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Supporting Future Student Experiences

Carol Seiler ’90, ’93 MAL
Carol Seiler ’90, ’93 MAL

Carol Seiler’s personal mission is to contribute to the greater good. Whether this is through her job, through volunteer work, or through donations, she feels she must contribute through all aspects of her life. Her Augsburg experience, particularly in her undergraduate courses, affirmed this. 

“I always need to feel like I’m contributing to something. I think we would all like to leave the world a better place,” she says.

Carol has been supporting women’s organizations since the 70’s. Having a service frame of mind is something she remembers from an early age, and something she learned from her father through his involvement in their local government. 

When she graduated from high school, Carol was not encouraged to go to college. Instead, she was told what many women were told in that time: become a nurse, a secretary, or a teacher. But Carol wanted more. After working for many years at Honeywell, she wanted a change.

“I just woke up one morning and decided it was time [to go to college]. I looked at a few schools and found Augsburg. Augsburg was perfect for me because it was urban, diverse, had a small campus, classes were available nights and weekends, and I liked the curriculum. Once I stepped in a classroom I didn’t want to leave.”

Carol joined Augsburg’s Weekend College and earned her Bachelor’s Degree in Communications in 1990. She continued at Augsburg to earn a Master’s Degree in Leadership, graduating in 1993.

“The whole experience was really life changing. That’s why I want to leave this gift so that other people can have that experience. Especially women, and especially women of color who are historically underserved.”

Carol is gifting a portion of her estate to the Augsburg Women Engaged Endowed Scholarship.

“I want to leave my estate gift to an organization that’s going to do good things in the world. I had such a wonderful experience at Augsburg and to help give someone else that opportunity is very rewarding.”

When asked what she wishes to pass along to future generations, Carol said to never stop learning. 

“Recognize and acknowledge your value in the world.”

Carol worked for Honeywell for 35 years in their human resources department and credits Honeywell’s excellent education benefits for her success. She hopes that her estate gift will enable young women in the future to earn a degree and follow their passions.

Wefring Establishes Scholarship to Honor Edor Nelson

Larry Wefring's newly established scholarship pays tribute to encouragement he received as a youth from his late neighbor Edor Nelson '38.
Larry Wefring’s established a scholarship in tribute to the encouragement he received as a youth from his late neighbor Edor Nelson ’38.

“Children need a lot of guidance, and it’s good to have a coach on your side as you’re growing up. He was a coach to me,” Larry Wefring says of Edor Nelson, the legendary Augsburg coach who died in 2014 at age 100. Wefring’s $100,000 estate gift will establish the Edor Nelson Memorial Scholarship, but it should be noted that Wefring neither attended Augsburg nor played football for Nelson. Their relationship went far deeper.

“Sports are a fabulous teacher of life,” Wefring acknowledges. “They teach you that you win some and you lose some, but what’s important is that you work together. To be successful in the business world, you need to be a team player.” While he now understands this concept, traditional sports were not accessible to Wefring while he was growing up across the alley from Edor Nelson’s family in south Minneapolis.

Wefring was diagnosed with epilepsy at age seven. Subject to seizures and heavily medicated, he was often targeted by bullies and decided to drop out of public school in 9th grade. Leaning on the support and encouragement offered by Edor Nelson, he enrolled in Minnehaha Academy instead. Having learned electrical and woodworking skills from his handyman grandfather, Wefring had helped his neighborly coach wire his basement. In return, Nelson offered his young neighbor rides to school. They became friends.

“Larry had his frustrating days, but my dad kept telling him that he could be somebody, that he shouldn’t listen to anyone who said otherwise. My dad was a genuine people person, one of those comforting guys you could sit and talk to. He and my mom were always there for Larry, and Larry realized that. Now he is giving back,” says Bruce Nelson ‘71, Edor’s son and Augsburg’s A-Club Advancement Manager.

Naysayers pronounced Wefring too dumb for college, but Wefring went anyway, earning a psychology degree from Mankato State University. He found yet another mentor in Stanley Hubbard, who hired him at Hubbard Broadcasting, where he worked happily for more than three decades before retiring in 2006 to care for his aging parents. He struggled with his disability for much of that time, adjusting his medications to reduce brain fog and, in 1987, undergoing successful—and life-changing—experimental brain surgery in Canada.

Wefring lauds Hubbard for teaching him servant leadership, for showing him that Protestantism and the work ethic are two sides of the same coin, and for inspiring all to “always do the right thing.” But ultimately, Wefring concludes, it was education that turned his life around.

“I was already at a disadvantage, but education offset that. That’s really, really important to remember.

’As a man thinketh, so he is,’” adds Wefring, whose Lutheran faith and spirituality have always guided him. “Trouble is a blessing. It lets you look for the paradoxical nature of life, and learn to be captain of your own ship. But you have to have a dream.”

The Edor Nelson Memorial Scholarship will target students who have a disability, physical or otherwise, and who also aim high. “I told Edor that I wanted them to have a dream, and he said, ‘I do too,’” Wefring says. “And then I told him that I also wanted them to have an extra burden to bear, something that makes graduation tougher than it is for most people. And he said, ‘I do too.’ We were always on the same wavelength.”

Wefring never considered a scholarship in his own name, much preferring that it honor someone as well-known and revered as his former neighbor. He finds being able to share his legacy with institutions that mirror his faith and world view a blessing, and more than enough reward for a life well-lived.

“I gave it my best shot,” he says. “My dream has come true and then some.”

— Cathy Madison