A blessing today, the scholarship sprang from a family tragedy more than 50 years ago. In 1966, when Barb was 18 and her sister, Ginny (Dahlen) Baali \u201972, was 16, their brother Paul died in a plane crash with fellow Augsburg senior Jerry Pryd. Paul was pursuing a social studies major and physical education minor and, like his father before him, he played on the Auggie baseball team. To memorialize their son and highlight the importance of Augsburg to their family, Rev. Lester Dahlen \u201939, \u201942 and Marian Dahlen established the Paul Dahlen Memorial Scholarship to help students who had Christian purpose, demonstrated academic achievement and participated in extracurricular activities. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cOur family\u2019s connection to Augsburg started with Dad,\u201d explains Barb, who supports the scholarship along with Ginny. A Minneapolis native, Rev. Dahlen enrolled in Augsburg in 1935 and quickly became involved in athletics, choir, student government and other organizations. \u201cAugsburg helped prepare him for God\u2019s calling and to be a man of faith and missions,\u201d she continues. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cEver since we were little kids we heard about Augsburg from our dad,\u201d remembers Barb. Rev. Dahlen often brought the family to concerts, games and other campus events and, in later years, he sometimes wore Paul\u2019s letter jacket. He was grateful for his lasting friendships with Augsburg greats Leland Sateren \u201935, Edor Nelson \u201938, Ernie Anderson \u201937, Sig Hjelmeland \u201941 and others. <\/span><\/p>\n After graduating from Augsburg Seminary, he served several parishes during the course of his 40-year career. The family did mission work in Taiwan and Hong Kong, and Rev. Dahlen also served as Lutheran Free Church Director of World Missions and staff member of the American Lutheran Church Division of World missions. \u201cAugsburg was in his heart always,\u201d remembers Barb. Their mother also held Augsburg in high regard: Marian worked in the financial aid office and joined the Augsburg Associates to provide volunteer support.<\/span><\/p>\n When Marian passed in 2003, memorial gifts boosted the scholarship fund. When Rev. Dahlen passed in 2012, a portion of his estate and memorial gifts further augmented the fund. Around that time Ginny and Barb fine-tuned the scholarship criteria to clarify their parents\u2019 intent and more closely represent their family\u2019s values. \u201cBarb and I have continued to be representatives of the scholarship,\u201d explains Ginny, who supports other Augsburg programs in addition to the family fund. The scholarship gives priority to students who are involved in campus ministry and pursuing a major or minor in physical education, and who demonstrate financial need and academic achievement. \u201cPeople who have a faith background should come to the school and be blessed by it,\u201d says Barb. <\/span><\/p>\n And after graduation? \u201cI hope that scholarship alumni will be Christian witnesses to those around them, reach out in love and share their faith with others,\u201d says Barb. \u201cIt\u2019s important that Augsburg\u2019s Christian legacy be nurtured and encouraged for all the students who will attend and be blessed by the school. That\u2019s why we want to continue with this.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n -Kara Rose<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Out of family tragedy, springs student opportunity The Lester A. Dahlen Family Endowed Scholarship is a bountiful blessing. It rewards Augsburg University students\u2019 hard work and provides financial assistance, while also assuring the family of Rev. Lester Dahlen that their family\u2019s values will live on at Augsburg and be carried into the world. \u201cAs graduates …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":331,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,7,6,3],"tags":[50,58,9,118,33,31,19],"class_list":["post-47334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-donor-recognition","category-gift-announcements","category-giving","category-giving-to-augsburg","tag-endowed-scholarship","tag-gift-announcement","tag-gift-announcements","tag-giving","tag-lutheran-identity","tag-philanthropy","tag-scholarship"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/giving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47334","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\/331"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/giving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47334"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/giving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47334\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47405,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/giving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47334\/revisions\/47405"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/giving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/giving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/giving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Blessed by Augsburg<\/h3>\n
![\"Ginny](\"http:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/giving\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2017\/08\/Ginny-orange-shirt-and-Barb-Dahlen-1.jpg\")
<\/a>A Lasting Memorial<\/h3>\n