Luther Magazine Fall 2023

from the earth to the stars

Luther grads build and share knowledge

Luther magazine

Volume 57, number 1, fall 2023

© Luther College 2023

Editor Kate Frentzel

Art director/designer

Michael Bartels

Contributors

Jennifer Achenbach

Sherry (Braun) Alcock ’82

Jessica Campos Arzate

Sara Friedl-Putnam

Armando Jenkins-Vasquez ’21

Karen Martin-Schramm

Ellen Modersohn

Mariah (Bringer) Smith ’95

Rachel (Schutte) Vsetecka ’09

Luther College Photo Bureau

Luther magazine feedback, inquiries, and ideas may be sent to the Editor, Luther Magazine, Luther College, 700 College Drive, Decorah, Iowa 521011045; magazine@luther.edu; phone (563) 387-1483.

Class Notes submissions, changes of address, and alumni news may be sent to the Alumni Office, Luther College, 700 College Drive, Decorah, Iowa 52101-1045; alumni@luther. edu; (800) 225-8664; (800) 2 ALUMNI.

Find us online at luther.edu/ magazine.

Cover: Adobe’s Firefly program assisted with this image.

Reading the dirt

Marit Bovee ’04 has spent most of her career as an archaeologist at the federal level, working to protect cultural resources on public land, like this petroglyph she admired during a tour in north central Wyoming.

Lutherverse

Dear Luther Community,

During the summer of 2023, some of our campus colleagues—both faculty and staff—have been gathering to discuss the question of what academic excellence means at Luther. There have been adjacent questions as well: What does excellence look like as a community of citizens? What does excellence look like in our co-curricular programs? Who are the audiences for whatever statements we make

about excellence? Ourselves? Our alumni? Our town? Our colleagues at other institutions? Prospective or current students? The discussions themselves have been enlivening, but so has the simple fact of gathering—across departments, programs, and roles—to remind ourselves that, as an academic community, we are obliged to seek and thrive in continuous learning. And one of the “learnings” for me has been how much evidence I see that excellence at Luther is often marked by the degree to which it replicates.

Our alumni stories in this issue demonstrate what I mean by “replication” in this sense. Our people go out and use their individual achievements and accomplishments to elevate something or someone outside of themselves. We don’t just end up with excellent doctors. We end up with excellent doctors who bring needed services

to address eye health in a community in Haiti. Our excellent alumni lawyers seek to ensure an equitable justice system for juveniles. These are just examples.

Throughout these pages, take note of the way our alumni are living out Luther’s mission to serve with distinction for the common good. And take note, as well, of the ways in which you see this reflected in your own lives and in the lives of your alumni network. What would our world, both grounded and global, look like if the entire “Lutherverse” replicated the light cast by your individual stars?

From my corner of the Lutherverse here in the Valley to yours,

Jenifer K. Ward

OUR PEOPLE GO OUT AND USE THEIR INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENTS AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS TO ELEVATE SOMETHING OR SOMEONE OUTSIDE OF THEMSELVES.”

President Jenifer K.

Ward

Physics majors from the class of 2023 (left to right) Darren Kremer, Sam Wilson, Kale Altman, and Josh Muller spent their final year at Luther volunteering to run planetarium shows for local schools and other organizations.

COMMENCEMENT

On May 21, Luther celebrated Commencement for the class of 2023, which included 379 new graduates. Sharran Srivatsaa ’01 was the Commencement speaker. He is the president of Real, the fastest-growing publicly traded real estate brokerage in the world.

Myke Shed ’23 received the Elizabeth A. and Paul G. Jenson Medal. Shed was a member and captain of the men’s basketball team, president of the Black Student Union, and member of Luther’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee. He worked as an Admissions lead student ambassador and as a Junior Norse Skills Camps counselor/mentor.

Shed says, “The Jenson Medal is especially humbling for me because it came from my classmates and friends who deemed me worthy enough to represent Luther College and the amazingly talented class of 2023. These are the same people who I entered Luther College with as strangers, and now, four years later, we are leaving as friends, teammates, brothers, and sisters. This is an honor that I will forever cherish and hold near and dear to my heart.”

This fall, Shed begins a master’s degree in social work at the University of Chicago.

Amanda Weber ’08 received the Young Alumni Award. Weber founded Voices of Hope, a choral organization providing singing opportunities in Minnesota state prisons. She also serves as director of worship and the arts at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Minneapolis.

Receiving the award, Weber says, “has me reflecting on so many ways in which my college experience shaped me. I am so grateful for the memories—the mentoring from faculty who continue to inspire me, the challenging new ideas, the opportunities for leadership, and of course the lasting friendships.”

Check

Myke Shed ’23

Amanda Weber ’08

FULBRIGHTERS

Three members of the class of 2023 received Fulbright English Teaching Assistant Awards for 2023–24.

Joshua Hartl, a communication studies, international studies, and German major from Oskaloosa, Iowa, earned a 2023–24 US Teaching Assistantship in Austria, also overseen by the Fulbright Commission.

NEW REGENTS Welcome to the board!

Brent

is cofounder and CEO of Gather Health, a holistic, socially supported primary health care service for older adults.

NEW EMERITI

Kelly

is director of the Ernst & Young Center for Executive Leadership Chief Tax Executive Program.

Emeritus status was granted to Jack Hedstrom, professor of chemistry; Tim Schweizer ’80, professor of management; and Laurie Zaring, professor of linguistics and French. Thank you for many years of teaching and mentorship!

is a former Luther faculty member and founder/president of Runestone Academy, a nonprofit that helps make math and computer science textbooks available to all students at no cost.

Brad

Asplin ’90

Woods Birkenholz ’03

Miller ’86

Gideon Perez, an English major from Austin, Minn., will teach in Slovakia.

Sadie Pichelmann, a history major from Jacksonville Beach, Fla., will also teach in Slovakia.

Berit Skogen, a history and Nordic studies major from Fergus Falls, Minn., will teach in Norway.

NEW ACADEMIC PROGRAMS

This fall, Luther students can pursue two new academic paths.

Engineering science

Founded in physics courses with related courses in math and chemistry, this major will prepare students for careers in engineering. This specific major is new, but the success of Luther alumni in engineering fields is not. One hundred percent of Luther’s physics program graduates from the past 20 years who have sought admission to an engineering graduate program were admitted. This new major will provide an even more relevant and meaningful foundation for graduates pursuing engineering.

4+1 bachelor’s to master’s degree in public health

This partnership with the University of Iowa College of Public Health allows Luther students to earn a bachelor’s degree plus a master’s degree in public health in five years. Students from any major will be considered for the program, which will prepare an individualized plan of study for everyone who’s admitted. This accelerated path will save students time and money while allowing them to pursue education at one of the top 20 colleges of public health in the country.

UNIFIED SPORTS DAY

On May 7, 70 athletes and more than 30 volunteers attended the first Unified Sports Day at Luther. The event was organized by Luther’s Special Olympics chapter as a way to create fun events, bond with athletes, and extend recognition in the sports realm for individuals with disabilities. Activities included bowling, soccer, basketball, track and field, baseball, kickball, arts and crafts, and an award ceremony. Elizabeth Hemmingson ’24, president of Luther’s chapter, says, “The smiling faces of each athlete and the togetherness of the event were things that I will never forget.”

The presence of Special Olympics at Luther grew out of a Social Impact Research Fellowship in 2021 that paired a social work student and a management/accounting student with a community-based organization (in this case, CHOICE Employment Services) to help address a problem or fill a need.

Explore our free planned giving tools online

Good estate planning requires good information. We have tools to help plan your estate and charitable giving in a way that benefits you, your family, and Luther College.

Visit legacygiving.luther.edu to learn how to plan for your future and help fulfill Luther College’s mission. Our planned giving website is available to you as a free resource. There you will find tools to help with your estate planning, along with gift stories, finance news, and timely articles.

For more information about planned giving, or to tell us about your future gift, please contact Kelly Sorenson, director of planned giving and data operations, at (800) 225-8664 or kelly.sorenson@luther.edu, or visit legacygiving.luther.edu.

Scan the QR code

Tell us about your existing planned gift. Request information about including Luther in your estate plans.

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Service

THROUGH STARGAZING

by Kate Frentzel

Sometimes you meet a group of students dedicated to the pure pursuit of knowledge. Such is the case with four physics majors—double majors, actually, in math and data science—who took over running planetarium shows for Decorah-area students and other groups during their final year at Luther.

Use of the 60-year-old campus planetarium had already been diminishing pre-Covid, but the pandemic brought about a real slump. It had become primarily a space where student clubs watched movies.

In spring 2022, physics professor Jeff Wilkerson suggested that members of Luther’s Society of Physics Students (SPS) take it over. With community outreach as one of their main goals, they jumped at the chance. During the 2022–23 school year, seniors (left to right) Darren Kremer, Sam Wilson, Kale Altman, and Josh Muller led dozens of shows for kindergarteners to adults, sharing the awe and wonder of the night sky— and reaping tons of benefits themselves.

Four Luther students share their knowledge of the cosmos.

LOVE OF LEARNING

All four of the SPS students were drawn to physics in part because of how it explains the universe. “Physics is the basis of how the world functions around us,” Muller says. “That’s what drew me to it. It allows us to figure out more complex problems.”

The idea of building upon their knowledge base was a major driver for getting involved in planetarium outreach. The students had conducted research through the physics department, but none had studied constellations. “When this opportunity was presented, the sort of sandbox of intellectual curiosity and the possibility of learning about all these stars and things was absolutely fascinating,” SPS president Kremer says. “I did research with Dr. Wilkerson, so I worked with some of his data on stars, but I didn’t know basic constellations, temperatures of stars, stellar evolution, or any of the things that we’ve been able to learn about.”

Altman says, “Dr. Wilkerson’s wealth of knowledge is kind of insane. And so the more time we spend with him in the planetarium, the better for us, really.”

The planetarium contains a group of ten binders with thousands of projector slides, so the possibilities for shows are endless. The SPS students spent hours learning information for basic shows, how to find constellations in a constantly shifting night sky, and how to operate the equipment. Then they spent more hours practicing.

