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Trinity Lutheran Scholarship honors George Sverdrup Michaelsen 鈥31

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Kristine聽(Michaelsen) Wickens 鈥73 says Trinity Lutheran Congregation and 绿茶直播 have been inseparable for a long time. She should know: Her family tree includes two Augsburg presidents, great grandfather聽Georg Sverdrup (1876-1907) and his son, George Sverdrup (1911-1937), and five generations of Trinity members and leaders. In 1993,聽Trinity celebrated its 125th聽anniversary by creating the Trinity Lutheran Scholarship at Augsburg. The endowed scholarship also remembers life-long Trinity member George Sverdrup Michaelsen 鈥31,聽Kristine鈥檚 father. Michaelsen, a professor of public health at the University of Minnesota, was president of Trinity,聽chairman of the board of Lutheran Deaconess Hospital, and聽chair聽of the Augsburg Board of Regents. The scholarship fund was later augmented with an estate gift from聽Michaelsen鈥檚 sisters, Katherine and Else Michaelsen聽鈥31.

Serving immigrants since 1868

The Trinity鈥揂ugsburg connection goes back to 1868, when Norwegian and Danish immigrants formed Trinity Lutheran. The congregation soon built a small wooden church at the corner of 12th聽Avenue and 3rd聽Street South, where US Bank Stadium now stands. Trinity leaders encouraged Augsburg Seminary to move from Wisconsin to the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood in 1872, and their collaboration led to the creation of Lutheran Deaconess Hospital in 1888. The trio of institutions became indispensible to the immigrant community, and by the 1890s Trinity had over 1,200 members. In 1897, Trinity earned the nickname, 鈥淭he Mother of the Free Church,鈥 when Trinity, Augsburg and a handful of other congregations formed the Lutheran Free Church, a group of independent congregations committed to congregational autonomy and personal Christianity.

鈥淗omeless congregation鈥 finds a place at Augsburg

In 1966, Trinity鈥檚 1000-seat building on 20th聽Avenue was demolished to make way for I-94 construction. 鈥淩ather than disbanding,聽the congregation accepted offers from Riverside Presbyterian Church and then Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Church for worship and office space,鈥 explains Wickens. 鈥淭here was a tremendous commitment to Cedar-Riverside, just as Augsburg has always been committed to its inner-city location and community.鈥 Augsburg began providing Trinity with聽worship space in the 1990s. The two institutions and other partners host community suppers at Trinity鈥檚 common space, and Augsburg students volunteer at Trinity鈥檚 drop-in tutoring program for K-12 students from the neighborhood, many of whom are Muslim immigrants.

Campus Connections

The lives of the Sverdrup and Michaelsen families have been intertwined with Augsburg and Trinity for five generations. 鈥淭he campus was so familiar to me,鈥 remembers聽Kristine, who grew up six blocks from campus. 鈥淓verything we did had some kind of Augsburg or Trinity connection.鈥 She remembers visiting her grandmother, Else Sverdrup Michaelsen (Georg鈥檚 daughter) who, after the death of her husband Michael Michaelsen 鈥檟x continued to live on campus until her own death in 1965. Today,聽Kristine聽and two of her siblings, Jennifer (Michaelsen)聽Windingstad聽鈥67 and George Michaelsen聽II, remain members of Trinity. Another sister, Mary (Michaelsen) Garmer 鈥69 and聽her husband Reverend Gregory Garmer 鈥68 live in Duluth.聽Peter Windingstad studied at Augsburg before transferring to the University of Wisconsin.聽Many members of the family are donors to Augsburg.

Looking back on the two institutions鈥 shared history, Kristine聽sees theirs as a story of immigration; from the Scandinavians of the 19th聽century to the East African and other immigrants living in the Cedar-Riverside area today, and all those in between.聽鈥淢y family were immigrants,鈥 she says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 essential that we welcome new people, include them in our lives and help them get established.鈥

 

A Deep Augsburg Connection

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Jon Thorpe’s connections with Augsburg run deep and across many generations. So it’s not surprising that in thinking about the gift of art he and his wife, Dr. Suzette Peltier M.D., made to the Art and Identity initiative for the Hagfors Center, they decided to do something that honored the Thorpe family’s deep rivers of ancestry.

“My father, Rev. Gordon Thorpe 鈥52, and mother, Gloria (Parizek) Thorpe 鈥53, met at Augsburg.
“My grandfather on my father’s side, Antone Julius Thorpe, was born in 1895 and was very Norwegian, born to immigrants. His education never went beyond 8th grade, but somehow both of his children attended Augsburg (Gordon Thorpe 鈥52 (Jon鈥檚 father) and Glenn Thorpe 鈥56(Jon鈥檚 uncle)). Antone was a man of modest means, a dairy farmer living in central Wisconsin. But he understood the importance of an education.

