LUTHER STORY_FALL_2019_Layout 1 11/19/19 8:16 PM Page 1 Luther CoLLege ALumni & FriendS mAgAzine LutherS t o r y HOMECOMING 2019 CLASS PHOTOS LEADING IN REMEMBERING ENVIRONMENTAL MARK LEUPOLD SUSTAINABILITY FALL 2019 REGINA CANADA LUTHER STORY_FALL_2019_Layout 1 11/19/19 8:17 PM Page 2 Message froM the President as i write this penultimate this, as it has meant that i have been able to focus finally, on october 19, 2019, our College hosted column in my last year as on continuing to fulfill the ongoing work of my the first annual general Meeting (agM) under our President of this wonderfully blessed College, office (or, as one regent put it, i have been able new corporate membership structure. our Board three recent events stand out as reminders of the to keep my ‘pedal to the metal’). established a subcommittee to ensure that this outstanding team effort of this College, of which meeting was done well and in order; they i am so proud. the second event was our hosting of the national received fantastic support from the executive convention of the evangelical Lutheran Church in assistant to the President’s office, Jodi Kydd, who the first is the presidential search currently being Canada (eLCiC) in July of this past summer. our ensured major issues were considered and so conducted by the College’s Board of regents. University campus Chaplain, Pastor sean Bell, many details covered. though i know that i have one of the best jobs in assumed leadership in this effort, with the world, surrounded by some of the best people great support from our food services area, our at the meeting, national Bishop susan Johnson to work with and supported by one of the best Manager of residence & Conference services, delivered a truly inspiring sermon, perfect for the Boards, approximately a year ago i told the Board rhonda Litzenberger, and our Manager of event, while saskatchewan Bishop sid haugen of regents of my intention to retire at the end of Communications, Michelle Clark. Past faculty like and representatives from the surrounding the 2019-2020 academic year. at that point, i will dr. Mary Vetter with her husband, dr. david Lutheran community indicated with their have served two five-year terms as President of sauchyn (Uregina campus), and current faculty presence and participation their support of the the College, and i admit that i am looking forward like dr. Brenda anderson, together with graduate College. rounding out that attendance were to the lighter workload and more flexible students Jenna tickell (U’13) and Maysa haque, representatives of parents, faculty, and staff, as schedule that retirement will bring. in response led thoughtful sessions on reconciliation with the well as regents, past and current, whose presence to my announcement, the Board, under then chair earth, with other faiths, and with indigenous on a beautiful saturday indicated their dedication david solheim, set about creating a committee to peoples. of course, none of this would have been to the College. study and consider what was needed in our next possible without the good organization of the President. the committee then hired a search eLCiC national office and the wonderful support teamwork, hard work, organization, and of course consultant to conduct an international search and of so many volunteers from the surrounding god’s unfailing faithfulness are all evident in is now entering the interview stage of this Lutheran community; still, i take seriously the these events. thank you all! soli deo gloria!!! process. Keeping with the best of practices, i am words of Kyle giesbrecht of the eLCiC in his not a part of the process; instead, this capable thank-you letter: “Luther College helped make volunteer Board is ensuring a smooth transition it happen.” Bryan hillis (U’78), Ph.d. to the next President. i am so very grateful for President, Luther College THE LUTHERSTORY SENIOR EDITOR MICHELLE CLARK $U’04% EDITORIAL ADVISOR ANGELA BETHUNE EDITORIAL BOARD DONNA GRANT $U’93% STEPHANIE CYCA HILARY SCHROEDER DESIGN IMPACT PRINTERS FRONT COVER LCUR SPRING 2019 GRADUATES KEVINA MULLOCK $U’19% AND MEGHAN EDWARDS $U’19% IF YOU HAVE A QUESTION OR STORY TO SHARE, PLEASE CONTACT US AT LUTHERSTORY;LUTHERCOLLEGE.EDU OR 3737 WASCANA PARKWAY REGINA, SASKATCHEWAN S4S 0A2 FOLLOW US! lchsregina LCHS Regina luther_college_hs Lutheredu LCUR1971 lutheredu LUTHER STORY_FALL_2019_Layout 1 11/19/19 8:17 PM Page 3 Message froM the PULPit have you ever wished you note what is happening here: the disciples look both agreed to make a new start. We shared could time travel? it’s an idea backward for the cause of the problem, but Jesus memories, we