Bottom line? Making a planetarium show look easy takes a lot of work.

But if the time investment was great, so were the rewards. It’s changed how Wilson notices the night sky when he’s driving, or how Kremer carves out part of his day to intentionally stargaze. It’s opened up Muller’s conception of how much there is to learn. And it’s provided all four of the students with a deeper appreciation of their field of study.

Muller says, “For the four of us, our last couple semesters of physics classes have sometimes been pretty rough, and it’s been really cool to be able to come in here to enjoy the physics rather than be graded on it.”

SHARING KNOWLEDGE

Equal to the thrill of learning new knowledge is the thrill of sharing it with others. Kremer says, “When you turn the lights all the way down and really show the band of

the Milky Way, that’s probably the most rewarding time. Groups are always blown away by how many stars there are. It’s an awe-inspiring moment.”

Last spring, Altman ran a half-hour show that lasted an hour because of all the questions kids had. “I think it’s really cool to see them exercise that curiosity and muscle the membrane up and figure things out,” he says.

At a show later that same day, a group of second graders asked the following:

How many constellations are there?

How many stars have names?

How many miles is a light year?

How many stars are in our galaxy?

And best of all: Can we do this for longer?

While the SPS students teach others, they’re learning themselves. Wilson says, “It’s a very good exercise in communicating knowledge and tailoring it for a specific audience. I’ve done shows for kindergartners, fifth graders, and fellow physics majors. Just being able to share the same information in three different ways is really instructive.”

Muller makes the point that “As physics majors, we don’t do that many presentations. And most of the presentations we’ve done have been in front of our specialized class of five other people. My last planetarium show had 60 people in the room, so it’s a very different atmosphere.”

Altman agrees: “We can get so into the weeds with things we’re looking at in our classes or work or things, but being able to communicate effectively is just as—if not more—important.”

While building communication skills is a welcome bonus, the biggest payoff of this kind of outreach is sharing wonder, awe, and a humbling shift in perspective. As Muller says, “The vastness of the universe—it’s something that kids can really start to grasp in here.”

This group of four continues to grow their knowledge base, Kremer as an account specialist at Aon Solutions in Chicago; Wilson in a master’s of mechanical engineering program at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Altman in a dual master’s program for business analytics and finance at the University of Iowa; and Muller in a PhD program for mechanical engineering at Missouri University of Science and Technology.

LUTHER journeys

among more than 300 authored by students worldwide. In typical self-effacing fashion, Cecília credits Luther faculty with helping her earn that honor: “My professors went above and beyond to make sure I was prepared to turn my research ideas into a high-quality paper,” she says.

Economics research superstar

CECÍLIA GOMES didn’t hesitate to accept a scholarship from the United World College in Hong Kong when she was just 17—despite the fact that it would take her some 7,000 miles away from Angola, her home. “I wanted to be part of something bigger than myself,” she says. “I was drawn to the mission of bringing people from all over the world together to work on peace and a sustainable future.”

Two years later, she brought the same fearless, can-do spirit to Luther, where she majored in economics and management and discovered a knack for conducting econometrics research. Her area of interest? Development economics. “I love the idea of collecting insights from research projects to contribute to the improvement of society,” she says.

Through Luther’s Research Scholars Program, Cecília received a summer grant to investigate the impact of US foreign aid in sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East and North Africa regions. She presented her findings at two conferences, including the International Conference on Sustainable Development, where her paper was recognized as one of the top seven

This past year, Cecília stretched her wings yet again, spending her final months as a Luther student in the nation’s capital through the Lutheran College Washington Semester. There she took classes and completed an intensive internship with LINK Strategic Partners, a social-impact consulting firm. Upon her return to the Luther campus just prior to graduation, she was inducted into the Omicron Delta Epsilon honor society.

Cecília’s journey has inspired her to set her sights on graduate degrees in development economics and business administration. “There is so much we can all learn from economic theories,” she reflects. “When combined with hands-on projects, they can truly help us improve the well-being of people and the planet.”

—Sara Friedl-Putnam

From the wrestling mat to the courtroom

All-American wrestler DONOVAN CORN may have competed in his last match for the Norse, but he isn’t anywhere near ready to leave his proverbial shoes on the mat.

Meet six students from the class of 2023 who shaped and were shaped by their Luther experiences.

Just days after graduating from Luther with a degree in political science, he packed those shoes along with the rest of his belongings and headed to Minneapolis to train at a professional wrestling academy co-owned and operated by Ken Anderson, a former professional wrestler perhaps better known by the ring name “Mr. Kennedy.”

“It sounds crazy when I tell people that I want to wrestle professionally before attending law school,” Donovan says with his trademark broad smile. “But it makes sense when you see the path my life has taken.”

His life has included wrestling practically from the start. Donovan, then living in Chicago, was just six when he first stepped on the mat. “My wrestling has carried me through so much, including the loss of my father,” he reflects. “It has been one of the few consistent things in my life thus far.”

When Donovan and his mother, LaDonna, a Luther Parents and Family Council representative, moved to Arizona in 2016, it was wrestling that helped him figure out where he would head after high school. His coach at Hamilton High was none other than Zac Bartlett ’09, who captured a national championship at Luther. Zac encouraged Donovan to visit the college and meet with Dave Mitchell, head wrestling coach. The rest, as they say, is history.

At Luther, Donovan formed close friendships with many of his teammates, classmates, and professors (including Carly Foster, professor of political science). He served as a leader in the Black Student Union and Student Senate. He sang in various Luther choirs. Plus he excelled at wrestling, capping his career with a third-place finish at 184 pounds at nationals this past

“I worked as hard as possible and tried to learn as much as possible here,” Donovan says. “I believe Luther has helped prepare me for success, both as a wrestler in the ring and later as a defense attorney in the courtroom.”

—Sara Friedl-Putnam

A masterful collaborator

The last week of classes, ERIC HEAD of Fairmont, Minn., was leaning hard on Google Calendar: “You know the appointment feature? It’s a lifesaver.” In addition to his Commencement ensemble commitments,

he was pianoaccompanying 30(!) student juries, most of which involved three to four pieces.

Eric has been an invaluable resource for Luther music department faculty and students. He started accompanying seminar classes his first year. Over the next few years, he played the piano for the theatre department, opera workshop, Dorian summer camps, over 150 student juries, and about 50 recitals. He also played violin for four years in Symphony and Chamber Orchestras. He won Luther’s Rosholt Distinction in Accompanying Award in 2021 and 2022, Concerto Competition in 2021, and Presser Undergraduate Scholar Award in 2022.

Eric gets a lot of joy from collaborative piano, from creating something in community. He also loves the breadth of experiences that accompanying allows him. From recitals to musicals to seminars, “There are about five centuries of music that we have access to,” he says.

A music and communication studies double major, Eric’s diverse commitments really let his communication skills shine. Whether working one-on-one with a fellow student or acting as a leader in Symphony Orchestra—he was president or VP for three years—he fosters relationships.

His skill in this area served the college in good stead during his three years as a reunion giving student assistant in the Development Office. “It’s a whole other world here that I’ve been a part of,” he says. “Music, communication studies, and my work in Loyalty Hall have all existed in different places on campus, but they intersect in such a beautiful way.”

Eric was also a three-year member of Student Philanthropy Council and president his senior year.

This fall, Eric starts a master’s program in collabo -

rative piano under one of the foremost teachers in the country at the University of Michigan. In reflecting on his time at Luther, he says, “I’ve just been so overwhelmed by the support and the high level of musicianship of both my faculty and peers. I’m in awe of who I got to work with and study under every day.”

—Kate Frentzel

Engaging with global issues

Cambridge, Wis., native HANNAH HOFFMANN saw Luther as a place, she says, “where I could be comfortable but still have people push me to experience new things.” She played on Luther’s basketball team her first year but then decided to step outside her comfort zone.

When Hannah reached out to faculty advisor Orçun Selçuk about joining Model UN, he said, “Sure! You compete in four weeks.” The international studies major jumped in with both feet. That first conference, she earned an honorable mention for her representation of Sweden. In 2021 and 2022, she won exceptional representation awards for representation of Venezuela and Albania. This past year, she served as president of Luther’s chapter.

Studying abroad as an undergrad was an absolute must for Hannah, and her experience in Luther’s Malta program was life-changing. She wanted to do service work there so reached out to humanitarian organizations. Migrant Women Association Malta asked her to be their copyeditor.

“It made me feel like such a small cog—in a good way—in such a big machine and how important it is to listen to people who have experienced things like

migration,” Hannah says. “It reinforced for me that even when you’re trying to help, having that posture of ‘I need the context and humility to let others lead in a situation I’m unfamiliar with’ is really important.”

Hannah’s senior thesis centered on the continued conflict in Serbia and Kosovo. Her research period coincided with a campus visit from renowned dialogue-facilitator Steinar Bryn, and Hannah took the opportunity to invite him to stage a public talk with her about it. “It was so strange, because he’s a Nobel Peace Prize nominee and I’m just an undergrad. But he took me seriously and included me in this field of work,” she says.

Hannah will continue her engagement with this part of the world when she travels to Kosovo this October to teach English through the Peace Corps for two years. “These are great positions to really integrate with a community, be involved with another culture, and expand your perspective,” she says. “Education is such a gateway to understanding people.”

—Kate Frentzel

Pursuing breakthroughs in neuroscience

Science has fascinated KATIE DORE of Long Lake, Minn., ever since her mother signed her up for a children’s science class when she was just five years old. “We did fun little activities that I really enjoyed,” she recalls. “Afterward, I got all these books with experiments to do at home.”

Fast forward to high school, when Katie attended “brain camp” at Muhlenberg College. There, she did psychology research involving synchronized movements to music. The fun yet formative experience spurred her to set her sights on a career in neuroscience, a goal she has tena ciously pursued ever since.

The rigorous science program led Katie to enroll at Luther, where she majored in chemistry

(graduating magna cum laude) and took full advantage of research (and other!) opportunities. She signed up for the human dissection and anatomy class, which taught her the importance of collaboration with her peers. She conducted a semester-long research project in genomics. And she took a biochemistry “lab intensive” during which she spent hours every weekday during J-term conducting experiments. Ever the planner, she also made time for playing piccolo in Concert Band and competing with the Ballroom and Swing Club.