鈥淚 have a very early memory of our family gifting to Augsburg through a gift of property. I was around seven years old when I heard the story.

鈥淚n 1960 Antone purchased a piece of lake property to enjoy in his retirement. It was a large enough property to create some additional lake lots to sell, but he also wanted to support the mission of Augsburg. A friend of his, Miss Elvie, walked the lakefront and chose two lake lots for her cabin, which Antone first gifted to Augsburg, then Miss Elvie purchased her lots from Augsburg. If there is a will to give, there is a way 鈥 he didn鈥檛 have much cash, but he had property.鈥

Jon reports that upon his death, his grandfather, Antone, left a modest endowment to his church to fund scholarships to Lutheran colleges for children of Bethany Lutheran, a rural church just east of Wausau which was founded by his father, and Jon鈥檚 great-grandfather, Karl Thorpe.

“Over time the endowment has grown. Because such a small church congregation did not have the resources to be the best stewards of the investment, Augsburg generously took on management of this endowment, and it is still managed by Augsburg to this day to fund scholarships for Bethany students to attend any institutions related to the Lutheran Free Church tradition.”

Jon commented, 鈥淚 know that my father Gordon and my uncle Glenn Thorpe then created an additional Thorpe Family Scholarship endowment specific to Augsburg to be used at Augsburg’s discretion.”

On the day Jon spoke about his passion for art and Augsburg and his family’s recent gift, he noted the significance of the date.

“It’s an auspicious day. Today is All Saints Day! Yesterday was All Hallows Eve, along with Reformation Day, the day when Martin Luther ostensibly nailed his manifesto to the church doors. And tomorrow will be All Souls Day. Together all three days form the triduum of 鈥淎llhallowtide鈥. In many Hispanic cultures, this is also Dia De Los Muertos, the three days when many Hispanic cultures honor the dead. I sThorpe family at graduationee these three days as holding great significance relative to the art work we funded for the Psychology Department.”

“I see these three days as reflecting the power of transformation, renewal, and reformation. I see Augsburg as a Lutheran institution that has embraced these themes to include many cultures in its purpose and focus.”

When Jon and Suzette saw the artwork by artist Tina Tavera they were excited; it speaks to themes present in the study of the human mind, of our individual psychology, while also connecting culturally to the notion of celebrating our ancestry. Jon was serving on the Augsburg Art and Identity task force to determine both the ways art would infuse and inform the new building, and the range of artists whose work would be added, through sponsorships, to the building.

As the artist says, “My woodblock illustrations are meant to document narratives often told for centuries orally, and without visual representation as time passes, some may otherwise be lost.”

Psychology is the scientific study of the human mind and its functions focused on understanding, explaining and predicting human behavior, emotions and mental processes. The six woodblock prints represent universal concepts in psychology with an emphasis on those areas within Augsburg: clinical/counseling, social, biopsychology, developmental, cognitive, law and forensic. (link to artist statement and images?)

“We can choose to remember where we’ve come from and who has come before us. One of our relatives, the late Dr. Neil Thorpe, taught science here at Augsburg when my sister, Dr. Amy Jo Thorpe Swenson studied here in the 1970鈥檚. She met her husband Rick Swenson here at Augsburg. My late mother Gloria met my father here. Recently, it was also the 60th anniversary of my father Rev. Gordon Thorpe’s ordination from Augsburg Seminary, and we hosted a class reunion here on campus in the very room these seminarians studied in all those years ago.

“My father was thrilled when our son, Rennesoy Peltier Thorpe, decided to attend Augsburg.

Suzette and I are so excited we could make this gift of art to celebrate and honor his 2017 graduation with a bio-psych major.鈥

Making our gift in his honor let’s us make explicit how excited we are to be a multi-generational family of Auggies.

A Strong Belief in Education

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Eric Browning-Larsen 鈥75 believes in education. That belief is strong, persistent, and broad, compelling him to champion learning that takes root in college but continues to grow through travel, career challenges, and creative pursuits. Already a contributor to the Mary E. Larsen International Studies Scholarship and the Murphy Square Literary Award, Browning-Larsen has designated estate gifts to benefit both causes.

Mary E. Larsen is Browning-Larsen鈥檚 mother, a feisty 92-year-old who still lives on her own in Park Rapids, the small town where Browning-Larsen was born and raised. Widowed when her husband died in his early 鈥30s, she worked for more than 30 years in customer service at Minnesota Power, then retired to her lake home, where she continued to do the yard work and maintenance well into her 80s. Although she did not go to college, she imbued her son with global curiosity, perhaps through their subscription to National Geographic and her opinionated, and continuing, monitoring of current events around the world.

