wfn.org | Retired President of ELCA's Augsburg College, Oscar Anderson, Dies

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ELCA NEWS SERVICE

August 30, 2005

Retired President of ELCA's Augsburg College, Oscar Anderson, Dies
05-157-FI/DJ*

     CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Rev. Oscar A. Anderson, retired
president of Augsburg College, Minneapolis, and pastor of the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), died Aug. 25 in
Robbinsdale, Minn., from injuries suffered in a recent fall.  He
was 89 and resided in New Hope, Minn.
     Augsburg College was founded in 1869.  Anderson was its
eighth president.  The college now serves more than 3,000
students.
     Anderson was credited with defining Augsburg's role as an
urban college, while not losing its roots as both a liberal arts
institution and a college of the church.
     At the dedication of the Oscar Anderson residence hall in
1993, Anderson said, "My goal for Augsburg College was to make it
an urban college, not only one recognized within the urban
setting but one utilizing the resources of a metropolitan
setting."
     "Oscar Anderson was president of the college during two
crucial decades and supervised our transition from a college in
the city that wished it were in the country to a college fully
engaged with the city that had grown up around it," said Dr.
William V. Frame, who plans to retire in 2006 after nine years as
Augsburg's president.
     "As perhaps the best pulpit preacher of his time, Oscar
employed a razor sharp and telling wit to guide the college and
its alumni through this crucial transition.  He had returned to
the college frequently since his retirement and invariably
brought that wit and powerful rhetoric with him," Frame said.
     At the 2002 commencement ceremony for Augsburg College, the
Rev. Mark S. Hanson, presiding bishop of the ELCA, said, "It was
in this hall when we'd gather for chapel that I remember as a
first-year student hearing Oscar Anderson, our president, cry out
for the Holy Spirit to stir up within each of us that faith which
so many of us had ... in our hearts from parents and
grandparents, so it might be for us a living faith."
     A service in memory of Anderson will be held Sept. 1 at
Augsburg's Hoversten Chapel.
     Born April 19, 1916, in Minneapolis, Anderson was a graduate
of St. Olaf College, Northfield, Minn., and Luther Seminary, St.
Paul, Minn.  He completed his graduate studies at Union
Theological Seminary, New York.  Augsburg and St. Olaf are two of
28 ELCA colleges and universities; Luther is one of eight ELCA
seminaries.
     Anderson served as pastor of Lake Harriet Lutheran Church
(now Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd), Minneapolis, before
joining the staff of the International Young People's Luther
League, the youth ministry of the former Evangelical Lutheran
Church, Minneapolis, in 1948.  He returned to parish ministry as
pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church, Moorhead, Minn.
     Anderson was president of Augsburg College from 1963 until
his retirement in 1980.  During those 17 years, the campus more
than doubled in size, adding two tower residence halls, a student
center, a music building and an ice arena.
     Anderson received many honors, including the Knight's Cross
First Class of the Order of St. Olav from the Government of
Norway; the Paul Harris Fellow award from Rotary International;
the Distinguished Alumni Citation from both Augsburg and St. Olaf
Colleges; and the Distinguished Service Award from the City of
Minneapolis.
     In retirement Anderson served as interim president of Luther
Seminary, interim pastor of a congregation in Atlanta, and first
director of "Improve Public Understanding of Liberal Learning," a
project of the University of Minnesota and other state, community
and private colleges and universities.
     Anderson was preceded in death by his wife Leola; he is
survived by two daughters and two sons.
-- -- --
     The home page of Augsburg College is at
http://www.augsburg.edu/ on the Web.

* Dan Jorgensen is director of public relations, Augsburg
College, Minneapolis.

For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or news@elca.org
http://www.elca.org/news