Don’t forget your Annual Fund giving!
Each year nearly 10,000 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 to reach our goal of 30% alumni giving to the Annual Fund.  Here’s how your class is doing so far this year:

CLASS of 1971 TOTAL GIVING:  $52,047.77 from 16.04% of the CLASS*

Have you made your 2011 gift to Luther?  Only 63 more gifts are needed to reach 30% for your class.  Please visit www.givenow.luther.edu to make a difference for Luther students.  Thank you!

Please note: Your Spring 2012 class agent letter will include a listing of your classmates who gave to Luther during 2011.  Be sure to make your gift before December 31 to be included.

*as of October 21, 2011

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Class Notes
LEE AFDAHL of Pine Island, Minn., serves as president of Handbell Musicians of America. He is also director of music and organist at First Presbyterian Church in Rochester, Minn.                                                                                                  

CATHERINE AZAR is an equine sports therapist in Lafayette, Colo., and also works on show horses.

TIM BECKER is president at Total Recall Learning in San Diego, Calif., and an assistant instructor at Brandman University. 

MIKE BROWN retired after 40 years of coaching basketball in Bettendorf, Iowa. 

DOUG CARLSON teaches mathematics in the Mabel-Canton Schools in Mabel, Minn. 

SUSAN (ETNYRE) and GARY DAVIS live in Oregon, Ill. Susan is a retired educator; Gary is a financial representative at Country Insurance and Financial Services. 

LEW DEAL is senior vice president and chief financial officer at the State Bank of Geneva in Geneva, Ill. 

DARLENE (PETERSON) DIES is director of finance and administration at the Marwen Foundation in Chicago. 

NAN (SOTEBEER) DILEY is regional sales manager at H.R.P., Inc., in Minneapolis. 

BARBARA (TIDBALL) FONKERT is a school safety specialist for the Division of Homeland Security in St. Paul, Minn. 

CINDY (EVERHART) FUCHS retired from teaching elementary school and now writes for the Floodwater, Minn., Portage News and McGregor, Minn., The Voyageur Press, serving as the “Taste” page coordinator in each publication. 

JACKEE (LARSEN) GONZALEZ is the director of the Circle of Friends after-school program at Lake in the Hills (Ill.) Elementary School. 

SANDY GROTH is a school improvement specialist for the Blue Valley School District in Overland Park, Kan.  She received a Kansas Teacher Leadership Endorsement in 2010. 

KARL HAGMAN is an insurance agent with Northwestern Mutual Financial Network in Loveland, Colo. 

KATE (STADLER) HAUGEN was honored as a 2011 YWCA Cass Clay “Woman of the Year” and received the Lifetime Achievement Florence Reed Owens award, which recognizes long-term commitment to equality, empowering women and girls, and/or eliminating racism. Currently the associate vice president of student affairs at North Dakota State University in Fargo, Kate also serves on the Plains Art Museum Board of Directors, the North Dakota Humanities Council, and the Fargo-Moorhead Area Foundation Board. 

JANE (THIELE) HENDERSON is a self-employed piano teacher, singer, and musician in Shorewood, Minn. 

PAMELA (LARSON) INDAHL, a professor at Whitworth University in Spokane, Wash.,  is also a self-employed attorney and mediator. 

DENNIS JOHNSON of Eugene, Ore., is a self-employed consultant to higher education and nonprofit organizations. 

ED KANERVA is vice president of cyber operations at Booz Allen Hamilton in Annapolis Junction, Md. 

ROGER LARSON is CEO at a substance abuse and mental health clinic in Germantown, Maryland. 

LOUANN LARSON-GASTON is a finance manager at Nebraska Health and Human Services in Lincoln. 

SCOTT LEE teaches part-time in the environmental studies department at University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. 

KAREN (ATKINSON) and KURT LEICHTLE ’70 live in River Falls, Wis. Karen is a special education paraprofessional in the River Falls School District. 

SUSAN (FEURIG) LUDVIGSON retired as a library media specialist in the Green Bay (Wis.) Area Public Schools. 

BRIAN and LINDA (PORTER) MARTINAT live in Lake Forest, Ill.  Linda is an administrative assistant at MacVesco in Lake Forest and Brian is a regional sales manager for Central Steel & Wire Co. in Chicago. 

LOU MATZ from Seattle is a site manager for a defense contractor on an Air Force training site, running flight simulators for the C-17 heavylift transport. 

JOHN METCALFE teaches high school mathematics at Community of Peace Academy in St. Paul, Minn. 

HANDEL MLILO is self-employed in Bethesda, Md. 

DEBORAH (GUNVALSON) NORRIE is executive assistant to the bishop of the Southeastern Minnesota Synod ELCA in Rochester, Minn. 

DAVID OTT is teaching kindergarten and coaching boys and girls high school volleyball and basketball in Rabat, Morocco. 

JON PALKS is a recreation therapist at the Veteran Affairs Medical Center in Washington, DC. 

KIRSTEN (KNUTSON) ’76 and DONALD PATTERSON live in Eagan, Minn. Donald is senior chaplain at Regions Hospital. 

FRED RECKLING retired from teaching but continues to serve on the Portage (Wis.) City Council and the Portage Community School Board. 