After her junior year, Katie completed a research internship at the Hormel Institute in Austin, Minn. “I was looking at how DNA repairs itself and how to disrupt that repair process so that chemotherapy can be more effective,” she says. The internship inspired her application this past spring to the National Institute of Health’s prestigious Postbaccalaureate Intramural Research Training Program. She was accepted and is currently hard at work at the National Institute for Neurological Disorders and Stroke in Bethesda, Md.—research made even more meaningful given her maternal grandparents’ battles with Parkinson’s disease.

The research program will fill Katie’s next year— perhaps two. Afterward, she hopes to enroll in a dual-degree (MD/PhD) program that streamlines attaining both clinical and research doctoral degrees. Ultimately, she says, “I want to be a physician scientist who provides critical care for patients while simultaneously researching their underlying conditions to improve that care.”

—Sara Friedl-Putnam

Service as a way of life

As a kid growing up in Laos, SOUKSAKHONE (SOUK) SENGSAISOUK earned a physics scholarship that took him to the capital of Vientiane, and then to United World College Maastricht in the Netherlands. At Luther, he switched his focus from engineering to nursing. “You can be an engineer who invents machines to treat people,” he says, “but medicine is the profession where I could get as close as I can to other people.”

Souk’s favorite quote is from Mother Teresa: “I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the water to create many ripples.” True to those words, he leaves a lot of positive change in

his wake.

While at Luther, Souk organized a TEDx conference, served on several student nursing associations, co-organized two fundraisers—one for the Decorah Free Clinic and one for an oncology clinic in war-torn Ukraine—and, with a Davis Projects for Peace grant, started a seed bank in Lakhonepheng, Laos, to help offset the debt and poverty he saw among rice farmers in his hometown.

When the Decorah Community Free Clinic’s director retired in 2022, Souk stepped in—as a college senior!—as interim director. He worked with staff, health care providers, and volunteers; helped treat patients or refer them elsewhere; and kept track of inventory, documentation, and legal obligations.

This fall, Souk starts work as a registered nurse at Mayo Clinic, where he interned as a junior in a profound clinical experience. While medical teams provide essential patient care and diagnoses, he was struck by the meaningful experiences nurses in particular can provide. “As you sit there, holding hands and caring for patients, that’s the most memorable experience for them. That’s the meaning of medicine to me,” he says.

The ripples of service and care that Souk made in the past four years will continue to spread well into the future. “Luther demonstrated to me that everyone is capable of contributing,” he says, “and never too small to make an impact.”

—Kate Frentzel

Souk also accepted a hall director position with Luther’s Rochester program, so he’ll be a mentor next year for Luther students experiencing their own profound internships.

Kari (Sandness) Bruwelheide ’89, a biological/forensic anthropologist at the Smithsonian’s Museum of Natural History, excavates a site in Virginia.

THE DIRT

Most archaeologists loved digging in the dirt as a kid. Some wandered their grandparents’ farm, imagining life hundreds of years ago, or went rock-hunting on family road trips out west. For these sandbox pioneers, a fascination with reading the dirt evolved into the art and science of archaeology. Archaeologists seek to build a better picture of the past as well as a better understanding of the troubled history of their own field—all of which contributes to bettering our shared present and future.

GREAT PROSPECTS

Luther has long provided excellent training in archaeology. Since the 1960s, our anthropology program has offered archaeological field school, where students get hands-on experience finding sites, excavating, recovering artifacts, recording information, and processing materials—a rarity at the undergraduate level and particularly in Iowa.

Since the summer of 2000, the field school has been run by professor of anthropology Colin Betts ’93. Betts’s school was an invaluable start for many current Luther-trained archaeologists, including Marit Bovee ’04. “I’m at the point in my career now where I look at resumes and make recommendations on whether to hire folks or not, and field school is an absolute requirement,” she says.

Bovee and others are seeing growth in their field and insufficient qualified college graduates trained to

by Kate Frentzel

do archaeological work. In the next decade, the need for cultural resource management workers is likely to outstrip supply.

Andrea Kruse ’08, who works for the US Forest Service, says, “We’re desperate for archaeologists—I don’t think we’ve had this many projects since the thirties.” She attributes part of the influx to the Great American Outdoors Act, which passed in 2020. It provides funding to repair and upgrade infrastructure and facilities on federal land. As a lot of deferred maintenance starts up again, Kruse and others like her are being called in to assess relevant areas for cultural and historical significance.

Most federally funded and many private development projects require a preliminary archaeological survey. For example, if a company is leasing public land to establish a bentonite clay mine in a canyon, or a state Department of Transportation wants to widen a highway, one of the first steps is an archaeological survey. Many archaeologists do this kind of work for a federal agency or a private consulting firm.

Andrea Kruse ’08 (second from left), pictured here near the base of Mt. Adams in Washington, has worked as an archaeologist with both the US Park Service and the US Forest Service.

For such a small college, Luther has a big presence in the field, with professionals working at high levels across the country—including right here in Winneshiek County.

HYPER-LOCAL ARCHAEOLOGY

Bear Creek Archeology (BCA) in Cresco, Iowa, is practically a Luther pipeline. Started in 1983 by David ’77 and Lori (Van Gerpen) Stanley ’80, Luther professor emerita of anthropology, the firm has a long tradition of hiring Luther students and graduates for its cultural resource management projects throughout the upper Midwest. (Betts also worked at BCA.)

Among its current employees is Derek Lee ’96. Lee joined BCA the year he graduated. Since then, he’s seen dozens of Luther grads get their start at the firm.

Lee’s carved out a niche for himself at BCA in custom software design. “Archaeology is not like, say, health care where there are companies upon companies that develop software specifically for that industry. We tend to take from other sciences and adapt,” he explains.

Ground-penetrating radar and GIS have been adapted to archaeology quite readily, and Lee has designed databases to better serve BCA projects and analysis. He and his team also use an organizational system that allows them to easily compare maps and surveys across decades and even centuries. “A lot of what we do can be figured out here, inoffice, so that you’re really well prepared and limit surprises when you get out in the field,” he says.

Another BCA employee is Shay Gooder ’08. He grew up in Cresco and wasn’t planning to attend college so close to home, but Luther’s anthropology department, he says, “won me over big time. I just wanted to learn under them, and I have zero regrets. Colin Betts is one of the best in the nation, and

I’m very fortunate I got to work with him—I don’t think I could have been better prepared.”

Gooder has a particular interest in geomorphology (the relief features of the earth) and soil processes of the Midwest. When BCA is asked to evaluate a project site, Gooder is one of the people who goes in to assess. “The soil stratigraphy is telling us how things have developed in that area over the last 15,000 or 20,000 years and the probability of having a prehistoric or historic site on it,” he says.

BCA completes projects across Iowa, Minnesota, Illinois, Missouri, even into Nebraska and South Dakota. One that Gooder especially remembers was in Iowa, when excavation revealed a series of thin black lines in the soil. When these lines were mapped out, they showed a number of geoglyphs (large-scale drawings on the ground) that suggested people built and rebuilt the outlines. “It might sound mundane talking about black lines in the soil,” Gooder says, “but from an archaeological perspective, I was really excited to be a part of it.”

“Getting as much data as we can regarding these areas that were utilized over thousands of years warrants protection and analysis,” Gooder says. “When they’re gone, they’re gone forever.”

In assessing a site, Derek Lee ’96 and other archaeologists at Bear Creek Archeology consult multiple GIS layers.

As an archaeologist at a private consulting firm, Shay Gooder ’08 splits his time between evaluating sites across the Midwest and back at the office in Cresco, Iowa, analyzing artifacts and writing reports.

A BALANCING ACT AT THE FEDERAL LEVEL

Often, practicing archaeology means balancing development and preservation. Marit Bovee ’04, who works for the Bureau of Reclamation, experienced this dynamic in her former work with the federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM). “Every agency has its mission,” she says. “The BLM’s mission is multiple use, so they’re balancing the needs of recreationalists against the needs of oil and gas operators who have a permit to drill a well for oil extraction. As an archaeologist, you’re always trying to find that balance. You’re always trying to make sure that you’re following the process in the law so resources can get identified and evaluated for the National Register of Historic Places. We always shoot for avoidance of impact to archaeological sites, but if it isn’t possible, we start mitigation.”

Mitigation involves onsite data recovery, public outreach to make sure people know what’s happening, and possibly securing public interpretation materials or documentation. Developing those mitigation measures occurs in partnership with state historic preservation offices. There’s one in every state, and all projects need to go through them.

“The other major partners are the affected tribes,” Bovee says. “Tribal consultation is a constant dialogue to make sure the tribes are aware of what’s happening, that their concerns are heard, and mitigation includes a benefit to the tribal community in some way. Finding

that balance is pretty much a daily task.”

Andrea Kruse ’08 says that her training as an anthropologist helps her to find solutions to these difficult questions of balance. Kruse, who grew up on a farm in Nebraska, has worked for both the US Park Service and the US Forest Service. She’s currently an archaeologist at the Gifford Pinchot National Forest in Washington state.

When the US Forest Service is preparing to sell timber rights, Kruse and her colleagues first examine whether there are critical cultural resources that need to be protected. She draws on her troubleshooting skills constantly. “Sometimes we’re really seen as the big bad wolf,” she says. “You say archaeologist and people freak out. But it really comes down to, how can I help do something without destroying A, B, C, or D?

“It’s really trying to use that problem-solving and framing things in a way that people understand why something needs protection, why it’s important for other cultures or other people.”

HISTORIC PRESERVATION

Branden Scott ’04 is a Bear Creek Archeology alum. After a decade there, he moved to Des Moines and made a pitch to Impact7G, an environmental services firm, to start a cultural resource management division, which he ran for several years. “It was a mix of doing field work and business,” he says, “which is why an education like Luther’s is important. I took accounting and a very diverse range of liberal arts at Luther, which helped me later transition between those two worlds of scholarly archaeology and business.”

