Giving List

Spring 2013

Dear Classmates:

I trust that your Christmas season was joyful for you and yours.  It was for us.   On November 30 Mary and I were able to attend once again Christmas at Luther.  As usual it was a fine performance and really starts getting one into the holiday mood.

Mary and I left Minnesota for Arizona mid-January after some cold days but little snow Up North.  The snow came after we left.  Arizona has been another matter.  In the first two months of 2013 there have been a dozen nights with below freezing temperature and several more with frost.  Last year there were only three.  It’s been hard on the citrus and palms especially.  We have also had two snows, one of which accumulated to two inches in the low areas but over a foot on some of the surrounding mountains.  It tends to thaw rather quickly, however, since the ground is not frozen, but it lingers for many days in the upper elevations.  Reminds one of the Midwest without the shovels. 

The big news out of Luther is that the search for the next president is in its final weeks and may be completed and announced before this letter arrives.  Rick and Judy Torgerson have served Luther well for 14 years.  This spring they will be attending many alumni receptions around the country.  I hope you have had, or will have, the opportunity to attend one and thank them for their service, with hope that the next president can do as well.  And a big thanks to all of you who made a gift to Luther in 2012.  According to the Development Office, 39 percent of the class contributed to the Annual Fund, and 42 percent to the Annual Fund and/or some other fund.  Though not quite a strong as recent years, it still ranks our class well compared to all others.  So, thank you much.

Various notes from or about classmates have come my way, and I pass them long.  Clarence Baalson says that he keeps busy in retirement in western Iowa with fairly regular supply preaching.  He and his twin sister, Clarice, were at the buffet before the Christmas at Luther performance, and we chatted for a short while.  He looks good and feels well.

Marnie (Torrison) Blatchford e-mailed to say she is involved in water aerobics three days a week.  Her husband Dean spends quite a bit of time in their local weight room and walking.   Not a bad example for the rest of us.

John Bond sent a holiday note to the Development Office, and they passed it along.  John said he enjoys the class letter because it keeps him in touch with the class and college.  It also prompted him to send a gift to the Annual Fund.  John began with us in 1951 but transferred to another school to study medicine.  Even so, he has been a loyal ’55er.

Dave Borreson sent a Christmas letter.  He continues his cycling, including again participating in the “Ride the Rockies” in June, which took the riders over eight or nine mountain passes.  Overall, including this event, he rode about 2,000 miles this year.  He and wife Jean enjoyed summer gardening and a trip to Alaska; in the winter they ski.  Last fall Dave again went elk hunting, successfully.  He continues to sing in the church choir and serve occasionally as assistant minister.  Life is good, he says.

Al Brudos e-mailed to say that he and wife Sally have started a second fund at Luther to support the opera program.  This fund will support a master class, which will bring to campus visiting professional artists and graduate school professors in opera.  The first class was held on February 14.  Their first fund at Luther established a scholarship for a senior to attend graduate school.  The award is by competition and includes a recital in April by the recipient.  This year, the eleventh, the event is on April 11.  These are the ways that Al and Sally have contributed to the planned giving effort at Luther.  I wonder how many of our classmates have also made a planned gift to support an area of personal interest?  I know of three others.  Feel free to brag. 

Augustine Chen and I have traded a lot of e-mails.  It all started when I sent an e-mail asking for news notes for this letter by February 10.  He noted that February 10 was the date of Chinese Lunar New Year 2013, and wished everyone a Happy New Year.  This is the Year of the Snake, one of 12 years in the Lunar New Year cycle.  The snake is considered enigmatic, intuitive, introspective, refined, and collected.  People born in this year are considered to be keen, cunning, intelligent, great mediators, and good at business.  Thought you’d like to know.  More interesting is Augie’s story.  He had earned a degree in engineering from St. Johns University in Shanghai, and in 1949, two weeks before Shanghai was “liberated” by the Communists, he went to Taiwan, working in Taipei for five years.  In 1954 he went to Hong Kong, boarding the SS President Cleveland for San Francisco.  Reverend Talbert Ronning of Chicago, son of one of the first Norwegian-American Lutheran missionaries to China, helped Augie enroll at Luther that fall.  With his prior degree and credits, he was able to graduate with us with a bachelor’s degree and a major in physics.

From Ohio I heard that Arvid Harklau is firmly retired from a career in the chaplaincy at correctional facilities, stays busy, and is not greatly slowed by the creeping of age.

