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Seven new St. Olaf College regents, five returning regents ratified by ELCA

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November 20, 2001

St. Olaf College announced that the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) ratified seven new members of the St. Olaf Board of Regents. Five other St. Olaf regents were ratified for second terms.

New St. Olaf regents are William G. Cowles, Jr. of Northfield, MN; Ruth Hustad of Eden Prairie, MN; B. Kristine Johnson of Wayzata, MN; Mark D. Johnson of Shorewood, MN; Martha Nelson of St. Paul, MN; and Larry Rasmussen of New York, NY.

Second-term St. Olaf regents who were ratified by the Churchwide Assembly are: Kathleen Brekken of Cannon Falls, MN; Barbara Burwell of Wayzata, MN; Robert Hatch of Kansas City, MO; Bruce Nicholson of Eden Prairie, MN; and O.J. Tomson of Mason City, Iowa.

T.J. Cross of Golden Valley, MN, was appointed as the St. Olaf Board of Regents? recent graduate representative; he will serve for two years.

William G. Cowles, Jr. is General Manager of Frigoscandia Equipment, a subsidiary of FMC Corp. Previously he co-owned, with his brother, Northfield Freezing Systems Inc., a primary supplier of freezing equipment to the food processing industry. This company was recently sold to FMC Corp. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics from Ohio Wesleyan University and an MBA from Rutgers University. He has been involved in numerous civic and charitable organizations in Northfield, MN. He and his wife, Laurie, have three children, Kelly, Doug and Molly.

Ruth Hustad is president of Hustad Real Estate and chair of Hustad Development Corporation in Eden Prairie. She graduated from St. Olaf in 1955. Hustad has served on the Minnesota Waste Control Commission. She recently completed 19 years of service on the Fairview Southdale Board of Trustees and the Fairview/University System Board of Directors. In 1995, the Eden Prairie Chamber of Commerce selected her as the Outstanding Business Person of the Year. She was also honored as one of the Minnesota Business Women Entrepreneurs. In 1999, she received the St. Olaf Distinguished Alumni Award. She and her husband, Wallace, have four children: Susan Hustad-Seeland, who graduated from St. Olaf in 1978; Wallace Hustad and Kelly Hustad Hueler, who both graduated from St. Olaf in 1981; and Beth Hustad Simenstad, and eight grandchildren.

B. Kristine Johnson is a principal of Affinity Capital Management and General Partner of Affinity Ventures III, L.P., a venture capital limited partnership formed to invest in early-stage healthcare companies. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree from St. Olaf in 1973, having majored in mathematics, economics and political science. She was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. In 1996, she received the St. Olaf Distinguished Alumni Award. Johnson is a member of the Board of Directors of ADC Telecommunications, the University of Minnesota Physicians, the Children?s Health Care Board, the University of Minnesota Foundation and Great Clips, Inc. She and her husband, Robbin, have two daughters, Kelsey and Berit.

Mark D. Johnson, a 1982 St. Olaf graduate, is a partner in the Waterman Group, a company he co-founded that is dedicated to developing new start-up businesses. Previously, he founded MTI Group, an innovative network services company that he built and then sold in 1996. He and his wife, Laura Estenson Johnson, also a 1982 graduate of St. Olaf, fund and direct the Wallace J. Estenson Entrepreneurial Internship Program, which places St. Olaf College students in entrepreneurial businesses each summer throughout the country. He received the St. Olaf Distinguished Alumni Award in 1999. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of Four51, Inc. and Espiria, Inc. Johnson and his wife have five children: Kayla, Connor, Kari, Charlie and Jacob.

Martha Nelson and her husband, Brock, both graduated from St. Olaf in 1973. Two of their children, Kolbjorn Nelson and Martha Nelson, currently attend St. Olaf, while the other two, Thor Nelson and Haakon Nelson, graduated in 1998 and 2000 respectively. Nelson has served on several athletic and educational advisory boards and she currently volunteers as an elementary school ESL and literature tutor.


Larry Rasmussen currently holds the position of Reinhold Niebuhr Professor of Social Ethics at the Union Theological Seminary in New York City. He received the Grawemeyer Award in religion in 1997, as well as the Luce Fellow in Theology in 1998 for his theology research. He graduated from St. Olaf in 1961 with a B.A. in history and from the Luther Theological Seminary with a B.D. in 1965. He was awarded a Ph.D. from Union Theological Seminary in 1970. He has served on numerous boards and advisory committees including the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Lilly Theological Research Grants Program, the Plowshares Institute, and the Justice, Peace, Creation Committee of the World Council of Churches. Rasmussen has also authored numerous papers and books, and lectured throughout the world on a variety of topics. He is a member of the International Bonhoeffer Society, the Society of Christian Ethics and the American Academy of Religion.

Travis J. Cross earned the Bachelor of Music degree cum laude from St. Olaf in 1999. While a student, he was a member of the St. Olaf Band, the St. Olaf Orchestra and the St. Olaf Cantorei. He also served the Student Government Association in various positions, including student body vice president. He currently teaches at Edina (MN) High School, where he conducts two concert bands and directs the Edina Marching Band program. An active composer for bands, choirs and orchestras, his original works and arrangements have been performed by college and high school ensembles in 12 states, the United Kingdom and Singapore.

St. Olaf College prepares students to become responsible citizens of the world, fostering development of mind, body and spirit. A four-year, coeducational liberal arts college of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), St. Olaf has a student enrollment of 2,950 and a full-time faculty complement of approximately 300. It is one of Money Guide?s top 100 "elite values in college education today," and it leads the nation?s colleges in percentage of students who study abroad.

Contact Carole Leigh Engblom at 507-786-3315 or leigh@stolaf.edu.