Scott’s work during his time at Impact7G earned him a 2022 Excellence in Archaeology and Historic Preservation Award, bestowed by the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs. His two-year project on behalf of the Iowa DNR investigated low-head dams in Iowa— over 130—to determine which would be eligible for the National Register of Historic Places. The 1,700-page report is now a working document for the DNR and federal agencies as they decide how to move forward

“It really goes back to working with multiple groups and using that anthropology knowledge of sitting back, listening, and then trying to propose a solution.”

Marit Bovee ’04 has spent most of her career at the federal level, working to balance the needs of development with the preservation of cultural resources.

with their various dam projects.

That study involved sometimes grueling site visits as well as working with historical societies across the state, digging through thousands of newspaper articles from the period to understand why and how the dams were constructed. The study also involved major collaboration between two state agencies, two federal agencies, and five Impact7G departments. “There are so many aspects of archaeology that I don’t think are obvious to the layperson,” Scott says. “The liberal arts education really comes into clear view when you talk about this. We’re pulling in a lot of different skill sets and different resources to do this work.”

When an opportunity arose to join the Iowa State Historic Preservation Office, Scott jumped at the chance to take a bird’s-eye view of these kinds of projects. Now he reviews projects for compliance with

the National Historic Preservation Act.

“People have ties to place, and they have ties to history,” he says.

RESTORATIVE JUSTICE IN ARCHAEOLOGY

As a field, archaeology has a problematic past. Studies have often sidelined indigenous knowledge in favor of racist, colonial interpretations. Frequently, Western, mostly white institutions have established digs and appropriated artifacts from colonized places. But despite its past harms, there’s plenty of opportunity for the field to course-correct.

Kari (Sandness) Bruwelheide ’89 has worked at the Smithsonian’s Museum of Natural History for 31 years. When she attended grad school at the University of Nebraska, she volunteered for a repatriation project that involved returning human remains in the university’s museum collection to tribes. “That opened up doors I never imagined I would have walked through,” she says. “That was really pivotal in changing my focus.”

Bruwelheide became fascinated by the stories that bones tell. “There’s no stronger piece of evidence that can tell you more about a person,” she says. “Human remains are like a book. They record the biological aspects of our identity—our age, biological sex, ancestry. They provide information on our diet, our health, our activity patterns in life, disease, and other cultural markers that we don’t think about.”

In combination with where a person was found and how they were buried, she says, “It’s a very intimate way to look into history, into the past.”

As a biological/forensic anthropologist, Bruwelheide gets called in when human remains are suspected or uncovered at a site. She was recently featured in the Washington Post for her work on the grave of a teenage boy who was likely one of the first

“All of these places and stories and events help frame who we are in the now and create our sense of community and identity. So preserving parts of our past also preserves part of who we are, part of who our kids are going to be. That’s important.”

Scott’s award-winning report has become a reference point for federal agencies as they decide how to move forward with various projects related to low-head dams like the one above.

Branden Scott ’04 (second from left) earned a 2022 Excellence in Archaeology and Historic Preservation Award for his 1,700-page study of low-head dams in Iowa. He recently took a position at the Iowa State Historic Preservation Office.

European settlers in Maryland, possibly in the 1630s. She also works with law enforcement on forensic cases.

Currently, Bruwelheide is at work on a project involving an African American cemetery in Catoctin Furnace, Md., that was disturbed by road construction in the 1970s. At the time, portions of the unmarked cemetery had to be removed. The human remains were taken to the Smithsonian, where they were identified as people of African ancestry. Contemporary residents of the village don’t have obvious African ancestry, and the community’s history was almost entirely centered on the European immigrants who worked the iron forge until it closed in 1903.

In 2015, Bruwelheide says, “We were contacted by the historical society of that small community. They wanted to incorporate the experiences and contributions of African Americans into the early history of their community, and begin to repair and restore what time and slavery had destroyed. So they asked us to do more investigation on the people who’d been buried there and find out as much as we could about them.”

Bruwelheide’s team worked with a nearby African American community in Frederick, Md., to ask what questions they wanted answered. First and foremost, they wanted the descendant community found. And so the Smithsonian, working with geneticists, has identified familial relationships within the cemetery and ancestral origins in Africa, and they’re starting to identify living descendants of these people.

build industrial America with knowledge brought from Africa. We’re trying to restore their story and give their descendants the ability to reconnect with their ancestors.”

She continues, “Our field is dealing with a racist and colonial past—it’s really a reckoning within our field. And we’re looking at ways to do no further harm and to work toward restorative justice. It’s going to take a lot of work. The communities that have been the victims of that past have a lot of distrust. Going forward, we need not only to do the work, but also to repair the relationship with the living communities that exist today.”

She says, “It’s a complex field—I’m not going to lie about that. But I feel really strongly that biological anthropology can be a positive force of restoring history, restoring knowledge, and that it can be used for reparations today, even when in the past it was used for just the opposite.”

ARCHAEOLOGY TODAY

With the need for cultural resource management workers higher than ever, Luther’s anthropology program is considering curriculum revisions to provide students with a more clearly articulated path to this career. Betts says that the program also wants to make field school more accessible to all students by integrating it into a normal semester rather than during the summer, when extra room and board costs and lost summer employment wages can be prohibitive.

This would be a service to Luther students and also to the discipline. Making archaeology accessible to people of all backgrounds would go a long way in a complex field that’s actively reckoning with its injurious past. And it would go a long way toward helping to grow human knowledge, understanding, and connection.

The investigations have uncovered that the people buried in Catoctin Furnace were ironworkers—probably enslaved ironworkers—who lived between 1776 and 1840, when the owner of the ironworks transitioned from enslaved labor to European immigrant labor, and the African American community there disappeared.

“Their history and contributions toward establishing industrial America have been lost and their family ties severed,” Bruwelheide says. “Slavery was not just on plantations. These skilled ironworkers helped

“Good knowledge of the past allows us to better comprehend where we are in the present, I really believe that,” Bruwelheide says. “The more we can learn and understand the truth of history and the experiences of a diverse number of people, the better we become at dealing with the situations we face today. Archaeology is a powerful tool to bring us together in the present.”

“It really shows how our field can also be reparative and a tool for social justice in ways that I never would have imagined,” Bruwelheide says.

Rivals FROM THE NORSE TO NFL

As undergrads, Milt Hendrickson ’96 and Dan Ridenour ’12 spent Saturday afternoons on the gridiron fighting for the Norse. Today, they’re on opposing sidelines on Sunday afternoons. Hendrickson sports the green and gold of the Green Bay Packers as director of football operations. Ridenour wears the gold and purple as sports science coordinator and assistant strength and conditioning coach for the Minnesota Vikings.

Director of operations for the Packers

A native of Blanchardville, Wis., Hendrickson was a two-sport athlete at Luther, playing both ways for Coach Bob Naslund ‘65 and offensive coordinator Paul Hefty ’86 and taking the diamond for the late Coach Paul Solberg ‘61. In the classroom, Hendrickson double majored in history and elementary education.

Following a volunteer coaching stint at the University of Wisconsin–La Crosse and a position at De Soto High School, he returned to Luther as an assistant football and baseball coach. In 2005, he broke into the big leagues as a player personnel assistant with the Baltimore Ravens. “Sometimes you just have to jump in with both feet. It was a lot of treading water those first few years, but it’s been everything I’ve ever hoped it would be,” he says. In 2019, the Green Bay Packers hired him as director of football operations.

When Hendrickson looks back at Luther, he says it’s all about the people. “The people I met at Luther were so pivotal in my life. The teammates I had there, those guys are still some of my best friends on the planet,” he says.

The advice he received at Luther was also pivotal— Hendrickson says he’s guided today by some of the lessons Solberg taught him: “He was just a grounding force for me in terms of how you treat people, how you work hard every day. The days aren’t always going to be perfect, but you get up and go to work and make the most of it.”

Sports and science for the Vikings

Ridenour started his collegiate career at Capital University in Columbus, Ohio. As a sophomore in 2010, he transferred to Luther, where he was a star running back.

At Luther, he fell in love with the training side of sports preparation. He double majored in communication studies and physical education with an exercise science emphasis, with the goal of becoming a strength coach.

Ridenour held several collegiate positions, including as assistant director of the Nebraska Athletic Performance Lab at the University of Nebraska, before joining the Minnesota Vikings staff. “My job is basically quality control and asset protection,” he explains. “It’s so much about making sure the guys are able to stay healthy. It’s how to use all different kinds of data and finding areas where athletes can get better.”

Ridenour credits his Luther coaches and advisors with setting him on this path. “It all started with my first J-term internship in strength and conditioning,” he says, “learning there was a field where I could make a living doing something I was really passionate about. I really benefited from that.”

—Jennifer Achenbach

THE GIFT OF SIGHT

Lance Bergstrom ’86 provides free eye care to thousands of people in need.

Ophthalmologist Lance Bergstrom ’86 of Fargo, N.D., chose his field in part because eye surgeries have a huge impact on a patient’s quality of life. “I also was cognizant of the fact that it’s a great specialty for mission work,” he says. “I had it in the back of my mind that that’s what I wanted to do.”

He took part in mission trips to Borneo and Kenya, and he worked with the Himalayan Cataract Project. But with limited time and budget, he thought it made more sense to serve people a short plane ride away, with incredible need. His first trip to Haiti was in 2012, and Haiti Eye Mission was incorporated as a nonprofit in 2017.

Haiti is the poorest country in the Western hemisphere. Eye problems are at epidemic levels there—Bergstrom estimates 20 percent of Haitians have glaucoma (globally, it’s close to 2 percent). Poor nutrition and intense sun produce severe cataracts. And access to eye care is abysmally low. Bergstrom’s team is the only one to serve the Pignon area of 250,000 people. During their annual visits, the Haiti Eye Mission treats 1,500 patients and performs over 330 surgeries. In addition to surgeries, they screen patients, provide glasses, and distribute eye drops to prevent worsening glaucoma. The mission’s long-term goal is to secure sustainable eye care in the region through trained Haitian doctors.

