Anders O. Aasen Biography

A typescript of a biography of the Rev. Anders O. Aasen, and a program from the celebration of his one hundredth birthday in 1974.

Biographical Note

Anders O. Aasen was born on 16 January 1874, to a poor farming family in Lyngdal, Norway. His father died when he was one and a half years old, and Anders stayed with neighbors and other parish members for much of his childhood. With the help of an uncle, Anders, his mother, and four siblings all moved to America in 1885.

They first lived in East Koshkonong, Wisconsin, and it was there that he went through confirmation under the auspices of Reverend Jacob Otteson. Later, Aasen attended Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, and then continued on to Seminary. He was ordained in the Norwegian Lutheran Synod in 1899, and served in many churches in Canada and the United States, starting in Belview, Minnesota, from 1899 to 1910.

In Minneapolis he started and presided over the Lutheran Rescue Home for girls. He later started other missions and attended to more neglected church congregations, including the First Lutheran Church and Dunbar Lutheran Church in Vancouver, British Columbia, as well as other parishes in Alaska and California.

In 1957, in his retirement, he was called to Bethany Home and Hospital in Camrose, Alberta, as chaplain, and also taught bible classes at Camrose Lutheran College. Anders and his wife Marit, who passed way in 1968, had six daughters and one son, and later 11 grandchildren. Anders Aasen died in 1974 at the age of 100.

In the 100th Birthday Celebration pamphlet, the name "The Rev. Dr. Fredrik A. Shoitz" is properly rendered as "The Rev. Dr. Fredrik A. Shiotz."