Dear Fellow Classmates of 1964!
The year is finally here when we will celebrate the 50th anniversary of receiving our degrees. I am
anxious to get back to campus and see what has happened since then. Can you believe that another
year has gone by since I last wrote the class letter? That means that it is time for your dose of news
from the Class of 1964.
I continue to live in Little Falls, Minnesota, and we had one of the hardest winters that I can
remember. After going through triple bypass surgery last August, it became a year of recovery.
Things are going well, but it just takes time. I continue to volunteer in my church and the high
school in Little Falls plus go to different doctors that want to poke and prod. I wonder about this
thing of getting older.
The year has gone fast, and now the rest of the summer will even go faster. Pretty soon the students
will be back on campus, all ready for a new year of school. I know that the new students from this
area are anxious to get on campus. We have several from Little Falls going to Concordia, and they
are ready to meet their new roommates and schedules. Then the alumni invasion will come in
October, and then the students will be ready to get back to normal.
Concordia News
o The Celebration of student scholarships took place on April 9th, 2014.This was a day-long event
honoring student research, scholarship, and creative experiences.
o The Concordia Orchestra completed a historic tour of the Holy Land in May 2014. They shared
concert performances with members of the Edward Said National Conservatory of Music
orchestra.
o The Concordia Choir will tour the southeastern United States from February 21st through March
8th, 2015 during its National Tour.
o On May 5th, 2014 the baseball field was named in honor of 36-year Head Coach Bucky Burgau,
who is stepping down at the end of the 2014 season. Former World Series winning Philadelphia
Phillies Chris Coste ’00 will take over as manager while Bucky continues on as assistant coach.
Burgau is the all-time winningest coach in MIAC baseball history and became the first MIAC
coach to reach 700 wins.
o The Update the Jake Project has reached completion. The officinal dedication for the updates
and new facilities will be at Homecoming this year, 2014.
o This summer, the Concordia Language Villages will dedicate the new Swedish library during
the midsummer celebration on August 3, 2014. The structure of International Day, to be held
July 4 and August 8, 2014, has been reinvigorated and will focus on welcoming home alumni.
o In the summer of 2015, Concordia Language Villages will celebrate 50 years of the Russian
Language Village as well as 50 years of owning the Turtle River Lake site.
o The Alumni Achievement Award will be given to four alumni. We are proud to say that one of our
classmates, Dr. Vernon Tolo, is receiving the Award! He will be receiving the award along with A
John Ahlquist ’63, Sandra Cartie ’82, and Dr. Roger Leopold ’62. Congratulations Vernon!
o In 2016 we will celebrate the 125th Anniversary of the founding of Concordia College!
o In 2017 we will celebrate the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation.
The Annual Class Challenge – Cobbers for Cobbers!
Did you know that 95% of current students receive scholarships? These scholarships are made possible
by Cobbers for Cobbers. Together, we can help ensure that future students are able to access a
Concordia education, regardless of economic status. Alumni giving is strong, and provides funding that
supports students directly through scholarships, and contributes to the overall “Concordia Experience”.
In celebration of our 50th Reunion year, we challenge all classmates to make a gift to Concordia that is
meaningful to you. Our giving committee, chaired by Kathy Benson, Carol Hvidsten, Cathy Anderson,
Johanna Guccione, and Karen Bodelson, set goals for our class participation during this significant year.
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Last year, our class achieved 38.2% participation with gifts from 129 classmates. We are grateful
for your contributions and efforts – THANK YOU!
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Let’s build upon our past success and pay tribute to our 50th Reunion. Join us, as we strive to
achieve 50% class participation for our 50th year ~ 170 classmates.
