Title: ELCA's St. Olaf College Names David R. Anderson President ELCA NEWS SERVICE
March 16, 2006
ELCA's St. Olaf College Names David R. Anderson President 06-040-FI/AG*
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- On March 13 the board of regents of St. Olaf College, Northfield, Minn., named Dr. David R. Anderson to become the college's 11th president. Anderson is a professor of English and the provost at Denison University, Granville, Ohio. St. Olaf is one of 28 colleges and universities of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA).
Anderson, 53, succeeds the Rev. Christopher M. Thomforde in July. Thomforde served St. Olaf as president since January 2001 and will become president of Moravian College and Moravian Theological Seminary, Bethlehem, Pa., this summer.
"David has a complete understanding of and absolute passion for what it means to be a liberal arts college of the church," said Jerrol M. Tostrud, chair of the St. Olaf board of regents.
Anderson was raised in La Crosse, Wis., where his parents still reside. He is a 1974 graduate of St. Olaf, which included studies at Manchester College, Oxford, England. He earned a doctorate in English from Boston College, and he studied at the Institute for Educational Management, Harvard University, and the Center for Dispute Resolution, Capital University, Columbus, Ohio. Capital is also an ELCA institution.
Anderson taught English at St. Olaf and at the University of Kansas, Lawrence, before serving in administrative capacities at Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, and Texas A&M University, College Station. He was vice president for academic affairs and dean of the college at Luther College, Decorah, Iowa, where he also was a professor of English. Luther is an ELCA college.
Anderson served as provost at Denison since 1999, while continuing his role as an English professor. He said one of his foremost accomplishments at Denison was the hiring of more than one-third of the current faculty.
"The strength of a college always lies in its faculty," Anderson said. "We've set a tone of transparency and consistency and fairness in the way we run the college and deal with faculty. I'm pretty proud of that."
"St. Olaf has a robust and complex mission. There will be tensions over priorities," he said. "One of the president's jobs is to facilitate the community discussion about those tensions, and then act decisively and execute well."
"David perfectly fits the description of the characteristics we were looking for," said Addison "Tad" Piper, Minneapolis, St. Olaf regent and chair of the 11-person presidential search committee.
"He is passionate about the mission of St. Olaf, a very experienced leader and administrator, an accomplished scholar and educator, a gifted speaker and communicator. And he relates well to students, faculty, alumni and the board. We are thrilled that he will be our next president," Piper said.
Founded in 1874, St. Olaf is a liberal arts college with nationally ranked programs in music, science, mathematics, humanities and international studies.
Anderson and his wife Priscilla Paton, a writer and scholar, are the parents of a son and a daughter. Anderson is a member of Hosanna Lutheran Church, Pataskala, Ohio, and president of the congregation's council. -- -- --
The home page for St. Olaf College is at http://www.stolaf.edu/ on the Web.
* Amy Gage is director, Marketing-Communications Department, St. Olaf College, Northfield, Minn.
For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or news@elca.org http://www.elca.org/news ELCA News Blog: http://www.elca.org/news/blog