Luckily, cataract surgery is straightforward and sutureless. “On a good day, we can do 40 or more of these surgeries in a MASH tent with only generators and rechargeable batteries for power,” Bergstrom says. “The outcomes rival first-world surgery.” In many cases, people who have been legally blind for 15 or 20 years have their vision restored overnight.

Right: Bergstrom accompanies a patient who, just the day before, had been blind in both eyes from cataracts.

Left: In 2022, Bergstrom diagnosed an eight-year-old with glaucoma. The year’s supply of eye drops she received kept her vision stable until the team returned last February with another year’s supply.

With a per capita income in Pignon of a few hundred dollars per year, even a $3 motorcycle taxi to the clinic can be prohibitive, so people sometimes walk more than a day to be seen. If they can’t be seen when they arrive, they sleep on the ground outside the clinic overnight. This is their one opportunity for an entire year to receive treatment that may save or restore their sight.

Beyond sight, lives and livelihoods hang in the balance. Given the country’s poor resources, education isn’t readily available to blind children. And rather than earning a living, caretakers often have to stay home with blind family members. For these families, restoring vision and preventing blindness have profound trickle-down effects.

Kristin Follman, executive director of the mission, says, “Dr. Bergstrom has a servant’s heart, plain and simple.” She recalls a blind woman in her 20s showing up hours before the team’s departure. Bergstrom refused to leave her blind for another year. They quickly sanitized the OR, found supplies in the already packed boxes, and started her surgery 45 minutes before their scheduled departure. The woman’s sight was restored.

“The average lifespan of a person who is blind in a thirdworld country is less than five years,” Bergstrom says, “so not only does this give them their sight back, but it gives them their lives back.”

—Kate Frentzel

Learn more about Haiti Eye Mission at haitieyemission.com

Jessica Aguilar ’03 knows firsthand the effects that her work at a large health system can have on individual cancer patients. She’s seen how changes in health care approaches over the past few decades have improved their experiences.

Aguilar and her teams at Sanford Health, where she is system executive director of operations for the Health Services Division, manage health care for a largely rural constituency in North and South Dakota and western Minnesota. The wide distances between homes and health centers have been a key barrier to cancer patients receiving quality care.

When Aguilar was a child, her sister developed leukemia and the family had to travel from their home in Sioux Falls, S.D., to Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., for her treatment. More recently, when Aguilar’s son, James, now 11, developed childhood cancer, he was able to receive life-saving treatment at home in Sioux Falls.

Aguilar’s goal is for rural

THERE’S NO PLACE LIKE HOME FOR CANCER CARE

Jessica Aguilar ’03 works to close the distance patients need to travel.

patients to have James’s experience, staying close to home and receiving the same quality care available to urban patients. That means taking health care to them.

Making cancer screening more accessible is one way Aguilar and her collaborators work to improve individual outcomes among their rural patients. Catching breast cancer at the earliest stage, for instance, can drive a more positive outcome, she says. “So we’ve invested in mobile mammography trucks and in some smaller clinics with the same technology.”

They have also created infusion centers in rural clinics, where cancer patients can receive chemotherapy treatments without having to drive hundreds of miles. These sites use a nurse and nurse practitioner to deliver the chemotherapy with a remote physician using telemedicine to oversee the treatment.

“I am a small piece in the puzzle of what this end product looks like,” Aguilar says, “but I know that what I do makes a difference, and

that’s very meaningful work.”

Aguilar can trace a direct path from where she is today back to Luther. While her majors in political science and economics aren’t common routes to health care administration, she says she uses them every day as she focuses on government programs or how the health system affects how her teams innovate to deliver care in rural areas.

“Chemotherapy is killing the cancer, but it’s also a very serious medication that oftentimes has serious side effects. It needs to be overseen by a physician,” Aguilar says. “In the past, the feeling was you needed to come to a major medical center to get those infusions, but we’ve tried to figure out how to keep people closer to home. It’s already so hard to go through that treatment, and people do better when they’re closer to family and friends.”

— Ellen Modersohn

WORKING TOWARD AN EQUITABLE JUSTICE SYSTEM

Richelle (Johnson) Mahaffey ’13 moves with compassion from juvenile defender to judge.

As a psychology major at Luther, Richelle (Johnson) Mahaffey ’13 became interested in how mental health intersects with legal issues. A professor recommended a book about how American jails and prisons have become de facto mental health systems, where we store people with mental health issues. Mahaffey thought, I want to go to law school and fix this.

At Drake University Law School, a mentor suggested that Mahaffey might flourish as a juvenile defender. “She said juvenile law is really mindful of restorative justice and the resiliency of children and how it’s worth it to invest in kids and families,” Mahaffey says. “It’s viewing the court as an opportunity to course-correct versus the crime-and-punishment approach in adult court.”

It turns out that juvenile law was a fit. Mahaffey’s sensitivity to inequities in the judicial system—particularly in terms of race, class, and/ or mental health bearing unfairly on opportunities and outcomes—made her a standout lawyer. After becom-

ing a juvenile public defender in Polk County, Iowa, she was named the American Bar Association’s Fearless Children’s Lawyer of the Month in August 2022, the Drake Recent Alumna of the Year in 2023, and a Georgetown Juvenile Justice Initiative’s 2023 Ambassador for Racial Justice.

As a juvenile public defender working with a client, Mahaffey says, “My guiding principle was just to sit with that kid and listen to them and believe them. Whatever they are telling you about their experience is true for them. And if you believe them, what would your next step be as an attorney within the law?”

Last April, Iowa governor Kim Reynolds appointed Mahaffey as a district associate judge, a position she assumed in May. From the bench, Mahaffey continues to work toward a more equitable judicial system. She asks herself, “Is a child or parent not being given a break where I’ve seen others get cut slack? If I’m looking at services that haven’t been provided to a family or outcomes that are being

recommended for abuse—maybe being taken out of the home—and if I think about maybe a corresponding nonminority family, would they be shown that same type of treatment?”

As a judge, Mahaffey also tries to create a compassionate atmosphere. “The judge is really the sole decision-maker in juvenile law—there’s no jury the way there would be in criminal law—and the judge sets the tone in the room,” she says. “If you’ve got a judge who is giving everyone a chance to be heard, is being respectful and courteous, and is telling people the truth about their situation, but in a kind way, it just elevates everyone in the room to be at that level. It’s like they’re the thermostat of the room, the judges. My goal is to set people at respectful, honest, courteous. At mercy, compassion, and empathy. And then not only is that a better experience for everybody involved, but frankly, it’s better outcomes for families.”

—Kate Frentzel

Class Notes

by Mariah (Bringer) Smith ’95

’53

Dale Henning wrote a 206-page report, Correctionville and the Oneota Tradition: The Western Oneota and the Correctionville Phase, that was published by the Office of the State Archaeologist, University of Iowa.

’64 Dave Senjem of Rochester, Minn., concluded his 20-year career as a member of the Minnesota Senate and was elected to the Olmsted County Board of Commissioners in November 2022.

’71 Roger Johanson is professor emeritus of education at Coe College.

’72 John Huey Jr. of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, is the owner of Huey Farms.

’73 Terry Eckhart of Dubuque, Iowa, is a retired OBGYN physician.

Dave Kark of Hastings, Minn., retired from Midwest Imaging Solutions.

Steve Schmidt of Dayton, Minn., retired after 40 years in ordained ministry.

Carol (Galvin) Wick of Eagle, Colo., is retired from a career as a bilingual educator.

’75 Kathy (Sheriff) and Steve Mineck live in Elmhurst, Ill., where Steve is a domain specialist for flight operations with Laminaar Aviation Infotech–Americas and Kathy is retired from the University of Chicago Press.

’76 Sonya Forseth of Plymouth, Minn., is retired from the child protection and child support divisions with the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office in Minneapolis.

’77 David Nichols retired from Pediatric Associates of Topeka, Kan., after 37 years

as a physician in primary care pediatrics.

’78 Ruth (Grant) Enge of Rosemount, Minn., retired from a career in accounting.

Elaine Isakson of Rockland, Maine, is retired from a career as a social worker.

Chris Olsen retired from serving as the executive director, secondary schools, for the Vancouver (Wash.) School District.

’81 Rick Canton of Miltona, Minn., is assistant women’s basketball coach at the College of St. Benedict (St. Joseph, Minn.) and was inducted into the Athletic Hall of Fame at Kenyon-Wanamingo Public Schools.

Laird Edman of Orange City, Iowa, professor of psychology at Northwestern College, retired in May. At commencement he was honored as the 2023 recipient of the college’s Faculty Excellence in Faith and Learning Award.

Jodi (Brekke) Potter of Chaska, Minn., is retired from Eastern Carver County School District.

Lu Ann (Olivas) Ransley of McFarland, Wis., is a retired business analysis consultant.

’82

Charlie Preis teaches at Edison High School in Minneapolis. He also directs the concert band at Century College in White Bear Lake and the handbell choir at St. Michael’s Lutheran Church in Roseville. He is a member of the Lake Wobegon Brass Band in Anoka, Minn.

’83 Brenda Severson

Meyer of Readlyn, Iowa, retired from her work as a consulting actuary.

Kirsten (Olson) Reitan retired from a career in teaching in the Green Bay (Wis.) Public Schools.

Lori (Reyner) Roberts of Manchester, Iowa, is a first-grade teacher with the West Delaware

County Community School District.

’84 Dave Fosburgh of Lake Mary, Fla., is principal and lead facilitator for TeamMechanics in Heathrow, Fla., a company Dave and his wife, Valerie, started in 2016. Dave is also a project consultant for the InnerView Group management consulting firm in Philadelphia.

’85 Denise (Swenson) Downhour of Inver Grove, Minn., is a second-grade teacher in the South Washington County Schools in Cottage Grove.

’88 Jerry Cook of Hartwell, Ga., is retired from a career in natural resource management. Marlene (McGivern) Lunardi of Bettendorf, Iowa, is retired from a career as a software analyst.

Todd Lundberg of Houston, Minn., is retired from a career as a teacher and principal in the Houston Public Schools.

Lynn (Anderson) Peterson is a fourth-grade teacher in Rosemount, Minn.