Browning-Larsen chose Augsburg for simple reasons. 鈥淚 wanted to go to the big city. And my father was a Lutheran,鈥 he says, noting with a chuckle that his mother was a Methodist, but he didn鈥檛 hold that against her. As a freshman, he embraced numerous activities, serving in the student senate, becoming editor-in-chief of the student newspaper and editor of the Murphy Square Journal, and participating in politics and the anti-war movement. His busy extracurricular schedule left little time for travel, but that soon changed.

His business ambition led him to combine a master鈥檚 degree in industrial relations from the University of Minnesota with a law degree from then William Mitchell (now Mitchell Hamline) School of Law. After his first year of law school, he participated in an international study program at Oxford University.

鈥淚 enjoyed it so much I went back the following summer, to Exeter. One of my scholarship goals is to encourage people to study abroad, which is an education in and of itself. Fortunately, I had that opportunity early on,鈥 he says. 鈥淭ravel is a wonderful educational experience. You hear other languages, you meet people from different cultural backgrounds, and you learn what works well in other countries. I have been traveling nonstop ever since.鈥

Browning-Larsen鈥檚 corporate career in human resources included stints at The Toro Company, Graco, and Comserv in Minneapolis and Eddie Bauer in Seattle. He was vice president of international operations for Flow International, which took him to Europe one month and Asia the next. In his late 30s, he left the corporate world to start his own Asia-focused management consulting firm, which he headed for eight years. He also launched several Great Clips for Hair beauty salon franchises in the Pacific Northwest during this period, and somehow found time to write a book, Lucky at Love: Stories and Essays from Asia, which perhaps inspired some of his scholarship generosity.

鈥淚 want to encourage people who are doing creative writing, and the Murphy Square Literary Award is a way of providing some recognition for them,鈥 Browning-Larsen says. 鈥淚 also see higher education as a chance to level the playing field for people. Not everyone was born a Trump.鈥

After the 9/11 attacks, when the economy forced an end to his gig with a wireless software start-up company, he became a foreign service specialist with the State Department and was posted to Bosnia, India, Nepal, Afghanistan, Hong Kong, Pakistan, Iraq, and Italy. Currently serving in Rome as the senior human resources officer for U.S. embassies, Browning-Larsen hopes to do more writing when he retires next January. He is also looking forward to hiking, gardening, political activism, and, yes, more international travel. Call it continuing education, a passion he aims to pass along through his scholarships.

鈥淚 benefitted from the education I received at Augsburg, and I have a sense of obligation, a need to give back. My objective is also to provide more than I received,鈥 he says. 鈥淥ver time, I hope that other people will benefit as well.鈥

Art Meets Science in Hagfors Center

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Steve 鈥67 B.A. and Sandy Batalden say they were attracted to the 鈥淎rt and Identity鈥 project when they saw the 鈥渟tunning鈥 work of Amy Rice. Rice鈥檚 series, Six Minnesota Wildflowers to Meet and Know, was commissioned by 绿茶直播 for the Hagfors Center for Science, Business, and Religion. 鈥淲e immediately liked her work,鈥 explains Sandy, who shares with Rice an appreciation for letterpress printing, which is featured in the works. 鈥淣ot only is she using original materials in her paintings, but the unusual botanical subject matter seems to fit perfectly in a building intended for the life sciences.鈥 In a recent donor statement, the Bataldens wrote that 鈥渂eyond botanical accuracy, Amy鈥檚 drawings transport us into an entirely new realm as leaves and flowers become frames for musical scores or other chosen text woven into each piece. What a creative, beautiful expression for the university of the twenty-first century!鈥

Art and Identity

In her artist鈥檚 statement, Rice explains that she began her process by hand-drawing and hand-cutting stencils of rare Minnesota plants. 鈥淭he plants are 鈥榩ainted鈥 in with a variety of antique and vintage paper: maps and plat books of Minnesota counties (I only used maps from counties where the plants are actually found), Norwegian-language liturgy from the 1870s, sheet music, handwritten letters from early Minnesotans, homework, biology textbooks and early Augsburg ephemera.鈥 She notes that her interest in native plants connects to her Christian faith tradition. 鈥淚t is the sacred trust we have been given to be stewards of our Earth. My Grandpa Ed, a seventh generation Midwestern farmer, knew the names of every plant on his large farm. He didn鈥檛 own them; he was responsible for them.鈥 That, she wrote, was one way he modeled faith in action.

