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Christopher Thomforde to receive honorary degree from Pennsylvania university

mjc
May 11, 2001

NORTHFIELD, Minn. ? St. Olaf College President Christopher Thomforde will receive an honorary doctor of divinity degree from Susquehanna University, Selinsgrove, Pa., during the university?s 143rd commencement ceremony on Sunday, May 13.

Thomforde, who served as Susquehanna University chaplain from 1986 to 1996 and taught in the university?s philosophy and religion department, recently was installed as the 10th president of St. Olaf.

Susquehanna also will confer honorary degrees upon John Bogle, founder and former chairman of the Vanguard Group, and Sean Matthew Deibler, founder of the Music Group of Philadelphia and founding artistic director of the Philadelphia Choral Arts Society.

Thomforde was named president of the 127-year-old St. Olaf College last September following an extensive national search. The college, an institution of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), is nationally recognized for its quality liberal arts curriculum and international studies programs.

Before coming to St. Olaf he served from 1996 to 2000 as president of Bethany College in Lindsborg, Kan., another ELCA college; was pastor at St. Paul?s Lutheran Church in Dansville, N.Y., from 1978 to 1986; did extensive work at nearby Attica prison; and in 1986 was named Citizen of the Year in Dansville. He also taught western languages and medieval European history at Tunghai University in Taiwan.

He graduated from Princeton in 1969 with a bachelor?s degree in medieval and Russian history. He earned a master?s of divinity degree from Yale University Divinity School (with concentrations in biblical studies, church history and philosophy), and he completed a doctor of ministry degree at Princeton Theological Seminary.

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Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Thomforde grew up on Long Island, N.Y., and graduated from Long Island Lutheran High School. He is married to Christine Stone Thomforde, a registered nurse and accomplished cellist. They have three grown children.

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 Michael Cooper at 507-786-3315 or cooperm@stolaf.edu.