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Marlys Hanson/Nelson (Hanson)

HI Jim,

  Woukld it be possible to get a copy of the photo cd you will be making for the class reunion? If so I would love to get one as I will not be able to make it to the reunion but my thoughts and heart will be there with all of you.

Thanks, Marlys

Jim Gisselquist

As mentioned earlier, we are attempting to put together a slide show, which we plan on showing at the Friday night's event. 

I have copied the photo of each of you from the '64 Saga and for those individuals, whose recent photo I have, I will post their current picture with the '64 photo.  Should be fun.  So.....if you haven't sent/posted a recent picture of yourself, please do so today or tomorrow, so that I can add it next to you '64 photo. 

Any other picture of "the old times" or those which might be of interest to the rest of the classmates, please send to me (jimgiz@gmail.com)

Looking forward to seeing many of you this coming weekend.

Jim

Jerry Johnson

I'm not sure how many will want to golf. I've made two tee times at Hiawatha Golf Course in Canton, but there is room for more than eight people if we get that many since tee times are not really needed to golf in Canton. The tee times I have set up are for 9:36 and 9:48 and the cost is $12 with a cart for 9 holes and $22 with a cart for 18 holes. We can plan on meeting at the Marriott about 8:30 and then car pool to Canton. Let me know if any questions. Jerry J. 
 

Ellie Watland

A huge thank you to Lonnie for all her hard work and careful planning to make our 50th reunion so successful and memorable.  It couldn't have been any better.  Congratulations to Rana and Dave for being selected as distinguished alums -- we're proud of you and the contributions you've made to better the lives of others.  Thank you to Mark for bringing back cherished memories of singing under his dad's direction and for creating more of the same this weekend. Lastly, thank you to everyone for taking the time to come to our reunion.  Each of you added to its success and my only regret is that I didn't get to talk to each of you individually.  I am so grateful to be a member of the AA "family" and look forward to seeing everyone at our 55th reunion.

Mark Madson

I feel "filled up" and overflowing ... grateful for a long drive home and for not having to go back to work until Wednesday to have a little space and time for processing 50 years and all that transpired this past weekend. Sights, sounds, hugs, handshakes, memories (including newly created ones) and the assurance that they are not just fabrications of my own mind! It was pure joy to make music together with you, to see your faces and hear familiar voices and blended sounds. Thank you for the privilege of working with you on the music elements of the weekend! Thanks for all who attended, sang, played, planned, spoke, shared, listened, smiled and reminded us that we have a mysterious common bond that's continually present. Peace to each of you as we take our portable relationships to wherever our current activities bring us. I am honored to be connected to each of you. Today Anna and I are relishing one of our greatest shared blessings as we celebrate Ben's 11th birthday. Life is good!

Marlys Hanson/Nelson (Hanson)

Dear Fellow Classmates,

  Sounds like a great weekend was enjoyed by all.  I hope someone took photos that they will share on the message forum. Would be great to see them if possible.  Glad everyone enjoyed renewing friendships and sharing histories of each family.  Sorry, I had to miss it  but enjoy hearing and reading messages on the forum.

Marlys

Rana Limbo

Dearest friends,

I think Mark and Ellie speak so eloquently for all of us. I wanted to add something that Margaret Pederson (Jon's mother) wrote to me in an email today. She missed her connecting flight in MSP on Sunday evening and, therefore, stayed with Kathy and family. Isn't that amazing? She had her programs from the reunion and was able to share with Kathy and her grandchildren how we honored Jon.

She closed her email with this: "I would also like to comment that of the many reunions I have attended at AA/Augustana College, this year was by far the best planned, full of wonderful music, and whatever." Cool, huh? Thanks, Lonnie, Mark, and all who came and helped with planning. What an unbelievable experience. Here we are at 67 or 68 and more connected than ever. With love always, Rana

Jim Gisselquist

Ditto to the above comments.  It was a great weekend that went all too fast. 

GRATITUDE to Lonnie for extraordinary efforts and all who helped make this weekend so much fun. 

After a bit of reflection over the past weekend, I agree with the comments made by classmates that we were a family, and as a family we take joy in reliving past experiences, talking about our lives since the Academy and remembering, grieving and honoring those classmates who are no longer with us.  I also found it interesting to see how comfortably we all fit back together - watching people talk and laugh together - seeming to thoroughly enjoy being together - it was great.  Rana's sermon on Sunday morning echoed these feeling in that we built strong relationships that have lasted through the years and that our time together at the Academy help to define and reinforce what positive relationships can be.  Lonnie did an excellent job of not only organizing the weekend, but emceeing the Saturday night dinner and giving wonderful opening remarks.  Both Dave and Rana were eloquent and articulate in their award acceptance remarks - "did us proud".  Mark, a big thanks for pulling the "64 Ensemble Choir" and the "All Class Choir" together - it was great fun and I think that the audience enjoyed it.  It was also a great way to honor Jon Pete.

