffeehouse in Decorah through February.
Wendy (Lohmann) Holsapple is the owner and artist of Laughing Mule Press in Hamilton, Mont. Laura (Paulson) Landau is founder of Excellence Through Balance Group in Bellevue, Wash.
Ellaina Gordon is a marketing manager at Elcon Associates in Portland, Ore.
Rob Pietz is a civil engineering technician at ISG in Mankato, Minn. Catherine Preus is copy editor for the Minneapolis Star and Tribune Company. Her article about her family trip to India, “Seeing India through Children’s Eyes,” was featured in the Nov. 1, 2015, edition of the Star Tribune. Michael White is an education training specialist at Tierney Brothers in Minneapolis. Steven Yates is a tax, audit, and quality control manager at Cukierski and Kowal in Schaumburg, Ill.
1992 Scott Bemus is a physician at OB-GYN Associates in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Wendy (Jaycox) Davidson is president of U.S. Special Channels at Kellogg Company in Elmhurst, Ill., and was named the board chair of the Women’s Foodservice Forum. Suzanne Greene of Plymouth, Minn., is enterprise account executive at VMTurbo.
1,810 total gifts
1,697 total donors
1,283 donors gave more than before
150 alumni volunteers
Thanks for your support on Giving Day!
= $574,809 350 brand new donors
3,123 people tuned in
26,963 unique page views
supporting the Luther College Annual Fund
to the live stream throughout the day
on the Giving Day website
luther.edu/giving-day
Spring 2016 Luther Alumni Magazine
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Alumni News
Kristin (Hohnbaum) Klein earned a master’s degree in teaching from National Louis University. She teaches science at Matthews Middle School in Island Lake, Ill. Kirsten (Rydeen) Lewis earned a master’s degree in education from Viterbo University. She is operations coordinator at ChildServe in Johnston, Iowa. Jodi (Sisson) Picou of Wasilla, Alaska, works for Matanuska–Susitna Borough School District. Jennifer Weuve is associate professor of epidemiology at Boston University School of Public Health.
1993 Michele Davis of
Eatontown, N.J., is the owner of HUE Design and Marketing and vice president of communications for the American Marketing Association of New Jersey. Kelly (McGrew) Irlmeier is a controller at Albaugh in Ankeny, Iowa. Chad Ketcher of Red Wing, Minn., is a freelance writer and media developer for Ketcher Communications and Generation Bridge Media. Ketcher Communications helps small businesses develop a mixed-media marketing strategy, and Generation Bridge Media interviews elderly persons and captures their life stories in print and video as an heirloom for their families to enjoy. Peter Olson is the president, owner, and operator of Change Your View in Dubuque, Iowa. Scot Schwark teaches elementary music K–5 and middle school band 6–8 for Lincoln K–8 Choice School in Rochester, Minn.
Laurie Lower is a braille transcriber for National Braille Press in Boston. Matt Rebro is vice president of business development at HKS in Chicago. Susan (Kreager) Wallager is pastor for spiritual care at Zion Lutheran Church in Anoka, Minn. Astri Wee of Reston, Va., is event coordinator for SOAR Train-theTrainer program.
1995 Doug Grimm is vice
president and general manager at Collabrance in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Amy Raddatz is emergency services dispatch supervisor for Fort Collins (Colo.) 9-1-1. Jodi Schlender Dabrowski is the director of special programs for the YMCA at Pabst Farms in Oconomowoc, Wis. Carol (Ihde) Vande Velden is an accountant for Patrick A. Kvitek CPA Accounting and Tax Services in Denmark, Wis. Rebecca (Williams) Welch of Summerville, S.C., earned a master of science degree in health informatics from the University of Illinois at Chicago. She is a registered nurse and clinical analyst at the Medical University of South Carolina.
1996 Dee Brown is the head
cross-country coach at Iowa Central Community College in Fort Dodge. The men’s cross-country team won back-to-back national titles, and the women’s team was national runner-up. Brown was named the USTFCCA men’s and women’s Regional Coach of the Year and the men’s National Coach of the Year.
Tony Rogers of Topsfield, Mass., is a supervisory special agent for the FBI. Monica (Peterson) Rotsaert is a family practice physician at Cedarloo UnityPoint Clinic in Cedar Falls, Iowa. Eric Schubert is pastor at Greenfield (Iowa) United Methodist Church. Joe Segilia is an attorney and partner at Robinson Brog in New York City. Andrea (Levin) Wackerfuss teaches preschool at Christ Victorious Early Childhood Center in Chaska, Minn.
1997 Alina (Sabatke) Bailey earned a master of science degree in nursing from Benedictine University in Lisle, Ill. She is a clinical care improvement manager for the Hospital Care Ring at Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis, and a Minnesota section leader for the Association of Women’s Health, Obstetric, and Neonatal Nurses.
Karen (Olson) Crews is an analytical chemistry scientist at Aerie Pharmaceuticals in Durham, N.C. Karin (Robeck) Mayo is a pediatric cardiac ICU nurse at the University of Minnesota Masonic Children’s Hospital. She is a medical volunteer with Children’s Heartlink to First Affiliated Hospital of Kunming Medical University
Emily O’Banion is senior vice president of integrated health care delivery at Rochester (N.Y.) Regional Health. Susan (Dennison) Patist is a business systems analyst for Millennium Health in San Diego. Ella Rothgangel is associate registrar and TMS administrator at the St. Louis Art Museum in St. Louis.
Peter Zamborsky is a senior lecturer in international business at University of Auckland in Auckland, New Zealand. He published the e-book International Business and Global Strategy.
1998 Jason Habeck of Hayden, Idaho, is field trainer for the Toro Company. Mary (Weis) and Magnus Hellmark live in White Bear Lake, Minn. She earned a master’s degree of computer information systems in technology management from Regis University and teaches Spanish at South Washington County (Minn.) Schools. He is an information systems supervisor for the 3M Medical Department.
1994 Neil Blackmore
is assistant director of new issue strategic information for Northwestern Mutual in Milwaukee. Heather Clefisch is vice president and division general counsel for Spectrum Brands in Madison, Wis. She is also on the executive leadership team for the American Heart Association-Madison Go Red.
Jessica (Hudson) McAndrews is vice president of programs, services, and operations at USO of Metropolitan New York. A group of 1998 alumni gathered for their annual get-together for skiing in Park City, Utah, last January: Carl Refsal, Aaron Holtebeck, Joe Grimstad, and Bjorn Birkestrand.
Luther Alumni Magazine
Amie (Schroeder) and Chris Mitchell live in Brooklyn, Wis. She earned school social work licensure from the University of Wisconsin in Madison and is the school social worker for the Mount Horeb (Wis.) Area School District. He teaches science and is the head boys’ soccer coach for Sun Prairie (Wis.) High School.
Sarah (Smith) Bauer is a dental hygienist at Dr. Swett: Family, Cosmetic, Implant, and Laser Dentistry in Johnston, Iowa.
Marc Wallman is vice president for information technology at North Dakota State University in Fargo.
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in Kunming, China, and a PICU nurse consultant with Minnesota International Medicine at King Saud Medical City in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Alumni News
Tim Fink is director of research and policy analysis for the Supporters of Agricultural Research Foundation in Arlington, Va.
Doug Nalean-Carlson is store director at the Depot Outlet in Decorah.
Liz (Langkamp) Gullick is high school choir director for the South Washington County Schools in White Bear Lake, Minn. Jana (Chmelar) Klauke is vice president of human resources and talent management for DivvyDose in Rock Island, Ill. Brandon Sampson was awarded the 2015 Mayor’s Medal of Honor for innovation in industry with his company Limb Lab in Rochester, Minn. He was also named Rochester’s Arts Person of the Year for his accomplishments with his musical group, Six Mile Grove. Sarah (Pohlson) Smith is program and communications manager in the Office of Community Enhancement and Engagement at Grinnell College in Grinnell, Iowa. Jarrad Walter of Decorah is senior manager of Inside Sales for MarketShare at Neustar in Sterling, Va.
1999 J.D. Burton is an attorney and director of state relations for the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.
Aaron Judisch of Heidelberg, Germany, is a freelance opera singer. Jami Severson teaches Spanish for the Rochester (Minn.) Public Schools.
2000 Matthew Brant earned a
master of theology degree from Dallas Theological Seminary. He is pastor at North Scott Baptist Church in Pardeeville, Wis. Chris Kjonaas is the associate director of international engagement at San Diego State University. Julie (Perrault) LaSota is a regional property manager for Lincoln Property Company in Brooklyn Park, Minn. Becki (Mensing) LeGrant teaches science at Wonderful College Prep Academy in Delano, Calif. Adam Richards is an agriculture industry specialist for Wells Fargo in Dodge Center, Minn. He was named to the Wells Fargo Great Lakes Region Circle of Stars.
Three Luther alumni from the class of 1999 and their families vacationed together on Sanibel Island, Fla., in February. First row (left to right): Jorie (Pietscher) Shire ’99, Ruby and Reed Shire, Brooke Ashburn Genszler, Alycia Ashburn ’99. Back row (left to right): Charles Van Winkle, Elliott Van Winkle, Erin Grimm ’99, Connor Van Winkle, and Lily Van Winkle.
Leah Rohlfsen is associate professor of sociology at St. Lawrence University in Canton, N.Y.
Lisa Moe Meierkort is the adult services librarian for the Frankfort (Ill.) Public Library District.
Jason Soland is a financial adviser with Ameriprise Financial Services in Decorah, and he earned the certified financial planner designation.
David Pendergast is assistant general counsel for Hyperloop Technologies in Los Angeles.
2001 Rebekah Gilmore is
associate musician and director of the Cathedral Choir School at St. Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral in Seattle. She is the founder and artistic director of Ave Renaissance Women’s Choir and sings soprano with the Byrd Ensemble, Capella Romana, Intimate Baroque, and St. James Cathedral Cantorei. Jessica (Turall) Stenz earned a master of business administration degree and graduate certificate of nonprofit management from the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. She is the manager of administration for Kaztex Companies in Pewaukee, Wis.
2002 Roy Brown Sartin is
director of operations and cofounder of Leave No Veteran Behind in Chicago. Carl-Eric Gentes is the associate pastor at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Rochester, Minn. Molly Goodwin is stage manager for Troika Entertainment in Gaithersburg, Md. She works on the Wizard of Oz national tour. Michael McGregor is a realtor at Coldwell Banker Burnet in Minneapolis.
Kelly Shomper is a teacher in the Minneapolis Public Schools. Joe Sievers is talent acquisition consultant for Glanbia Performance Nutrition in Downers Grove, Ill. Joel Sommers is an estate planning, trust, and legal consultant for Fiduciary Counseling in St. Paul, Minn. Josh Visser is a senior sales support specialist for Kronos in Bloomington, Minn.
Kelly Shinn earned a master of social work degree from the University of Denver. She is program and garden director for Earthlinks and co-facilitates several graduatelevel classes in Denver. Laura Zamzow Lynch is associate professor of music and the director of bands at University of Jamestown (N.D.)
2003 Jessica Aguilar and
Anthony Pizer live in Sioux Falls, S.D. She is the enterprise executive director of Sanford Initiatives for Sanford Health Research. He is a recruiter for Thrivent Financial. Jon Bengtson is a client service analyst for Mercer in Iowa City, Iowa. Narren Brown is the associate director of the Center for Teaching, Learning, and Assessment at Grinnell College in Grinnell, Iowa. Emily Dreiling earned master’s and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Northern Colorado. She is a clinical psychologist at Clinical Psychology Services in Fairfax, Va. Peter Eliason earned a master of science degree in predictive analytics from Northwestern University. He is a senior data scientist at Polaris Industries in Plymouth, Minn.
Beth Willer earned a doctor of musical arts degree in choral conducting from Boston University. She is assistant professor of music and director of choral activities at Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pa., and founder and artistic director of Lorelei Ensemble. In 2014, Willer received the prestigious Louis Botto Award for Innovative Action and Entrepreneurial Zeal, and Boston University’s Kahn Career Entry Award.
2004 Courtney Allensworth
of Minneapolis is an attorney and adviser for the Office of the Solicitor for the Unites States Department of the Interior. Carrie (Christiansen) Binnie is pastor at Community United Methodist Church in Monticello, Minn. Bridget Boehmer is a therapist in the intensive outpatient program at Genesis Medical Center in Davenport, Iowa.
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Alumni News
Barry Bosacker is principal at C.P. Squires Elementary School in North Las Vegas, Nev.
Jillian (Riley) Gluesenkamp is a registered nurse at the University of Minnesota Medical Center in Minneapolis.
Kim Christensen earned a master’s degree in oriental medicine from Northwestern Health Sciences University. She is a licensed acupuncturist and owner of Constellation Acupuncture and Healing Arts in Minneapolis.
Solomon Gould of Maple Grove, Minn., earned a master of business administration degree in healthcare management from Southern New Hampshire University. He is an optometrist and director of professional relations at Vision Group Holdings in West Palm Beach, Fla.
Cassie (Mack) Fehlen is the owner and aesthetician of Skin MPLS in Edina, Minn. James Gregg is the owner and director of operations of Renters Warehouse in Kansas City, Mo. Tyler Hesseltine of Bloomington, Minn., is a consulting arborist for Davey Tree Expert Company. Annie Hibbs and Erik Ulness live in Minneapolis. She is the senior wellness coach of Optum. He is operations manager of Ulness Health Insurance and Wellness. Kari Karsnick is the director of the Business Unit Controls Office in the Operations Division for Allianz Life Financial Services in Minneapolis. Jessica (Jansen) Nicoletti is adjunct math instructor at Governors State University in University Park, Ill. Anthony Nunez earned two master’s degrees from Las Vegas College: one in curriculum and instruction and the other in instructional leadership. He is principal at Jacob E. Manch Elementary School in Las Vegas, Nev.
Rachel Peterson is chief program and marketing officer for Norway House in Minneapolis and a committee member of the Norway House Minnesota Peace Initiative. Becky (Knott) Porter is a therapy consultant for Medtronic in Bettendorf, Iowa. Michael Toso is malaria program officer at the Johns
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Artist Emily Lynch Victory ’06 of Delano, Minn., was chosen by a committee of Twin Cities music industry professionals to participate in the Cedar Cultural Center’s fifth year of 416 Commissions. Lynch Victory partnered with Zach Zubow ’06, a composer and assistant professor of music at Queens University of Charlotte (N.C.), to produce a three-movement work for piano with three accompanying paintings, called 3P3. Each movement features a different style of composition and follows a specific mathematical base counting system. Every aspect of the music is dictated by the numbers, similar to the total serialism movement, and is reiterated in Lynch Victory’s paintings. Not only are pitches, rhythms, dynamics, articulations, colors, shapes, and patterns controlled by the counting systems, but also the performance techniques, form, and range of the piano.
Hopkins University Center for Communication Programs in Baltimore. Joshua Wrolstad earned a master of social work degree from Portland (Ore.) State University. He is a truancy prevention case manager for Northwest Family Services in Portland.
of St. Thomas. She is an early childhood family education and school readiness teacher for Pine Island (Minn.) School District. Jess Burgstahler earned a master’s degree in healthcare administration from Capella University. She is a dietitian for the Minneapolis VA Health Care System.
Claire (Brenton) and Aaron Haedike live in Richfield, Minn. Claire earned a master’s degree in marriage and family therapy from Argosy University and a doctor of psychology degree in counseling psychology from the University of St. Thomas. She is a marriage and family therapist at Lakeville Behavioral Health. Aaron earned a master’s degree in business administration from the University of St. Thomas. He is a currency teller at the Federal Reserve Bank. Kirsten Halverson is executive director of Buy Fresh Buy Local Hampton Roads in Norfolk, Va. Christine (Paulu) Handler of Houghton, Mich., is environmental coordinator for the U.S. Forest Service. Elizabeth Harig is a registered nurse for the University of California, Davis Medical Group in Sacramento.
Salahuddin Yusuf is first officer A-310 for Pakistan International Airline in Islamabad.
