On Tuesday, September 25th, a couple from Norway stopped into the library unexpectedly. Drude Koren Berntsen and her husband were visiting Decorah for the day as part of a longer two-week visit to the states. Drude is a relative of U.V. and Elisabeth Koren, one of the founding families of Luther.

Many Paideia I students may recall Elisabeth Koren from the reading of her diary. Unfortunately, the bookstore was out of copies of Elisabeth Koren's diary, and so the Bernsten's were on their way to Vesterheim to pick up a copy. They also stopped by Koren Building, the previous college library. (See related picture in this week's Chips.) Drude's father, Claus Jan Koren, visited Decorah in the 1980s for the college's 125th celebration.

U.V. Koren's descendants have had a long legacy with Luther College. His son-in-law, Issac B. Torrison, taught religion at Luther for ten years; his grandson-in-law David Theodore Nelson served on the Luther faculty for 42 years, teaching English and Latin; his great-grandsons David Torrison Nelson (Physics) and John Paul Nelson (Accounting) spent many years on the Luther faculty; and his great-great-granddaughter Kate Nelson Rattenborg is currently a librarian at Luther. In addition, two great-great-great-granddaughters are current Luther students, Brigitte Nelson ('10) and Heather Nelson ('11).