’89 Linda (Flachsbart) Cook of Hartwell, Ga., is a teacher with the Anderson 5 School District in Anderson, S.C.

Jean Dickson of Bettendorf, Iowa, was elected to the Scott County (Iowa) Board of Supervisors last November.

Eugene Kreiter of Davenport, Iowa, is retired from a career as a PE and special education teacher and wrestling, football, and track coach.

Kim (Stone) Kros of Scottsdale, Ariz., retired after serving 32 years in federal law enforcement. Kim’s career included positions with the United States Customs Service and the United States Customs and Border Protection. Kim was stationed at the port of entry in Nogales, Ariz., and was a supervisory

customs and border protection officer at the Area of Port of Phoenix.

’90 Becky (Kreutner) Saar of Mount Forest, Ontario, serves as a French immersion teacher for second and third grades in the Upper Grand District School Board.

Dan Spragle is president and COO of Bako Diagnostics in Alpharetta, Ga.

’91 Lisa (Rosby) Aldrich is a third-grade teacher in Lakeville, Minn.

Dana Anderson of Los Angeles is a second-grade teacher and induction mentor with the El Monte (Calif.) City School District.

Bret Rowse of Sioux City, Iowa, is a math teacher, assistant track coach, and quiz bowl coach at Sergeant Bluff-Luton High School.

Deanna (Kallman) Welch of Lakeville, Minn., is worship arts assistant at Prince of Peace Lutheran Church in Burnsville.

’92 Cora (Griffin) Dillin is an athletic director and dean of students in the Necedah (Wis.) School District. She has been recognized as Athletic Director of the Year in her district, and she received the National Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association’s State Award of Merit–Wisconsin.

Laura (Olson) Heuer is a kindergarten teacher in the Howard Lake Waverly Winsted School District in Minnesota. The district named her Staff Member of the Year in 2022.

Deborah Svec-Carstens is a writer, spiritual director, and editor. She is working on a memoir about the beginning of healing after trauma.

For the first time ever, a delegation from Luther participated in the Royal Norwegian Embassy’s Around the World embassy tour in Washington, DC, in May. Left (left to right): Maren Johnson, associate professor of Nordic studies, Nick Rogness ’24, and Evelyn Galstad ’20. Nick and Evelyn taught a 15-minute introductory Norwegian-language lesson. Over 4,500 visitors came for the event, including Lindsey Parrot ’22, pictured to the right of Maren.

Luther alumni at a Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity all-staff picnic in St. Paul, Minn., realized just how many of them worked for the organization and decided to commemorate the day with a photo. Back row (left to right): Nathan Riley ’18, Nick Lane ’06, and Kelly (Bandman) Scocchera ’11. Front row: Christine Wattermann ’20, Jessa Anderson-Reitz ’14, and Noah Keller ’02

Three Luther alumni recently put together an uplifting La Crosse Area Synod assembly. Left to right: Bishop Felix Malpica ’09, Dione (Miller) Stepanek ’12, and Brianna (Kunkel) Iverson ’09

Class of 1974 grads Jan Simonen of Grand Marais, Minn., and Carol (Holtan) Lucido of Rochester, Minn., spent J-term 50 years ago on a winter wilderness experience at a lake in northern Minnesota. They recently enjoyed a weekend together reminiscing at the same lake.

This close-knit group of alumni and kids have gone on a camping trip together every summer since 2017. Adults (left to right) include: Jim Kowitz ’03, Stacy (Malecha) Kowitz ’08, Phil Pappano ’04, Kelsey (Ress) Pappano ’03, Hans Thurmer ’04, Lauren (Schletty) Thurmer ’05, Peter Eliason ’03, and Ana (Meyer) Eliason ’05

Left to right: Nordic Choir alumni Lillianna Petsch-Horvath ’14, Sarah Lemon ’13, and James LaBelle ’80 took a photo backstage at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Milwaukee before a Milwaukee Chamber Choir concert May 7. The performance was in memory of their founder/director, Dr. J. Mark Baker.

’93 Marya (Meyer) Rowse of Sioux City, Iowa, is an operational risk analyst with Allied Solutions.

’94 Sarah (Quamme) Haenel and her husband, Lon, are the new owners of decorahnews.com, the online local news outlet in Decorah.

Chris Shockey of Freeport, Ill., is the assistant regional superintendent for the regional office of education #8.

’96 Jennaya (Rogers) Robison was appointed artistic director of the National Luther Choir. A former associate professor of music at Luther, Jennaya is the third artistic director in the NLC’s 37-year history.

’97 Michael Elsbernd is college organist and applied music associate for organ at Grinnell College.

Gretchen Lund of Bloomington, Minn., is a middle school multilingual teacher with the Edina (Minn.) Public Schools.

Eric Sieger is a senior communications specialist for the city of Colorado Springs, Colo.

’97

Hallie (Hite) Evans of New Albin, Iowa, is a certified Iyengar yoga teacher, having passed her assessment in the fall of 2021.  She teaches yoga classes in northeast Iowa, southeast Minn., and La Crosse, Wis.

’98

Brian Bergstrom is a senior lecturer in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis.

Jill (Mikkelson) Bue of Shoreview, Minn., was chosen for the Fulbright Distinguished Awards in Teaching Research program. Jill will travel to Jyväskylä, Finland, for three months to work with the University of Jyväskylä on her research project, A Focus on Mathematical Understanding and Eliminating the Gap: Best Teaching Practices 6–12.

Lisa (Bieber) Hagen is a behavioral health specialist with Families First Counseling Services and was honored as “Mrs. Poppy” in the Waukon (Iowa) Memorial Day parade in

recognition of her fundraising efforts for area veterans and the American Legion Auxiliary.

Jeff Weiss of Bloomington, Minn., is a state floodplain engineer with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.

’99 Beth (Steinmetz) Heller of Nevada, Iowa, is a 5–12 instructional coach and director of school improvement with the Colo-NESCO School District.

Ben Larson of Kihei, Hawaii, is the owner of Maui Adventure Vacations.

’00

Toni (Deruyter) Hawkins of Fairbanks, Alaska, is a mathematics teacher with the Fairbanks North Star Borough School District.

Elisabeth (Marvin) Sandersfeld of Johnston, Iowa, is Merchants Bonding Company’s chief financial officer, treasurer, and chief risk officer.

Lindsey (Rendall) Schreurs is an associate principal with the School District of Sheboygan Falls, Wis.

Carrie Tresemer of Freeport, Ill., is a first-grade teacher, junior high cross country and basketball coach, and high school girls track and field coach with the Dakota School District.

Miranda Zahn and David Smith both work for the Yorkville (Ill.) Community School District, Miranda as an art teacher and David as a choir director.

’01 Katie (Peterson) Marchena-Roldan of Richmond, Texas, is the executive director of teaching and learning for the Lamar Consolidated ISD in Roseburg, Texas.

Erin Pederson of Ames, Iowa, is a psychologist consultant for Iowa Disability Determination Services.

Carolyn Sommers Tillotson is a school librarian at Eagle Ridge Academy in Minnetonka, Minn.

’02 Pauli Brandt of Guangzhou, China, is a special education needs coordinator at Utahloy International School Zengcheng.

Angie (Kruse) Fitzgerald won a 2023 TRUST Award, which

celebrates women who are advancing efforts to help the health care industry transform its future. Angie works for the National Marrow Donor Program/Be The Match as vice president, corporate and foundation partnerships for the US and Mexico.

’03 Alex Anderson of Fort Collins, Colo., is an elementary school counselor.

Charlie Burnham is an English teacher at Burnsville (Minn.) High School.

Katy Dane is an orchestra and choir director with the Georgetown (Texas) School District. She also conducts two competitive a cappella barbershop choruses. In partnership with the National Association for Music Education, the Barbershop Harmony Society presented her with the 2022 Music Educator of the Year award.

Angie (Demmer) Hietala is director of elementary instruction at Kodiak (Alaska) Island Borough School District.

Justin Solsvig is the head grounds and sportsfield manager at Oglethorpe University in Atlanta, Ga.

Tiffany (Curtis) Strande is a certified medical assistant and pulmonary function technologist at Olmsted Medical Center. She is also a violinist in the Rochester Symphony Orchestra and a nutrition assistant at the Landing Homeless Shelter in Rochester, Minn.

’04 Emily (Martz) Anderson of Fort Collins, Colo., is a kindergarten teacher.

Tim Arnold is lead band teacher for Orono High School in Long Lake, Minn. He was named a quarterfinalist for the Recording Academy and GRAMMY Museum’s 2024 Music Educator Award.

Marnie (Price) Carlson of Decorah is a 6–8 school counselor with the Howard-Winneshiek Community School District in Cresco, Iowa.

Mandy Henderson of Lafayette, Colo., is creative resource director at WorkInProgress.

Sara (Kienlen) Kral of New Ulm, Minn., is executive director of special education with the Minnesota Valley Education District in St. Peter.

Elissa Zoerb of St. Paul, Minn., is a marketing project manager with October Three Consulting.

’05 Kari (Hoffman) Halstead is an educational consultant with Cooperative Educational Service Agency #11 in Turtle Lake, Wis.

Karl Hoeschen of Mendota Heights, Minn., is a business consultant with Expium, a Valiantys company.

Adam Jeffrey of Colorado Springs, Colo., is an online high school math teacher with the Colorado Springs School District.

Ryan Nilsestuen was appointed as a Dane County (Wis.) judge to Circuit Court–Branch 10.

Erik Olson is the principal of James B. McPherson IB School in Chicago.

Kristin Rice of Lafayette, Ind., is a campus pastor at Purdue Lutheran Ministry.  Dave Rowley of Lafayette, Colo., is executive creative director at Mondo Robot.

’06 Rachel (Bails) Jeffrey of Colorado Springs, Colo., is a teacher with the Falcon School District in Peyton, Colo.

Stephanie Lump of St. Louis Park, Minn., is an assistant site supervisor with Robbinsdale (Minn.) Area Schools–Community Education.

Josh Wilson of Monroe, Wis., is an associate principal with the School District of Monroe.