Brad Dickey is director and CEO of Jackson Hole Behavioral Services in Jackson, Wyo.
Jocelyn (Jansen) Herby is a teacher for the Hopkins (Minn.) Public Schools.
2005 Bonnie (Audino) and
Jen (Miller Meyer) Donovan completed a family medicine psychiatry residency at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. She is a faculty physician for the Cedar Rapids (Iowa) Medical Education Foundation.
Katie (Willenborg) Johnston is an instructional coach for the Dallas Center–Grimes (Iowa) Community Schools.
Matt Cessna ’06 live in Coralville, Iowa. She earned a bachelor’s degree in dental hygiene from Minnesota State University and is a dental hygienist at North Liberty Dental. He earned a doctor of physical therapy degree from the University of Iowa, and an orthopedic specialist certificate from the American Board of Physical Therapy Specialties. He is a physical therapist at Progressive Rehabilitation Associates in Iowa City, Iowa. Andrea Dean is assistant professor at Baylor College of Medicine in the Department of Pediatric Hospital Medicine in Houston.
2006 Liz Boehmke earned a
master’s degree in early childhood special education from the University
Nathan Evans is marketing director at Kodet Architectural Group in Minneapolis and the owner and creative director of Middle Child Ink. Tyler Forsythe teaches music at Inver Grove Heights (Minn.) Middle School. Amy (Hartmann) Frith is a registered nurse at Fairview Ridges Hospital in Burnsville, Minn.
Katie (Striegel) Josephson is a Chinese medicine practitioner for Ventura County Acupuncture and Herbs in Westlake Village, Calif. Jeff Kost is a special education associate for the Marion (Iowa) Independent School District. Michelle Krantz is hemophilia nurse coordinator for the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics in Iowa City. Jana Lelm is fleet vehicle manager and OneCard program coordinator at Carleton College in Northfield, Minn.
Alumni News
Laura (Gray) Mack teaches Spanish for the Coatesville (Pa.) School District.
John Sill is registrar and customer outreach specialist for the University of St. Thomas in Minneapolis.
furbearer coordinator for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife in Salem.
Elizabeth Matzen is operations manager for Alliant Employee Benefits in Seattle.
Laura (Hanson) Spilde of Calmar, Iowa, is the author of 200 Day Biblical Classical Curriculum, available on Amazon.com. She also writes two blogs, raggedycottagegarden. blogspot.com and hens-and-chicks. blogspot.com.
Johanna Crock earned a master’s degree in nursing with specialization as an adult and geriatric nurse practitioner from the University of Colorado. She is a nurse practitioner in the Cancer Center at the University of Colorado Hospital in Denver.
Katie (Gherty) McCabe is recruiting manager at GleasonDale Search Consultants in St. Paul, Minn. Dan Milis is a chemist for Medtronic in St. Paul, Minn. Michelle Monson Klisanich is partner, founder, and lead financial consultant for the West End Office of Thrivent Financial in St. Louis Park, Minn. Seth Moucka is director of EAB performance technologies at the Advisory Board Company in Washington, D.C. Aaron Murphy is owner of Spruced Up Staging in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. In January 2016 he filmed a pilot for an HGTV show about his life as a real estate stager. HGTV will continue to film the first season in May. Andy Nelson is a financial securities planner for Foster Klima in Minneapolis. Laura (Elliott) Nelson teaches grades 5–12 instrumental music at St. Albert Catholic High School in Council Bluffs, Iowa.
Brad Stuart is the president and financial adviser at WPF Wealth Management in Clinton, Iowa. Christina (Alderson) Vanderbeek is a crisis counselor at Summit Stone Health Partners in Fort Collins, Colo. T.J. Webb is an environmental specialist for Michael Foods in Minnetonka, Minn. Kirsten (Plahn) White is a hospitalist at Fairview Southdale Hospital in Edina, Minn. Elissa (Wiger) Yaw earned a master of science degree from Winona State University. She is a nurse practitioner at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.
2007 Derek Broman earned a master’s degree in wildlife ecology from the University of New Hampshire. He is the carnivore and
Bjorn Hanson earned a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the Illinois Institute of Technology. He is a psychologist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Allison (Kruger) and Daniel Herman ’06 live in Boone, Iowa. She is an occupational therapist and OT director at 21st Century Rehab in Nevada, Iowa. He earned a master’s degree in diplomacy with an emphasis on international terrorism from Norwich University. Jamie (Holmberg) and Steven Kain live in Maple Grove, Minn. Jamie earned a master’s degree in physician assistant studies from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. She is a physician assistant at Twin Cities Orthopedics. Steven earned a master’s degree in business administration from the Carlson School of Management at the
Ben Nemec of Rochester, Minn., is a senior software engineer at Red Hat.
Tiffany Schulte is account manager for the American Red Cross in St. Paul, Minn.
Ben Kissling is student success coach at Inver Grove Heights (Minn.) Middle School. Daniel Le Guen-Schmidt works in human resources and the Office of Diversity and Inclusion at Massachusetts Institute of Technology Lincoln Laboratory in Lexington, Mass. Garrett McAllister is lead mechanic at the Cycling House in Missoula, Mont. Anna (Amundson) Oksnevad of Crystal, Minn., is a customer team marketing manager at Duracell. Tyler Strand is marketing coordinator for the University of Iowa Alumni Association in Iowa City. Anna (Winter) and Adam Tlougan ’06 live in Apple Valley, Minn. She is an early childhood teacher for Hastings Public Schools. He is facility and safety manager for Werner Electric. Sarah (Warner) Warbuck of St. Louis Park, Minn., is associate manager of digital marketing for Wiley.
Allan Welter-Frost earned a master’s degree in public health from Boston University and a medical doctorate from the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine. He is a physician at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics in Iowa City.
Justin Papka is supervisor of contracts operations for PatientCentered Outcomes Research Institute in Washington, D.C.
Laura Schnack is associate dean of students at Augustana College in Rock Island, Ill.
Rachel (Giese) Kellogg is a selfemployed licensed massage therapist at Ogema Massage in Ogema, Wis.
Alyssa Wehr is a day treatment child and family therapist at Washburn Center for Children in Minneapolis.
Kevin Oppermann owns and farms Highland Spring Farm in Oregon, Wis., which provides pasture-raised eggs and meats (chicken, pork, and signature Scottish Highland beef) direct to consumer and to Madison-area restaurants.
Kyle Petersen is senior consultant for Nordic Consulting Partners in Madison, Wis.
University of Minnesota. He works in business development for Medtronic.
Amy Weldon, Luther associate professor of English, gave a reading from the anthology FRACTURE: Essays, Poems, and Stories on Fracking in America at Common Good Books in St. Paul, Minn., in March. Many of her former students, including some not pictured here (Danielle Koch ’12, Aaron Schmaltz ’12, Allyson Batis ’12, and Lauren Nielsen ’13) attended. In this picture are (left to right): Kathleen Towell ’13, Weldon, Allyson Czechowicz ’09, Chris ’11 and Linnea Graffunder-Bartels ’10, and Kelli Billstein ’07. Weldon and Jon Jensen ’89, Luther associate professor of philosophy and environmental studies, both contributed essays to the anthology.
Julia Zaffarano is homeless programs coordinator for the Colorado Department of Local Affairs–Division of Housing in Denver.
2008 Kate Andersen works in
the English Language Center for Koç Universitesi in Istanbul. Jesse Angelo earned a master’s degree in acting from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. He is an actor in London, England.
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Alumni News
Danielle (Stork) Bruflodt is director of strategy at the Inner Wild Creative Company in Madison, Wis.
Kelsey (O’Connell) Nelson is a recruiter for U.S. Bank in Richfield, Minn.
Nina Catterall is an HR/ER specialist at Nordic Consulting Partners in Madison, Wis.
John Schroeher is a business banker for Decorah Bank and Trust in Decorah.
Amy Christenson is senior manager of organizational development and internal communications at KFC Thailand in Bangkok.
Thomas Sines is an associate at Paul Hastings in New York.
Hilary (Young) Dolan earned a doctor of physical therapy degree from Mayo Clinic College of Medicine. She is a physical therapist for TRIA Orthopaedics in Minneapolis. Luke Fier is senior financial analyst for Tennant Company NV in Berchem, Belgium. Rebecca (Mehl) Gamble earned a master of divinity from Luther Seminary and is the pastor of outreach and care ministries at Shepherd of the Lake Lutheran Church in Prior Lake, Minn. Becky (Frederick) Jordan teaches special education for the Roseville (Minn.) Area Schools. Kevin Kooienga earned a professional counselor license from the Minnesota Board of Behavioral Health and Therapy and is an upper elementary counselor for the International School of Beijing in China.
Amanda Weber is a doctoral student in conducting at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. She is also the founder and conductor for the Voices of Hope singers behind the walls of the Minnesota Correctional Facility in Shakopee, leading a group of inmates in a spirited prison outreach choir and bringing U of M student choir members there to comingle talents.
Laura (Hockley) McKain teaches English at Rock River (Wyo.) High School. Bryan Mullen of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, is a traveling registered nurse for Fusion Medical Staffing.
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Jerry Jaeger is executive resolution specialist for Wells Fargo Home Mortgage in Des Moines, Iowa.
2009 Alison BrandellDouglas earned a juris doctor degree from the University of St. Thomas School of Law in St. Paul, Minn. She is an immigration attorney for the Federal Immigration Court in Minneapolis. Last year she was a long-term volunteer at the Nature Conservancy in Lima, Peru, and returned in April 2016. Zach Busch is director of worship and music at University Lutheran Church of Hope in Minneapolis.
Chad Nelson works in business development at Schwob Building Company in Dallas.
Sebrinia (Madsen) Welch is the GEAR UP grant manager for the Denver (Colo.) Public Schools.
Thomas Orser earned a master’s degree in accountancy from Texas Christian University. He is a tax manager at Fitts, Roberts, and Company in Houston. Eric Schultz is a compliance consultant for Wells Fargo Bank in Minneapolis. Kristine Dennis earned a master’s degree in public health, global epidemiology, from Emory University. She is center administrator for HERCULES: Health and Exposome Research Center: Understanding Lifetime Exposure at Emory University in Atlanta. Emily Ewing is pastor for Trinity Fellowship (ELCA) and First Presbyterian Church in Rushford, Minn. Jessica (Watson) Hazelton is catering sales manager for Slalom Consulting in Minneapolis.
Denver. Josiah is a healthcare IT consultant for Hayes Management Consulting. Nyssa Crompton earned a Ph.D. in environmental chemistry from Princeton University and is a postdoctoral research associate in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis. Kelsey (Mans) and Michael Crusinberry live in St. Paul, Minn. She is the youth specialist at Trinity Lutheran Church in St. Paul. He is a data analyst for the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party.
Cade Loven is working on two short films as part of the graduate degree program at the American Film Institute in Los Angeles. He is the producer of Plea, a film that follows someone who has been in foster care in Los Angeles but is put into juvenile detention after a woman files rape charges against him. He is also the screenwriter for Manners of Dying, a film based on a short story written by Yann Martel, the author of Life of Pi. Loven held a screening of several short films produced by his peers at T-Bocks Upstairs in Decorah last December.
Kalli Ledel is a pharmacist for University of Minnesota Cancer Care in Minneapolis. Rachel (Donahoe) and Michael Marquardt live in North Liberty, Iowa. Rachel earned a juris doctor degree from the University of Iowa College of Law. She is an associate attorney at Lynch, Michael, and Raiber. Michael earned a medical doctorate and master’s degree in public health from the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine. He is a resident physician in radiation oncology at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics.
Blake Humpal is associate product line manager for JELD-WEN Windows and Doors and the global sourcing manager at JELD-WEN in Charlotte, N.C.
Katie (Sackett) Stadheim is an HR generalist for CRST International in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Kristin Swedlund is a membership specialist for Wisconsin Public Television in Madison.
2010 Carson Christen is a
team coach and sport scientist at Cycling Academy Pro Cycling Team in Lucca, Italy. Danielle (Berg) and Josiah Collins live in Thornton, Colo. Danielle earned a master’s degree in education from Concordia University of Nebraska. She teaches third grade at the Pinnacle Charter School in
Brad Foresman earned a Ph.D. in crop sciences from the University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign. He is a soybean plant breeder for Dow AgroSciences in Olivia, Minn. Erin Green is a travel designer for Pique Travel Design in Excelsior, Minn. Rachel Haug Root of Bloomington, Minn., earned a doctor of musical arts degree in flute performance from Ohio State University. Mark Knowles received a paralegal certificate from Rasmussen College. He is a paralegal and executive closer at Executive Title of Minnesota in Golden Valley. Julia (Santi) Kohls is a staffing consultant at Express Employment Professionals in Crystal Lake, Ill. Eric Krueger is enterprise account executive at SPS Commerce in Minneapolis. He was awarded the 2015 President’s Club Outstanding Productivity Award from SPS Commerce for the third consecutive year. Kim Lambert of Minneapolis is a physical therapist for Fairview Health Services in Minneapolis. She is also a softball performance coach for Mayo Clinic and coaches fast-pitch softball for Fastpitch Pitching Instruction. Sarah Luloff teaches first grade at Dayton’s Bluff Achievement Plus Elementary School in St. Paul, Minn. Meg McCormick is a public relations specialist at Faegre Baker Daniels in Minneapolis. Ashley (Henderson) Miller teaches special education for the Orcutt (Calif.) Union School District.
Alumni News
Elmore ’09 founds orphan care center in Zambia orphan care center, which When she visited missionopened in September 2015. She ary friends in Kenya in 2013, runs board meetings with CMML Megan Elmore ’09 felt called. leadership. She’s responsible for She was working at a mortgage seven staff members and the feedbankruptcy law firm at the ing, clothing, and education of time. “The day I returned to 47 orphans. She lives in a higherAmerica,” she says, “we were crime area (her pet German shephaving a huge meeting about herd patrols outside at night) in a getting so many proofs of claim house without running water and done. And in my head I’m gowith daily electricity outages that ing, I need to make sure I’m getlast eight to 12 hours. And fewer ting 15 claims done to kick people people in her new life speak out of their houses when I just got English, so she’s started learning back from Africa where people Bemba, the local language. don’t even have houses. That But it’s clear she finds the was a turning point for me. I Above, Elmore poses with the morning class at Mansa Fountain of tradeoff well worth it. Children submitted my two-week notice a Blessings orphan care center. Top, children show off the new books that served by Mansa Fountain of week later.” will further their education. Blessings live with guardians, With a business manageusually aunts or grandparents ment major, Elmore turned to who’ve taken them in after their Google and searched: “African parents have died, often of AIDS or malaria. They visit the organization mission opportunities microloan.” Through Bright Hope International three days per week for a Zambian meal and Bible studies. The center out of Chicago, she secured a yearlong internship in Zambia, helping also pays for their public school tuition and uniforms and provides two give microloans to churches. On her days off, she helped distribute cans sets of new clothes and shoes twice a year. In addition to her director of baby formula to mothers with HIV. She had not been particularly responsibilities, Elmore, like most missionaries, fund-raises to support interested in children, but it wasn’t long before she was playing with the her own presence in the country. Unlike most missionaries, she (with babies. Then, when she began checking up on churches in rural villages, help from her dad, mom, and sister in Texas) also fund-raises to support she began playing with those kids. Before long, whenever someone the entire operation of the center. asked, “Where’s Megan?” the answer was “Just find the kids, and she’ll Mansa Fountain of Blessings is in its infancy, with no kitchen, no be in the middle of them.” stove, no fridge, no running water, no bathroom, and only one classWhen her year of service was up, she started looking for opporturoom in which to teach children, who range from grades one through nities to stay in Zambia. By then she knew she wanted to work with seven. But in spite of the growing pains ahead, Elmore says, “What vulnerable children, and so when Christian Missions in Many Lands keeps me going is that kids here don’t take education for granted. We (CMML) asked her to partner with them to found an orphan care cenrecently got some books donated to us, and the kids were just ecstatic.” ter, she jumped at the chance. Elmore is now stationed in Mansa, just an hour away from where she —Kate Frentzel had been serving in Samfya, but the difference is night and day. Elmore Mansa Fountain of Blessings offers an opportunity to sponsor one of the had been a microloan intern with minimal responsibilities. She’d lived children at the center in Mansa, Zambia. To learn more about Elmore on a safe college campus where everyone spoke English. She’d had runserving in Zambia, Mansa Fountain of Blessings, or sponsoring a child, visit ning water and a flush toilet and reliable electricity. fortheloveoforphans.org. In her new position, Elmore directs Mansa Fountain of Blessings Spring 2016 Luther Alumni Magazine
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Alumni News
Collin Thompson is farm manager and program instructor at Michigan State University in Chatham.
