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 [log in to unmask]
http://www.elca.org/news
ELCA News Blog: http://www.elca.org/news/blog
