Alumni Achievement Award
The purpose of the Concordia College Alumni Achievement Award and Sent Forth Award is to honor alumni who have exemplified the ideals of Concordia College through outstanding service and leadership in their profession, community and church. These individuals have profoundly influenced the affairs of the world through thought, word and deed.
Nominate someone for either of these awards.
2009 Alumni Achievement Award Recipients
Alumni Achievement Awards will be presented to Glory A. Monson ‘58, Rugby, N.D.; Dr. Olaf O. Storaasli ‘64, Oak Ridge, Tenn.; the Rev. David K. Johnson ‘64, Peachtree, GA.; and Dr. James M. Jaranson ‘69, San Diego, Calif.
Monson has been the founder, artistic director and creative force behind Village Arts Inc., for more than 40 years. She is a community builder, an exemplar of excellence, a versatile artist and a motivator to generations of young people. Village Arts programs include musicals, children’s theatre and an orchestra with musicians ranging in age from grade school students to senior citizens.
Storaasli is a senior research scientist in computational mechanics at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, following thirty-five years at NASA. He is an internationally known expert on parallel methods for structural mechanics on high-performance computers. Storaasli has authored more than 80 works on computational structural mechanics, has received fellowships for postdoctoral research in Edinburgh, Trondheim and Oslo, Norway, and is a lecturer at research institutions and universities in this country and abroad.
Johnson was the senior pastor at Hope Lutheran Church and the visionary behind the establishment of the Hope South campus in Fargo. He was vice chair of the Billy Graham Area Wide Crusade, and a member of the DUI Task Force, Teens and Parents Task Force and the Human Research Ethics Committee, all in Fargo. Johnson is widely known for his ability to create a vision and then organize people and tasks to achieve it.
Jaranson is a board-certified psychiatrist who is also certified in public health and general preventive medicine. He is semi-retired from active practice of psychiatry in Minnesota and consults in the field of rehabilitating politically motivated torture survivors. He co-chairs the Section of the Psychological Consequences of Torture and Persecution of the World Psychiatric Association and has represented the United States on the International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims. He writes and lectures extensively on the care of refugee patients and torture survivors.
2008 Alumni Achievement Award Recipients
Alumni Achievement Awards have been presented to Dr. Ordean Oen ’49, Oak Ridge, Tenn.; Dianne (Larson) Kimm ’60, Pelican Rapids, Minn.; and Charley Johnson ’72, Moorhead.
Oen is retired from a distinguished 31-year career as a research physicist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. His work centered on the development of fission and fusion energy sources. Oen has turned his hobby of making wild fruit into jelly and wine as a valued source of financial support for the Park River (N.D.) Lutheran Bible Camp, and his family and grandchildren continue to participate in Concordia Language Village programs.
Kimm is manager of the Lutheran Social Services refugee program, where she has worked tirelessly on behalf of refugees from Somalia, Bosnia and Russia. She has assisted with refugee resettlement in the region, helping with basic housing, language education, legal issues and achieving citizenship. She is a community leader who has served the Pelican Rapids School Board for 30 years.
Johnson is a well-known television newscaster, who is general manager of KVLY and KXJB TV in Fargo. He previously worked as a news director at both stations and also in radio. He is considered one of the Red River Valley’s most recognizable and trusted newsmen. He served as president of the Trinity Lutheran church council, on the Concordia National Alumni Board and has taught broadcast journalism and news writing.
Awards and Recognition