Jeff Riddle of Waupaca, Wis., is an oncology nurse at St. Joseph’s Hospital. He participated in a mission trip to Guatemala last January with St. Paul and Immanuel Guatemala Missions. Alec Schumacher earned a doctor of physical therapy degree from the University of Wisconsin–La Crosse. He is a physical therapist at Courage Kenny Sports and Physical Therapy in Shoreview, Minn. Aaron Shatzer is an actuarial analyst for PacificSource Health Plans in Springfield, Ore. Molly (Weber) and Eric St. Clair live in Ankeny, Iowa. She is a nurse for UnityPoint Health. He is a consultant for the Iowa Department of Education. Brianne Thicke earned a master’s degree in biological studies from South Dakota State University in 2015. She is a research technologist at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. Aaron Zander is the development assistant in alumni relations and development at the University of Chicago and the assistant men’s and women’s swimming coach at Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago.
Justin Tigerman is pastor at Faith Lutheran Church in Caldwell, Idaho. Fourteen Luther students and Career Center staff visited Best Buy corporate headquarters in Richfield, Minn., in April. Seven Luther alumni who work at Best Buy formed a discussion panel and talked about their career paths with the students. The alumni included (left to right) Andrew Gonzalez ’12, Erik Streufert ’13, Alise Miller ’15, Rachel Ziegeweid ’11, Beth (Tuller) Krueger ’12, Brad Nelson ’08, and Jace Senske ’08. combat what they see as an American healthcare crisis. “Nutrition is perhaps the single most important factor in disease prevention,” says Anderson, who serves as the company’s chief product officer. Well Labs is an e-commerce business that delivers allergen-free, physician-grade nutritional supplements to their customers’ doors. Kelsey Anderson is assistant director for prospect development at the University of Iowa in Iowa City. Courtney Brown is a senior claims professional at CUNA Mutual Group in Waverly, Iowa. Katie Campbell is education and events specialist for Mississippi Market Natural Foods Co-op in St. Paul, Minn. Katie Deaver is director of music ministries at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Des Plaines, Ill.
Sara Zanussi is founder and executive programming director for ComMUSICation in St. Paul, Minn. Zanussi’s work was featured in a Chorus America article, “El Sistema for Choruses,” in the winter 2015/16 edition of The Voice. ComMUSICation’s choral programs draw more than 50 students who live in the area served by the St. Paul Promise Neighborhood initiative, a federal program that takes a community-based approach to improving outcomes for children.
2011 Hannah (Wiles)
Anderson is a doctor of chiropractic in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. She launched Well Labs, an eastern Iowa-based wellness company, along with chiropractor Calla Kleene and nutritionist Alexa Schirm, to
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Abby Herman earned a master’s degree in education from the University of Minnesota. She teaches kindergarten at Independent School District 196 in Rosemount, Minn. Kimberly Horner is the cocoordinator of Tackling Obstacles and Raising College Hopes (TORCH) at Northfield (Minn.) High School. Amanda (Eckhardt) and Cody Hyland ’10 live in Holmen, Wis. She earned a doctor of dental surgery degree from the University of Iowa Dental College and is a dentist at River Town Dental. He works for Transamerica. Krist Kietzmann is a self-employed real estate agent in Phoenix, Ariz. Ryan Kitchen earned a master of fine arts degree from the Maryland Institute College of Art Hoffberger School of Painting in Baltimore.
Zach Kotz works for Green Iowa AmeriCorps at the University of Northern Iowa’s Center for Energy and Environmental Education in Cedar Falls.
Rachel (Albert) Yim teaches biology and biochemistry at the Missouri Military Academy in Mexico, Mo.
2012 Allyson Batis is a
preschool literary tutor for the Minnesota Reading Corps in Minneapolis and an administrative team member at Whole Foods Market in St. Paul, Minn. Derek Broin is a software developer for HomeSpotter in Minneapolis.
Adam Kruse is a flight instructor at Hillsboro (Ore.) Aviation Academy. Mac Latham Grundmeyer and Kyle Grundmeyer ’09 live in Ankeny, Iowa. Mac is a team leader at Sammons Financial Group. Kyle is a chiropractor and owner of the Health Clinic. J.J. Lillibridge earned a master of science degree in recreation, sport, and tourism from the University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign. He is recreation coordinator for the city of Round Rock, Texas. Nicole Littlejohn earned a doctorate in pharmacology from the University of Iowa in Iowa City.
Matthew Christoffersen of Des Moines, Iowa, is an audit analyst for Global Atlantic Financial Group. He also announced his candidacy for the Iowa House of Representatives for District 31.
Beckie Lovell Dillahunty is a buyer for Target Corporation in St. Paul, Minn. Erik Mortens earned a doctor of osteopathic medicine degree from Des Moines University. He is a physician at UnityPoint Health in West Des Moines, Iowa. Michael Olson is account executive at CCC Technologies in Wood Dale, Ill. Samantha (Murry) Pilsner teaches Spanish for the Waunakee (Wis.) Community School District. Jason Pyle earned a master of education degree in sports management from Wichita State University. He is event manager in the Athletic Department at Iowa State University in Ames. Ryan Ruggiero earned the certified public accountant designation and is senior financial analyst for Best Buy in Richfield, Minn.
Thomas Gerber earned a master’s degree in choral conducting from University of Cincinnati. He is the music director and glee club moderator, and he teaches music history and theory at Bishop England High School in Charleston, S.C. He also sings bass-baritone in VAE of Cincinnati, Taylor Festival Choir, and is the cantor at Cathedral of St. John the Baptist. Erik Hageness is a senior relocation counselor at Plus Relocation Services in Minneapolis.
Alumni News
In March, the organization PLEN (Public Leadership Education Network: Preparing Women to Lead) honored six women in business and government at its Mentor Awards in Washington, D.C. In attendance were Aaron Smith ’12, Margaret Darling ’12, Betsy Fawcett ’17, Emily Sena ’15, and Ellie (Stack) Shaw ’94. Fawcett also attended the PLEN Women and Congress seminar. Shaw, who is director, Federal Government Affairs for American Express Company, is on the PLEN board of directors. Carah (Claflin) Hart earned a master’s degree in teaching from Drake University. She is the elementary vocal music specialist for the Hopkins Public School in Minnetonka, Minn. Kelly Hyland is a research historian at Musco Sports Lighting in Oskalooska, Iowa. Chelsi (Hammon) and Cassie Jahn ’14 live in Spirit Lake, Iowa. Chelsi earned a master of social work degree from Minnesota State University–Mankato and is an outpatient therapist at Seasons Center for Behavioral Health. Cassie is program director for Lutheran Lakeside Camp.
Danielle Koch is a project/program coordinator and freelance booking agent at GIGS (Gaining Insight Growing Self) in Minneapolis, and is a writing workshop coordinator intern at Mid-Continent Oceanographic Institute. Katelyn (Bottem) and Justin Marschall live in Madison, Wis. Justin earned a master’s degree in psychology and a certificate in quantitative psychology from Iowa State University. He is the customer satisfaction data analyst for D.M. Services in Monroe, Wis. Erik Mattson is an account manager at TCS Basys Controls in Middleton, Wis.
Paxton Molinari is assistant men’s basketball coach at Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
Emily Davis earned a master’s degree in vocal performance from Southern Illinois University– Carbondale. She is an adjunct voice faculty member at Silver Lake College in Manitowoc, Wis.
Thabiso Monyakane is in the graduate student program at Deloitte in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Meghan Pedersen is a vacations sales agent for MLT Vacations in Edina, Minn., and assistant store manager at Caribou Coffee. Amy Sandager is a bench jeweler at Spirit Lake Silver and Gold in Spirit Lake, Iowa. Haylie (Fercho) Schmit is a property and casualty support specialist for M3 Insurance in Madison, Wis.
Kimmy Rooney is a teaching assistant at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
Anna DiCecco earned a master’s degree in sports administration from Northwestern University. She is account executive for Camelback Ranch Baseball in Phoenix, Ariz. Mara Dobervich of Sacramento, Calif., is a job coach at Community Integrated Work Program. Mark Gisleson is a quality control entomologist analyst at Valent Biosciences in Osage, Iowa. Melanie Grangaard is copy editor for the Vail Daily in Avon, Colo. Eric Hild is a digital press operator for Sigler Printing in Ames, Iowa. Zach Hruska is a software developer for MEDITECH in Minnetonka, Minn.
Greg Siems earned a master’s degree in political science from the University of Notre Dame. He is director of Vision 2020 in Austin, Minn. Erin (Eggum) Spanczak is a senior financial analyst at Rockwell Collins in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
2013 Katie Baratto earned
a master’s degree in library and information science from St. Catherine’s University. She is a library assistant at the University of Minnesota Law Library in Minneapolis. Emma Benson teaches kindergarten for the Winona (Minn.) Area Public Schools. Jordan Burkhart is a graduate assistant at Iowa State University in Ames.
Hannah Myott is a freelance writer and translator in New Zealand. Kennedy Reed is a school psychologist at Southern Door County Schools in Brussels, Wis.
Anna Murray is an admissions counselor for 2U in Denver.
Hannah Janaky of Lafayette, Colo., is a resident adviser at Rocky Mountain Pathways Ranch. Eric Johnson of Mendota Heights, Minn., is a financial representative with Northwestern Mutual. He also participates with Team in Training for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.
Shannon Curtis is the grades 6–8 band director at Zimmerman (Minn.) Middle and High School.
Nicole Kivo is an account associate for News America Marketing in Minneapolis. Hannah Krystosek is a registered nurse at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., and also a competitive bodybuilder. Jess Landgraf is an instructor at Voyageur Outward Bound School in St. Paul, Minn. Michelle Lursen is an independent business accountant at SuperValu in Eden Prairie, Minn. Quinn Meyer earned an Ed.S. degree from the University of Northern Colorado. She is a school psychologist for Hiawatha Valley Education District in Winona, Minn., and a program coordinator at Camp Knutson.
Anthony Smith is a claims specialist I in MD Central Services at Nationwide Insurance in Des Moines, Iowa. Kathleen Towell teaches English at Parnassus Preparatory School in Maple Grove, Minn. Ryan Turnacliff is a post-closing reviewer at Venture Bank in Golden Valley, Minn.
2014 Jessa Anderson-Reitz is a faith relations assistant with Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity in St. Paul, Minn., and an intake manager at Prepare + Prosper. Caitlin Auer is a professional dog trainer and the training coordinator at Dogwoods Lodge in Grimes, Iowa. Hannah Axt is library supervisor of the residence hall libraries at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. James Ayer is a market account manager at Best Buy in Richfield, Minn. Ellen Behrens is state program administrator for the Minnesota Department of Agriculture in St. Paul. Hans Dosland is the outreach case manager for Oasis for Youth in Bloomington, Minn. He is also the Ultimate Frisbee coach for Bloomington High School. Megan Gress is a loan processor and closer at Colorado Enterprise Fund in Denver. Callie Mabry works for Congregational Outreach Support for Faith in Place in Chicago through Lutheran Volunteer Corps.
Spring 2016 Luther Alumni Magazine
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Alumni News
Aubrey McElmeel is a children’s lead at Barnes and Noble in Madison, Wis.
Zena Fantaye works with Wells Fargo Card Services in West Des Moines, Iowa.
Noelia Pereira is an environmental engineer for Timor Gap in Dili, Timor-Leste.
Sarah Fox is a leasing consultant at Peak Campus in Minneapolis.
Evan Ruchotzke of Lowden, Iowa, is an E-4 in the U.S. Army. Erin Schmidt is a staff nurse at the Children’s Hospital and Medical Center in Omaha, Neb.
Taylor Graydon is a rehabilitation counselor for Transitional Resources in Seattle through Lutheran Volunteer Corps.
Isaac Skelton is a web analytics analyst for Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.
Marlon Henriquez is the kindergarten Spanish immersion teacher at Gage Elementary School in Rochester, Minn. He was named the Rochester Post-Bulletin’s teacher of the month for November.
Katherine Stremel teaches grades 4–8 music at Glendale (Ariz.) Elementary School.
Lonn Iwashita is a personal trainer at Fitness Together in Maple Grove and Edina, Minn.
Ashley Urspringer teaches English at Ecole Saint-Corentin in Quimper, France.
Amanda Johnson is an EBD teacher for the Rochester (Minn.) Public Schools.
Katie Van Winkle is an anatomy and pathology intern and master’s student at Eastern Virginia Medical School in Norfolk, and a freelance artist and sculptor.
Sarah King is a PR account coordinator for Broadhead and Company in Minneapolis.
Sam Wettach is an operations program associate for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources in Madison. Matt Yan is editor of the Northbrook (Ill.) Tower Newspaper.
2015 Corinne Benzinger is
a registered nurse at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. Claudia Calderon Machicado is a research and knowledge management consultant at Ashoka, an associate consultant at i-intelligence, and a global health policy intern at Center for Global Development in Washington, D.C.
Alex Kokkinen is a junior web developer at Media Junction in St. Paul, Minn. Brandon Lafferty is a psychiatric technician at Albertina Kerr Centers in Portland, Ore. Kaymi Lang is a registered nurse at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. Andrea Malek is a teacher with the Cedar Rapids (Iowa) Community Schools. Victoria Peters is a graduate student in management and library and information science at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. She works in technical services at the university’s Golda Meir Library.
John Werner is a development and policy associate for the Minnesota Housing Partnership in Minneapolis through Lutheran Volunteer Corps. Holly Williams of Burnsville, Minn., is a sales and marketing assistant at CytoSport. Margaret Yapp is a refugee resettlement case manager for Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota, in Minneapolis, through Lutheran Volunteer Corps.
MARRIAGES As of March 2016
1976 Sandy Mayer and Jim Brown, March 19, 2016 1981 Carol Gustafson and Jim Hetrick III, April 14, 2014 Laurie Heyer and Kevin Waskow, Dec. 5, 2014
Mariah Levisen and Kyle Ewing, Oct. 18, 2014 Emily Lynch and Phillip Victory, May 3, 2014 Megan Meyer and Chris Mueller, July 18, 2015 Michelle Monson and Michael Klisanich, Aug. 28, 2015 Amanda Novak and Mark Miller, July 12, 2014
Laura Robinson and Erik Hall, Aug. 9, 2014
1991 Paul Blom and Bob White, Sept. 27, 2014
Matt Stensrud and Nathan Peyer, Dec. 13, 2014
1992 Eric Monson and Yuki Ip, Oct. 17, 2014
Brad Stuart and Brianna Eizenga, July 18, 2015
1996 Monica Peterson and Mike Rotsaert, Nov. 7, 2015
2007 Sarah Warner and Ty Warbuck, Oct. 24, 2015
1997 Karin Robeck and Travis Mayo, June 27, 2015
Allan Welter and Andrew Frost, May 31, 2014
2000 Chris Kjonaas and Tim Schoenmackers, May 30, 2015
Katherine Belcher, Oct. 11, 2015
Maggie Steinberg is a program fellow for Access to Justice in the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, in Baltimore, through Lutheran Volunteer Corps.
