Family of God Lutheran Church (Federal Way, Washington)
The Family of God Lutheran Church congregation of Federal Way, Washington was established as a mission congregation of the American Lutheran Church on August 4, 1980. The church building was completed in 1985. Under the leadership of pastor James Christianson, membership and support grew over the first decade of the congregation's existence. Due to financial pressures, the congregation closed in 1999.
The Washington Posten was first distributed as part of the Norwegian Constitution Day celebration in Seattle on May 17, 1889. The Norwegian-Danish publication was founded by Frank Oleson, an immigrant for Trondheim, Norway who worked as a postal clerk in Seattle. In an 1938 interview, Oleson recalled, "As a clerk at the post office, I discovered that many bundles of Decorah-Posten, Skandinaven, Budstikken, and other Norwegian-American newspapers were being sent to subscribers here. They were not only for people in Seattle, but many were addressed to post offices in the surrounding area for which Seattle served as a distribution point. This circumstance gave me and my brother Richard, who also worked in the post office, the idea of publishing a Norwegian newspaper in Seattle. I was at that time twenty-six years old and my brother two years younger. We had no experience whatsoever in the publishing business and even less experience in editorial work."
The Posten was edited by Gunnar Lund from 1905-1938, Ole L Ejde from 1938 to 1959, and Henning C Boe from 1959 to 1961. Beginning in 1890, the offices of the Washington Posten were located on Front Street (1st Avenue) near Blanchard Street. Several other spaces were used in the downtown area until the late 1910s when the headquarters were established in the Seaboard Building at the corner of 4th Avenue and Pike Street where it would remain until 1961. In 1959, Henning C Boe purchased the Posten. In order to expand the audience for the paper, he began including more English language content and, in 1961, changed the name to the Western Viking. The newspaper reached approximately 15,000 subscribers in the 1920s.
Nordlandslaget Nordlyset or Northlight Club began in 1912 as a group for immigrants from Northern Norway. The club later expanded to any members of Norwegian descent. The club promotes interest in Norway's heritage, history, language, literature and art. They have worked with other local Scandinavian organizations to host cultural events and to help construct the Normanna Hall. They manage a scholarship program for local students studying abroad in Norway.
Tacoma Tidende Publishing Company
The Tacoma Tidende Publishing Company was founded in 1890 by Dirk Blaauw with support from the local Scandinavian business community. The first issue of the Tidende newspaper was published July 4, 1890. Blaauw sought to compete with Seattle's Washington Posten and to expand readership beyond the City of Tacoma. The paper began advertising itself as "The most widely circulating organ of the Scandinavians in the states of Washington and Oregon, in Alaska and in British Columbia" and expanded its news coverage and beyond Washington. In 1897, Dirk Blaauw sold the paper to John Blaauw, who was working as a representative for the paper in Portland, Oregon. He quickly expanded the number of pages, subscribers, and advertisers and piloted unique cooperative programs with other Scandinavian language publications in the Midwest. While the paper had always been known as the Tacoma Tidende, the title page began reflecting this by 1900. Blaauw began directly competing with the Washington Posten by marketing the newspaper and expanding subscribers in Seattle and Ballard. The Tacoma Tidende positioned itself as the more conservative of the Puget Sound Scandinavian newspapers by voicing its support for temperance and other political and social issues. Blaauw left the newspaper in 1911 and Rudolf Blom Anderson, who had previously worked for the Washington Posten, followed as Publisher and Editor. In 1920, John Soley purchased the newspaper and began to refocus the paper on local news within the Scandinavian community. The paper's name was changed to Vestkysten (The West Coast), which had been the title of a short-lived local publication, in 1925. In 1931, Soley sold Vestkysten to The Western Viking.
The Skagit Valley Mannskor (Men's Chorus) was founded in 2000. In 2005, the Mannskor hosted the Norwegian Singers Association of America's Sangerfest. The event included performances from all 12 existing Norwegian Male Choruses on the West Coast.
Puget Sound Publishing Company
The Puget Sound Publishing Company, based in Tacoma, published the Norwegian newspaper, The Western Viking, and the Swedish newspaper, The Puget Sound Posten. The company sponsored "The Scandinavian Hour" radio program on Tacoma KVI. Another local newspaper, Vestkysten, was sold to the Puget Sound Publishing Company in 1931.
Eugene "Gene" Wiegman was born October 27, 1929 in Fort Wayne, Indiana His primary and secondary school education was in schools run by the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod After serving in the Marine Corps, Wiegman attended Concordia College in River Forest, Illinois, earning a Bachelor of Science degree in social science and teacher education in 1953 In 1956, he earned a Master of Science Degree in school administration and in 1962 he eared a Doctor of Education from the University of Kansas
From 1954-1961 Wiegman was a teacher, coach and principal in Missouri Lutheran schools From 1961-65, He taught social science education and political science at Concordia Teacher's College in Seward, Nebraska From 1965-66, Wiegman worked as the administrative assistant to a Nebraska Congressman In 1966-67, he worked with land grant colleges in extension education programs for the U.S. Department of Agriculture In 1967, Weigman was appointed the dean of community education ad Federal City College, Washington, D.C.
Wiegman served as PLU's president from 1969-1974. After leaving PLU, he ran for office, served from 1977-1981 as the Washington State Commissioner of Employment Security, served as a lay pastor and was ordained as a Lutheran Pastor in 1987
Wiegman married Kathleen Wyatt on April 26, 1952 and together they have six children, Kathryn, Rose Marie, Mark, Jeanine, Gretchen and Matthew.
Wiegman died in July 2020.