Paul Hasvold found some interesting papers regarding Luther in the 1920s among his father’s effects.  It seems that students (all men in those days), much impressed with typical pomp and ceremony, decided that it was time to dedicate a particular structure on the campus.  They requested permission and it was granted, but faculty were admonished not to be present.  Accordingly, on October 31, 1921, at night, the students gathered, suitably attired.  There was a processional, a choral composition, an address, and recessional.  Hamlet Peterson, later coach and AD, served as president.  It was reported that several faculty were seen lurking behind trees.  Therewith, Brynjolf Hall was dedicated.  It was named for Brynjolf Jacob Hovde ’16, who taught and served as interim dean of men before moving on to other campuses.  Brunjolf Hall was the outhouse behind Old Main.  A longer version of this was on display in the entry of Loyalty Hall as part of the 150^th celebration. Rachel Vagts, college archivist, e-mailed an even longer version of the event.  Thank you, Paul.  Our fathers and the fathers of other ’55 classmates were  likely there for that occasion.

Kathy (Sanger) Larson also sent a Christmas letter.  The summer drought in Illinois put a crimp in her gardening and dropped the lake level several feet, but it produced some gorgeous fall colors.  She did not take any long trips this year but has remained busy in her church with conducting the choir, leading a Bible study, and doing all sorts of other needed tasks.  She also turns out items for the local senior center gift shop.

Clarie (Renslo) Streng-Broste last July visited the Minnesota home of Kristi (Henrickson) ’56 and Paul Thompson ’53, where Solveig Otte ’56 was visiting.  Solveig had traveled from Pietermaritz, South Africa, where she had a long career working among people with HIV.  Solveig’s brother, Carl Otte, was in our class.

As for Mary and me, with soon one full year of retirement past and no intention of taking up gainful (meaning paid) employment again, we are chipping away at the many tasks and duties pushed aside while working.  Depending on the season and location, we keep at swimming, weights, water aerobics, cycling, walking, cross-country skiing, and property improvements.   Our main indoor winter project has been to sort through several decades of 35 mm slides and prints and also digital prints, saving the best, and eventually transferring them to electronic files, with captions.  We are also working on family histories.  We want to share these with our children, nephews, and nieces, so that they have a greater feel for family history.  All families have interesting stories to tell.  I encourage you by one means or another to organize and tell yours.  How many times have we all said that we wish we had talked about this with parents and grandparents, but it is now too late?

Jean (Brown) Eittreim has been writing in her retirement.  Recently she took up poetry, and sent along one to include here:

Losing Things 

We keep loving things, my friends and I. The use of a knee, the sight of an eye.
I keep losing things; my friends are the same. Can't find the right word; can't remember the name.

We keep losing friends, so precious are they.  It seems a big hole when one slips away.
We keep losing things we used to could do; when you get old it could happen to you.

We hang on tight so we don’t lose any more precious things that we had before.
We hang on the railing, not wanting to fall.  We want to keep walking and standing up tall. 

We hang on to our wits when driving a car, not wanting to wander from our lane too far.
We hang on to our friends, to know they’re alright.  We pray for them too in the middle of the night.

We hang on our faith in God’s mercy and care.  No matter what happens we know that God’s there.
We keep losing things, my friends and I.  But we keep hanging on to that Power on high.

Have a Blessed Easter.  Keep in touch.

Carlyle Haaland
carlyle.haaland@yahoo.com

Don't forget your Annual Fund giving! 
Each year nearly 9,000 alumni, parents, and friends support the Annual Fund with gifts from $5 to $50,000. Strong support from alumni helps Luther secure additional funds from foundations and corporations, and your gift each year helps us reach our goal of 27% alumni giving.  Here’s how your class—and surrounding classes—did in 2012:

Marion (Legaarden) Aasland
Myra (Aafedt) Ahrens*
Marlys (Anderson) Awes
Vernon Awes
Maren (Torrison) Blatchford*
John Bond
David Borreson*
Ilah (Olson) Breitbach
Alan Brudos*
Augustine Chen
Elliott Christen*
Marjorie (Morem) Ellingson*
Mervin Ellwood*
David Fadness
Hazel (Teien) Giere*
Norman Gunderson*
Carlyle Haaland*
Gretta (Bjerke) Hahn*
Arvid Harklau
Paul Hasvold*
Raymond Haugland
Alice (Peterson) Head
David Hjelle
Emogene Johnson*
Darlene (Peterson) Jones*
Richard Kastner
Mary (Buchholz) Kipfer
Marlyn Knutson*
Sidney Knutson*
Kathryn (Sanger) Larson*
Helen (Vatthauer) Lewis
Betsy McDowell
Jan (Rovang) Melenich
John Meyer*
Mildred (Lunde) Meyer*
Marvin Mundt*
Irving Njus
Marian (Wold) Njus
JoAnne (Bales) Ohlhaber
Clair Oren*
Herbert Payer*
Mary Ann (Robertson) Peters
Betty (Fey) Peterson
Donald Peterson
David Rasmussen
Frances (Trosin) Rehborg*
Jean (Tucker) Rolle*
Phyllis (Knutson) Severson
Clarie (Renslo) Streng Broste
Janet (Campbell) Tweed*
Ted Tweed*
Lilly (Hamre) Womeldorf*