2003 Carissa Gordon and
Luther Alumni Magazine
Marc Kalin and Dawn Gaudenti, Nov. 1, 2014
1988 Kimberly Dieckman and Loren Huffaker Jr., May 2, 2015
Emily (Stoneking) Seiler is a certified athletic trainer for Mayo Clinic in Albert Lea, Minn.
48
Phil Beske and Erin Kane, April 18, 2015
Jillian Riley and Lucas Gluesenkamp, Aug. 22, 2015
Jessica Dorsey is a foundation intern at Presence Health in Chicago.
Emily Stumpf is a communication and outreach associate for the Minneapolis Bicycle Coalition through Lutheran Volunteer Corps.
2006 Heather Arneson and Gareth Roberts, June 13, 2015
1984 Kari Engebretson and Dave Esarey, Aug. 15, 2015
Scott Raftshol is a technical consultant for SAP America in Newtown Square, Pa.
Emily England is an independent collections contractor at the Smithsonian Institute’s National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.
Stephanie Wherry and Justin Malin ’99, Oct. 10, 2015
Jeff Kost and Samantha Houseman, Oct. 5, 2014
Rudie Desravines is an IT business analyst at Fastenal Company in Winona, Minn.
Sami Eilers is director of vocal music at Peet Junior High School in Cedar Falls, Iowa.
Keli Offerman and Tyler Brown, Dec. 5, 2015
2008 Shallyn Duffy and Darren Chenong, Sept. 20, 2014
2001 Shaun Meinecke and
Drew Haefner and Heather Taylor, May 16, 2015
2002 Kelly Shinn and
Sebrinia Madsen and Ryan Welch, Sept. 19, 2015
Jaqueline Prieto, July 11, 2015
Laura Zamzow and John Lynch, Oct. 18, 2015 Michael Rozinka, Aug. 2, 2014
Josh Visser and Steve Kern, March 4, 2016
2005 Brandon Grimm and
Laura Fog, Aug. 1, 2015
Whittney Nordmeyer and Brandon Franke, Oct. 31, 2015 Becky Stiger and Kyle Williams, May 24, 2015 Hilary Young and Brendan Dolan ’02, Oct. 10, 2015
2009 Alison Douglas and Jared Brandell, Aug. 15, 2015
Alumni News
Rachel Kerr and Andrew Elbin, July 11, 2015
Julie Shiely and Daniel Huebner, Nov. 7, 2015
Karl Meunier and Mercedes Ruiz Estevez, Aug. 16, 2014
Jillian Teslow and Reece Rickertsen ’13, July 25, 2015
Melisa (Schellenberger) and Andrew Skwor, a son, Raymond Lawrence, Nov. 2014
2000 Julie (Perrault) and Jeff
LaSota, a daughter, Evelyn, Dec. 2015
Breann Vandeer and Matt Drees ’10, Aug. 1, 2015
Beth Tuller and Eric Krueger ’10, Aug. 29, 2015
2010 Clara Bailey-Hugill and
2013 Michelle Gohman and
Leah (Rohlfsen) and Patrick McManus, a daughter, Beatrice, Aug. 2015
Brad Foresman and Erika Ehlers, Sept. 26, 2015
Ari Maguina and Nathan Maloney ’15, Nov. 28, 2015
2001 Andrea (Strmic) and Michael Pigford, a daughter, Courtney, June 2014
Ashley Henderson and Cody Miller, Dec. 31, 2015
Clare Nagel and Phil Bray ’12, Sept. 20, 2014
Kate and Mark Robinson, a daughter, Aria Elizabeth, Sept. 2014
Kelsey Mans and Michael Crusinberry, Nov. 7, 2015
Kristina Nienhaus and Tim Mansheim, Nov. 14, 2015
Krista Morris and Josh Blessing ’09, Oct. 17, 2015
Trinda Phelon and Paul Jevne, Aug. 15, 2015
Jenie (Fuller) and Michael Schmidt, a daughter, Samantha Lee, Dec. 2015
Daniel Offerdahl and Emily VanKeulen, Aug. 22, 2015
Amanda Rudnickas and Daniel Frerichs, June 20, 2015
Sarah Palm and Brandon Spencer, Oct. 17, 2015
2014 Liz Hawkins and Keaton
Brandon Kienitz, June 12, 2015
Koby Lursen, Jan. 16, 2016
Hilary Teslow, a daughter, Hattie Ann, Nov. 2015
Ashley Trail and Kris McAllister, Sept. 19, 2015
2011 Nicole Gerlach and
Matthew Saladin, April 25, 2015 Taylor Hjerleid and Brandon Buch, June 20, 2015 Beckie Lovell and Jacy Dillahunty, Sept. 20, 2014
As of March 2016
1988 Susan Rekward, a daughter, Lauren Janine, born Nov. 2012, adopted May 2014 Jennifer and Jeff Schultz, triplets, a daughter, Madelyn Elizabeth, sons, Benjamin Wayne and Noah William, May 2015
1995 Lizbet and Kristian
Kate Schaefer and Jim Gerhardinger, Feb. 14, 2015
1996 Amelia and Todd
Palmer, July 25, 2015
Erin Eggum and John Spanczak, Sept. 19, 2015 Haylie Fercho and Matthew Schmit, Oct. 17, 2014 Chelsi Hammon and Cassie Jahn ’14, Sept. 12, 2015
Allie and James Gregg, a son, Titus James, March 2016 Sarah and Ryan Luhrs, a son, Samuel, June 2015 Amber (Dolphin) and Steve Moechnig, a daughter, Maya Ruby, Dec. 2015 Jen (Mason) and Derek Swoboda, a son, Cooper Duane, Dec. 2015 Bergen (Papka) and Jake Torgerson ’05, a daughter, Molly Olivia Noelle, Nov. 2015
Adam Hart, a daughter, Grace Gwendolyn, April 2014
BIRTHS AND ADOPTIONS
Ronning, a son, Espen Magnus Martin, Dec. 2015
2012 Sarah Bieber and Aaron
Jen (Weier) and Barrett Gipp ’02, a son, Ethan Michael, Jan. 2016
2005 Allison (Haugen) and
Samantha Murry and Anthony Pilsner, July 5, 2014
Bethany Van Sloten and Dustin Noble, June 27, 2015
Rebecca (Barth) and Dylan Flunker ’08, a son, Asher, April 2015
Ayesha and Salahuddin Yusuf, a son, Muhammad Shazil, April 2015
Palo, Sept. 12, 2015
Anna Quick and Trey Scheetz, May 16, 2015 Aaron Stenhaug and Erin Nibbe, Oct. 17, 2015
Meredith (Eilertson) and Nabeel Azeem, a daughter, Solvei Amelia, Aug. 2015
Holmquist, a son, Luke Casimer, Dec. 2015 Amanda and Tony Rogers, a daughter, Elsa, Nov. 2014
1997 Karin (Munksgaard) and Gary Bowrey, a daughter, Marit Caroline, May 2015 Emily O’Banion, a daughter, Scarlett Jean, Nov. 2015 Kelly (Scott) and Keith Wright, a son, Declan Thomas, Sept. 2015
1998 Misty and Jason Habeck,
Molly Kline and Derek Broin, Sept. 5, 2015
a son, Braxton, Oct. 2014
Erin McWilliams and Brian Hart, Nov. 21, 2015
Marcus Sjowall ’00, a son, Jussi, Nov. 2014
1999 Rebecca (Olson) and
2002 Sarah (Root) and Jon
Bengtson ’03, a son, Isaiah Robert, Dec. 2015 Joan (Lindeman) and Lalo Hernandez, twins, a daugher, Shannon, a son, Kenneth, Nov. 2015 Jenn (Smith) and Peter Hoesing ’03, a son, Samuel Weston, July 2014
2003 Sue (Gilbertson) and Drew Boxrud, a daughter, Lillie Kathrin, March 2014
Angie (Demmer) and Derek Hietala, a daughter, Lyla Rebecca, Jan. 2016
Cristina (Brusa) and Matthew Pellmann, a son, Nicolo Luciano, June 2015 Hillary (Foster) and Doug Ramaker, a son, Evan, Aug. 2015 Nicole (Humpal) and Steve Sprague, a son, Evan John, April 2015
2006 Sheil (Kee) and Tural Aksel, a son, Ezel Kee, Oct. 2014
Cindi (Beier) and Jamie Daubendiek, a son, Wesley Wayne, July 2015 Maria and Brad Dickey, a daughter, Lola, Dec. 2014
Rian (Helgerson) and Tim Jentz, twins, a daughter, Eloise Lorraine, a son, Owen Goldwin, Dec. 2015
Autumn (Fahning) and Stan Fast, a daughter, Paisley Marie, March 2016
Kjersti (Ellison) and Danny Nayar, a son, Finn, Nov. 2015
Kara (Donahue) and Clinton Firstbrook, a daughter, Evelyn Ann, Oct. 2015
Jessica (Aguilar) and Anthony Pizer, a daughter, Elyse Marie, July 2015 Amy and Joe Sievers, a son, Benjamin Clarke, Dec. 2014
2004 Sara (Bowman) and
Claire (Brenton) and Aaron Haedike, a son, Nathan William, Sept. 2015 Erilynn (Russo) and Darren Heinrichsen, a son, Kellen Andrew, Nov. 2015
Shawn Andrus, a son, Barrett Michael, Dec. 2015
Spring 2016 Luther Alumni Magazine
49
Alumni News
Marita (Herkert) and Eric HerkertOakland, a daughter, Afton Louise, April 2015 Kelli (Andre) and Adam Kellerhals, a daughter, Harper, Oct. 2015 Megan (Finnegan) and Nick Kelley, a daughter, Kaitlyn Elizabeth, Jan. 2016
Kirsten (Plahn) and Gavin White ’07, a son, Ethan Dennis, Oct. 2015
Erin and Alec Schumacher, a daughter, Annabelle Joy, March 2015
Elissa (Wiger) and Aric Yaw, a son, Landen, March 2014
Megan (Harding) and Eric Thorsen ’07, a son, Gavin Eric, Feb. 2016
Jenni (Moon) and John Zeuli, a daughter, Kjerstin Michelle, Feb. 2016
Katie (Young) and Nick Lane, a son, Charles Steven, Feb. 2016 Laura (Gray) and T.C. Mack ’05, a son, Grayson Neal, Feb. 2016 Traci (Unzicker) and Jake Mans ’05, a son, Conor Weston, May 2015 Katie (Gherty) and Ryan McCabe, twin sons, Brady Philip and Rowen Terrence, Nov. 2014 Rachel (Swenson) and Doug Miller, a son, Duke Max, Jan. 2016
2013 Mara Dobervich and Dustin Tapp, a son, Simón, Dec. 2015
2007 Jenny (Silseth) and Kyle Binversie, a daughter, Karlie Lynn, July 2015 Dara (Schuller) and Bjorn Hanson, a son, Thor Thomas, Feb. 2014 Jamie (Holmberg) and Steven Kain, a son, Henry Steven, Aug. 2015 Melissa (Schneider) and Travis Stueve, a son, Teagan Van, March 2016 Claire (Barvir) and Matt Tschann, a daughter, Winnie Frances, Jan. 2015
2008 Laurie (Hockley) and John McKain, a daughter, Leah Annette, July 2015
Amanda (Tryggestad) and Ryan Nelson ’07, a daughter, Bryony Linda Michelle (above center), Jan. 2016. She joins sisters Lily and Poppy.
Michael Hart ’11, a daughter, Eloise Elizabeth, April 2015
Jenn (Winder) and Benj Kost, a son, Soren James, Nov. 2015
Bethany (Peterson) and Brian Kracl, a daughter, Myla Dorothy, Dec. 2014
Nicki (Svestka) and Aaron TerBeest, a daughter, Phoebe, Jan. 2016
Laura (Elliott) and Joel Nelson, a daughter, Allison Faith, Oct. 2014
IN MEMORIAM Read full obituaries at luther.edu/in-memoriam.
1935 Estere (Nelson) Newacheck of Orinda, Calif., died Sept. 12, 2015, age 100. 1938 Selmer S. Norland of Silver Spring, Md., died Dec. 5, 2015, age 99. 1942 Marjorie V. “Marge” (Hove) Barth of Dubuque, Iowa, formerly of Decorah, died March 3, 2016, age 94. Lucile Mae Roberts of Bella Vista, Ark., died Jan. 24, 2016, age 94.
Leigh and Al Onkka, a son, Louis, April 2014 Keely and Kevin Oppermann, a son, Liam, Oct. 2015 Julie (Jacobsen) and Chris Sellers, a daughter, Isla Jayne, Feb. 2016 Stefanie (Ausen) and Matt Stevens, a son, Marcus, Jan. 2016 Lydia and Andrew Steward, twin daughters, Clara Nozomi and Esther Megumi, March 2014 Emily (Lynch) and Phillip Victory, a son, Patrick, Jan. 2015
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Luther Alumni Magazine
Elise (Hoehn) and Clayton Ward, a son, Theodore John, Nov. 2015
2009 Megan (Arneson) and Munch Sherman, a son, Levi Finck, Nov. 2015
1944 Marjorie (Talle) Merriman of Towson, Md., died March 2, 2016, age 93.
2010 Cassie (Tysland) and Jacob Fouts ’12, a son, Jordy Todd, March 2016
L. (Nesset) Grinna of Decorah died Feb. 27, 2016, age 91.
2012 Carah (Claflin) and
Emily (Adams) and Aren King, a daughter, Rebekah Nicole, Oct. 2015
Erica and Christian Kohs, a son, Hudson Jude, Sept. 2014
1946 Esther
William Winter of Annandale, Va., died Dec. 7, 2015.
Margaret Ann (Myhre) Lary of Peoria, Ariz., died Jan. 3, 2016.
1947 Lois Ann (Larson) Severson of Mason City, Iowa, died Oct. 17, 2015, age 87. Ardis (Knutson) Wenstrand of Arlington Heights, Ill., died July 2, 2015, age 88.
1949 Karl Andresen of Eau Claire, Wis., died Jan. 1, 2016, age 91.
Eric O. Giere of St. Louis Park, Minn., died Feb. 2, 2016, age 88.
Gwendolyn (Dueland) Sandven of Cedar Falls, Iowa, died Feb. 5, 2016, age 91.
1950 Arnold
C. “Arnie” Groskreutz of Mankato, Minn., formerly of Wells, Minn., died July 18, 2015, age 88.
1951 Evelyn Jean (Rolfs) Martin of Gainesville, Fla., died Feb. 8, 2016, age 88.
Alumni News
Paul E. Sherry of Muskego, Wis., died Aug. 26, 2014, age 87.
1952
Charlene (Fadness) Bakke of Muscatine, Iowa, formerly of Marshalltown, Iowa, died Dec. 23, 2015, age 87. Ann J. (Bolmgren) Wilbur of Springfield, Mo., died Dec. 24, 2015, age 82.
1953 Paul James Thompson of Mankato, Minn., died Nov. 23, 2015, age 84. E. Richard “Dick” Urdahl of Ozone Park, N.Y., died Dec. 1, 2015, age 84.
1955 Wayne
Russell Perry of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, died Feb. 23, 2016, age 85.
Kenneth A. “Ken” Vinge of Coon Rapids, Minn., died Dec. 30, 2015, age 82.
1957 Homer E. Olsen of Hackensack, Minn., and Tucson, Ariz., died Dec. 31, 2015, age 80. Sharon Kay (Krueger) Warner of Gulfport, Fla., and St. Paul, Minn., died March 15, 2015, age 78.
1958 Sylvia
Adrene (Moe) Overlund of Portland, Ore., died Oct. 26, 2014, age 90.
Nanfred Stanley “Bud” Sand of Morgantown, W.Va., formerly of Ottawa, Ill., died Feb. 1, 2016, age 84.
Gary D. Stetzer of Trempealeau, Wis., died Aug. 7, 2015, age 73.
1959 Duane S. Anderson of Enid, Okla., died Nov. 22, 2015, age 82.
1966 Sharon
Genevieve Bailey of Florence, Ore., died March 5, 2016, age 77.