Beauty and Inspiration

Steve notes that the timeliness of the 鈥淎rt and Identity鈥 project captured his own and Sandy鈥檚 imagination. 鈥淲e are living in a deeply troublesome and dangerous Trump era when, especially here in the Arizona southwest, walls are political symbols meant to divide sharply and impose barriers. What a wonderful idea for Hagfors Center to refashion walls as settings for beauty and inspiration!鈥
Augsburg commissioned Six Minnesota Wildflowers and works by other artists to express its core identity, grounded in durable faith, inclusion, and experiential learning. 鈥淕reat universities manage to nurture creative artistic production alongside scientific discovery,鈥 say the Bataldens, who have spent their careers in higher education. Steve is professor emeritus of Russian history and founding director of the Melikian Center for Russian, Eurasian, and East European Studies at Arizona State University. Sandy is a retired university librarian, bibliographer, and scholarly book editor.

A gift that healed a deep wound

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Merton Strommen鈥檚 fourth-floor apartment offers a glimpse of his long life. In a corner of the living room is a Steinway, an impulse buy from decades back that the 98-year-old still plays daily. Artifacts from Norway commingle with books. Framed landscapes mix with family portraits on the walls. Clearly, he鈥檚 lived a life of music, travel, scholarship, family, and faith. Yet unless you ask about the large painting of the handsome young blond man gazing out over the mountains, you might miss that his life has included tragedy.

The painting is of David, the youngest of Strommen鈥檚 five sons, who in 1985 was struck by lightning while leading a youth group in the Colorado Rockies. David鈥檚 death catapulted Strommen and his wife, Irene, into a grief that included a strong desire that something meaningful come out of their loss.

They wanted to further the work that their son, a seminarian with a passion for youth, had been pursuing when he died. As both husband and wife had attended Augsburg and sent their five sons there as well, they decided to support training in youth and family ministry at Augsburg. As Merton Strommen put it in Five Cries of Grief, a book he co-wrote with Irene, he could envision 鈥渁 thousand young men and women taking Dave鈥檚 place in a congregation鈥檚 youth and family ministry.鈥

Fundraising began with the 1985 Twin Cities Marathon, as David鈥檚 brothers and friends solicited pledges and ran in his place. In 1986, with support from family and friends, the Strommens established the David Huglen Strommen Endowment to support program and faculty development, and scholarships. The fund later grew dramatically with a large gift from Thrivent Financial (then called Lutheran Brotherhood). Today, the endowment is valued at more than $800,000.

A scholarly approach

The fact that youth ministry exists as a field of study and a career option is in large part the work of the elder Strommen, who in the 1940s when he was a young seminarian and pastor noted how little was being done in the church for teenagers. 鈥淭here were pastors who believed that God鈥檚 intent was that young people would come to faith primarily by preaching alone,鈥 he says. 鈥淚 thought, My gosh, this isn鈥檛 responding to where kids are at.鈥 Strommen鈥檚 idea was to allow youth to ask questions about the faith, build relationships with adults and each other, and have fun.

Although Strommen decided to pursue graduate study at the University of Minnesota in educational psychology, his interest in youth ministry didn鈥檛 wane. In fact, he decided to make it the focus of his scholarship. His dissertation, a national study of 192 congregations, explored fundamental questions that had never been answered: What did young people need? What did they want?聽 What did pastors and lay adults think youth needed? His study yielded an important finding. Adults had little understanding of where their youth needed help. Moreover, youth weren鈥檛 taking away from the church the most fundamental truths about God鈥檚 grace and forgiveness.

There was much more to learn. Strommen founded the Search Institute in 1958, which pioneered the use of social science research to understand young people. Over the years, he was involved in large-scale studies, many of which laid the foundation for youth and family ministry approaches used congregations in major denominations and in seminary and college training, including that offered by Augsburg.

The ongoing impact

For two decades, Augsburg offered a Bachelor of Arts degree in Youth and Family Ministry. And students like 2016-17 Strommen scholarship recipient Leah McDougall graduated with a major in Youth and Family Ministry. Beginning in 2017, students interested in youth and family ministry enroll in the new Theology of Public Ministry major and opt for a youth studies minor. 鈥淪tudents who sign up for such a curriculum receive essentially the same education and experience offered under the older Youth and Family Ministry program,鈥 says Hans Wiersma, a religion professor long involved with the programs.

Wiersma says an important part of each student鈥檚 course of study is 鈥渄iscerning the nature of God’s call for their lives.鈥 Some, he says, go directly from Augsburg to a congregation. Some do service through organizations such as Lutheran Volunteer Corps or go to seminary, and some work in public schools or youth service organizations.