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Classmates on our Reunion Team will be calling to personally invite you to Homecoming and to
ask for your participation in this Class Challenge. If we are unable to reach you, please call the
Advancement Office at 218-299-3442 or 1-800-699-9896. If you’d rather make a gift
electronically, you can visit www.concordiacollege.edu/reuniongiving
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Thank you for all the wonderful ways you support Concordia – past, present and future Cobbers
Together: Now & Forever - Paying It Forward
Founders Society
Have you included Concordia College in your estate plan? As we celebrate this milestone of our 50th
Reunion, we’d like to identify fellow classmates who have, or who are interested in supporting the next
generation of students by making a future commitment to the College. There will be more information
coming this fall.
The Founders Society was created to recognize individuals who have included Concordia College as a
charitable beneficiary of a future gift. Every person who has made a future commitment to Concordia is
eligible for membership in the Founders Society, which allows Concordia to thank and acknowledge
those who are committed to its mission and who have made provisions for future generations.
Class Notes
Please don’t be shy next year when you are asked for information and updates…this is the good stuff!
o Marcus Borg writes that his 21st book has just been published: Convictions: How I Have Learned
What Matters Most. “I’m really into rural life in central Oregon and dogs – Henry and Abby, slate
and blonde Glen of Imaal terriers. All the best to you.”
o Sondra (Sondy) Erickson writes that she started her teaching career in January 1964 as an
English/journalism teacher at Princeton (MN) High School, and except for staying home as a new
mother for a few years, taught until she retired in 2000. “In Jan. 1998 I was elected to the MN
House of Representatives from the Princeton/Mille Lacs area and continue serve 40,000 persons in
east central Minnesota.” She loves to read, garden, and walk, study the Bible and visit her threeyear-old grandson who lives in southern California.
o David Haugen writes, “for the last four years I have been serving in the position of Director, Project
Management, in charge of planning efforts for an $8 billion Alaska Standalone Pipeline Project for
the Alaska Gasoline Development Corporation. This project would, if constructed, deliver natural
gas to Alaskan communities along the pipeline route as well as provide gas for commercial
customers.” Second, he joined with several other Concordia College Alumni members in
participating in the world premiere of “Festival Te Deum”, composed and conducted by Rene’
Clausen in Alice Tulley Hall at Lincoln Center in New York City on May 26th. “It was a once in a
lifetime experience to be part of the Concordia Choir again.” He is looking forward to attending our
50th Reunion at Homecoming on October 10-12.
o Daniel N. Holm writes that he still lives on and is the owner of The Frame UP, St. Croix, U.S.
Virgin Islands. It is a retail art and craft supply, custom frame shop. He is going to close or sell
within a year. Dan owns a 213-acre farm south of Cole Camp, Missouri with a 7-acre pond and
cabin, and leases the rest out to a neighbor. He enjoys the cabin and hopes to retire to town, Cole
Camp, “maybe buy a storefront and have an old geezer business—this should happen soon, and very
soon. I am still at heart a shy farm boy. Life on St. Croix, especially as one of the few continental
business owners surviving, is not dull. After 35 years of this I could stand less excitement. Still
single. Until this February, as a former pastor, I preached and did liturgy at island Lutheran
churches. I retired from that, actually more tired than retired. My adopted son and daughter are
doing well in the Seattle/Tacoma, Washington area. All you have to do is ask, and I shall brag about
them. I still don’t know what I want to be when I grow up.”
o Fred Iverson writes that he loves painting art using watercolors, acrylics, and sometimes oils. He
sends his regards.
o Vince Lindstrom writes that he left Concordia in ’64 and worked in New Britain, Connecticut of the
Lutheran Church producing theatre of young people in the church. He spent a couple of years in the
entertainment industry in Hollywood for the Lutheran Church in America, then returned to
Connecticut for three years of teaching and then to Western Massachusetts for a three-year program
to develop the arts programs in high school. He then came back to Fargo Moorhead in the late 70’s
through 1980 as the cultural director and the Convention and Visitors Bureau director. “During the
Carter Administration I worked out of D.C. as the National Arts in Education Director. It was a
blast because I visited all 50 states. In 1990 we moved to the Quad Cities where I created the bistate tourism program for Iowa and Illinois. In the mid-90’s we moved to Los Vegas for my stint as
the corporate development director for the Mikon Gaming Company. In the early 21st century we
moved to Joplin, Missouri for retirement and a position as head of the Joplin tourism organization.