1960 John David Ellingson of Ann Arbor, Mich., died March 1, 2016, age 77. Marlene M. (Soeder) Tangen of Ossian, Iowa, died Jan. 5, 2016, age 78.
1961 Joan Marie (Torvick) Hayashida of Elgin, Ill., died Dec. 19, 2015, age 76. 1962 Mary
Ann Lunde of Crystal, Minn., died March 14, 2016, age 75.
1964 Karen
(Hess) Saxvik of Sioux Falls, S.D., died Dec. 21, 2015, age 73.
1965 Mary Beth (Sandstrom) Gravengaard of Greenwich, Conn., died June 28, 2015, age 71.
A. (Hilstrom) Johnson of Midland, Texas, died March 15, 2016, age 72.
Bruce A. Lawrence of Wisconsin Rapids, Wis., died Jan. 20, 2016, age 71.
James S. McDonough of Blue Springs, Mo., died Dec. 1, 2015, age 70.
1967 John Hagberg
of Carrollton, Texas, died Dec. 16, 2015, age 72.
1969 Mina L. (Larson) Healy of East Montpelier, Vt., died Nov. 28, 2015, age 67.
Connie M. (Peterson) Sanderson of Lansing, Iowa, formerly of Lynxville, Wis., died Jan. 27, 2016, age 68.
1970 Lee Allen Struck of Hudson, Wis., died May 18, 2014, age 66.
1973 Shirley
E. (Jackson) Nelson of Rochester, Minn., formerly of Decorah, died Nov. 24, 2015, age 80.
1978 David L. Bunt of Niles, Ill., died Feb. 12, 2016, age 59. 1985 Paul Henry Ellens of Fargo, N.D., died March 2, 2016, age 53. 1986 Kirk A. Johnson of Hastings, Minn., died March 19, 2016, age 51. 1992 David Odale Ose of McCallsburg, Iowa, died July 29, 2015, age 48. 1995 Lisa C. Humble Lea of La Crosse, Wis., formerly of Rushford, Minn., died Dec. 18, 2015, age 43.
Former faculty Donald H. Pilgrim, professor emeritus of mathematics at Luther, passed away peacefully at his home near Decorah with his six daughters at his side on Feb. 23, 2016, at the age of 86.
1971 Sue
“JoAnne” (McCullough) Klein of Albert Lea, Minn., formerly of Mapleton, Minn., died Dec. 16, 2015, age 66.
Spring 2016 Luther Alumni Magazine
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President’s Council
I
’d like to extend my deeply felt thanks to all of the leadership donors in this President’s Council roster, who contribute in so many ways to Luther College. Through their generosity Luther is able to provide not only a stellar education for our students, but a foundation on which they can plan lives of consequence and meaning. One way to understand the importance of the college’s role in a student’s life is to look at it through the eyes of a parent. At the Parents Council meeting last fall, I asked council members to share thoughts with me on this question: What is your hope for your child’s experience at Luther College? The 40 or so parents gathered on campus for the council meeting each wrote for some minutes about the hopes they have for their son or daughter during their college years at Luther. The parents wrote moving statements about the learning and maturing they wish for their children. Parents hope Luther will “cultivate both wisdom and savvy . . . a rolled-up-sleeve practicality, a wise-as-a-serpent savvy about the workings of the world: how to survive, thrive, and help others to do the same.” They wish for their children “lifelong friendships,” “to grow in faith,” “faculty who model opportunities,” “mentors,” and “fun.” For 155 years, students have come to Luther College with their dreams and their families’ hopes. Together with their fellow students, they form a living and learning community that engages, challenges, and supports them in their studies, their friendships, and their aspirations. In classrooms, labs, worship spaces, rehearsal rooms, gyms, offices, studios, and residence halls, Luther faculty and staff serve as teachers, coaches, mentors, and guides for Luther students as they learn, grow, and make decisions about their futures. The President’s Council helps make all of this possible. I extend my heartfelt thanks to these generous donors and the many alumni, parents, and friends for all you do to support and advance the college. You are key members of the Luther community, and we recognize here—and every day—the value of all you do for the college and its students. Thank you all. Soli Deo Gloria!
The following pages list individuals and organizations that have provided financial support to Luther College of $1,500 or more— or $750 or more for alumni in their first decade after graduation—in the past calendar year, January 1–December 31, 2015, and those who have provided $100,000 or more to the college cumulatively through December 31, 2015. In recognition of their leadership in giving, these donors qualify as members of the Luther College President’s Council. 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, 2015. 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.
Paula J. Carlson President
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NOTE: The President’s Council Life Members lists (pp. 53–55) recognize donors whose CUMULATIVE giving to Luther College has reached $100,000 or more as of December 31, 2015. All other lists (pp. 55–63) recognize donors who have given $1,500 or more to Luther College in the past CALENDAR YEAR—January 1–December 31, 2015—ONLY.
President’s Council * Attained Life Membership and President’s Circle membership during the 2015 calendar year ◊ President’s Council Life member(s) whose cumulative giving increase from last year resulted in a move to a new President’s Circle level † Deceased
THE LARSEN CIRCLE
Recognizes those who cumulative gifts given as of December 31, 2015, total $1,000,000 or more. INDIVIDUALS Bruce ’68 and Janis (Zube) Altorfer ’70 †E.E. “Ray” ’59 and Shirley (Klingsheim) Bentdahl ’59 ◊Dennis ’64 and Suzanne Birkestrand David ’63 and Brenda (Landsgard) Carlson ’73 David Carlson ’85 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 †John Kintzinger Jewel Kintzinger Day and †Burtwin Day †Leon and †Helen Koebrick David ’64 and Camille Kundert Bradley ’86 and Jane (Dalen) Miller ’86 ◊Weston Noble ’43 Neal ’59 and Gerry (Mosby) Nottleson ’59 Curtis Reiso ’54 †Milton and †Dorothy Roelfs Steven Schaver ’76 and Asunta Eizaguirre †Edgar ’38 and †Gerda Sersland Rebecca (Linnevold) ’71 and Robert Shaw Arne ’80 and Ruth Sorenson O. Jay and Patricia Tomson ESTATE GIFTS Estate of Nena Amundson ’56 Estate of Malcolm ’30 and Maybelle Estrem
CORPORATIONS AND FOUNDATIONS American Lutheran Church ◊The Margaret A. Cargill Foundation Roy J. Carver Charitable Trust Gardner & Florence Call Cowles Foundation Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Howard Hughes Medical Institute Iowa College Foundation The Kresge Foundation Lilly Endowment Inc. Microsoft Corporation F.W. Olin Foundation Inc. Qwest Communications International Inc. Thrivent Financial
THE PREUS CIRCLE
Recognizes those whose cumulative gifts given as of December 31, 2015, total $500,000 to $999,999. INDIVIDUALS Anonymous (2) †E.J. and †Betty Altorfer Rich ’74 and Candace (Grimm) Altorfer ’73 †Arthur and †Helen Austin †Arthur ’30 and †Mary Louise Bergee †John ’33 and †Mildred Breiland Ronald ’59 and Gene (Flom) Calgaard ’58 †Roy ’26 and †Helen Carlson †Lillian Ellerman Daryl ’61 and Audrey (Pederson) Erdman ’61 John and Marilyn Gilbert Richard ’64 and Joann (Harr) Hemp ’65 †Thomas and †Frances James †Herbert ’32 and Kay Johnson Sandy and Mick Lee ’57 Ellen (Hanson) Lindop ’46 David ’64 and Pat Miller †Tilmar Moilien ’34 Donald Nelson Marti (Tomson) ’84 and William Rodamaker †Sterling ’50 and †Vila (Kiel) Thompson ’51 †C. Harvey ’49 and Charleen Wilkins
ESTATE GIFTS Estate of Patricia Gunderson ’70 Estate of Leo Schafee CORPORATIONS AND FOUNDATIONS Associated Colleges of the Midwest Bank of the West (formerly Community First National Bank) ◊Bruening Rock Products Inc. Decorah Bank and Trust IBM Corporation Fred Carlson Company Inc. R.J. McElroy Trust Teagle Foundation Incorporated
THE OLSON CIRCLE
Recognizes those whose cumulative gifts given as of December 31, 2015, total $250,000 to $499,999. INDIVIDUALS Anonymous (3) ◊Richard ’64 and Barbara (Moen) Amundson ’65 Jutta F. Anderson †Glenn ’39 and †Delia Bergland †Harald ’25 and †Helen Bestul Alan ’55 and Sally Brudos Russell Bruemmer ’74 Wilfred ’53 and Ruth (Jensen) Bunge ’51 John and Carole Lea Cotton †Kathryn Engebretson ’77 E.D. and Helen Farwell ◊Helene (Rowe) ’48 and †Edward Furst †Kermit ’38 and †Jane (Haugen) Hanson ’39 †Lucille Heintz Betty Hoff ’60 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 †Paul ’49 and Justine (Holum) Lionberger ’50 David Lubben ’74 and Nancy Kwam Paula (Hermeier) ’76 and Kurtis Meyer ’76 Victoria (Dahly) ’73 and Randal Miller ’73 Glenn Nelson and Mary Jane Borelli †Walter ’50 and Virginia Nelson Alan ’61 and Linda Nordhem
NOTE: The President’s Council Life Members lists (pp. 53–55) recognize donors whose CUMULATIVE giving to Luther College has reached $100,000 or more as of December 31, 2015. All other lists (pp. 55–63) recognize donors who have given $1,500 or more to Luther College in the past CALENDAR YEAR—January 1–December 31, 2015—ONLY.
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President’s Council †Carleton ’49 and Barbara (Orwoll) Nordschow ’49 Donald ’48 and Dorie Olson †Jeanne (Preus) Rost ’41 Marilyn (Haugen) ’66 and Jeff Roverud ’66 Walter ’59 and Amelia Rugland †Vernon Serfling John ’58 and Donna (Ferden) Suby ’59 Robert ’58 and Janet (Purmort) Tollund ’73 Joan (Catlin) ’63 and David Totten †Ollie ’49 and Pipka Ulvilden Michael Voltmer ’74 ◊Joseph ’80 and Greer Whitters †Russell and †Margaret Wicks Michael and Barbara Wigley †Robert and †Jean Wigley Enwei Xie ’94 and Lynn Tonglao ESTATE GIFTS Estate of Robert Amunrud Estate of Wilbur Dosland Estate of Evelyn Evenson Estate of 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 Bush Foundation Carlson Materials Company Inc. The Arthur Vining Davis Foundations Davis United World College Scholars ExxonMobil Foundation The Jessie F. Hallett Charitable Trust Kinney-Lindstrom Foundation Inc. Luther College Woman’s Club Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Foundation Norswing Foundation Northwest Area Foundation The Presser Foundation Thanks to Scandinavia, an Institute of the American Jewish Committee Voltmer Electric
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THE YLVISAKER CIRCLE
Recognizes those whose cumulative gifts given as of December 31, 2015, total $100,000 to $249,999. INDIVIDUALS Anonymous †Maynard ’39 and †Minerva Aaker H. George and Christine Anderson Jeffrey ’84 and MaryEllen (Palmquist) Anderson ’84 Lloyd and Kathy Anderson M.C. Anderson ’54 John and †Mabel Bale Steven ’74 and Paulette (Engel) Barnes ’74 †Sissel Berdal Alvin ’55 and †Marilynn Berg Roger and Carol Berg Jon and Stephanie Bergquist Susan (Maclay) ’64 and Paul Blackman Donald ’51 and †Wanda Blockhus Marilyn Bohl ’56 Alvin ’54 and Marion Brekken Gregory ’78 and Karen Bruening †Harley and Joyce Carlson †Alan ’62 and Rebecca Carpenter Keith Christensen ’80 and Dawn DeinesChristensen ’82 *Jonathan ’90 and Dawn Doering †Lois (Brandt) Drews ’49 Dennis and Jolene Elmore James Field ’54 Dennis ’68 and Jean Flatness Timothy ’67 and †Janet (Strube) Fleming ’67 Luther ’49 and Ilene (Knutson) Forde ’46 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 George and Joann Hagen 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 †James ’49 and †Elizabeth Holey Robert and Arlene Houlihan David ’66 and Carole Hoyem †Reuben ’28 and †May Jacobson
†Erling ’31 and †Geneva Johnson Glen ’70 and Kathy (Selzer) Johnson ’71 Timothy Jones and Annie Cardelus Marvin and Mary Klocke Stephen ’63 and Susan Kraabel *George Kuh ’68 Wendell ’58 and Judith (Davidson) Larsen ’60 O. Dale ’61 and †Patricia Larson †Percy ’45 and Constance (Dahl) Larson ’45 David Lietz ’88 and Suzette Westlyn Derrevere †Willard ’37 and Yvonne Linnevold †Walter Magnuson Ronald ’57 and Marilyn (Lokensgard) Martinson ’57 Paul ’81 and Miri (Peterson) Mattson ’81 *Dick Meade David and Patricia Meyer †Frank ’37 and †Esther (Stephens) Miller ’37 Martin Mohr and Mary Lou Hull Mohr Bjorn ’64 and Margot Monson †David Nelson ’49 and †Betty Rikansrud Nelson ’57 Corinne and Harland Nelson Millard and LaVonne Nelson Roald ’54 and Ruth Nelson Joan (Gunther) ’64 and Dick Niemiec Stephen ’81 and Kari Noltner Franklin Norman and Lynn Winger †Hildred (Kronlokken) Norman ’54 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 *Cheryl and Drew Pellett Steven ’78 and Solveig (Storvick) Pollei ’79 †Esther Porter †Herman ’16 and †Florence Preus †Lucile Brickner Brown Price *Brett Reese ’81 *Michele (Wylder) Reese ’81 †Mary Margaret Roberts ’44 Janet Robertson ’60 †Esther Rodda Robert ’51 and Lucille Rosholt †Dale ’62 and Catherine Ruosch
NOTE: The President’s Council Life Members lists (pp. 53–55) recognize donors whose CUMULATIVE giving to Luther College has reached $100,000 or more as of December 31, 2015. All other lists (pp. 55–63) recognize donors who have given $1,500 or more to Luther College in the past CALENDAR YEAR—January 1–December 31, 2015—ONLY.