watched movies, we got to know i have always found fascinating and i have read looks forward instead. Jesus heals the man each other again… and we did a lot of healing. h.g. Wells’s The Time Machine numerous times! i and looks to the future: this man will bring glory the Bible doesn’t say much about looking once asked a physicist if it was possible to travel to god. backward to find out the reasons for all the bad in time. he said, “of course! You’re moving stuff we have gone through. instead, it points forward in time right now!” it was not the answer forward. and that’s the only time machine that i had hoped for (and no, he didn’t think we could i looked forward. really works: changing what we do now changes step out of that reality, despite what Star Trek the future. might imagine). a very special thing happened for me this the Bible encourages us to “choose life.” in if i had a time machine, perhaps i would travel to summer. My brother – the one i have wished i deuteronomy 30, god tells his people: “i am giving the future or perhaps into the past – in my case, could change the past with – invited me to visit you the choice between life and death…. to change the past and correct past mistakes. one him in ontario for a week. it was the first time i therefore choose life.” and in the gospel of John, thing i would change if i could would be my had seen him in years or spent any real time with Jesus says, “i have come so that you may have life relationship with my brother. Like many siblings, him. now i was faced with a choice: to look back and have life abundantly.” we haven’t always gotten along. sometimes i and nurse an old hurt or to look forward and seek wish i had that time machine to go back and try something new. travel forward. to understand what went wrong in the past. i looked forward. in John 9:1–12, when Jesus and his disciples i realized i can’t change what was. not much point encounter a blind beggar, the disciples ask, in rehashing it, either. to use a gnomic expression, “rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that Pastor david Peterson there’s no future in the past. But i can change the he was born blind?” Jesus replies, “neither this Chaplain, Luther College high school present and then the future. i prayed a lot before man nor his parents sinned, but this happened so that journey. When i got there, it was as if we had that the works of god might be displayed in him.” tAbLe oF ContentS ALUMNI PROFILES PAGE 2 HIGH SCHOOL DONOR REPORT 2018<2019 PAGE 18 HOMECOMING 2019 PAGE 10 ROBERT GORDON’S LASTING LEGACY PAGE 20 REMEMBERING MARK LEUPOLD PAGE 12 CHURCH LEGACY UPDATE PAGE 21 LEADING IN ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY PAGE 14 ON CAMPUS PAGE 22 DREAM NO SMALL DREAMS PAGE 15 UNIVERSITY DONOR REPORT 2018<2019 PAGE 26 PLANNING FOR THE FUTURE PAGE 16 LUTHER COLLEGE HITS $13.5 MILLION GOAL PAGE 27 THANK YOU, MYRA COLE PAGE 17 CLASS NOTES & IN MEMORIAM PAGE 28 LUTHER STORY_FALL_2019_Layout 1 11/19/19 8:17 PM Page 2 ALumni ProFiLe Written by Lynette Piper BILL SCHWARZ (hS’60) Skewing ArtiStiC LineS And deFying ConventionS teens tend to get clumped into convenient stereotypes in high wasn’t his first choice for an evening out, he agreed to school with immediately recognizable labels: the brainiacs, the accompany his wife. jocks, the choristers, the rebels. that class, Bill says, opened up “an exciting new world of bill Schwarz (hS’60) never liked labels, and did his best creation. i paint what i feel, and every time i pick up a brush, to avoid being boxed in to one stereotype while attending it’s something new.” Bill’s inspiration comes from a mishmash Luther College high school. he served as Class President of houses, boats, old cars, church spires, and even utility poles and Valedictorian. he was involved with debate and sketched from his many travels. the lines on his canvases football and the Letterman’s Chorus (a singing group for male are purposely skewed, with walls that lean and roofs that athletes). he even hosted a Luther tV show called teen dip. the colours are rich, warm, and brilliant. “i don’t like to tempo on CKCK-tV every saturday, helping students learn follow anyone. My art is just like me – a little skewed,” he about different vocations. laughs playfully. is it any wonder that this successful commercial lawyer in Bill has donated his work to hospitals and charitable Cambridge, ontario, is also a renowned artist – who picked up organizations across Canada. “i’m a little bit like a breeder,” he a paintbrush only twenty years ago, in his fifties? begins, then hesitates, like a comedian who knows just when to deliver the punchline.