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Celebrating 50 years with a $10 million gift

By Kari VanDerVeen
June 28, 2011

Larry Christensen '61 (front) and Rachel Mandsager Pechauer '61 (far right) present President David R. Anderson '74 (center) with a $10.1 million check from the Class of 1961 during the All-Alumni Convocation.

When members of the Class of 1961 presented their gift to the college during Reunion Weekend's All-Alumni Convocation, the crowd let out a gasp.

And that reaction made all of the time and energy that class members put into building a $10.1 million gift in honor of their 50th reunion — the second-largest class gift in the college's history — completely worth it, says reunion co-chair Larry Christensen '61.

For the past few years, Christensen and his reunion co-chair, Rachel Mandsager Pechauer '61, have worked with 76 volunteers from their class to encourage their classmates to support the college with a reunion gift. Their leadership prompted 91 percent of their class to support the college and enabled them to present St. Olaf with their impressive class gift. As part of that gift, the Class of 1961:

  • Raised $206,035 for Partners in Annual Giving, with 73 percent of the class contributing to the annual fund
  • Raised $96,150 for the Class of 1961 Scholarship
  • Had 20 members who established individual scholarships with a combined value of more than $500,000
  • Had 49 members who included the college in their will or estate planning, setting a new record for the number of 50th reunion class members who have made an estate provision for St. Olaf

"This didn't happen in a matter of months," says Senior Development Officer Rebecca Otten, who worked with the class and notes that the volunteers spent years encouraging their classmates to get in the spirit of giving. "The class was outstanding in terms of volunteer leadership, and there were a lot of volunteers."

Christensen notes that the Class of 1961 Gift Committee, led by Sue Head Hermodson and Larry Hjermstad, did an exceptional job of working with classmates to put together the class gift.

The Class of 1961 also set a record for reunion attendance, with 211 classmates — or 62 percent of the class — attending Reunion Weekend.

Contact Kari VanDerVeen at 507-786-3970 or vanderve@stolaf.edu.