President’s Council J. Stephen ’68 and Lin (Mathieu) Schmidt ’70 †Mary Lou (Schmitt) ’68 and †Floyd Sollien *Susan Sorlien ’73 and Thomas Jones Jon and Rebecca Stellmacher Steven ’81 and Carmen (Hansen) Stenhaug ’82 Karen (Mathews) ’65 and Mark Stuart Richard ’72 and Jane Theiler Brad ’81 and Meg Thompson James ’86 and Kathy (Winter) Thomsen ’85 †Henry Tollefson Paul ’73 and Rebecca (Larson) Torgerson ’73 Richard and Judith Torgerson Terry Trimpe ’70 and Nancy Hill Cobb Jerry ’57 and Barbara Twedt Thomas ’62 and Juanita Vaaler John ’57 and Carol Witt †Margaret (Barth) Wold ’41 †Arlo ’43 and Agnes (Kvaase) Woolery ’43 †Paul ’39 and Mary Anne Wulfsberg †James Ylvisaker ’60 *James ’81 and Jodi (Palma) Young ’81 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 Harry and Selma Hougan Estate of Herbert Jacobson ’33 Estate of Martin ’19 and Avis Jenson Estate of Betty Juhasz Estate of Linka Kempf Estate of Delores Kudej Estate of Affry Lerol Estate of Elizabeth Nasvik Estate of Leo Naughton Estate of Inga Nelson Estate of Justin ’41 and Milly (Meyer) Nelson ’44 *Estate of Klareen Nottestad ’56 Estate of Alice Paulson Estate of Melvin Rasmussen Estate of Walter ’29 and Nora Rugland Estate of Maynord Steensgard ’52 Estate of Genevieve Stelberg Estate of Josephine Thostenson Estate of Gertrude Tingelstad ’41 Estate of Henrietta Torgerson ’39 Estate of Theodore Vagts Estate of G. Norman Wigeland CORPORATIONS AND FOUNDATIONS The American Scandinavian Foundation Col. L.C. Christensen Charitable and Religious Foundation Deco Products Company John Deere Foundation First Lutheran Church, Decorah Homer and Martha Gudelsky Family Foundation
Ernest W. Hallett Charitable Trust Hawkeye Stages Inc. The Hearst Foundation Inc. Hormel Foods Corporation Interstate Power Company S.C. Johnson Wax Fund Inc. The Joyce Foundation W.K. Kellogg Foundation The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company The William Penn Foundation Research Corporation Dr. J.E. Salsbury Foundation Spahn & Rose Lumber Company Wells Fargo
PRESIDENT’S EXECUTIVE CABINET
Recognizes those whose gifts given from January 1, 2015, to December 31, 2015, total $50,000 or more. INDIVIDUALS Anonymous Richard ’64 and Barbara (Moen) Amundson ’65 Dennis ’64 and Suzanne Birkestrand Russell Bruemmer ’74 Helene (Rowe) Furst ’48 Robert Jones David ’64 and Camille Kundert Dick Meade Weston Noble ’43 Neal ’59 and Gerry (Mosby) Nottleson ’59 Arne ’80 and Ruth Sorenson †Lynn ’61 and Mary (Frost) Steen ’62 Joseph ’80 and Greer Whitters
“
At Luther College students are encouraged to question, challenge, and explore ideas—the ideal way to learn. We hope our scholarship will enable students who might not otherwise be able to afford it to benefit from an outstanding Luther education.” —Lynn ’76 and Ruth (Hanna) Paulson ’78
NOTE: The President’s Council Life Members lists (pp. 53–55) recognize donors whose CUMULATIVE giving to Luther College has reached $100,000 or more as of December 31, 2015. All other lists (pp. 55–63) recognize donors who have given $1,500 or more to Luther College in the past CALENDAR YEAR—January 1–December 31, 2015—ONLY.
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President’s Council ESTATE GIFTS Estate of Klareen Nottestad ’56 Estate of Sterling Thompson ’50
James ’86 and Kathy (Winter) Thomsen ’85 Joan (Catlin) ’63 and David Totten
CORPORATIONS AND FOUNDATIONS The Margaret A. Cargill Foundation Shelby Cullom Davis Charitable Fund Inc. Decorah Bank and Trust Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Howard Hughes Medical Institute Iowa College Foundation Sodexo Inc. Telligen Community Initiative Thrivent Financial
ESTATE GIFTS Estate of T. Louise Ambuel ’43 Estate of Carl Nelson Estate of Dolores Sande ’65 CORPORATIONS AND FOUNDATIONS ASIANetwork Wells Fargo
PRESIDENT’S ACADEMY PRESIDENT’S ASSOCIATES Recognizes those whose gifts given from January 1, 2015, to December 31, 2015, total $25,000 to $49,999.
INDIVIDUALS Anonymous Alvin Berg ’55 William ’95 and Kirsten (Stumme) Bohmer ’94 Wilfred ’53 and Ruth (Jensen) Bunge ’51 R. Eric ’61 and Cynthia (Aal) Carlson ’63 John and Carole Lea Cotton Ingeborg (Bader) Goessl ’60 James ’66 and Nancy (Lofthus) Hill ’68 Ardith Hubbard Michael ’78 and Amy (Kiesler) Kust ’78 Anne (Mattson) ’84 and Mitch McAnallen Erik and Lori Paulsen Lynn ’76 and Ruth (Hanna) Paulson ’78 Marilyn (Haugen) ’66 and Jeff Roverud ’66
Recognizes those whose gifts given from January 1, 2015, to December 31, 2015, total $10,000 to $24,999. INDIVIDUALS Anonymous Jutta F. Anderson Marion ’75 and Peggy (Hall) Beatty ’74 Ann Bentdahl ’85 and Roger Smith Carol Birkland ’67 and Thomas Woxland Susan (Maclay) ’64 and Paul Blackman Ronald ’59 and Gene (Flom) Calgaard ’58 Paula Carlson and Thomas Schattauer Evelyn (Henderson) Costley ’41 Shelby and Gale Davis Jonathan ’90 and Dawn Doering Randa Duvick ’78 and Dave Grosnick Sara Ericksen James Field ’54 Dennis ’68 and Jean Flatness Richard ’64 and Joann (Harr) Hemp ’65 †Kermit ’48 and Nora (Forde) ’49 Hendrickson
David ’66 and Carole Hoyem Helen (Peterson) ’52 and Jack Hustad Jewel Kintzinger Day and †Burtwin Day Timothy and Sarah Krumm David ’69 and Julie Larson Sandy and Mick Lee ’57 James ’79 and Janis (Miller) Lovell ’80 David Lubben ’74 and Nancy Kwam Paul ’81 and Miri (Peterson) Mattson ’81 Bradley ’86 and Jane (Dalen) Miller ’86 Victoria (Dahly) ’73 and Randal Miller ’73 Bjorn ’64 and Margot Monson Steven ’68 and Connie (Marlow) Overholt ’71 Barbara Palombi ’71 and Jonathan Vawter J. Robert ’78 and Barbara Paulson Cheryl and Drew Pellett Connie Plaehn ’75 John Quello Brett Reese ’81 Michele (Wylder) Reese ’81 Marti (Tomson) ’84 and William Rodamaker Walter ’59 and Amelia Rugland Rebecca (Linnevold) ’71 and Robert Shaw Andor Skotnes and Teresa Meade Susan Sorlien ’73 and Thomas Jones Steven ’81 and Carmen (Hansen) Stenhaug ’82 Phillip and Jessica Stoltenberg Karen (Mathews) ’65 and Mark Stuart Richard ’72 and Jane Theiler Diane (Baum) ’72 and Gaylord Thormodsgard Lance ’79 and Shari Vander Linden Cassandra Warner ’85 Melissa Willenborg ’02 ESTATE GIFTS Estate of Lorraine Roberg
“
It is a privilege to give back to a college that provided me with much more than a degree. My time at Luther has given me lifelong friends and experiences that will continue to shape my life.” —Melissa Willenborg ’02 (left)
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NOTE: The President’s Council Life Members lists (pp. 53–55) recognize donors whose CUMULATIVE giving to Luther College has reached $100,000 or more as of December 31, 2015. All other lists (pp. 55–63) recognize donors who have given $1,500 or more to Luther College in the past CALENDAR YEAR—January 1–December 31, 2015—ONLY.
President’s Council
“
Luther’s outstanding academic and international study programs, along with Luther’s supportive learning community environment, provided both of our sons with a wonderful foundation for their lives as well as lifelong friends. We want others to have those same opportunities in the future.” —Quent and Inez Boyken
CORPORATIONS AND FOUNDATIONS Bruening Rock Products Inc. Roy J. Carver Charitable Trust Council of Independent Colleges Davis United World College Scholars Max and Victoria Dreyfus Foundation Google Matching Gifts Program IBM Corporation Violet and Harold Jaeke Foundation Inc. Luther College Woman’s Club The Medtronic Foundation
PRESIDENT’S AFFILIATES
Recognizes those whose gifts given from January 1, 2015, to December 31, 2015, total $5,000 to $9,999. INDIVIDUALS Rich ’74 and Candace (Grimm) Altorfer ’73 Michael ’99 and Carryn (Ensrude) Anderson ’99 Barbara (Kleene) ’72 and Daniel Babine Charles Banta ’13 Charles ’73 and Ann (Christensen) Beatty ’75 Matthew Birkenholz ’03 and Kelly Woods Birkenholz ’03 †Ronald and Ann Bolinger Quentin and Inez Boyken Karen (Wilken) Braun ’85 Alvin ’54 and Marion Brekken Alan ’55 and Sally Brudos John ’53 and †M. Jean Bruemmer John ’59 and Dorothy Brugge Brenda Case ’94 and Richard Vonder Embse
Rocklon ’73 and Barb (Donaldson) Chapin ’73 Keith Christensen ’80 and Dawn Deines-Christensen ’82 Holger Christiansen ’50 Craig Cornelius ’74 and Ann Hadden-Cornelius Donald ’68 and Joanne Davidson J. Kent ’62 and Carol Dougherty Charles Enge ’58 Charles ’73 and Janice (Knutson) Engebretson ’74 Peter Espinosa ’81 and Kari Tollefson Espinosa ’84 James ’64 and Judith (Larson) Fogdall ’65 Luther ’49 and Ilene (Knutson) Forde ’46 Craig Fox ’83 J Bruce ’62 and Cosette (Cross) Goetsch ’63 Leon and Linda Gregg Richard ’50 and Eileen Grindeland Ben and Megan Grommes Gretta (Bjerke) ’55 and †Donald Hahn Korey and Sam Hake Suzanne (Knoll) ’65 and John Hales Richard Simon Hanson ’53 Ronald and †Lisa Have Fay Henning-Bryant ’64 Barry ’83 and Lisa (Schulz-Fincke) Hoff ’83 Robert ’65 and Siv Hovey Katherine Johnson-Becklin Sandra (Neitzel) ’87 and Jonathan Joppa ’85 Stephen ’63 and Susan Kraabel George Kuh ’68 Mary Kust O. Dale Larson ’61 Ronald ’61 and Jean Lee
David Lietz ’88 and Suzette Westlyn Derrevere Ellen (Hanson) Lindop ’46 Lorri Jo Lobeck ’80 and David Shelstad James ’85 and Martha (Anderson) Looft ’83 Joel ’88 and Laurence Ludvigsen David and Patricia Meyer David ’64 and Pat Miller Pauline (Amundson) ’72 and Les Miller Suzanne (Roverud) ’96 and Corey Mineck Paula (Bedford) ’68 and Paul Moucka Jan Nelson ’70 Roald ’54 and Ruth Nelson Luther ’64 and Marilyn Nervig Stephen ’81 and Kari Noltner Franklin Norman and Lynn Winger Michael Osterholm ’75 Norman Overland June Paar Jeffrey ’81 and Nancy Paulson Martha (Hovde) Paulson Bergsrud ’64 and Fred Bergsrud Bradley Paulsrud ’05 and Kirsten (Sparks) Paulsrud ’04 Hamlet ’54 and Suzanne Peterson Lowell ’58 and Mary Peterson Terry (Thiele) Rasmussen ’67 Sara (Wooster) Richardson ’69 Janet Robertson ’60 Louise Rolfs ’52 Curtis ’60 and Ann (Knutson) Rotto ’61 Robert ’68 and Dell Ann (Kappus) Sathe ’68 Britt Sather ’78 Steven Schaver ’76 and Asunta Eizaguirre Corey ’98 and Tonya (Schwers) Schmidt ’97 Paul ’98 and Jody (Daubendiek) Schulte ’98
NOTE: The President’s Council Life Members lists (pp. 53–55) recognize donors whose CUMULATIVE giving to Luther College has reached $100,000 or more as of December 31, 2015. All other lists (pp. 55–63) recognize donors who have given $1,500 or more to Luther College in the past CALENDAR YEAR—January 1–December 31, 2015—ONLY.
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President’s Council Gerald and Sue Schwalbach Joel Spoonheim ’92 and Lani Willis ’94 Scott ’89 and Laura (Anderson) Stevens ’92 Eric ’85 and Diane (Reque) Storvick ’85 Susan Tjornehoj ’76 and David Wangaard Paul ’73 and Rebecca (Larson) Torgerson ’73 Grant ’67 and Lila Trask Terry Trimpe ’70 and Nancy Hill Cobb Todd ’97 and Emily (Foster) Velnosky ’98 Jody Wettach ’86 Enwei Xie ’94 and Lynn Tonglao James ’81 and Jodi (Palma) Young ’81 ESTATE GIFTS Estate of Gene Groth ’55 Estate of Grace Olson CORPORATIONS AND FOUNDATIONS Col. L.C. Christensen Charitable and Religious Foundation Deco Products Company Eaton Corporation EY Foundation Fjelstul Funeral Home Gundersen Health System Inc. Lutheran Foundation of the Southwest Microsoft Corporation Winneshiek Medical Center
PRESIDENT’S SOCIETY
Recognizes those whose gifts given from January 1, 2015, to December 31, 2015, total $1,500 to $4,999. INDIVIDUALS Anonymous (8) Scott Addington ’69 Darrin ’90 and Amy Ahrens Sherry (Braun) Alcock ’82 Bruce ’68 and Janis (Zube) Altorfer ’70 Terry Anderson ’62 Calvin and Betty Anderson Dennis and Corinne Anderson Jeffrey ’84 and MaryEllen (Palmquist) Anderson ’84 M.C. Anderson ’54 Karen Angell ’80 Jack Anundsen
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Jeffrey ’89 and Angela (Carlson) Arndt ’88 Sharon (Zumdahl) ’70 and Stanley Asp Roger ’63 and Eleanor (Roe) Ault ’64 Glenn ’62 and Karen (Swain) Austad ’62 Michael ’65 and Karen (Wardell) Austad ’64 Sally Swab Austin ’70 and Bradford Austin Russell ’63 and Sandra (Edgren) Ayers ’64 Kelly and Allison Bachelder Ruth Bachman ’75 and Thomas Gallagher Vernon ’50 and Donna (Haugen) Bahr ’53 Shirley Baker John Bale John ’83 and Karla (Nelson) Balk ’83 Roger ’71 and Peggy Bang Nancy K. Barry Steven ’74 and Nancy Barry Eugene and Aneila Barth Ann (Birdsall) ’71 and Byron Beasley Matthew ’92 and Kristine Beatty Lori Beckman ’83 Loren ’59 and Betty (Eide) Behm ’57 Kristyn (Edwards) ’96 and David Benson Donald ’56 and Barbara Berg Ann (Gulsvig) ’67 and John Bergstad Steven ’74 and Linda (Kennedy) Berry ’74 Steven ’84 and Marsha Birchard Richard ’71 and Louann (Peterson) Bjorlo ’67 Stephen ’69 and Gracia (Kraabel) Blanchard ’69 Donald Blockhus ’51 Warren ’60 and Maryellen (Amundson) Boe ’61 Trisha (Hanson) ’94 and Kyle Boese Larry Bonney ’85 Eric Bookmeyer ’96 and Erin Peterson ’97 Glenn ’66 and Mary (Jorgenson) Borreson ’66 Jake ’61 and Shirley Bostrom Casey ’07 and Laura (Fritz) Bouska ’08 Jeff ’81 and Shawn Bouslog James ’64 and Sharon Boyce David ’80 and Kathy (Haugland) Brandt ’82 Rolf ’91 and Deirdre Brekken Renee (Anderson) ’72 and Charles Brown Duane and Eileen Bruening Keith ’80 and Amy (Carlson) Bruening ’92 Brian ’80 and Judy (Farwell) Bumpus ’80 Marilyn (Myrah) Bunge ’51 Mary Bunge Docken ’79 and Don Lucas Don ’53 and Joan Bungum
†David Bunt ’78 John ’87 and Susan Bunz Adam ’06 and Molly (Sheppard) Burk ’07 Jonathan ’04 and Miranda Butler Lori Koch Cannestra ’82 and Paul Cannestra David ’63 and Brenda (Landsgard) Carlson ’73 Jean (Flom) Carlson ’58 Joyce Carlson Michael ’85 and Susanne Carney Larry ’65 and Karen (Aaker) Chellevold ’65 Walter ’68 and Aleta (Reckling) Chossek ’69 Dennis ’63 and Ann (Henningsgaard) Christ ’66 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 Kristine Cleary ’78 and Peter Coffey Heather Clefisch ’94 and Nate Zolik David ’80 and Wendy (Hillesland) Coe ’80 Martin ’91 and Michele Cole Richard and JoAnn Cole Phyllis (Zylstra) ’79 and Paul Comstock Christopher ’96 and Susan (Cihak) Considine ’96 Michele Cooley ’92 and John Gluesing John ’60 and Diane Crawford Becky (Wieck) ’75 and Gary Curtis Erno ’52 and Suzanne (Preus) Dahl ’53 James ’72 and Jeanne (Tormoen) Daubendiek ’72 William ’62 and Judith (Ream) Davis ’62 David ’71 and Jenee (Nelson) Dettmann ’72 Jean Dickson ’89 Rodney ’80 and Lisa Dir Mark ’70 and Vicki (Mohlis) Donhowe ’70 Michael Dorner ’86 Edward Dosh ’70 Gregory ’61 and Carol Dotseth Laura Dotseth ’86 and David Larsen Louise Dovre Bjorkman ’82 and John Bjorkman Alice (Ranum) ’49 and Leonard Drake Ruth Drews ’76 and Dean Peckham Sue (Franzen) ’78 and Jack Drilling
NOTE: The President’s Council Life Members lists (pp. 53–55) recognize donors whose CUMULATIVE giving to Luther College has reached $100,000 or more as of December 31, 2015. All other lists (pp. 55–63) recognize donors who have given $1,500 or more to Luther College in the past CALENDAR YEAR—January 1–December 31, 2015—ONLY.
