{"id":47105,"date":"2017-01-30T20:23:28","date_gmt":"2017-01-30T20:23:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/giving\/?p=47105"},"modified":"2017-02-08T17:57:56","modified_gmt":"2017-02-08T17:57:56","slug":"47105","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/giving\/2017\/01\/30\/47105\/","title":{"rendered":"Wefring Establishes Scholarship to Honor Edor Nelson"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Larry<\/a>
Larry Wefring’s established a scholarship\u00a0in tribute to the encouragement he received as a youth from his late neighbor Edor Nelson ’38.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cChildren need a lot of guidance, and it\u2019s good to have a coach on your side as you\u2019re growing up. He was a coach to me,\u201d Larry Wefring says of Edor Nelson, the legendary Augsburg coach who died in 2014 at age 100. Wefring\u2019s $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.<\/p>\n

\u201cSports are a fabulous teacher of life,\u201d Wefring acknowledges. \u201cThey teach you that you win some and you lose some, but what\u2019s important is that you work together. To be successful in the business world, you need to be a team player.\u201d While he now understands this concept, traditional sports were not accessible to Wefring while he was growing up across the alley from Edor Nelson\u2019s family in south Minneapolis.<\/p>\n

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<\/sup> 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cLarry had his frustrating days, but my dad kept telling him that he could be somebody, that he shouldn\u2019t 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,\u201d says Bruce Nelson \u201871, Edor\u2019s son and Augsburg\u2019s A-Club Advancement Manager.<\/p>\n

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\u2014and life-changing\u2014experimental brain surgery in Canada.<\/p>\n

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 \u201calways do the right thing.\u201d But ultimately, Wefring concludes, it was education that turned his life around.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was already at a disadvantage, but education offset that. That\u2019s really, really important to remember.<\/p>\n

\u2019As a man thinketh, so he is,\u2019\u201d adds Wefring, whose Lutheran faith and spirituality have always guided him. \u201cTrouble 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Edor Nelson Memorial Scholarship will target students who have a disability, physical or otherwise, and who also aim high. \u201cI told Edor that I wanted them to have a dream, and he said, \u2018I do too,\u2019\u201d Wefring says. \u201cAnd 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, \u2018I do too.\u2019 We were always on the same wavelength.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cI gave it my best shot,\u201d he says. \u201cMy dream has come true and then some.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014 Cathy Madison<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cChildren need a lot of guidance, and it\u2019s good to have a coach on your side as you\u2019re growing up. He was a coach to me,\u201d Larry Wefring says of Edor Nelson, the legendary Augsburg coach who died in 2014 at age 100. Wefring\u2019s $100,000 estate gift will establish the Edor Nelson Memorial Scholarship, but …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[97,99,100,101,9,98,42,19,102],"class_list":["post-47105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gift-announcements","tag-disability","tag-edor-nelson","tag-estate-gift","tag-faith","tag-gift-announcements","tag-larry-wefring","tag-planned-giving","tag-scholarship","tag-stan-hubbard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/giving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/giving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/giving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/giving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/giving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47105"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/giving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47105\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47110,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/giving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47105\/revisions\/47110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/giving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/giving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/giving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}