CONSTANCE (WHEELER) SHABAZZ is a principal partner and owner of Health Resources Consultants in Chicago. 

MARK STENGEL is director of library and distance education at Cuesta College in San Louis Obispo, Calif. 

SUE (JACOBSON) STOTTS works in reading recovery in the Des Moines (Iowa) Public Schools. 

CONNIE (ELSETH) WAKS is director of corporate relations at the Federal Home Loan Bank of Seattle. 

BILL WICKUM, now retired, divides his time between Detroit Lakes, Minn., and Rotonda West, Fla. 

PS. We have attached an editorial from Rick Fromm - editor of the Decorah Journal, class of '72, published on October 13.  We hope you enjoy it.

Say it Aint’ So
By Rick Fromm, editor of the Decorah Journal

Tell me it hasn’t been 40 years since the class of 1971 walked between the phalanx of professors after receiving their diplomas from Luther College.

As a proud member of the class of 1972, my four-decade reunion is just 12 months away, but I can certainly relate personally to many of the graduates of ’71 and the all-too-real fact the day they thought was just a distant dream, a time that seemed so far off it wasn’t even fathomable, has indeed arrived.

            It really is difficult for me to wrap my brain around. What was once an energetic, rambunctious group of 20-somethings has evolved into an admittedly more sedate collection of 60-year olds who have entered the fourth quarter in the game of life. Where has it gone? I doubt even Joe DiMaggio could answer that one.

This weekend marks Luther’s historic sesquicentennial homecoming celebration and it’s only fitting the guys and gals of 1971 would play such an integral part in the festivities. After all, the grads of ’71 and ’72 set quite a pace, and if you ask veteran and retired professors what classes they remember the most, the aforementioned years will undoubtedly come to mind.

            “Why?” you ask. It’s better if you don’t. And let’s just leave it at that. They were tough acts to follow … to say the least … and it’s doubtful any graduating assemblage before or since has left the same impression as my peers from 40 years ago. I know I’m prejudiced, but it’s an argument I could easily defend.

            Was that impression always a good one? Not by a long shot. Not even by a short shot. But it was most certainly unforgettable. That being said, however, I’m sure many who have been connected with Luther for that long would like to forget it. Enough said. Let’s move on.

To those who haven’t returned to Lutherville in a long, long time, you’ll be surprised at what you see on campus. The first thing you’ll probably notice – although it’s not part of the main campus – is the colossal wind turbine that rises above the hillside just to the west of Carlson Stadium. The turbine is a symbol of Luther’s commitment to “going green” and its determination to create a sustainable, self-sufficient college community that leaves a carbon footprint that is much, much smaller than in years past. As Martha would say: It’s a good thing.

            In addition, there are numerous new and exciting additions to the campus itself, such as the recently remodeled Dahl Centennial Union, the brand new Sampson Hoffland Laboratories, the Franklin W. Olin Building, Farwell Hall, Jenson-Noble Hall of Music, the Center of the Arts, Baker Village, the refurbished Ashmore-Jewell Barn, the expanded Regents Center, and a redesign of the campus itself to reduce vehicle traffic that cut dangerously through the heart of the college grounds – at least on the upper level.

            And there are many more plans for the future, such as the construction of a much-needed aquatic center and the ongoing return to the “woodland and meadow” campus conceived by Jens Jensen, who was one of America’s great landscape artists and whose vision helped create the original Luther campus in Decorah.

            Jensen crafted natural landscapes for famous houses built by Frank Lloyd Wright, Louis Sullivan, and other Chicago architects of the Prairie School design. His public works included Chicago parks, parkways, green belts, and natural preserves designed to “bring the prairies and woodlands” into the great Midwestern metropolis. In 1909 he visited Luther College, which was in dire need of a landscape plan.

            According to Luther’s website, Jensen’s design brought out the natural beauty of the campus and created a sense of serenity, harmony, and free anticipation to everyone who visited or studied amidst its green and flowering idealization of Mid-American nature.

            The entire Luther College experience has changed so much throughout the years, and especially in the last four decades. Gone are the days when freshmen and women had to wear blue “beanies” around campus and bow down and swear their allegiance to the homecoming queen at halftime of the football game.

            Gone are the times when you had one choice, and one choice only, at mealtime in the cafeteria. Never to return are curfews for students when the doors of the freshmen girls dormitory were locked at 10 p.m. Eliminated is the requirement to attend chapel three mornings a week (they never caught me).

            It’s been a century and a half since Luther first opened its doors at a vacant parsonage at Halfway Creek, Wis., which was the first college established by Norwegian immigrants in the United States.

But as Luther begins its second 150 years, the institution remains committed to contributing to the broader world by preparing students to lead and serve on behalf of the common good. And through it all, Luther has remained a tremendous asset and compassionate neighbor to Decorah and all of Winneshiek County. The “town-and-gown” relationship between Luther and the community remains the envy of countless colleges and cities, and there’s no reason to believe it won’t continue for future generations. In fact, I’m sure it will.

            I’m so proud to call myself a Luther graduate. It remains one of the best decisions I’ve ever made in my life. I don’t know if the feeling is mutual, but I’ll keep working at it nonetheless.

Go Norse!