President’s Council Douglas Duin ’77 and Ann Hill Duin ’77 Shannon (Miller) ’95 and DeLane Duval Richard ’64 and Patricia (McCullough) Edwards ’63 Tami Ehlers ’01 Peter ’68 and Terryl (Bruins) Eikren ’70 Ruth (Huebner) ’84 and Michael Eisler Gary ’59 and Janell Embretson Henrik ’57 and Marcia (Borreson) Engebretson ’58 Edgar and Joyce Epperly Daryl ’61 and Audrey (Pederson) Erdman ’61 Karla (Luzum) ’89 and Lindsay Erdman Nathan ’98 and Anne Ersig Peggy and Bryan Ettestad Joann (Halvorson) Evans ’52 Jodene Evans ’84 David ’79 and Rachel (Andersen) Faldet ’78 Patrick ’00 and Katrin (Aarestad) Fergus ’00 Kenton ’54 and Lois Finanger Nancy Fincham ’85 Elizabeth Fiskerbeck Bruening ’58 Ardis Fiskerbeck Christen ’59 Bob ’66 and Lynne Fjelstul Timothy Fleming ’67 Larry ’62 and Marilyn Fogdall Gene Frank ’69 Kevin ’00 and Kimberly (Turner) Frantz ’00 Laura (Charlson) ’89 and David Frazier Ronald ’61 and Karen (Paulson) Fretheim ’63 Terence ’56 and Faith (Luzum) Fretheim ’56 Ann Highum and Jerry Freund James and Elizabeth Fritz Marilyn Fritz Shardlow ’72 and John Shardlow DeLyle ’61 and Carolyn Fure Wilmer ’48 and Margaret (Nelson) Fure ’48 Gary ’74 and Sandra Gilderhus Callista (Bisek) ’88 and Newt Gingrich Kenneth and Sheila Goins Nancy Gossell ’74 Steven ’76 and Julie (Huntting) Grandgeorge ’77 Jan (Engle) ’62 and John Gray Kristopher ’82 and Kathryn (Willi) Gregersen ’81
Maryln (Johnson) Grimm ’50 Ben and Padrin Grimstad Joseph ’98 and Ann Grimstad Larry and Diane Grimstad David ’85 and Janet Gross C. Carlyle ’55 and Mary (Kittelsland) Haaland ’56 James ’72 and Susan (Hammond) Haemker ’74 Wayne ’62 and Barbara Halverson James and Anne Hancock Douglas and Bonnie Hanggi Ryan Hanke ’06 and Heidi Christian ’99 Larry ’68 and Jane (Hoplin) Hansen ’68 Thomas ’77 and Joyce Hansen Bradley and Marion Hanson Eugene ’59 and Naomi (Borreson) Hanson ’61 Lori Happel-Jarratt ’89 and Al Jarratt Ronald ’65 and Carol Harder Steven ’84 and Denae (Erdman) Harder ’87 Brian and Julie Hart Jon and Mary Hart Lee ’84 and Linda (Rosholt) Hash ’85 Brian ’96 and Amy (Vollmer) Hatlevig ’96 John ’00 and Jennifer (Cords) Hatlevig ’00 Corey ’94 and Carla (Paulsen) Haugen ’93 Dean ’91 and Pamela (Brown) Haugen ’89 Gerald ’62 and Sally Haugen Irene (Schulz) ’53 and Chester Hausken Alan Hecht ’80 and Kristin Swanson ’80 Adrian Helgeson ’41 Mark ’71 and Lois (Lebakken) Helland ’71 Thomas Hellie ’75 and Julie Olds David ’76 and Sue Henderson Dayton ’79 and Amy Henderson Kristine (Hahn) ’85 and David Henderson Steven ’73 and Virginia (Fixsen) Hendrickson ’72 Darrell Henning ’62 and Terry Sparkes Sheldon ’52 and Renee (Aust) Hermanson ’54 Gene ’53 and Ruby (Totman) Hermeier ’53 Norma Hervey Michael ’81 and Rhonda Hicks Edward ’63 and Sharon (Madson) Hill ’63 Elaine Ottmers Hill ’77 and Paul Hill Lavern ’49 and Jean Hillesland Betty Hoff ’60 David and Linda Hoffman Donald and Mavis Hoffman
Timothy and Amy Hohulin Pat Holman ’72 and Philip Wangberg ’70 Corey ’99 and Sarah Hoodjer 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 Philip ’87 and Sarah (Henning) Iversen ’87 Lawrence and Mildred Jensen Arthur ’67 and Jacqueline Johnson Charles and Doris Johnson Glen ’70 and Kathy (Selzer) Johnson ’71 Kent ’83 and Lee (Knoernschild) Johnson ’85 Kirk ’82 and Kerry (Kramer) Johnson ’83 Orville and Kathleen Johnson Scott Johnson ’80 and Naomi Nowland ’80 Terry ’81 and Jone (McDonald) Johnson ’82 David ’92 and Holly Jorde Shirley (Stark) ’61 and Travis Jorde Daniel Jordet ’78 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 Ruth Kath Scott ’87 and Ruth (Berschet) Kauls ’88 Eric ’87 and Laura (Doorenbos) Kehrberg ’91 Mark ’01 and Kate (Brothen) Keiper ’00 Jane Kemp Alice (Hogenson) Kienberger-Iverson ’54 Michael ’89 and Julie Kinsel Douglas ’82 and Shelly Kintzinger Lawrence ’54 and Mary (Buchholz) Kipfer ’55 Helen (Erickson) Kissel ’56 Joy Hovick Kissel ’93 and Kevin Kissel Wayne ’61 and Alyce Kivell Helen (Legler) ’59 and Hans Kneubuhler Harriet Knudson Norlie Knudson ’64 William ’70 and Carolyn (Peterson) Kobler ’70 Lesley (Dressen) ’00 and Jonathan Kochel Jessica (Wrobel) ’03 and Preston Koenig Joanne (Gray) Kolstad ’53
NOTE: The President’s Council Life Members lists (pp. 53–55) recognize donors whose CUMULATIVE giving to Luther College has reached $100,000 or more as of December 31, 2015. All other lists (pp. 55–63) recognize donors who have given $1,500 or more to Luther College in the past CALENDAR YEAR—January 1–December 31, 2015—ONLY.
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President’s Council Walter ’49 and Helen Korsrud Roger ’68 and Laurie Krahn Douglas ’73 and Sandra Kratz Bethany (Bierman) ’95 and James Krepela Mark and Sara Kronholm Lyle Kruegel ’63 Dennis and Holly Kruger Michael ’87 and Amy (Larsen) Krull ’89 Jon Kucera ’74 and Susan Graham Sarah Kuehl ’02 Lynn Kvalness ’64 Meredith Kvalness ’69 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 April Ulring Larson ’72 and Judd Larson ’74 Brian ’00 and Rachel (Forde) Larson ’99 Marcy (Petersen) ’96 and Eric Larson Robert and Marilynn Larson Rob and Sandra Larson John Laughlin ’89 and Julie Suhr ’88 Reginald and Jerilyn Laursen Dale ’95 and Amanda (Neal) Lawrence ’95 Lisa Laxson ’91 and Curt Clifton James and Catherine Lee Jon ’62 and Stefani (Monson) Lee ’62 Ronald Lee ’62 and Marie Bender-Lee Chris ’75 and Sylvia Lee-Thompson Ann Leon ’75 Truman ’56 and Delores Lewis Dennis ’71 and Barbara Linderbaum †Willard ’37 and Yvonne Linnevold Justine (Holum) Lionberger ’50 Douglas Lohafer ’77 Jerrold ’62 and Elizabeth Lokensgard William ’67 and Karen (Porter) Long ’67 Elaine (Wischhoff) Looft ’57 and Bill Schulz William ’56 and Maxine Losen Russell ’58 and Juanita (Zeman) Loven ’56 Warren Luckner ’68 and Mary Carr Luckner Jon Lund Richard ’72 and Marcia Lund Ross Lund ’97 Gregg ’90 and Jennifer Luther LaRoy ’60 and Lila Luther Thomas ’00 and Michelle (Feldmann) Lutz ’00
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Debora Madsen ’73 and John Cznadel Christine Magnuson ’74 Cecelia (Nybro) ’78 and Brian Manlove Lisa Manzey Adelmann ’87 and Steve Adelmann James and Karen Martin-Schramm †Ronald ’57 and Marilyn (Lokensgard) Martinson ’57 John and Rebecca Mason Stephen ’68 and Margeen (Bolson) Mau ’69 James ’91 and Wendy McCreight James and Helen Meehan Bruce ’52 and Rosella (Gjere) Melaas ’52 John and Marcia Metzger Sonja (Smith) ’85 and Joe Meyer Todd ’93 and Nicole Michaels David and Bridgette Mitchell Kathryn Ulvilden Moen ’41 Martin Mohr and Mary Lou Hull Mohr IvaNell (Mundt) Monson ’51 Katherine Moody ’01 Michael ’74 and Janice (Gjesvold) Mostrom ’74 Carolyn Mottley Kimberly (Gass) ’92 and John Mueller Mark Muggli and Carol Gilbertson Paul ’79 and Catherine Elise (Barton) Mullen ’80 Eric ’91 and Kimberly (Latzke) Muller ’93 Dale ’64 and Helen Mundahl Michael Musgrave ’86 Richard and Charlene Myklebust James and Ramona Myott Robert ’65 and Ann (Aaker) Naslund ’66 A.P. ’43 and Borghild (Teigland) Nassen ’43 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 Lloyd Nelson ’51 Millard and LaVonne Nelson 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 Dale and Sunny Nimrod Riddell Noble ’57 Alan ’61 and Linda Nordhem Deborah Norland ’75 and James Bovee Sylvia (Schey) Norland ’47 Chip ’82 and Jari Norris Andrew Nottleson ’90 and Lizabeth Diekema ’90 Jonathan Nowland ’83 and Christi Munson Nowland ’80 Ronald ’54 and Frieda (Mindrum) Nowland ’54 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 Paul ’97 and Melissa Odenbach Ordean and Carol Oen Angela (Spartz) ’00 and Patrick O’Keefe Marsha (Weckwerth) ’82 and Lee Olch Patrick O’Leary and Amaria Najem O’Leary Kristen (Kollmorgen) ’88 and Lon Olejniczak Jeffrey Olinger ’85 and Heidi MillerOlinger Christine Olsen ’78 and Tom Rothengass Jeremy Olsen ’02 and Katie Murphy-Olsen Paul ’65 and Jeanne Olsen A. Richard ’59 and Martha (Smith) Olson ’59 Dale ’74 and Anne (Kruse) Olson ’74 David ’79 and Siobhan Olson Donald ’48 and Dorie Olson Eric ’85 and Virginie Olson Helen (Stuepfert) ’69 and John Olson Karen Olson ’88 and Darlene Petit Marney Olson ’99 O. Rolf ’53 and Gertrude (Kolstad) Olson ’54 Richard ’59 and Vicki Olson James ’77 and Mary (Stoneman) Oppermann ’77 Kevin ’06 and Keely Oppermann George ’67 and Carole (Rust) Orness ’69 Thelma Overholt Dan ’89 and Theresa (Anderson) Owens ’89
NOTE: The President’s Council Life Members lists (pp. 53–55) recognize donors whose CUMULATIVE giving to Luther College has reached $100,000 or more as of December 31, 2015. All other lists (pp. 55–63) recognize donors who have given $1,500 or more to Luther College in the past CALENDAR YEAR—January 1–December 31, 2015—ONLY.
President’s Council
“
Our Luther pride runs deep. I (Rachel) am a fourth-generation Luther graduate; my
great-grandfather, Nils Forde, was a member of the class of 1873. But whether fourth- or first-generation, we happily give back to Luther so future generations can bleed blue, fondly remember adventures both on campus and abroad, cherish lifelong friendships, and graduate not just with a degree, but with a love of learning and deep sense of responsibility.” —Brian ’00 and Rachel (Forde) Larson ’99
John ’88 and Sherry (Schmidt) Paulson ’88 Allen ’69 and Karen (Anderson) Peckham ’69 Mark ’82 and Catherine (Eichmann) Penning ’83 Dale and Judy Peter Roger Petersen and Susan SandholmPetersen Gregory Peterson ’83 and Ann Sponberg Peterson Karen (Nilsestuen) Peterson ’65 Steven ’77 and Marcia (Hoff) Pitzenberger ’78 Alexander Platt Virginia (Heitbrink) ’83 and Kent Porter James ’78 and Sandra Potter Penelope (Smith) ’77 and David Pratt Jonathan ’61 and Mary Preus ’63 Mark ’81 and Mary Pribbenow Paul Pribbenow ’78 and Abigail Crampton Pribbenow Vance Prigge ’93 Marit (Running) ’58 and M. Franklin Pudas Scott ’97 and Jennifer (Ponik) Purpus ’96 David ’83 and Karen Quinby Craig ’92 and Renee (Lysne) Rabe ’95 Brian ’64 and Gloria (Evans) Rainer ’65 Janice Rambow Beatty ’77 Judith (Miller) ’62 and David Ranheim Ann Rathe ’87 Richard and Jill Reed J.W. ’48 and †Beverly Reinertson 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 Curtis ’67 and Linda (Aaker) Ritland ’68 Gladys (Fenner) ’65 and David Roberts Mike ’82 and Sue (Moyna) Robinson ’82 Waldron ’58 and Arlene (Riegel) Rosheim ’59 L. Darlene Rosholt Robert ’51 and Lucille Rosholt Bernie and Kim Rost Linus Rothmeyer Sue Rothmeyer ’81 Kathryn (Hermanson) Rotto ’57 Richard ’61 and Julaine Rud Uwe Rudolf and Ruth Caldwell Steven Runde ’97 Harlan ’82 and Sonja Satrom Paul ’73 and Nancy (Fredrickson) Savre ’73 Russell Savre ’68 Marlin ’58 and Ann Scheib Lauri (Schmidt) ’85 and Jeffrey Schloz Sylvia (Nervig) ’66 and Donald Schmid Darrell Schmidt ’80 and Julie Mall Brad Schmugge ’93 Mark Schneider ’90 Susan (Riley) Schneider ’90 Peter and Diane Scholl Paul ’43 and Camille Schroeder Jill (Monis) ’97 and Thomas Schwanz David ’77 and Dawn (Hovden) Schweizer ’78 Helen Schweizer Scott Searl ’94 Robert Seaver ’57 Newton and Ann Seitzinger Julie Serra Lund ’80 and Philip Lund Thomas ’67 and Mary Severson
Stephen ’71 and Katie (Kvale) Sheppard ’71 Anjela Shutts ’93 and Peter Kitundu Mark Smeby ’70 and Joanie Sheahan Steven ’95 and Maria (Bringer) Smith ’95 Eugene ’58 and Wanda Soland Arlen ’58 and Carole Solie Allan ’60 and LaVonne (Leng) Solomonson ’61 Larry ’63 and Aniko Solomonson Allen ’63 and Judith Soltow Ryan Sommers ’04 Steve ’72 and Susan Sorenson Nyle Spalding C. Robert ’66 and Sondra Sperati Richard Staff ’69 John Stalbaum ’67 David ’77 and Lori (Van Gerpen) Stanley ’80 Richard ’74 and Mary (Edwards) Steinberg ’76 Jon and Rebecca Stellmacher Carter ’83 and Michele (Mertens) Stevens ’83 Wendy (Tessman) ’69 and James Stevens Carol (Barth) ’75 and Timothy Stoddard John ’83 and Jane Stoneman Olin Storvick ’49 Paul ’66 and Linda (Knutson) Strand ’66 Jonathan ’74 and Jeanette (Bialas) Strandjord ’74 Clarie (Renslo) Streng ’55 and Dennis Broste Ryan Stroschein ’99 Adam Syverson ’02 Eugene ’66 and Miriam (Nelson) Takle ’66 Aaron ’00 and Heidi Thiese Robert Thomson Ronald ’73 and Chris Throndsen
NOTE: The President’s Council Life Members lists (pp. 53–55) recognize donors whose CUMULATIVE giving to Luther College has reached $100,000 or more as of December 31, 2015. All other lists (pp. 55–63) recognize donors who have given $1,500 or more to Luther College in the past CALENDAR YEAR—January 1–December 31, 2015—ONLY.