’07 Kendra (Swanson) Masters of Mount Horeb, Wis., is a hospital development specialist at UW Health Organ and Tissue Donation.

Sarah (Quick) Olejniczak is assistant vice president of student affairs and Title IX coordinator at St. Norbert College in De Pere, Wis.

Melissa (Schneider) Stueve was selected to represent Team USA as a medical provider with USA Track and Field at the 2022

NACAC Senior Championships in the Bahamas as well as the 2023 Pan Am U20 Championships in Puerto Rico. Melissa is an athletic trainer with UnityPoint Clinic Orthopedics in Waterloo, Iowa.

’08

Amanda (Allen) Connolly of Maple Grove, Minn., is a special education teacher with the Fridley (Minn.) Public Schools.

Meagan Esterby is a pastor at University Lutheran Church in Philadelphia, Pa.

Laura (Hockley) McKain is a high school English teacher in Laramie, Wyo. She was named Albany County Education Association’s 2023 Teacher of the Year.

Cale Nelson is a director at Travelers, Inc. in St. Paul, Minn.

’09 Liz Erickson of Minneapolis works for Hennepin County as a visiting nurse for pregnant women and new moms.

Jenny (Gaska) Paulson is an elementary special education

teacher in Viroqua, Wis.

Aaron Peterson was named the Charles Deering McCormick Distinguished Professor of Instruction at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill.

Julia Schumacher of St. Paul, Minn., is an ESL teacher with the St. Paul Public Schools.

Kristin Swenson of Olympia, Wash., is an elementary school teacher with the Clover Park School District on Joint Base Lewis-McChord.

’10 Shiloh Drew Hillertz of Hanover Park, Ill., is a concierge support specialist with Linden Lab.

Dave Schmitt is an elementary music teacher in the Waseca (Minn.) Public Schools.

Kirsten (Jensson) Scholz of Kasson, Minn., is a pricing operations coordinator at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.

’11 Emily (Kilgore) Galle-From of Minneapolis is an elementary literacy specialist with ISD 622 in North St. Paul, Minn.

Alex Gisleson of Decorah is a K–12 music teacher in the Turkey Valley Community School District (Jackson Junction, Iowa).

Peter Magnuson, of Boston, Mass., earned an MSW from Boise State University.

Taylor Scholz of Kasson, Minn., is an injury prevention specialist at Fit for Work.

Karl Streufert is a Thrivent financial advisor in Greenwood Village, Colo.

’12 Katie Wagner was ordained by the ELCA in May 2023 and is a pastor at Trinity Lutheran Church in Birchwood, Wis.

’13 Shannon Curtis is band director for grades 6–8 at the Zimmerman (Minn.) Middle and High School. He was named a quarterfinalist for the Recording Academy and GRAMMY Museum’s 2024 Music Educator Award.

Cassandra (Chalhoub) Kotek is the vice president of marketing with Farmers State Bank in Marion, Iowa.

Kelsey (Brown) Legore of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, is a mezzo-soprano, conductor, and educator with Kelsey Legore Music. She earned an MM in choral conducting from Simpson College in 2021.

Erin Saiof is a senior quality engineer at Okadoc in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Tyler Wedemeier of Decorah has been recognized by the Iowa Academy of Science with an Excellence in Science Teaching Award.

’14 Kristen Flak-Solom of Middleton, Wis., presented at the 2023 American String Teachers Association national conference and is the state orchestra chair for the Wisconsin Music Educators Association.

Katherine (Ollman) Gisleson of Decorah is pre-K– 3 music teacher in the MFL MarMac Community School District (Monona, Iowa).

Alex Greiner earned an MD from the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine and a PhD

in genetics from the University of Iowa. He is doing a residency in internal medicine at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics.

Micayla Irmiter works for the Edina (Minn.) Public Schools as an art teacher.

Hannah (Wilson) Loewen of Mankato, Minn., is a mentor coach with the Mankato Area Public Schools.

’15 Paige (Clark) Anderson is a transplant social worker for M Health Fairview University of Minnesota Medical Center.

Sarah Brandt lives in Decorah and is a registration manager for BCD Meetings and Events, working with the company’s Bank of America account.

Eric “Flint” Angeroth Franks of Magnolia, Ark., completed a DM in brass performance at Florida State University and is director of jazz ensembles and high brass instructor at Southern Arkansas University.

Kristen (Winter) Hackman of Calmar, Iowa, is an elementary school teacher with the Turkey Valley Community School District (Jackson Junction, Iowa).

Ryley Kramka of Minneapolis earned an MA in coaching and athletic administration from Concordia University–Irvine.

Danielle (Border) McKim serves as secretary and treasurer for the North Central Iowa Bandmasters Association.

Laura (Peterson) Meola of Altoona, Iowa, earned an MEd from the American College of Education.

Braun Oldenkamp completed a DMA in voice performance at Boston University and is an assistant professor of voice at Murray (Ky.) State University.

Sam Weinberg finished his internal medicine residency at the Medical College of Wisconsin and will begin practicing hospital medicine at ProHealth in Waukesha, Wis.

Rachel Williams of Washington, DC, received a Terrorism Analysis Graduate Certificate from the University of Maryland. This follows an earlier MA she

received in International Peace and Conflict Resolution from American University. She is a program manager at the Lewis Center for Church Leadership.

’16 Taryn Bolea of Mahtomedi, Minn., earned an MA in education with curriculum and instruction specialization from Saint Mary’s University.

Coriann Dorgay of Mukwonago, Wis., earned an MPH in infectious disease epidemiology from the Yale School of Public Health.

Joy Harris earned an MD and is in the general surgery residency program at Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis.

Moran Lonning is head women’s basketball coach at the University of Wisconsin–La Crosse.

Greta (Anetsberger) Morgan of Downers Grove, Ill., earned an MS in nursing with a clinical nurse leadership specialty from Saint Xavier University and is an RN spine navigator with Edward Elmhurst Health.

Saydi (Stewart) and Josh Olson live in Marshfield, Wis., where Saydi is a 7–12 vocal and handbell music teacher in the Spencer (Wis.) Public Schools and Josh is a 7–12 vocal music teacher with the Marshfield School District.

Casey Tecklenburg of La Porte City, Iowa, is a 6–12 vocal music director with the Union Community School District.

’17

Jess (Morrill) Andrade of Sparta, Wis., is a quality assurance manager with Foremost Farms.

Kayla (Ingvalson) and Jacob Frisbie live in Shawnee, Kan., where Kayla earned a master’s degree in teaching, leadership, and cultural competency from the University of Iowa and is a sixth-grade science and social studies teacher with the Shawnee Mission School District. Jacob is an orthopedic surgery resident.

Jedidiah (Nixon) McCurry of Trego, Mont., earned a master’s degree in biology from West-

ern Kentucky University and is pursuing an RN.

Anna Wehde completed a PhD in counseling psychology from Iowa State University and is a postdoctoral fellow in psychology at the Community Health Center in Danbury/Bristol, Conn.

’18 Peggy Devine is an administrative assistant of firmwide events for Sidley Austin in Chicago.

’19 Catelyn Janda of Magnolia, Ark., completed an MS in educational psychology from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and is a professional academic advisor at Southern Arkansas University.

Hannah (Carmon) Simon teaches second grade at a Minnesota Transitions Charter School, Banaadir Elementary. She wrote her school’s behavior plan, which is being implemented throughout the entire district.

Paige Yontz received a master’s degree in healthcare administration from Saint Joseph’s College of Maine and was the commencement speaker for her class. She is the advocacy manager for the Iowa state office of AARP, advocating for legislation that protects and supports older Iowans.

’20 Andrew Avila is a fifthand sixth-grade science teacher in the Chicago Public Schools.

Hannah Gross of St. Louis Park, Minn., earned an MSW and is a legal dispositional advisor for the Hennepin County (Minn.) Public Defender’s Office.

Anna (Hug) and Matthew Harper live in Waukee, Iowa. Anna is a sixth-grade band director with the Waukee School District. Matthew teaches general music and leads middle school choir for the Urbandale School District.

Melanie (Gossman) Hovden is a senior accountant at Hacker, Nelson, and Co. in Decorah. Peder Smith is an assistant director of admissions at Luther College.

Amber Sorenson of Slayton, Minn., earned an MA degree in communication studies from Kent State University.

Hannah Wollack earned an MA in clinical mental health counseling from the University of Northern Iowa. She is an accommodations coordinator in the University of Iowa’s Student Disability Services Department.

’21 Amelia Hornseth of St. Paul, Minn., is a copywriter with HealthPartners.

Blake Krapfl of Brooklyn Center, Minn., earned an MS in architectural engineering from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln and is an acoustic designer with the DLR Group in Minneapolis.

Madeline Lomprey is an international admissions counselor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Christion Pinkney is a shelter case manager at New Hope Housing in Virginia.

’22 Lindsey Parrott is pursuing a master’s degree in genetic counseling from Sarah Lawrence College.

’23 Ethan Bellendier of Independence, Iowa, is a special operations ambassador with Scribe America.

Jalen DenHartog of Boise, Idaho, is a behavioral intervention specialist with LIFE Incorporated.

Nicole Fitzpatrick is a PICU staff nurse at the University of Iowa Stead Family Children’s Hospital.

Emma Fretheim of Decorah is a product specialist with DI Labs. Allegra Garcia is a public health coordinator with AmeriCorps in St. Paul, Minn.

Greta Stauffacher of Ham Lake, Minn., is a registered nurse at Children’s Minnesota Hospital.

Madilyn Wooten is a registered nurse at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.

