April 2023
Dear Luther Classmates of 1953,
This a test: whether, at age 91, I am still up to composing a Class Agent letter for the Class of 1953. It’s been quite a slog, facing the COVID pandemic ever since March 2020 and awaiting the signal to relax, get out and about, and resume normal living. After that three-year timeout, it isn’t easy to return to normal, not to speak of the difficulty of defining normal at age 91.
Five years ago, when we observed the 65th anniversary of our graduation from Luther College, we had a sizeable turnout for the Homecoming Weekend of 2018. Weren’t there some twenty of us? Why not plan a robust observance of our 70th 5 years hence, I reasoned back then? Well, five-year increments seemed manageable the first 65 years; not so much at 70. Plans move slowly across the threshold of age 90. I do recall that there were two graduates observing their 70th 5 years ago, one his 75th. The latter was David Preus, member of the championship Luther College basketball team of 1943, classmate of Weston Noble, who was on the brink of entering the Armed Forces of the USA on his commencement day of 1943 (Weston wasn’t there for Commencement Day; he was training for service in a tank squadron.) David is also the retired president of The American Lutheran Church.
It would be lovely to greet many of you in person at Homecoming 2023. But, to give everyone an opportunity to participate, let’s try a modified virtual/in person approach. I invite each of you to write a brief description of your current life situation—whatever you want to report—in a half-page paragraph. Send it to me by June 1, and I will assemble the responses in a form that can be distributed to the members of the class. It would be most convenient for me if you sent your response via email. However, anyone who does not have access to email may send the response to me via regular mail. I would then arrange the responses in an email and send it out, and print copies (for those who do not use email) to mail out.
I will provide an example below:
In March 2019, Ruth and I decided to move into an apartment in an assisted living facility in Decorah. Ruth had been suffering from memory loss for some time, and, shortly after we moved to the apartment, she moved to the adjacent nursing home, since I could no longer care for her. Ruth died in February 2020, soon before the general shutdown resulting from the pandemic threat. I continue to live in the apartment, a comfortable living situation. Quite a few of my Luther faculty colleagues who are retired and continue to live in Decorah, form a community of friends. We enjoy gathering for coffee once a week and attend events on campus. The travel we enjoyed in the decades following retirement have now ceased. In those first years following retirement we enjoyed trips to Switzerland, visits with friends in Germany, accompanying January Term student groups to Russia and China, multiple trips to the UK, primarily London, and several cruises (inland cruise to Alaska, a journey through the Panama Canal, and a voyage to Hawaii). I am in reasonably good health, though currently recovering from a second bout of COVID—wretched stuff. Life is good and I am content.
You may remember Bob Rosholt ‘51, in his junior year when we were freshmen. Bob and his wife Lucy, moved to Decorah when they retired. We became very good friends. Both have died now and I miss them a lot. Lucy’s standard advice to a request for a response was: DIN, do it now. It will never become easier to do by delay.
When we observed our Golden Anniversary as a class, we announced the goal of raising $100,000 to establish the Class of 1953 Scholarship. I plan to announce the completion of that goal Homecoming 2023 Weekend, October 6-8. In order to preserve my credibility, please send a gift of whatever amount you are comfortable with to the Development Office at your earliest convenience.
Cheers!