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President’s Council
“
We give out of gratitude for the impact Luther made in our lives. Luther’s academic strength—and the opportunities for student discovery and growth— deserve to be sustained with gifts from those of us who received faculty and staff mentoring and encouragement.” —Cy ’76 and Mona (Feller) Nelson ’75
Daniel ’66 and Mary Ann (Skifton) Thurmer ’68 Charles ’72 and Noreen Thurston David and Martha Tiede Daniel ’79 and Kristin (Skoglund) Tjornehoj ’80 John and Karen Tjostem Paul ’69 and Elizabeth (Tenold) Tokheim ’70 Dean ’57 and Jo Marie Tollefson Robert ’58 and Janet (Purmort) Tollund ’73 Richard and Judith Torgerson Peter ’80 and Linda Traeger Daniel ’97 and Stephanie Tresemer Geoffrey ’94 and Dalia Trullinger Anita (Buss) Turck ’61 Jerry ’57 and Barbara Twedt Ted ’55 and Janet (Campbell) Tweed ’55 Chinyere and Onyebuchi Ukabiala Harold ’69 and Lynette (Ellingson) Usgaard ’70 Sara Uthe Holm ’99 and Eric Holm Thomas ’62 and Juanita Vaaler Lee ’78 and Maggie Valenta Rachel (Schutte) ’09 and Rod Vsetecka Norris Waalen ’72 and Hollis Krug Waalen Jill (Voss) Wachholz ’89 Marilyn Wahlberg Harold ’62 and Jane (Baker) Wallestad ’61 Solveig (Johnson) Walstrom ’70 Ruth Ward Schraeder ’88 and Neil Schraeder Mark Wardell ’68 Donna (Wangsness) ’64 and James Weigle Caroline (Hjerleid) ’62 and James Weis Pamela (Hansen) Wenndt ’75
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Lucas ’07 and Sarah (Nesheim) Westby ’07 Roger ’79 and Mary (Devoe) Wetlaufer ’79 Jeffrey ’79 and Barb Wettach John Wetzel Marjorie (Running) ’66 and George Wharton 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 Warren Wind ’58 Larry ’83 and Jane Winter Paula Wisness ’78 and Mark Cochran Vincent ’66 and Patty Wixon James ’80 and Karen Wold Kristi Wold ’81 and Jean DeRidder Amy (Mueller) Wrightsman ’01 Phyllis (Dankers) Yes ’63 Richard ’50 and Joanne Ylvisaker Jamison Young ’99 Robert ’67 and Jeanne (Engler) Zaske ’67 Judy (Henriksen) Zetterberg ’72 ESTATE GIFTS Estate of Irma (Orth) Hopkins ’59 Estate of Bernice Rise CORPORATIONS AND FOUNDATIONS A&J Petersburg Agency American Legion of Iowa Foundation Ameriprise Financial Gift Matching Program
Association of Community Health Nursing Educators Inc. Bank of America Bank of the West Bean Masters Inc. Best Buy Co. Inc. Cargill Inc. Deere & Company Deloitte & Touche Foundation Arlin C. Falck Foundation First Lutheran Church, Decorah General Mills Foundation Hacker Nelson & Company P.C. Hormel Foods Corporation Hotel Winneshiek Kimberly Clark Foundation Kissel Family Optometry KPMG Madison Community Foundation The Merck Company Foundation Meredith Corporation Midwest Group Benefits Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Foundation The Presser Foundation Principal Financial Group Foundation Inc. Rockwell Collins Schneider Electric North America Foundation Subway Thomson West Winneshiek County Community Foundation
NOTE: The President’s Council Life Members lists (pp. 53–55) recognize donors whose CUMULATIVE giving to Luther College has reached $100,000 or more as of December 31, 2015. All other lists (pp. 55–63) recognize donors who have given $1,500 or more to Luther College in the past CALENDAR YEAR—January 1–December 31, 2015—ONLY.
President’s Council FIRST DECADE SOCIETY
PRESIDENT’S VISIONARIES
Anonymous Charles Banta ’13 Casey ’07 and Laura (Fritz) Bouska ’08 Alison Buck ’05 Adam ’06 and Molly (Sheppard) Burk ’07 Addison Choi ’11 Brian ’05 and Sarah (Rouse) Clark ’05 Joshua ’10 and Kathryn (Dolan) Gerber ’10 Douglas Hamilton ’11 Ryan Hanke ’06 and Heidi Christian ’99 Emily (Walk) ’09 and Brett Harris Daniel ’06 and Allison (Kruger) Herman ’07 Aaron Hoffland ’12 Kirsten Hoyme ’09 Matthew ’05 and Ashley (Wirtz) Johnson ’07 Matthew Kinney ’05 and Marit Pollei ’06 Benjamin ’07 and Rebecca (Ballandby) Knutson ’07 Carl Lottman ’11 Kelsey (Hake) ’10 and Jacob Miksell Michelle Monson Klisanich ’06 and Michael Klisanich Chantel Olufsen-Lepa ’07 and Jesse Lepa Kevin ’06 and Keely Oppermann Thomas Orser ’09 Bradley Paulsrud ’05 and Kirsten (Sparks) Paulsrud ’04 Katherine Schaefer ’11 Robert ’07 and Keshar (Nadkarni) Sheridan ’07 Karl ’06 and Sarah (Murrell) Swenson ’07 Nathan ’09 and Brittany (Buczek) Todd ’10 Rachel (Schutte) ’09 and Rod Vsetecka Lucas ’07 and Sarah (Nesheim) Westby ’07 Maria Woo Ching ’10
Anonymous (3) Michael ’65 and Karen (Wardell) Austad ’64 Kristyn (Edwards) ’96 and David Benson Russell Bruemmer ’74 Jason Burgart ’03 and Melissa Stull ’03 Jonathan ’90 and Dawn Doering Stuart ’65 and Diana Eickelberg Joann (Halvorson) Evans ’52 Daniel Gjelten ’74 and Lisa Burke ’85 Phyllis Gray ’73 Rosalie (Grangaard) ’59 and Kenneth Grosch Becky (Essmann) ’78 and David Hamilos Amy (Michaelson) ’91 and Patrick Igou Scott Johnson ’80 and Naomi Nowland ’80 Sandra (Neitzel) ’87 and Jonathan Joppa ’85 Haldis (Solem) Kaasa ’81 Rachel (Kibler-Melby) ’06 and Carl Kibler Kerry Knodle ’72 Jill Kuennen ’90 and Chris Schwarz George Kuh ’68 Ann Leon ’75 Richard ’60 and Dorothea (Nybroten) Lind ’62 Lorri Jo Lobeck ’80 and David Shelstad Carl Lottman ’11 Robert ’65 and Julie Masche Dick Meade Carolyn Mottley Weston Noble ’43 Jonathan Nowland ’83 and Christi Munson Nowland ’80 Chantel Olufsen-Lepa ’07 and Jesse Lepa Thomas Orser ’09 David ’75 and Kristin (Silseth) Peterson ’75 Connie Plaehn ’75 David ’43 and Ann Preus
Recognizes alumni in their first decade after graduation whose gifts given from January 1, 2015, to December 31, 2015, total $750 or more.
Recognizes those who have established planned gifts from January 1, 2015, to December 31, 2015.
Craig ’92 and Renee (Lysne) Rabe ’95 Hillary (Foster) ’05 and Doug Ramaker Curtis Reiso ’54 John Runningen ’75 and Jane Calvert-Runningen Steven Schaver ’76 and Asunta Eizaguirre Robert ’70 and Mary Schneider Margaret Sherve ’73 Wendy (Tessman) ’69 and James Stevens Carol (Barth) ’75 and Timothy Stoddard Patrick ’92 and Karen (Titus) Trewin ’92 Christopher ’92 and Charity Tyler Konrad Urberg ’94 Lisa (Newcomer) ’81 and Mark Vail George ’63 and Joyce (Behrens) Wallman ’65 Cheryl Westrum Bressler ’79 and Richard Bressler James ’66 and Laurel (Luzum) Womeldorf ’66 Every attempt has been made to ensure the accuracy of this list. If an error has been made, please accept our apology and contact the Luther Development Office at 800-2 ALUMNI or email giving@luther.edu so we may correct our records.
NOTE: The President’s Council Life Members lists (pp. 53–55) recognize donors whose CUMULATIVE giving to Luther College has reached $100,000 or more as of December 31, 2015. All other lists (pp. 55–63) recognize donors who have given $1,500 or more to Luther College in the past CALENDAR YEAR—January 1–December 31, 2015—ONLY.
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COURTESY OF VESTERHEIM NORWEGIAN-AMERICAN MUSEUM ARCHIVES, DECORAH, IOWA
Endpage
Norwegian immigrant Osul Torrison of Manitowoc, Wis., sent his sons to Luther (left to right): Thomas, class of 1876; Isaac, class of 1879; Oscar, class of 1881; George, class of 1885; Gustav, attended in 1886; Norman, class of 1888; Aaron, attended 1892–1895; and William, class of 1895. Luther’s first baseball team was formed in 1872—not yet intercollegiate—and each Torrison brother took his turn on the diamond.
Fathers of an alumni dynasty The fall 2015 issue of the Luther Alumni Magazine highlighted the baseball prowess of the Sorlien Nine, brothers from Bode, Iowa, who formed their own ball team and played against the Luther team 100 years ago. Six of the brothers attended Luther. But the Sorliens were not the only band of brothers to take the field at Luther. Before them, eight Torrison boys played ball at the college. Each captained his respective team from the late 1870s to the middle 1890s. Professor A.A. Veblen, who taught at Luther from 1877 to 1881, credited the Torrisons and their teammates with helping to Americanize the college. David T. Nelson (who married into the Torrison family) quotes Veblen in Luther College, 1861–1961: “In 1877 English and Norwegian were used about an equal extent among the boys on campus. . . . The language used in the various games or sports would also vary. But baseball could hardly be played except in English. It was the chief sport cultivated at Luther College,
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Luther Alumni Magazine
and I believe one is justified in crediting the gradual Americanization of the College partly to the influence of this, the national game.” The Torrison family has produced more than 50 Luther graduates over the years, and two Torrison brothers descendants are attending Luther now: Inga Aleckson ’17, a great-great-granddaughter of Aaron Torrison, and Alayna Nelson ’16, a great-great-granddaughter of Isaac Torrison. Osul Torrison was a member of Luther’s Board of Regents (then called trustees) from 1875 to 1884. He ran a successful wholesale and retail business in Manitowoc, Wis., which his sons Thomas, Gustav, Norman, Aaron, and William carried on after his death. Brother Isaac became a pastor, serving Decorah’s First Lutheran Church, 1901–29; Oscar became an attorney and circuit court judge in Chicago; and George became a physician on the Rush Medical College faculty.
Calendar Commencement
Dante’s Italy Tour
Sunday, May 22 Luther College
Monday, October 17– Saturday, October 29 Hosted by professors emeriti Ruth Caldwell and Uwe Rudolf
Decorah Norse Athletic Association Benefit Golf Tournament
Minneapolis Lunch Connection COURTESY OF MARK FINANGER ’77
Monday, June 6 Oneota Golf and Country Club Decorah
Jazz Orchestra Brazil Tour Homecoming Concert and Picnic Thursday, June 16 Lake Harriet Bandshell Minneapolis
Twin Cities Norse Athletic Association Benefit Golf Tournament Monday, June 27 Medina Golf and Country Club Medina, Minnesota
Organ Performance by Gregory Peterson ’83 Saturday, July 2 Shepherd of the Bay Lutheran Church Ellison Bay, Door County, Wisconsin
Mallards Baseball Game and Tailgate Picnic Saturday, July 9 Warner Park Madison, Wisconsin
Third Annual Des Moines Metro Golf Outing Wednesday, July 13 Tournament Club of Iowa Polk City, Iowa
Luther Comes to the Heartland Sunday, July 17 Heartland Park Park Rapids, Minnesota
Paula Carlson, Luther president; Kent Finanger ’54, professor emeritus of health and physical education; and Richard Hemp ’64, past Luther interim president, participated in March in the 11th Annual Kent Finanger ’54 Golf Classic at the Tuscany Falls Golf Club at Pebble Creek in Goodyear, Ariz. Affiliated with the golf event were a Friday night prayer service led by Rev. Charles Paulson ’59 and a Saturday evening banquet at which President Carlson spoke. Gregg Luther ’90 served as master of ceremonies. The 12th annual event will be March 3–4, 2017.
Chicago White Sox vs. Chicago Cubs Game and Pregame Picnic Tuesday, July 27 Reggie’s Rooftop Chicago
Friends of Luther College Wrestling Golf Tournament Friday, August 5 Jackson Heights Golf Club Jackson Junction, Iowa
Luther Booth at Iowa State Fair Thursday, August 11— Sunday, August 21 Des Moines, Iowa
Family Weekend Friday, September 16— Sunday, September 18 Luther College
Des Moines Area Lunch Connection Friday, September 23 Windsor Heights Community Center Windsor Heights, Iowa
Minneapolis Lunch Connection Friday, September 23 Center for Changing Lives Minneapolis
Alumni Council and Class Agent Meetings
1996 Men’s Soccer Team Reunion
Friday, September 30 Luther College
Saturday, September 10— Sunday, September 11 Luther College
Homecoming
Friday, October 28 Center for Changing Lives Minneapolis
Board of Regents Meetings Friday, October 28— Saturday, October 29 Luther College
Des Moines Area Lunch Connection Friday, November 11 Windsor Heights Community Center Windsor Heights, Iowa
Christmas at Luther Thursday, December 1— Sunday, December 4 Luther College
Board of Regents Meetings Friday, February 10— Saturday, February 11, 2017 Location TBD
Des Moines Area Lunch Connection Friday, February 17, 2017 Windsor Heights Community Center Windsor Heights, Iowa
Minneapolis Lunch Connection Friday, February 24, 2017 Center for Changing Lives Minneapolis
Friday, September 30– Sunday, October 2 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 emailed to alumni, friends, and parents who live near the event sites. If you need more information or if you’re interested in planning an event in your area, call the Alumni Office at (800) 225-8664. We’d love to hear from you!
Nonprofit Org. U.S. Postage PAID Cedar Rapids, IA Permit No. 214
Luther College, 700 College Drive, Decorah, Iowa 52101-1045
Join the crowd! Homecoming 2016
MEGAN OLIVER ’19
Sept. 30–Oct. 2
Reconnect with friends and family for a fun weekend luther.edu/homecoming