Births & Adoptions

’05 Lincoln, Jan. 2023, child of Mackenzie and Jed Stutzman

’07

Lucy Jane, Aug. 2022, child of Darci (Kunz) and Josh Wilson ’06

’08

Adeline, April 2023, child of Ali and Andrew Odean

Maya Grace, April 2023, child of Amanda Weber and Zeb Hults

’10 Graham, March 2021, child of Jill Keller and Douglas Junius

Estelle Rhiannon, Jan. 2021, child of Amanda Kloser and Matthew Meyer

Mara Lillian, May 2023, child of Kori and Tyler Powell

’11 Kori Rose, Dec. 2022, child of Nicole (Wilson) and Ryan Goetzl

’13 Libby Palis, Sept. 2022, child of Devan Benjamin and Sam Weinberg ’15

Charlotte, March 2023, child of Alicia (Findley) and Chris Noroski

Julia, March 2023, child of Alicia (Findley) and Chris Noroski

’14 Eleanor Marie, Jan. 2023, child of Morgan (Oberfoell) and Erik Chapman

Franklin, Feb. 2022, child of Chloe (Benjamin) and Nate Converse

Remi Carol, May 2021, child of Naomi (Sandgren) and Daniel Langer

Isla, July 2021, child of Hannah (Wilson) and Steve Loewen

’15 Vinny, Feb. 2022, child of Kristen (Winter) and Neil Hackman

Breck, April 2023, child of McKenzie (Sesker) and Eric Pittman ’14

Hannah Thea, Nov. 2022, child of Katie (Mathis) and Josh Woodhouse

’16 Leo Stewart, May 2022, child of Saydi (Stewart) and Josh Olson

’17 Jordan Tracy, March 2023, child of Olivia (Toal) and Jordan Keeton ’18

Remiel, March 2023, child of Jedidiah (Nixon) and Sam McCurry

’18 Cal Edward, June 2023, child of Abigail (Colby) and Mitchell Knippenberg ’16

’09 Micah Drea, March 2022, child of Liz Erickson and Jow Krekeler

Lake Francis, April 2023, child of Dana (Harney) and Brent Teske

Noelle, March 2022, child of Kaitlyn and Kris Thompson

Indigo Corah, May 2023, child of Alex (Nyman) and Jackson Stalberger

Bastian, March 2023, child of Chelsea Tegels and Andreas Meyris

Campbell, April 2022, child of Paige (Schneider) and Aaron Wies

Marriages

’73John Harvey and Victoria Long, July 3, 2023

’80

Christi Munson and Patrick Ziems, July 22, 2023

’01 Natalie Van Vuren and Jeff Witt, Nov. 27, 2021

’04 Sara Kienlen and Mike Kral, March 25, 2023

’09 Jenny Gaska and Bill Paulson, July 17, 2021

Emily Shriver and Jason Mork, May 28, 2022

’13 Shannon Koenders and Isaac Veldkamp, March 10, 2023

’14

Toni Floback and Alex Greiner, April 22, 2023

Mia Rosemary, May 2023, child of Laura (Peterson) and Joe Meola

’15 Kristianna Harris and Justin Lance, Jan. 20, 2023

McKenzie Sesker and Eric Pittman ’14, Aug. 20, 2021

’16 Greta Anetsberger and Andrew Morgan, Sept. 10, 2022

Moran Lonning and Alex Weber, May 27, 2023

Corrina Slings and Patrick D’Amico, Feb. 18, 2023

’17 Anna Madrigal and Ryan Crum, May 13, 2023

’18 Abigail Colby and Mitchell Knippenberg ’16, June 6, 2021

’19 Allison Cully and James Miller, April 20, 2023

’20 Ali Voigt and Samuel Camacho, June 11, 2022

In Memoriam

Notices as of July 19, 2023

Former Luther president spouse

Judith “Judy” A. Torgerson of Edina, Minn., died April 7, 2023, age 81.

’45 Elizabeth “Betty” (Dahl) Hoeger of Minneapolis died August 23, 2022, age 98.

Julia (Ranum) Mason of Hopkins, Minn., died July 21, 2022, age 99.

’48 Deloris (Scheidecker) Paulson of Eau Claire, Wis., died March 30, 2023, age 93.

’49 John Fritz of Mason City, Iowa, died May 10, 2023, age 95.

Idamae (Prell) Knutson of Janesville, Wis., died May 9, 2023, age 94.

Francis Peterson of Decorah died February 5, 2023, age 96.

’52 Marlene (Klobassa) Dillon of Cresco, Iowa, died April 28, 2023, age 91.

Cleora “Collie” (Sikkink) Olson of Jackson, Minn., died March 3, 2023, age 90.

’54 Norma (Kautz) Mossman of Monticello, Minn., died June 8, 2023, age 90.

’55 Myra (Aafedt) Ahrens of Avon, Ind., died June 28, 2023, age 89.

Helen (Vatthauer) Lewis of Vassar, Mich., died May 9, 2023, age 91.

Jean (Tucker) Rolle of Detroit Lakes, Minn., died February 21, 2023, age 89.

’56 Robert “Bob” Johnson of Forest City, Iowa, died December 29, 2022, age 88.

Karen (Croft) Pederson of St. Cloud, Minn., died June 23, 2023, age 88.

’57 Gerald “Jerry” Bierstedt of Sioux Falls, S.D., died May 28, 2023, age 88.

’58 Helen (Holm) Christianson of St. Peter, Minn., died February 7, 2023, age 84.

Wendell “Lars” Larsen of Fish Creek, Wis., died May 10, 2023, age 93.

Jerrald “Jerry” Olson of Rochester, Minn., died March 10, 2023, age 84.

’59 Richard “Andy” Anderson of Menomonie, Wis., died April 29, 2023, age 85.

Janice (Egeberg) Quass of Ankeny, Iowa, died May 10, 2023, age 85.

’60 Duane Hoffmann of Oconomowoc, Wis., died April 14, 2023, age 85.

Karl Solberg of Manitowish Waters, Wis., died May 29, 2023, age 86.

’61 Joyce (Jameson) Spande of Brea, Calif., died May 9, 2023, age 83.

’62 John Helgeland of Sturgis, S.D., died May 8, 2023, age 82.

Michael Momeni of Temecula, Calif., died February 17, 2023, age 84.

’63 Sandra Sellers Hanson of Brooklyn, N.Y., died August 8, 2022, age 81.

’64 Richard Anderson of Granite Falls, Minn., died June 21, 2023, age 79.

’65 Ronald Cruikshank of West Des Moines, Iowa, died May 14, 2023, age 79.

Eugene “Stu” Eickelberg Jr. of Lake City, Minn., died Friday, April 28, 2023, age 79.

Mark Steine of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, died May 25, 2023, age 78.

Diane (Mallu) Thompson of Surprise, Ariz., died January 15, 2023, age 80.

’66 Mark Boehnke of Garner, Iowa, died May 2, 2023, age 78.

’67 Bonnie (Pederson) Torgerson of Lakewood, Colo., died May 16, 2023, age 78.

’68 Rona Gstalder of Albert Lea, Minn., died June 29, 2022, age 73. Milton Olson of Mendota, Ill., died June 5, 2023, age 76.

JoAnn (Thorland) Onnen of Cokato, Minn., died August 18, 2022, age 76.

’69 Richard Ancelet of Carthage, Ill., died May 28, 2023, age 75.

Charles “Skip” Gooch of Oregon, Ill., died May 4, 2023, age 76.

’72 Kim Greenfield of Johnston, Iowa, died April 9, 2023, age 70.

’73 Ronald “Ron” Jensen of Austin, Minn., died June 6, 2023, age 72.

’74 Dirk Craft of Anchorage, Alaska, died June 9, 2023, age 71.

’75 Dale Schroeder of Des Moines, Iowa, died January 31, 2022, age 68.

’76 Ruth Drews of New London, N.H., died May 22, 2023, age 68.

’78 Bruce Perry of Sac City, Iowa, died June 10, 2023, age 66.

’82 Vicki (Nelson) Wheeler of Minneapolis died June 4, 2023, age 62.

’85 Laurie Garms of Dubuque, Iowa, died April 6, 2023, age 58.

’92 Kara (Skatrud) Baylor of Caledonia, Minn., died May 25, 2023, age 52.

’98 Ryan Godderz of Denver, Colo., died April 27, 2023, age 47.

LUTHER ALUMNI RECEPTION

Saturday, September 30, 2023

Fulton Brewery

Minneapolis, Minnesota

HOMECOMING

Friday, October 6–

Sunday, October 8, 2023

Luther College

50TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE TRIO PROGRAM

Saturday, October 7, 2023

Luther College

PHI BETA KAPPA SYMPOSIUM ON THE LIBERAL ARTS

Jonathan Strandjord ’74

Saturday, October 7, 2023

Luther College

HOSLETT MEMORIAL LECTURE

Tex A. Sordahl ’73, professor emeritus of biology

Saturday, October 7, 2023

Luther College

IRONSIDE DISTINGUISHED ALUMNI LECTURE IN NURSING

Allison (Smith) Jones ’03

Saturday, October 7, 2023

Luther College

1963 UNDEFEATED NORSE FOOTBALL TEAM REUNION

Saturday, October 21, 2023

Luther College

DECORAH AREA ALUMNI HAPPY HOURS

Thursday, November 2, 2023

Thursday, January 18, 2024

Thursday, April 18, 2024

Thursday, September 19, 2024

Pulpit Rock Brewing Co.

Decorah, Iowa

ONE TEAM DAY

Thursday, November 16, 2023

Luther College

CHRISTMAS AT LUTHER PERFORMANCES

Thursday, November 30–

Sunday, December 3, 2023

Luther College

1991–92 WOMEN’S BASKETBALL TEAM ATHLETICS HALL OF FAME INDUCTION EVENTS

Friday, January 26–

Saturday, January 27, 2024

Luther College

GIVING DAY

Thursday, March 7, 2024

Luther College

15TH ANNUAL KENT FINANGER ’54 GOLF CLASSIC

Monday, March 18, 2024

Arrowhead Country Club

Glendale, Arizona

1974 SOFTBALL TEAM ATHLETICS HALL OF FAME INDUCTION EVENTS

Saturday, April 13, 2024

Luther College

ALUMNI AND FRIENDS TOUR OF NORWAY

Saturday, May 25–

Monday, June 3, 2024

Hosted by Maren Johnson, associate professor of Nordic studies, and Mark Potvin ’01, assistant professor of music

In July, we hosted a series of courses during our Summer Nordic Studies Institute. Here, James Miller ’19 teaches participants the craft of flat-plane woodcarving.