wfn.org | Jeffrey D. Baker New President of ELCA's Luther College

[ELCANEWS@ELCASCO.ELCA.ORG]

ELCA NEWS SERVICE

April 15, 1996

JEFFREY D. BAKER PRESIDENT OF LUTHER

Dr. Jeffrey D. Baker, Helena, Mont., will be the next president
of Luther College, Decorah, Iowa.  Baker is the commissioner of
higher education for the  Montana University System, a position
he has held since 1993.  He was elected March 23 and will assume
the office July 1 as the eighth president in Luther's 135 year
history.  Baker succeeds the Rev. H. George Anderson who was
elected bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America last
August.  Luther is one of 28 colleges associated with the ELCA.
In Montana Baker was chief executive officer for six four-year
institutions and five colleges of technology, serving 33,000
students.  From 1988 to 1993 Baker was at Carroll College,
Helena, as vice president for academic affairs and dean of the
college.  He earned a bachelor of science degree at the United
States Air Force Academy, Colorado Springs, Colo., and was a U.S.
Air Force pilot and instructor from 1964 to 1970.  He earned a
master of business administration from Arizona State University,
Tempe,  and Ph.D. in economics from the University of North
Carolina.  His career in education includes faculty and
administrative positions at the Air Force Academy, the Defense
Intelligence College, Washington, D.C., Carroll College and the
University of Kentucky, Lexington.  Baker is a member of Our
Redeemer Lutheran Church in Helena.

For information contact: Ann Hafften, Dir., ELCA News Service,
(312) 380-2958; Frank Imhoff, Assoc. Dir., (312) 380-2955; Lia
Christiansen, Asst. Dir., (312) 380-2956