At nearly 100 years of age, Strommen remains keenly interested in youth ministry. He鈥檚 concerned that not enough are learning that faith is life-changing. 鈥淲hat disappoints me is that there hasn鈥檛 been a focus in so many congregations on a personal relationship with Jesus Christ,鈥 he says. And he鈥檇 just love, if he could, to do one more national study, to demonstrate the effectiveness of the peer ministry approach.

He鈥檚 pleased with what he鈥檚 accomplished. 鈥淲hen I start talking [about my life], I get excited, I get awed,鈥 he says. He knows that he has made a tremendous impact on the field of youth ministry. For indeed, a thousand young people are now taking David鈥檚 place.

 

By Carmen Peota.

Art to inspire: Karolynn Lestrud

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Personal and public. Creative and practical. Forward-thinking and backward-knowing. By sponsoring 鈥淏oth/and,鈥 a custom glass art treatment for the skyway that links the library to the Hagfors Center for Science, Business, and Religion, Karolynn Lestrud 鈥68 supports artist Teri Kwant鈥檚 effort to bridge disparate disciplines both figuratively and literally.

Kwant鈥檚 art will illustrate the transitional space by etching pairs of words from different disciplines into the glass of the skyway. Think: define divinity, probe force, radiate support, love density. When Lestrud, an English major who did graduate work in linguistics and considers word play a part of her life, first saw the proposal, she thought, 鈥淔antastic! But then I started puzzling over the pairs that didn鈥檛 make sense鈥攁nd thought aha! She got me! She made me ponder,鈥 says Lestrud. 鈥淚 hope students will react the same way, with their curiosity piqued as they stroll through. I wonder if they will write about their experiences, walking through this walkway of words.鈥

Words on the skyway windows will also make the glass visible to birds, so they don鈥檛 鈥渟mack themselves silly on the glass. I thought this was a brilliant solution to a real concern, and a very thought-provoking piece as well,鈥 she adds.

Lestrud lauds the selection process, too. A resident of Steamboat Springs, Colorado, she volunteers for and supports various art groups, including those charged with choosing art for public spaces. 鈥淚t鈥檚 such an interesting process, because you have people who know nothing about art but 鈥榢now what they like.鈥 It鈥檚 hard to set up guidelines when you hear commentary like that,鈥 she points out. 鈥淢any people want to go for something very representational, very safe, and in many cases, very uninteresting. But that didn鈥檛 happen on this committee.鈥

She served on Augsburg鈥檚 Art and Identity committee, which began discussing art when the Hagfors Center was 鈥渟till a dream on paper,鈥 working with architects to identify where artwork should go, what size it should be, and how it should be lit. 鈥淣inety-nine percent of the time, people wait until the structure is inhabited before they start embellishing it,鈥 she explains. 鈥淲e seem to have an innate yearning to embellish our surroundings. The earliest people did cave drawings. The Victorians had every surface covered with doodads. So we鈥檙e following a very natural impulse, and I think it鈥檚 wonderful that Augsburg made the commitment to do this in a well-thought-out and big way.鈥

Once locations were selected and artist proposals solicited, committee members met with artists individually to field questions and fuel the creative mission through a deeper understanding of the building in particular and Augsburg in general. 鈥淭hat was also interesting and not always something that happens in the broader world,鈥 Lestrud says. She was delighted to chat with Kwant, a public artist, director of RSP Dreambox, and frequent lecturer on experience design, environments, and communications for the U. of Minnesota School of Design and the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. Kwant will also create one-of-a-kind glassed-topped tables that are available for sponsorship.

Lestrud contrasts the Hagfors Center with the boxy, cement block structure of the old science hall. 鈥淲hen you walked in, all you wanted to do was get out again,鈥 she remembers. 鈥淭he art going into this new building will make it the kind of place that will inspire students, give them a mental break, and, I believe, encourage them to linger.鈥

Chilstrom Scholarship Inspires Lives of Courage

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Bishop Herb Chilstrom鈥檚 journey from poor, small-town boy to first presiding bishop of the ELCA began with a spiritual awakening at age 14. By the time Bishop Chilstrom 鈥54 reached college age his goal to become an ordained minister was clear, but the source of funds to pay for college was less certain. 鈥淭here weren鈥檛 many scholarships at the time I attended Augsburg,鈥 he remembers. Knowing that his parents wouldn鈥檛 be able to give him more than a five dollar bill every once in a while, he chose to attend the Lutheran college located in the heart of the job-rich Twin Cities: Augsburg. There, he knew, he鈥檇 be able to find a job 鈥 or two or three jobs (at the same time), as it turned out. That experience and a desire to help today鈥檚 students led the bishop and his wife, the Reverend E. Corinne Chilstrom, to establish the Corinne and Herbert Chilstrom Scholarship for students interested in social work or the ordained ministry. If you give a student some kind of financial support, he says, 鈥淚t means you鈥檙e doing well, and we want to help you.鈥