GRATITUDE to those who helped plan this weekend, and to all of you who attended - it was like a family having a great time together.

Best wishes to all of you,

Jim

P.S.  In the next day or so, we will be sharing how all of you can see and share pics of the weekend.

Lonnie Ellison (Simonson)

Dear Friends,

What a weekend! It was such a love fest for us all, I think! The memories that our 50th reunion made are amazing reminders that we started up an amazing path in August of 1960, one that led so many of us to each other again over last weekend! Thank you for your kind thanks throughout the weekend; it makes the planning all so worth the effort, plus I got to speak with so many of you before the reunion even started and had such fun along the way!

You remember I said I'd plan the reunion because I was good at delegating work. So, I want to thank so many of you for what you did, because we all set plans for this wonderful weekend together! 

First of all, thanks to all of you who called classmates early on last fall. Jerry and Louise, Rana, Louise L. Esther, Jim, Karen-those early calls were the first alert! As time went on, classmates started to think about the weekend and later calls helped the plans along. Esther, thank you for sticking with the calls, because they really made a difference right up until summertime. Adele, you were so clever to find information about classmates. Thanks to you all!

Louise L., thanks so much for coordinating the hike near your farm-Good Earth State Park is beautiful already and it will grown in beauty as time goes on. It is exciting that part of your farmland is going to be preserved as the entry to the park. You had such a good idea about the hike on Thursday morning. Gregg, you surprised us with your presence that morning-it was so much fun that you joined us!

Karen, you had so many good ideas as we hatched plans at your house in Columbia MD and over the wires!! The quiz was such fun to write and believe me, I have written a few!! The t-shirts were such a good idea and we all await ours in the mail! Thanks to you for all that and to you Louise A. for working with Karen to lead the Falls Walk , lunch and Scandinavian shop visit. The trolley ride was an unexpected surprise! It was great fun to go around Sioux Falls last summer with you, Karen, finding the good spot for our "afterglow" gatherings! I think those colorful chairs in the lounge added to the glow, and I truly loved the late night gatherings. I, like Ellie, felt only one regret-that I didn't talk with each one of you individually! I'm sure a lot of us felt that way, since there was a moment when we knew we had to get to bed, plus we were losing our voices!!

Mark, what would we do without your inspired skills with music and the singers? I have sung in other reunion choirs, and the sound just isn't the same. You say it's us that have the sound, but it doesn't come out of us without you! Thank you, thank you thank you! We so enjoy getting to know Anna, too. She is a delight and I'm glad you had such a good weekend, followed by the celebration of Benjamin's 11th birthday.

Thanks to you, Jim, for the slide show which was a great way to focus our interest at the start of the dinner. It was fun to see those pictures of the children we once were! You also did a great job of helping with the plans for the music and contributing ideas as the reunion took shape.

Congratulations again, Rana and Dave, for your Distinquished Alumni Awards. It was inspiring to hear at the banquet what you have done in your professional lives, since we all know bits and pieces of what you've done, but we got the full picture of your expertise there that night! It was a pleasure to see your families throughout the weekend.You were gracious and eloquent in your speeches!

Rana, how can we thank you enough for bringing the message at the church service on Sunday. We all know the right person did that job! Your sermon about relationship was so special for our group, since that is what we all celebrate on the reunion weekend. Giving Jon Pete honor and remembrance through the sermon and with our song, "Soon and Very Soon" was one way we could express our loss of a wonderful friend. His mother must have been so honored, too. She is such a with-it 92 year old! Proof of genetic continuity!! Thanks again for volunteering to give the sermon. It was really a treat to have your sister, Jane, to accompany the choir. She is an expert, and we appreciate her being with us for her piano playing, but also for being our mascot, once again!

Louise L., Jim and Jerry, you did a really beautiful job of reading the scriptures Sunday morning. All three of you have such wonderful voices and it was very meaningful to hear your familiar voices reading the Word, the Psalm, the Gospel. Thank you for that and thanks to you who ushered and were communion servers: Ellie, Mark O., Sandy Boe, Louise A., Bev, Dave and Cherie.

You see, we all did this together. Thank you all for coming to make our 50th reunion so special! It was truly a pleasure to help with the planning and I thank each one of you for your kindness.