The American Lutheran Church (ALC) was formed through a merger of the Ohio and Iowa Synods, followed by the Buffalo Synod, in 1930. Over the next decades, the ALC began partnerships with other Lutheran synods. This joint group, referred to as the American Lutheran Federation, laid the foundation for a merger in 1960. This merger brought together the United Evangelical Lutheran Church and the Evangelical Lutheran Church with the ALC, unifying the three largest groups of Lutheran immigrant communities (Danish, Norwegian, and German). The ALC adopted a strong centralized synodical system consisting of 13 geographical districts. In 1987, the ALC merged with the Association of Lutheran Churches and the Lutheran Church in American to form the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA).
William O. Rieke was born on April 26, 1931 in Odessa, Washington, and raised in Cashmere, Washington. He graduated summa cum laude from Pacific Lutheran College in 1953 and completed his MD from the University of Washington’s School of Medicine.
Prior to coming to PLU, Rieke worked at UW’s Medical School as an instructor and researcher, focusing on the emerging field of cancer research and eventually becoming Dean of the School of Medicine. He also helped establish a new medical school in Wichita, Kansas, to help service the state’s rural western regions.
In 1975, Dr. Rieke became the eleventh president of Pacific Lutheran University. While serving as President, Rieke worked to strengthen the international ties of the university, which eventually led to being named a Knight First Class of the Royal Norwegian Order of Merit by King Olav V in 1989. He reinforced PLU’s reputation as an institution with a strong liberal arts program and five professional schools, and in 1985 the Board of Regents honored Rieke by naming the university’s new science building after him. After retiring from PLU, Rieke accepted a position as Executive Director with the Ben B. Cheney Foundation, where he served for ten years.
Rieke died in 2006 after a battle with cancer.
Oscar Adolf Tingelstad, son of Bent and Beret (Livdalen) Tingelstad, was born on a homestead near Eiokson, Cass County, North Dakota (Dakota Territory), September 20, 1882. In 1892 the family pioneered again, this time near Silverton, Oregon. He passed the eighth grade public school examination in Marion County, Oregon, in 1898 and completed the commercial course at Pacific Lutheran Academy in Parkland, Washington on June 1, 1900. He attended the high school in Silverton, Oregon during the first year of its operation (1900-01) and completed the Luther College preparatory course at Pacific Lutheran Academy in 1902. He entered the sophomore class at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa during September 1902 and graduated in June 1905.
He gave up a position in the Farmers State Bank in Maddock, N. Dakota, to enter Luther Seminary in Minnesota on December 9, 1905 and then taught summer parochial school in Nelson County, North Dakota during 1906. In June 1907, Tingelstad was granted the “testimenium pro candidatura” from Luther Seminary because of the shortage of pastors in the Norwegian Lutheran Synod, and was ordained a Lutheran Pastor in Ballard, Washington on July 14, 1907 on call from the Crillia (Wash.) congregation and the Home Mission Committee of the Pacific District of the Norwegian Synod. He served Zion Lutheran Church at Ballard from July 14, 1907 to August 8, 1909 and also the Crillia, Port Madison, and Tracyton congregations. He also taught parochial school at Ballard throughout the summer of 1908. On August 4, 1909, he married Alfield Sophie Tvete at Arlington, Washington.
Having been called to be the first incumbent of the chair of psychology and education at Luther College, he attended the University of Chicago the in 1909 and began teaching at Luther College in January of 1910. There he served as acting principal of the Preparatory Department from 1911-12 and 1917-19, as Registrar (first incumbent of the office) from 1914-27, and as secretary of the Board of Trustees from 1923-1928. He also served as a Professor of psychology and education until 1919, as a Professor of Education from 1919-1928.
In 1912 he was elected to membership in Phi Delta Kappa—an honorary education fraternity—at the University of Chicago, where he received an A.M. degree in 1915, served as a fellow in education from 1913-1914, taught general high school methods in the School of Education in the spring quarter of 1925, and was awarded the Ph. D. degree (magna cum laude) in psychology and education at the end of the summer in 1925. Meanwhile, in the spring and summer of 1914, he served as assistant business manager of the Luther College Concert Band on its first Norway Tour and as the first secretary of the Young People’s Luther League from 1917-1922. He also served as a corporal in the Luther College Cadet Corps from 1918-1919.
During his academic career, Tingelstad published the following works: “Norgefärden” (“The Norway Tour”) jointly with Dr. O. M. Norlie in 1922 and edited “Luther College through Sixty Years again with Dr. O.M. Norlie and Dr. Karl T. Jacobsen in 1922. The subject of his doctoral dissertation in 1925 was “The Religious Element in American School Readers up to 1930: A Bibliographical and Statistical Study.” With Dr. O.M. Norlie and Rev. Rasmus Malmin, he completed “Who’s who in All the Norwegian Lutheran Synods in America” in 1928. In the summer of 1926 he served as the first manager of the Luther-St. Olaf Endowment Fund, after having been an alumni field agent throughout the endowment appeal. In the summer of 1927 he was Chairman of the Alumni Division of the Pacific Lutheran College endowment appeal. In 1928 he became a member of the A.A.A.S., and in 1934 was elected a fellow.
On August 1, 1928, he became the President of Pacific Lutheran College in Parkland, Washington and served in the capacity till July 1, 1945, during which period this institution advanced from junior college to senior college status. He also edited the quarterly “Pacific Lutheran College Bulletin” from August 1928 to May 1943 and served as Vice-President of the Washington Junior College Association from 1933-1934, and as president from 1934-1935. During World War II Tingelstad served as indoctrination instructor in the Trainee School for civilian employees at the Puget Sound Navy Yard in Bremerton, Washington, from August 2, 1944 to Sept. 16, 1945 prior to rejoining the staff of Luther College as professor of Philosophy and Bible from 1944-50.