Showing 22 results

The founder of Pacific Lutheran University, Bjug Aanondson, was born on December 17, 1848 on a farm named Harstad in Valle, Setesdal, Norway to father Aanond Tellefson Aakre and mother Torbjør Kittilsdatter Harstad. He was one of ten children in the very poor family. Young Bjug took care of the cattle at the family farm called Gangshei above Harstad during the winter months and in the mountains during the summer months.

Bjug and his family emigrated to America in 1861 where they settled in Illinois and Minnesota. He continued his education in the US and was accepted as a student at Luther College in 1865 where he changed his last name to Harstad upon a suggestion of the president of the college. He studied theology at Concordia Seminary in St. Louis from 1871 to 1874. It was his experiences there that became the model for the rest of Bjug's scholarly and religious life. After seminary, he traveled as a pastor to remote places in Minnesota where he built schools and churches.

Bjug Harstad was married February 14, 1877 to Guro Omlid in Minnesota. She was a native of Valle and was born September 29, 1858. In 1889, the church sent Bjug Harstad to the Pacific Coast where he visited Portland, Seattle and Tacoma. He returned to Minnesota and it was decided that Brookdale (as Parkland was called then) should be the important Lutheran education center of the Northwest.

The Pacific Lutheran University Association was incorporated December 11, 1890 with Bjug Harstad as president. The cornerstone for the first building, Old Main, was laid October 4, 1891. The occasion of the cornerstone was a grand event photo of the event. Several Lutheran pastors spoke both in Norwegian and in English and the president of the Norwegian Synod sent greetings with his hope that the undertaking would succeed.

In 1917 the Norwegian Synod that Pacific Lutheran University was founded under, merged with the United Church and the Hauge Synod to celebrate the four hundredth anniversary of the Reformation. Harstad refused to join the new Norwegian Lutheran Church, thus formally separating himself from the school he had founded. Bjug Aanondson Harstad died on 20 June 1933 at age 84. His wife Guro, eight of his children, and eleven grandchildren survived him. Old Main was renamed Harstad Hall in 1960 in honor of Bjug Harstad. A granite monument in Valle Norway was dedicated to him on June 26, 1983.

Campus Photographer, Pacific Lutheran University, 2010-

Director of Photography Services, Pacific Lutheran University: 1995-2003

University Photographer, Pacific Lutheran University: 1966-1995

University Photographer, Pacific Lutheran University: 2002-2009

Harold J. Leraas was born in Barrett, Minnesota on December 30, 1908. He attended Barrett High School in the mid-1920’s. In 1930 he graduated from Luther College, Decorah, Iowa. He later attended the University of Michigan in 1932 and 1935, where he received his master’s degree and doctorate, respectively. The same year that he earned his doctorate, he married Helen Stein and joined the Pacific Lutheran University faculty as a biology professor. He is credited for establishing the strong reputation of the university’s pre-med and pre-dental programs. In the 1940’s he began practicing dentistry and maintained a practice in Parkland until 1960. He also served in the U.S. Army during the Second World War. He worked at Pacific Lutheran University for 39 years, retiring in 1974. Before his retirement he was presented with an Outstanding Teacher Award by the campus chapter of Blue Key. He died on Tuesday May 7, 1985 at the age of 76. Many of his former students contributed funds to the establishment of the Leraas Lecture Hall in his honor.

Albert Henry Barnes was born in 1876. Well known as both a photographer and a oil painter, he documented images of the landscape, people, and cities and towns of Western Washington around the turn of the 20th century. However, little is known about his life. He apparently operated out of studios both in Parkland and Tacoma. His images appeared in some local newspapers from 1905-1915. He also wrote descriptive articles for photography magazines, railroad publications, and travel books. In 1909, he photographed, wrote and published a work entitled: Sights and scenes from Tacoma to Paradise Park: forty-eight views. In 1911, in collaboration with his friend A.H. Denman, he published his best-known work: "Our Greatest Mountain and Alpine Regions of Wonder". The work contained a number of Barnes landscape photographs, as well as a color reproduction of his painting entitled "Mount Tacoma". In addition to his publication work, he provided services for the Washington State Historical Society such as documenting commemorative services for some of the historical markers erected by the society. Among the photographs in this collection are images of unidentified homesteaders, early scenes in Mount Rainier National Park, the Columbia River Gorge, hotels and lodges in Western Washington, and scenes of Tacoma. He died in Tacoma in 1920.

Address: Bankers Trust Building

Addresses: 1017 Pacific , 919 C, California Block, 903 Tacoma Ave S

Addresses: 1516 Pacific, 1535 Commerce, California Building, Washington Building

Loren J. Anderson was born on July 6, 1945 and was raised in Rugby, North Dakota. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in philosophy from Concordia College, and a master’s degree in rhetoric and public address from Michigan State University in East Lansing. Later, he earned a doctorate in communication theory and research from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. He has also participated in the Institute for Educational Management and the Seminar for the New Presidents at Harvard University in Cambridge, MA.
Before joining Pacific Lutheran University as president in 1992, Anderson served Concordia College in Moorhead, MN, between 1972 and 1992 as the director of institutional research, assistant professor of speech communication, assistant to the president, vice president for planning and development, and executive vice president. Anderson also worked for the American Lutheran Church between 1984 and 1987, first as its executive direction for the division of college and university services, and later as its national director of the Commitment to Mission Program. Anderson retired from PLU in 2012.
In addition to his duties as president of PLU, Anderson was also involved with many civic and professional organizations. He served on the Council of College Presidents – ELCA; was a board member of the Washington Association of Independent College and Universities; past chair of the National Association of Independent College and universities; and was a board member of the American Leadership Forum.