Finally in 2014 we moved back to the Twin Cities to be closer to grand girls. My major focus is
international travel. We have done five continents and visited most of the major cities.”
o Mark Loken writes that after he left Concordia he worked in the insurance business in Denver and
Calgary. He then went to grad school at the University of Calgary where he completed a M.A. in
Economics before undertaking a teaching appointment at Valparaiso University, Indiana. He went
on to do his Ph.D. in Economics at Duke before returning to Canada, where he has spent the last
forty years teaching at various Canadian universities. Now that he has retired he hopes to find his
way to Moorhead in October 2014. “Cheers!”
o David Lygre writes that he has recently published a memoir entitled Miles to Go; A Lifetime of
Running and Bicycling Adventures. The book includes stories about: running in a whiteout and
spending 18 hours shivering in a snow hole; helping a friend with Parkinson’s disease run 100 miles
on mountain trails; bicycling 2500 miles along the Continental Divide; and running 100 mile races at
high altitude after recovering from cancer. He is looking forward to visiting campus in October for
our 50th reunion.
o Art Molvik writes that he was fortunate to spend his career in researching several ways of achieving
fusion energy and “I still get to dabble in it as a consultant or volunteer. (It was not the world’s
WORST career, even if fusion power is decades away!). Since Kathy and I retired in 2007, I have
become more active at church with singing, mission projects to hurricane or tornado devastated
areas, finance/stewardship work, and leading or participating in small groups; it is ironic for me to
participate actively at church, since it was at Concordia that I decided that I was an agnostic. Not
until I read Marcus Borg’s “The Heart of Christianity” did Christianity really make sense to me.
Recently, leading a group through Polkinghorne’s “Belief in God in an Age of Science”, I
discovered that science and religion can positively impact each other: science providing insight into
God the Creator, religion providing insight into why God created a mathematical framework for
nature that science can discover. I have begun participating in the Center for Theology and Natural
Science at seminaries in Berkeley. I look forward to learning more and to future surprises.
Kathy and I enjoy traveling: so far to Norway (cruise and visit family), Britain, France,
Germany, Switzerland (with a Swiss guide), and Siberia where I was on a scientific exchange. We
look forward to traveling more around the USA, including feeding Minnesota mosquitos, well as
foreign trips. And of course, we love visiting our (almost 11) grandchildren. It is always a treat to
hear the Concordia Choir when they go west.”
o Gayle Moore-Morrans writes that she hasn’t had a lot of opportunities to visit Concordia since
graduation “except for the years my daughter, Gwynne Johannesson Rasen was attending.” She is a
graduate of the Class of ’99 and now lives in Norway, as she met her husband Joergen Rasen her last
year when he was an exchange student at Concordia from the Hamar Teacher’s College in Norway.
“My sisters live in the Fargo/Moorhead area and so I’ve visited briefly off and on over the years.
However, I lived with my late husband, Pastor Gus Johannesson in Germany for 18 years and then
we, after a 9-month stay at his family home in Colfax, Wisconsin, moved to Canada where I still
reside….I’ve now been married to a Scotsman, Ian Moore-Morrans, for ten years. We lived a year
in Winnipeg together, then two-and-a- half years in Mexico and now reside in Vernon, British
Columbia. Ian is a retired machinist who turned to writing books when he neared retirement. I now
serve as editor, publicist and marketer for his books as well as keeping up our blog:
ianmooremorrans.com and our Facebook account.