Love,
Lonnie

Jim Gisselquist

WEEKEND PICTURES!

The weekend is over and all of you should have had time to catch up on some lost sleep and back into your normal routines.  While the weekend is over, we still are enjoying the great memories of times shared together.  To help us remember this weekend, we wanted to find a way to share the many pictures that were taken during the weekend.  So......now is your chance to share your photos along with viewing those that your classmantes had taken.

So, to that end, a Shutterfly URL has been set up for our reunion weekend.  When you go to the following URL (www.AA1964ClassReunion.Shutterfly.com) you'll see that there are two "Albums".  The first contains the slides that were shown on Friday evening and the second are pictures that Mark Olson and I took (hopefully just a start of many more photos that you all will need to add). 

You will be able to view both of these albums without any logon required, but if you want to add your pictures (which I hope you will), you will need to sign into Shutterfly (or create a Shutterfly logon account) (top right corner) and then request ability to add pictures - top right corner of screen.  Since I'm the creator of the URL, I guess I have to approve anyone who wants to add pics.  As soon as I see your request, I'll approve it and you'll then be able to add pictures.  (Hopefully this level of complexity won't discourage you from adding your pictures.)  If you've worked with Shutterfly before and have a better (easier) way to create a shared accont, let me know. 

You also can view each photo individually by clicking on the picture, or you can view all of them as a slide show by clicking on the "Slideshow" button (which is located left above any viewed picture.  When viewing it as a slide show, you can also click on the "Full Screen" button located on the top right part of the picture.

PLEASE add your pictures to the "Slides from Classmates" album. 

If you have any questions or have any problems, please contact me (jimgiz@gmail.com or cell:  847-363-5222).

Thanks again in advance for continuing to share memories and photos from our reunion weekend.

Jim

P.S.  I'm anxious to hear how this process works, so please add pictures and let me know how workable (or unworkable) this is.  If I find an easier (less involved) method, I'll let you all know.

Or.....if this is too complicated, feel free to send me the pics (jimgiz@gmail.com) and I'll insert them into the Shutterfly website.

Doyle Abrahamson

Classmates,

           Lonnie,  thanks for organizing the reunion. I throughly enjoyed it. You did a great job.                      

          Congratulations to Rana and Dave. You both have much to be proud of.  I feel very lucky to know each of you.

          Mark M. thanks for letting me try and sing with the group. I really enjoyed the time.

          Jim you were very kind and patience, many thanks.

           Classmates you all helped make the reunion very enjoyable. Sorry that I didn't get to visit with everyone, I feel that was my loss.  THANK YOU ALL FOR THE MEMORIES.           

                                                              Doyle

Esther Stene (Krueger)

What a wonderful 50th reunion we had!  So many of our classmates had a part in making this reunion so special.  Thank you, Lonnie and Karen, for starting to plan this reunion over a year ago.  Lonnie, your remarks as emcee at the Saturday banquet certainly described  our relationship with Augustana Academy, classmates and staff.  You found the right word when you talked about gratitude.  The words in remembrance about our classmates who have died was especially meaningful at our Friday dinner.  Thank you to all of you who were involved--Mary, Doyle, Don, Adele, Lonnie, Rana, Jim, Louise and others who shared comments about these classmates throughout the evening.  Thank you, Louise, for organizing the trip to Good Earth State Park and the decision to eat at Panera.  Thank you, Mark, for making us sound so good as a choir. There is a special sound produced by Augustana Academy choir members thanks to your dad and to you as you continue the legacy.  Congratulations to Rana and David for each receiving "The Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award."  What you have accomplished is impressive.  And...the humor that was a part of the awards will not be forgotten.  I had forgotten the junior/senior banquet episode until David told the story.  Neither of us remembers who else was in the car besides the two of us.  Do any of you remember if you were in the car with us?  We'd really like to know who else shared this experience.

Thank you, Jerry, for reading the "Word" at Sunday's service.  You have the voice of a pastor.  Rana, thank you for inspiring us with your message on relationships--the steadfastness, hope and portability they entail.  In fact, I mentioned your words to a friend of mine whose husband recently died. Your message inspired her too.

As others of you mentioned, the one regret I too have about the reunion is not being able to spend a lot of time talking with each one of you.  Everyone of you has a fascinating life story of which I received a glimpse.