A social conscience emerges

When Bishop Chilstrom arrived at Augsburg he began to realize that both his spiritual journey and his view of the world had been too narrow-minded. 鈥淚 had too many pat answers,鈥 he remembers. Augsburg professors like Joel Torstenson, sociology, challenged him to open windows to the world. 鈥淚 wasn鈥檛 wealthy, but I realized I had the privilege of simply being white, and that opened doors that weren鈥檛 open for others. Joel impressed on us that we have a profound responsibility to those who did not have the advantages we had.鈥 At Augsburg, says Bishop Chilstrom, he learned about Christianity鈥檚 call to fight injustice and how to live a courageous life. He began to develop the radical social conscience for which he later became known.

Those who do not learn from history 鈥

鈥淭o be an effective pastor you really have to study the Bible and theology and church history, but you also have to have a much broader perspective,鈥 says Bishop Chilstrom. 鈥淪ociology really broadened my world, and I fell in love with history, thanks to Professor Carl Chrislock.鈥 He recalls Anne Pedersen, 鈥渢he best English teacher in the world,鈥 who opened his mind to literature and instilled respect for the English language. He was amazed by President Bernhard Christensen鈥檚 intellect. 鈥淚t was awesome to hear him reach into the depths of his mind and spirit and pull poetry and prose and Biblical understanding together.鈥 He remembers sitting in chapel and thinking, 鈥淗e鈥檚 the kind of person I would like to be.鈥

Augsburg also provided opportunities to stretch his leadership wings. He became president of the campus youth group his sophomore year, and as student body president his junior year, he led the student campaign to raise funds for Memorial Library. He went on to earn degrees from Augustana Theologial Seminary and Princeton Theological Seminary and his doctorate from New York University. He became a parish minister, professor and church leader, serving as the first bishop of the fledgling ELCA from 1987 to 1995.

Tither turned philanthropist

鈥淎fter I had an enlightening experience as a teenager, one of the first things I discovered is that people who believe put their faith on the line by giving,鈥 says Chilstrom. While still in high school he began tithing 10 percent. 鈥淚 gave at least 10 percent all through my life,鈥 he explains. 鈥淣ow Corinne and I are able to give much more than that, and it鈥檚 a lot of fun.鈥

A commitment to future opportunities

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Paul and LaVonne (both 鈥63) Batalden鈥檚 commitment to endow 绿茶直播 faculty with future opportunities has deep roots鈥攖hree generations deep, in fact鈥攁nd a spiritual foundation grounded in lives well-lived.

Paul鈥檚 grandfather, a fisherman who grew up just off the west coast of Norway and lost a brother at sea, decided in 1871 to move to Minnesota and take up farming. His name was Christian Olson, a name so common that his mail often wound up in the wrong hands, prompting him to change it to Batalden, after the island where he grew up. That first Batalden, an active supporter of education and child development, took special note of Augsburg Seminarium, which Norwegian Lutherans had founded in Marshall, Wisconsin, in 1869 and moved to Minneapolis in 1872. His youngest son, Abner Batalden, enrolled there and, despite some interruptions, earned a history degree in 1935.

Abner, Paul鈥檚 father, was also committed to education and understood the struggle it involved. 鈥淗e was going to school during the Depression, when Augsburg was having trouble staying open. The students, many of whom were the first generation to attend college, were living hand-to-mouth, working and paying tuition. Augsburg was living on those tuitions,鈥 says Paul.

Abner started the student employment service at Augsburg, worked at the publishing house, managed the bookstore, and, after a few years away, returned to take a position in the development office. He helped raise funds for the first science building, now being replaced by the Hagfors Center for Science, Business, and Religion; Paul remembers going to the dedication as a child. It was Abner鈥檚 idea to establish, in 1980, a convocation and lecture series known as the Batalden Symposium on Applied Ethics.

鈥淎pplied ethics covers every discipline, every walk of life. It was the way he lived his life,鈥 says Paul. 鈥淓thics scholars say that ethics is the application of morals to everyday life. In his mind, the life he lived was grounded in moral values, which for him were Christian. It was so fundamental, and he saw it in many lines of work.鈥

鈥淓thics were looked upon as a philosophical endeavor, but he saw it as much broader,鈥 adds LaVonne, who married Paul three weeks after graduation. The two had met in a freshman English class and shared a love for science. After a globe-spanning career in pediatrics and public health that expanded their knowledge of other cultures, Paul remains active as professor emeritus at the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, Geisel School of Medicine, and LaVonne retired recently as associate professor of natural sciences at Colby-Sawyer College in New Hampshire. They still travel widely but now live in St. Paul, close to their family.