I retired in 2004 after twelve years working in Winnipeg, Manitoba for Evangelical Lutheran
Women of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada as Program Director and Editor of Esprit,
ELW’s national magazine. Prior to that I was Social Services Director for the Lutheran Service
Club in Winnipeg and in Heidelberg, Germany, was Secretary to the Judge Advocate, US Army,
Europe and Seventh Army.” She only worked one year as a parish worker in 1963-1964 at Trinity
Lutheran Church in Jamestown, North Dakota. As a pastor’s wife for 32 years, however, she
sometimes felt as if she were the unpaid parish worker! Gus served parishes in North Dakota,
Germany, Wisconsin and Canada. He died in 1996 after a five-year illness with early onset
Alzheimer disease. They had two children, Gwynne and Garen. They live in Norway and San
Francisco. She managed to visit both of them this year, just getting back for a three-week trip to
Norway to celebrate the birth and baptism of granddaughter, Eva Louise Rasen who joined big
brother two-year old Gustav Sebastian Rasen. She also has two stepdaughters, five stepgrandchildren and seven step-great grandchildren, all in Canada. She hopes to come to our 50th
reunion.
o Cheryl Running writes that she will be traveling to Switzerland with alumni and friends of
Concordia. She likes to do art, read, and keep busy friends and family. She plans to come to our
50th reunion.
o Rick and Judy Torgerson write that they are approaching a year since they left the Luther College
presidency. “Retirement finds us dividing our time between a Wichita, KS townhome and a condo
in Edina, MN. We are deeply engaged at Normandale Lutheran Church in Edina and volunteering at
the Bloomington food bank. Rick is serving on the national ELCA Campaign Leadership Council
and is also affiliated with AGB Search a firm that finds leaders for colleges and universities.
Interstate 35 is well traveled to reach five grandkids in Kansas and friends in Minnesota.”
o Bonnie (Chelstrom) Zimmer writes a fun fact that she and two
of her Cobber roommates Roselyn Solberg Tolo and Caryl
Nelson celebrated their 50th anniversary of graduating from
Concordia by celebrating in Bratislava, Slovakia with Hubert,
one of the cities “quirky statues”. This was a stop on the Danube
River Cruise, which began in Passau, Germany, and ended in
Budapest, Hungary May 2-11, 2014.
One of the hardest things to write is the information about the loss of a classmate, but we are blessed by
memories of them. Unfortunately we have lost three classmates since I wrote the letter last summer.
o I received a note in March from Joan Larson that her husband Lanford Larson died on October 18th,
2012. She wishes the class of 1964 to have a great time reconnecting, celebrating time together, and
remembering those who are no longer with us.
o John David Pudas died on February 13th, 2014 after a 6-week battle with lung cancer. He grew up
in Cloquet, MN. Upon graduation from Concordia College, where he sang in the concert choir,
Dave proudly sang in the Soldier’s Chorus of the Army Field Band for three years. He married
Anne Matthees in 1971. His career was in sales. Dave loved golfing, tennis, singing, traveling, his
SPASMS group, telling jokes, and his family most of all. He volunteered at Meals on Wheels,
Loaves and Fishes, and the funeral committee at POP.
o Sandra Fjeld passed away on March, 20th, 2014.
Well, the big weekend is coming fast. Please make sure that the dates are on the calendar (October 10 –
12). There are many things planned, and I hope to see you at these events. The schedule will be
coming out this summer, but here are some highlights:
Homecoming Banquet—6:30 p.m. Memorial Auditorium on Friday, October 10th ($35)
50th Reunion Braekfast—8:00 a.m. Centrum, Knutson Campus Center on Saturday, October 11th ($20)
50th Reunion Gathering—8:30 p.m. Courtyard by Marriott, Moorhead on Saturday, October 11th ($15)
You can register online at www.ConcordiaCollege.edu/homecoming, by mailing in the registration form
included in the Alumni Relations summer booklet, or by calling the Office of Alumni Relations at (218)
299-3734 or (80) 699-9020.
I welcome everyone back to campus whether you have been there often or haven’t had the chance to
come back.
I hope all of you have a restful late summer and fall and a good rest of 2014.
Soli Deo Gloria,
Mary Larson, Class Agent