Each year nearly 9,500 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 to reach our participation goal to the Annual Fund.  Here’s how your class is doing so far this year:

CLASS OF 1949 TOTAL GIVING: $15,099.93 FROM 36% OF THE CLASS*

Have you made your 2012 gift to Luther?  Please visit www.givenow.luther.edu to make a difference for Luther students.  Thank you!

Please note: Your Spring 2013 class agent letter will include a listing of your classmates who gave to Luther during 2012.  Be sure to make your gift before December 31 to be included.

*as of October 18, 2012

Obituaries
PAUL OSBURN HANSEN of Mitchell, S.D., died Jan. 4, 2012, at age 88. Upon graduating from high school, he went to work for Bell Telephone Co., in northern Minnesota, as a lineman. Paul was recruited by the FBI in Washington, D.C., and worked as an assistant laboratory aide in the Sound and Electric Division.  One of Paul’s responsibilities was to check for wire tapping in Director J. Edgar Hoover’s office and personal residence. He resigned from the FBI in1942 after being drafted into the U.S. Navy. Paul was an Aviation Ordinance Man, Second Class, and served in California and Saipan in the South Pacific during World War II. Following the war, he graduated from Luther. Paul had various jobs in Iowa and Wisconsin before moving to Fargo, N.D., where he was employed with Gunkelman Seed and Chemical Co. He later moved to White Bear Lake, Minn., where he worked for Chipman Chemical Co. In 1967 he formed the company Aaro Films and filmed and produced three major movies, North American Safari 68, Wilderness Calling, and Trail to Alaska. After fulfilling his dream of producing these movies, Paul formed his own seed and chemical business, AgCom.  He later co-founded and served as executive director of the Minnesota Association of Farmers, Landowners, and Sportsmen. The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources hired Paul to a newly created position, the citizen participation coordinator (ombudsman). Paul retired after nine years with the DNR. Throughout his life he enjoyed the outdoors and his many friends. In 2003 Paul and his wife, ROSALIE (DAHLE) HANSEN ’47, moved to Mitchell and were members of Resurrection Lutheran Church, where their son, John, is pastor. Paul enjoyed his time in Mitchell meeting and making new friends, going on hunting trips with John, and spending time and money at Cabelas. He is survived by his wife, Rosalie; his children, Kathryn Courtney and John Hansen; five grandchildren; five great-grandchildren; and a sister, Marian Majerle. Paul was predeceased by his daughter, Paula Jean Hansen-Asmus '71; a brother, Philip Hansen ’49; and his father, HAROLD HANSEN ’17. 

DALE S. HAUGEN of Rochester, Minn., died Dec. 7, 2011, at age 85. Following graduation from high school, he served during World War II in the U.S. Navy as a medical corpsman from 1943-46, spending two years in the South Pacific. After graduating from Luther, Dale earned a master’s degree in school administration from the University of Iowa in 1953. Additional graduate studies included a specialist’s degree equivalency at Winona State University and studies at the University of Minnesota. He was a teacher and coach at New Albin, Iowa, from 1949-51. From 1951-67, Dale served as junior and senior high school principal in Chatfield, Minn., and high school counselor from 1967-69. He was instrumental in starting the foreign exchange student program and the Chatfield Student Loan Program, serving as vice chairman and secretary for six years. In 1969 Dale became student services coordinator at the Rochester Area Vocational-Technical Institute, retiring in1987. Active in many community and educational organizations, he was a life member of the National Education Association, a 50-year member of Phi Delta Kappa, and a long-time member of the Minnesota Education Association, serving on the delegate assembly for 10 years. Dale also held memberships in the Minnesota and American Vocational Association, Minnesota Vocational Assistant Directors Association, and the Minnesota Vocational Counselors Association. Dale was a long-time member of Chatfield Lutheran Church, where he served as a choir member, Sunday school superintendent, and men’s club and student scholarship committee member. He was a life member of the American Legion and VFW, serving as a post adjutant for American Legion Post #197 for 10 years. He is survived by his wife, Ione; two daughters, Kathryn Hawk and Patricia Reiland; a sister, Mae Ellestad; eight grandchildren; and one great-granddaughter. He was predeceased by a brother, Omar.

ALFRED I. ROSGAARD of Havre, Mont., died March 2, 2012, at age 94, at the Northern Montana Care Center due to natural causes. His funeral service was held March 6, 2012, at the Messiah Lutheran Church. Burial with full military honors was at Highland Cemetery.  During World War II, Alfred enlisted in the U.S. Army, serving first in the 249th Coast Artillery from 1941-43.  In 1943 he transferred into the paratroops and served with the 13th Airborne Division in the European theatre as a rigger until 1945.  After graduation from Luther, Alfred continued his studies at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minn., graduating in 1953, and was ordained at his home church, Bethany Lutheran Church, Fairview, S.D., in 1953. He served churches at Sherwood and rural Williston, N.D.; and Wibaux, Galata, and Richland, Mont. He retired from the ministry in 1982 to Townsend, Mont., and relocated to Havre in 1999.  Alfred was preceded in death by his parents and his wife, Edith.  He is survived by his children Dorothy Haney, Al Rosgaard, and David Rosgaard; his brother Richard Rosgaard; 5 grandchildren; and 3 great-grandchildren.

OTIS L. TWEDT, JR. of Story City, Iowa, died Feb. 12, 2011, at age 84. After graduating from Luther, he was employed by Ames InCross and joined the staff at the Iowa Department of Transportation in 1955 as a draftsman in road design. Otis was proud to have worked on the design of the signature arch bridge over “the cut” on State Highway 52 in Decorah. He retired in 1988. A lifelong member of Bergen Lutheran Church in Roland, Iowa, Otis enjoyed stamp and coin collecting, recording for weddings, and working with computers. He is survived by his wife, Luella, and a brother, Keith.