Although they had initially wanted to endow an ethics chair, they realized that building upon Abner鈥檚 foundation would serve more people. Along with Paul鈥檚 brother, Stephan Batalden 鈥67 and his wife Sandra, they have endowed what is now the Batalden Faculty Scholar Program in Applied Ethics, which covers the seminar series and also offers two years of release time to faculty members, who often pass along stipends to students involved in their projects. Recipients come from various fields, so far including nursing, sociology, religion, and environmental studies.

鈥淚t鈥檚 perfect. Paul鈥檚 father had a vision for the future, and we have brought it into the 21st century,鈥 says LaVonne. 鈥淲hat pleases us is that it maintains the idea of service grounded in theology and ethics, and we have broadened that.鈥

Paul, who served on Augsburg鈥檚 Board of Regents from 1979 to 1990, cites his concern for education鈥檚 future in our culture, which depends heavily on the voluntary sector, unlike government supported health and welfare in Europe. Colleges cannot rely on tuitions alone, and religious institutions can no longer bridge the gap.

鈥淲e realized that Augsburg had basically no endowment, and it鈥檚 clear that that pattern of financial support would not lead to more creative and flexible programming. We want to make sure that this program is secure,鈥 Paul says. 鈥淐ollege offered us a liberal arts education, and we are deep lovers of the liberal arts. We see their relevance to everyday life the same way my father saw ethics in everyday life.鈥

The couple also believes in doing what you can. They cite a favorite poem by David Whyte, quoted here in part:

Start close in,

don鈥檛 take the second step

or the third,

start with the first

thing

close in,

the step

you don鈥檛 want to take. . .

. . .

Start right now

take a small step

you can call your own

don鈥檛 follow

someone else鈥檚

heroics, be humble

and focused,

start close in . . .

 

 

 

 

A Bountiful Blessing

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Out of family tragedy, springs student opportunity

The Lester A. Dahlen Family Endowed Scholarship is a bountiful blessing. It rewards 绿茶直播 students鈥 hard work and provides financial assistance, while also assuring the family of Rev. Lester Dahlen that their family鈥檚 values will live on at Augsburg and be carried into the world. 鈥淎s graduates go on to their lives after Augsburg, we hope they will be loving Christian people wherever they are and that they will touch whomever they can with the love of Jesus,鈥 explains Barb (Dahlen) Cornell.

A blessing today, the scholarship sprang from a family tragedy more than 50 years ago. In 1966, when Barb was 18 and her sister, Ginny (Dahlen) Baali 鈥72, was 16, their brother Paul died in a plane crash with fellow Augsburg senior Jerry Pryd. Paul was pursuing a social studies major and physical education minor and, like his father before him, he played on the Auggie baseball team. To memorialize their son and highlight the importance of Augsburg to their family, Rev. Lester Dahlen 鈥39, 鈥42 and Marian Dahlen established the Paul Dahlen Memorial Scholarship to help students who had Christian purpose, demonstrated academic achievement and participated in extracurricular activities.

Blessed by Augsburg

Ginny (Dahlen) Baali ’72 and Barb (Dahlen) Cornell

鈥淥ur family鈥檚 connection to Augsburg started with Dad,鈥 explains Barb, who supports the scholarship along with Ginny. A Minneapolis native, Rev. Dahlen enrolled in Augsburg in 1935 and quickly became involved in athletics, choir, student government and other organizations. 鈥淎ugsburg helped prepare him for God鈥檚 calling and to be a man of faith and missions,鈥 she continues.

鈥淓ver since we were little kids we heard about Augsburg from our dad,鈥 remembers Barb. Rev. Dahlen often brought the family to concerts, games and other campus events and, in later years, he sometimes wore Paul鈥檚 letter jacket. He was grateful for his lasting friendships with Augsburg greats Leland Sateren 鈥35, Edor Nelson 鈥38, Ernie Anderson 鈥37, Sig Hjelmeland 鈥41 and others.

After graduating from Augsburg Seminary, he served several parishes during the course of his 40-year career. The family did mission work in Taiwan and Hong Kong, and Rev. Dahlen also served as Lutheran Free Church Director of World Missions and staff member of the American Lutheran Church Division of World missions. 鈥淎ugsburg was in his heart always,鈥 remembers Barb. Their mother also held Augsburg in high regard: Marian worked in the financial aid office and joined the Augsburg Associates to provide volunteer support.