On Monday after the reunion, I drove to Miller, South Dakota, to visit Gloria Wire Keck.  She lives on a ranch twenty miles from Miller.  Gloria was married 48 years ago. Louise Lommen Evenson sang at her wedding, and I was her maid of honor.  We had a wonderful visit about the reunion, classmates, careers and family.  Gloria retired from teaching elementary school in 2002 and from coordinating the after school program in 2014.  I have included a picture of the two of us on my profile page.  One surprising piece of information that I did not know about Gloria is that she had back surgery in the 80's at the University of Minnesota Hospital.  She spent 30 days in the hospital and was in a body cast for months.  This is quite a switch from my back surgery hospital stay of three and one half days with no cast. 

Thank you all for coming to the reunion.  Your presence made our 50th reunion the special event it was.

Ellie Watland

Lonnie,

It's an OK from me to be on the spreadsheet.  

Thanks for putting it together for us.

Ellie

Marlys Hanson/Nelson (Hanson)

Please keep me on the e-mail mailing list. I enjoy reading everyones messages and hope to keep in touch with many of you.  Thanks,  Marlys (Nelson) Hanson

Marlys Hanson/Nelson (Hanson)

It would be wonderful if everyone would post their photo on their profiles so those of us who couldn't make it to the reunion can see what you look like now. I didn't recognize for sure who some of the classmates were on the photos Jim & Mark had in the classmate photos on the website (sorry, I didn't recognize some of you). Marlys

Jim Gisselquist

PLEASE ADD/SEND PIC!!!!!
 

This is another request for all of you who attended our recent reunion and took pictures, to please share them with everyone by adding them to the following website (see earlier message for details - website:  www.aa1964classreunion.shutterfly.com) or if it's easier, send them to me and I'll add them to the website.

My email address is jimgiz@gmail.com.

Lonnie has just added pictures that she took, so take a minute and see the new pics on the website.

If you have questions or any problems, please send me an email and I'll do my best to help.

Best wishes,

Jim

Jim Gisselquist

Picture Update!!

Ellie and Lonnie have just added a bunch of great pictures - visit the website and check them out! 

Web address:  www.aa1964classreunion.shutterfly.com

Let me know if you have any problems visiting the site or have questions on how to add pictures. 

Keep those pictures coming!

Jim

Jan Nelson

Hello all, thank you for including me in your plans even though I was a high school drop-out!  :)  I had hoped to attend this year, but we were in the thick of getting settled in our new home, a condo in Naperville, IL. Condensing into less than half of our former space is an interesting endeavor.  However, I've debriefed Lonnie, and know from your postings that your time together was extraordinary.  And no wonder, as I still regard my short time at the Academy as an extraordinary time in my own life. 

Jim Gisselquist

Class Picture

Our class picture that was taken after the Saturday night dinner has just been posted (along with the names - probably unnecessory as none of us has changed since HS).   Again, the website for the pictures is:  www.aa1964classreunion.shutterfly.com. 

Enjoy!!

Lonnie Ellison (Simonson)

Jan, it is great to hear from you on the Message Forum! Did you see that Jim put the class picture on the shutterfly site? Of course, as he said, none of us has change at all so you'd recognize us even without the names posted! We missed you at the reunion!

Marlys Hanson/Nelson (Hanson)

Hi All,

  Since no one is writing anything on message forum, is anyone on Facebook to chat with?

Always,  Marlys (Nelson) Hanson

Louise Asper (Johnson)

Harlan Norem passed away on Oct. 3. He was 90 years old. I have so many fond memories of him and his family and thought maybe some of you did too. His obituary is at the Argus Leader and there is a place to post a note to the family if you choose to. I checked and no one from the Academy had responded there so I did. He taught religion at the Academy when my sister was a freshman in high school and would preach at Lands some times. He came back when Bob Nervig came and was the academic administrator. Good memories of a fine man!

Mark Madson

Thanks for sharing the news about Harlan Norem, Louise. What a marvelous educator he was with an unusually creative mind! I recall him regularly engaging people to think about enduring truths and new concepts in refreshing and stimulating ways. It was a blessing to have been influenced by his viewpoints at an early phase of life. His family also brought beautifully unique perspectives to many facets of our life together as the "Academy family." Great memories!

Mark Madson

Don Knutson

Harlan Norem had unique ways in his delivery style.  I especially remember 1 sermon at Lands where the topic "may" have been Jesus in the boat with the fishermen, Harlan played this to the hilt, perhaps he noticed some in the audience in a dose mode, anyway to enhance the story of the group going under he held his nose and ducked down behind the pulpit, this brought laughter, restrained as it may have been in the Lutheran way, but I'm sure the doser's woke up.

Marlys Hanson/Nelson (Hanson)

Dear Classmates,

  Is it possible for someone to add former faculty members of AA to our IN MEMORY list. I know I have wondered about most of them, where they are and if they still live.

Thanks, Marlys (Nelson)Hanson