{"id":7668,"date":"2017-05-30T17:39:04","date_gmt":"2017-05-30T17:39:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/?p=7668"},"modified":"2024-05-07T14:54:37","modified_gmt":"2024-05-07T14:54:37","slug":"a-gift-for-augsburg-in-rochester","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/2017\/05\/30\/a-gift-for-augsburg-in-rochester\/","title":{"rendered":"A gift for Augsburg in Rochester"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Lee
Regent Emeritus Leland \u201cLee\u201d and Louise Sundet<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Louise <\/span><\/strong>and Regent\u00a0Emeritus Leland\u00a0<\/span>\u201cLee\u201d Sundet<\/strong> will\u00a0<\/span>help Augsburg\u2019s\u00a0Rochester site grow thanks to a generous\u00a0$1.5 million gift. The Rochester location\u00a0attracts more than 350 working professionals\u00a0to undergraduate and graduate programs in\u00a0business, education, health care, and nursing.<\/p>\n

As longtime supporters of Augsburg,\u00a0including the Weekend College and Youth and\u00a0Family Ministry programs, the Sundets have\u00a0used their frugality to benefit others and to\u00a0raise the profile of Augsburg. Several years ago,\u00a0in an effort to better communicate Augsburg\u2019s\u00a0identity locally, Sundet helped form a marketing\u00a0committee and was instrumental in choosing a\u00a0new logo with a cross embedded in the \u201cA.\u201d He\u00a0remains steadfast in his commitment to religion\u00a0and religious freedom as essential to\u00a0education.<\/p>\n

In his 88 years, Lee has never lost\u00a0sight of the basics: thrift, generosity,\u00a0and faith.<\/p>\n

\u201cI also believe in old-fashioned\u00a0discipline\u2014\u2018don\u2019t spend it till you\u2019ve earned\u00a0it,\u2019\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Lee learned these principles early, growing\u00a0up in Spring Grove, Minnesota, where most\u00a0Norwegian-American community members\u00a0attended the big Lutheran church. \u201cMy father\u00a0died when I was six months old, and my mother\u00a0was quite ill so she had to sell everything she\u00a0had to pay the bills. She got $7.43 a month,\u00a0and of that, 74 cents went to the church,\u201d said\u00a0Lee, who has embraced tithing ever since.<\/p>\n

A retired industrialist and manufacturer,\u00a0Lee owned several companies, including\u00a0Century Manufacturing, Goodall\u00a0Manufacturing, Britt Manufacturing, and\u00a0Fountain Industries. His business acumen\u00a0earned him such honors as Minnesota\u2019s Small\u00a0Business Man of the Year and the University\u00a0of Minnesota\u2019s Outstanding Achievement\u00a0Award. The couple has sponsored a business\u00a0scholarship at Augsburg since 1992.<\/p>\n

Overall, the Sundets are impressed by the\u00a0potential of Augsburg\u2019s programs in Rochester\u00a0and by the work of another community anchor,\u00a0Mayo Clinic, which the couple believes shares\u00a0their values.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have met people at Mayo who have gone\u00a0through the Augsburg program, and I\u2019ve seen\u00a0what it\u2019s done for them. It\u2019s a wonderful thing,\u201d\u00a0Lee said. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t easy to get it started, but\u00a0it\u2019s fun to look back on. Augsburg has come\u00a0a long way, and I would love to see it grow in\u00a0Rochester.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Louise and Regent\u00a0Emeritus Leland\u00a0\u201cLee\u201d Sundet will\u00a0help Augsburg\u2019s\u00a0Rochester site grow thanks to a generous\u00a0$1.5 million gift. The Rochester location\u00a0attracts more than 350 working professionals\u00a0to undergraduate and graduate programs in\u00a0business, education, health care, and nursing. As longtime supporters of Augsburg,\u00a0including the Weekend College and Youth and\u00a0Family Ministry programs, the Sundets have\u00a0used their frugality to benefit others and <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":8000,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,73],"tags":[83],"class_list":["post-7668","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni-news","category-auggies-connect","tag-spring-summer-2017"],"wps_subtitle":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7668","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7668"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7668\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13177,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7668\/revisions\/13177"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8000"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}