A Lasting Memorial

When Marian passed in 2003, memorial gifts boosted the scholarship fund. When Rev. Dahlen passed in 2012, a portion of his estate and memorial gifts further augmented the fund. Around that time Ginny and Barb fine-tuned the scholarship criteria to clarify their parents鈥 intent and more closely represent their family鈥檚 values. 鈥淏arb and I have continued to be representatives of the scholarship,鈥 explains Ginny, who supports other Augsburg programs in addition to the family fund. The scholarship gives priority to students who are involved in campus ministry and pursuing a major or minor in physical education, and who demonstrate financial need and academic achievement. 鈥淧eople who have a faith background should come to the school and be blessed by it,鈥 says Barb.

And after graduation? 鈥淚 hope that scholarship alumni will be Christian witnesses to those around them, reach out in love and share their faith with others,鈥 says Barb. 鈥淚t鈥檚 important that Augsburg鈥檚 Christian legacy be nurtured and encouraged for all the students who will attend and be blessed by the school. That鈥檚 why we want to continue with this.鈥

-Kara Rose

Wefring Establishes Scholarship to Honor Edor Nelson

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Larry Wefring’s established a scholarship聽in tribute to the encouragement he received as a youth from his late neighbor Edor Nelson ’38.

鈥淐hildren need a lot of guidance, and it鈥檚 good to have a coach on your side as you鈥檙e growing up. He was a coach to me,鈥 Larry Wefring says of Edor Nelson, the legendary Augsburg coach who died in 2014 at age 100. Wefring鈥檚 $100,000 estate gift will establish the Edor Nelson Memorial Scholarship, but it should be noted that Wefring neither attended Augsburg nor played football for Nelson. Their relationship went far deeper.

鈥淪ports are a fabulous teacher of life,鈥 Wefring acknowledges. 鈥淭hey teach you that you win some and you lose some, but what鈥檚 important is that you work together. To be successful in the business world, you need to be a team player.鈥 While he now understands this concept, traditional sports were not accessible to Wefring while he was growing up across the alley from Edor Nelson鈥檚 family in south Minneapolis.

Wefring was diagnosed with epilepsy at age seven. Subject to seizures and heavily medicated, he was often targeted by bullies and decided to drop out of public school in 9th grade. Leaning on the support and encouragement offered by Edor Nelson, he enrolled in Minnehaha Academy instead. Having learned electrical and woodworking skills from his handyman grandfather, Wefring had helped his neighborly coach wire his basement. In return, Nelson offered his young neighbor rides to school. They became friends.

鈥淟arry had his frustrating days, but my dad kept telling him that he could be somebody, that he shouldn鈥檛 listen to anyone who said otherwise. My dad was a genuine people person, one of those comforting guys you could sit and talk to. He and my mom were always there for Larry, and Larry realized that. Now he is giving back,鈥 says Bruce Nelson 鈥71, Edor鈥檚 son and Augsburg鈥檚 A-Club Advancement Manager.

Naysayers pronounced Wefring too dumb for college, but Wefring went anyway, earning a psychology degree from Mankato State University. He found yet another mentor in Stanley Hubbard, who hired him at Hubbard Broadcasting, where he worked happily for more than three decades before retiring in 2006 to care for his aging parents. He struggled with his disability for much of that time, adjusting his medications to reduce brain fog and, in 1987, undergoing successful鈥攁nd life-changing鈥攅xperimental brain surgery in Canada.

Wefring lauds Hubbard for teaching him servant leadership, for showing him that Protestantism and the work ethic are two sides of the same coin, and for inspiring all to 鈥渁lways do the right thing.鈥 But ultimately, Wefring concludes, it was education that turned his life around.

鈥淚 was already at a disadvantage, but education offset that. That鈥檚 really, really important to remember.

鈥橝s a man thinketh, so he is,鈥欌 adds Wefring, whose Lutheran faith and spirituality have always guided him. 鈥淭rouble is a blessing. It lets you look for the paradoxical nature of life, and learn to be captain of your own ship. But you have to have a dream.鈥

The Edor Nelson Memorial Scholarship will target students who have a disability, physical or otherwise, and who also aim high. 鈥淚 told Edor that I wanted them to have a dream, and he said, 鈥業 do too,鈥欌 Wefring says. 鈥淎nd then I told him that I also wanted them to have an extra burden to bear, something that makes graduation tougher than it is for most people. And he said, 鈥業 do too.鈥 We were always on the same wavelength.鈥

Wefring never considered a scholarship in his own name, much preferring that it honor someone as well-known and revered as his former neighbor. He finds being able to share his legacy with institutions that mirror his faith and world view a blessing, and more than enough reward for a life well-lived.

鈥淚 gave it my best shot,鈥 he says. 鈥淢y dream has come true and then some.鈥

鈥 Cathy Madison