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Johan Ulrik Xavier was born to Nils Paul and Amanda Magdalane Xavier on June 26, 1870 in Lyngen, Norway. The second son of a family of ten, he and his family immigrated to the United States three years after his birth in 1873. They became naturalized citizens of the United States in 1878.

Johan Ulrick was first educated in a rural elementary school for seven years but then moved on to Luther College Preparatory, where he studied from 1885 to 1888. He took his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1893 from Luther College, Iowa. He earned his Theological Degree from the Luther Seminary in Saint Paul in 1898. He completed his graduate work during the summer at both the University of Minnesota and the University of Washington, which ended when he achieved his Master of Arts Degree from the University of Washington on 1929. In 1953, Professor Xavier received his honorary Doctorate in Divinity from Pacific Lutheran College.

Dr. Xavier began teaching at the Lutheran Ladies Seminary in Red Wing Minnesota between 1900 and 1902. He quit when they would not give him the raise he asked for and he accepted the call from Pacific Lutheran Academy. He taught there until 1906, when he again quit because the school would not give him the raise he asked for. He spent the year teaching in a one room school house in Oak Knoll or Muck Creek. In 1908 he returned to Pacific Lutheran Academy and continued working until the school shut down for a few years in 1917. He earned his living at a number of odd jobs and eventually settled down to work at a wholesale grocers’ named Younglove. When the school re-opened in 1920, Dr. Xavier returned and because he was now the most senior member of the staff, he acted as president for the first year that Pacific Lutheran College was open. From 1921 to when he retired in 1942, Dr. Xavier taught a wide variety of classes as well as serving as the school’s librarian. He was an assistant pastor to his father in 1901 and to a number of other Lutheran pastors throughout his life. It is also reported that Dr. Xavier and his father worked together in publishing the Pacific Lutheran University Heralds for many years.

It was at Pacific Lutheran Academy that Dr. Xavier met his future wife, Signe Skattebol, who was a teacher and the women’s basketball coach. He proposed to her in 1910 and they married on December 27, 1912. They adopted their first child, Olaf Paul Xavier on July 24, 1919 and their second child, Barbara Ruth Xavier on May 17, 1922. Dr. Xavier died in 1963 in a Stanwood Retirement Home at the age of 93.

Janet Rasmussen was born in Paxton, Illinois on April 21, 1949. After attending University of Illinois for her undergraduate degree, she went on to Harvard University for her Ph.D. in Germanic Languages and Literatures in 1975. She stayed at Harvard from 1975-1977 when she became the Assistant to the Dean of Harvard College. Then she moved to the Pacific Northwest in 1977 where she was a founder of the Scandinavian Area Studies Program and became the first woman to hold the position of Dean of Humanities at Pacific Lutheran University. 1991-1996 Janet was the Vice President for Academic Affairs at Nebraska Wesleyan University. She then became the President of Hollins College in Roanoke, Virginia before returning to PLU to be the Director of the Wang Center for International Programs. Janet has written several books, articles, and other publications. She also established the immigrant oral history archive during her time at PLU.

On 15 December 1884, a group of young Swedish men met at the Svea Hotel and decided to form an organization “for social and benevolent purposes.” Originally, the founders named their order Freja, but later changed it to Valhalla. For the first fifty years the group’s official language was Swedish, until a resolution was made to change the official language to English in 1939. The original initiation ritual, developed by the founders and later refined by brothers Gustave Pahrson and J.C. Lindahl, was based on Norse mythology and excerpts from the Frithiofs Saga. This ritual was later abandoned after WWI in favor of a shorter, more simplified ritual. The Order of Valhalla provided several services for its members, including health care and funds for funerals, which were provided through monthly fees paid by its members. In 1906 the order constructed its own building on South K Street in Tacoma, Washington and named it Valhalla Hall. The facilities of Valhalla Hall contained a tavern and dance hall, which were used for social gatherings, and other halls within the building, which were rented out to tenants. During the order’s early years, there was no interaction between Valhalla and local churches, until the tenth anniversary of the dedication of Valhalla Hall in 1916. During that celebration Rev. C.E. Bloomquist, pastor of the First Swedish Lutheran Church, served as guest speaker. This event opened the door for further cooperation between churches and secular organizations in the Swedish community.

The Order of Valhalla celebrated its 90th anniversary in December of 1974.

Tacoma Swedish-language weekly newspaper.
Publisher: Puget Sound Publishing Company, 1125 Tacoma Avenue,Tacoma , Washington

Martin Luther Lutheran Church was organized in 1956 in Portland, Oregon. They started construction on their church building in 1957. The church was built largely with the help of volunteer work and donations. Martin Luther Lutheran Church was officially dissolved in 1975.

The congregation was officially organized on August 25, 1919. In cooperation with Pacific Lutheran University, members of the congregation erected a church on the college campus in 1920, and worship was held there until 1936 when the congregation purchased the property of the Parkland Evangelical Lutheran Church. The structure (built in 1902) was razed, and the present sanctuary was built and dedicated on June 8, 1958. Trinity has helped to establish several churches in the area, including Christ the King in Midland, Christ Lutheran in Lakewood, Spanaway Lutheran, and Gethsemane Lutheran at South 76th.

The Albina Lutheran Church was established by the Commission on Negro Missions of the American Lutheran Church on February 2, 1947. The name was changed to Bethesda Lutheran church on June 13, 1948. The congregation disbanded in 1955

Peace Lutheran Church was assembled first as a Lutheran Mission in Rainier, Oregon in 1954. The mission was initially named Rainier First Lutheran and was led first by Pastor Leroy E. Pillman and, beginning in 1957, Pastor James H. Goss. The congregation officially organized in 1958 under the name Peace Lutheran. Peace Lutheran had several visiting pastors until 1962 when they called Pastor Wilton H. Anderson, who they shared with Brownsmead congregation. In 1969, the church was disbanded due to low membership.

This congregation was organized as a mission by the Lutheran Free Church on October 31, 1954. Known first as Sand Point Heights Church, construction of the first unit began in April of 1963, and first services were held in the basement in October of that year. Rev. Lester Dahlen, who was pastor of Bethany Lutheran Church in Seattle, served as acting pastor. When the congregation was officially recognized, Rev. Howard Sortland was the first full-time pastor. In 1979, on the 25th anniversary, the building was modernized. The congregation was dissolved in 1986.

The Holy Sacrament Lutheran Church congregation of Portland, Oregon first organized in a home on September 1, 1952 under the name Green Gables Lutheran Church. The first service was held on October 5 of that year under the direction of the Home Mission program of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod. The congregation was formally organized on January 24, 1953 and took the name Holy Sacrament Lutheran Church. Property was obtained and church building erected. The congregation sold half of its acreage to Portland Unity Church, and the decision was made to pay off the Northwest District's Church extension loan. Holy Sacrament then entered into the American Evangelical Lutheran Church. Beginning in the 1960s, the congregation shared the sanctuary space with Hope Lutheran Church for the Deaf, the Seventh Day Baptist Church, and a non-denominational group called Calvary Chapel.