For more than a quarter century, the steady rhythm of typing keys and the swift strokes of shorthand pens echoed through Augsburg’s Business Department under the guidance of one remarkable teacher: Miss Gertrude Lund. Over her 26 years at Augsburg—and 11 years prior in high schools and business colleges across Minnesota— including Minnesota Morris, near her hometown of Lake Lillian. Miss Lund shaped generations of students preparing for careers in business, office administration, and emerging fields of commerce.
Miss Lund began teaching during a very different era. “When I started teaching,” she once reflected, “there were more men than women in the business classroom.” World War II transformed that landscape, opening doors for women to step into office and management roles in unprecedented numbers. She watched this shift unfold in real time—seeing classrooms fill with women eager to master the skills that would launch their professional lives.
Throughout her career, she taught everything from beginning typing and shorthand to office management and principles of marketing. Students quickly learned that shorthand with Miss Lund meant only shorthand—no longhand allowed. Her crisp, efficient instruction demanded focus, but her high standards helped students develop confidence and precision, two qualities she believed were essential for success in any workplace.
Technology reshaped her teaching world as well. She began on manual typewriters—some with blank keys designed to discourage “peek typing”—and witnessed the gradual arrival of electric machines, no doubt, IBM Selectrics, and more advanced office equipment. Keeping pace with technological change, she believed, was one of the great responsibilities of a business educator. She embraced it with the same energy she brought to her classroom each day.
Gertrude Lund’s influence at Augsburg did not end with her retirement from the classroom. In her honor, her family established and continues to fund the Gertrude Lund Scholarship, extending her lifelong commitment to student learning into the present day. The scholarship supports students pursuing business and related fields—students who are navigating a rapidly changing professional landscape, much as Lund’s own students once did.
Beyond Augsburg, Miss Lund lived a life rich with curiosity and adventure. She was an active member of Delta Kappa Gamma, an educational society for women, and the Phi Chapter of Delta Pi, a business fraternity at the University of Minnesota. She attended meetings of the Natural History Society and especially loved evenings spent watching travel films. Travel, in fact, became one of her greatest joys. Her passport tells a story almost as full as her teaching career—Spain, Portugal, Italy, the British Isles, Scandinavia, Hawaii, and the far reaches of the Orient. With her retirement in 1976, she said with a smile, “I love to travel, and now I’ll have more time for that—and everything else!”
A Legacy That Lives in Today’s Business Program
Although her classroom tools—manual typewriters, shorthand pads, and office machines—have long since evolved, the core of Miss Lund’s teaching endures at Augsburg today. Business students now study analytics, entrepreneurship, marketing strategy, and global management, but the foundation she championed remains unchanged: clarity, rigor, adaptability, and professionalism.
Just as Miss Lund pushed her students to master new technologies, Augsburg business faculty continue to prepare today’s students for rapidly changing markets and workplaces. Her insistence on precision lives on in courses that teach data fluency and communication. Her commitment to opening doors for women in business is reflected in Augsburg’s diverse and globally minded student body. And her belief in lifelong curiosity mirrors the mindset we encourage in every future manager, analyst, or entrepreneur who walks through our doors.
Most importantly, Miss Lund understood something timeless—that business is ultimately about people: how we communicate, how we lead, and how we show up in community. These are the very values Augsburg students carry with them into internships, careers, and graduate studies across the world.
An Enduring Augsburg Story
As Miss Lund stepped into retirement, Augsburg extended heartfelt gratitude for the hours, the days, and the years she devoted to her students. Today, that legacy continues through the Gertrude Lund Scholarship, supporting Augsburg students as they prepare for meaningful work and purposeful lives in a complex world. In classrooms and careers alike, the values Gertrude Lund embodied—adaptability, precision, curiosity, and care for students—remain a living part of Augsburg’s Business Department and the community it serves.
Thank you Gertrude Lund and family for this enduring legacy.
This is an exciting time of the year as we head into the final stretch of our 2023–24 school year and look forward to commencement.
Augsburg is gearing up for this year’s Give to the Max Day! This year’s goal is to have 1,869 Augsburg donors participate during Give to the Max Day, which would make it our largest giving day ever!