Read Ambassador Bios & Stories

Read bios & stories from (sorted by Ambassador trip year):

Narinder Mehta (U of Minn. alum, 1960 Ambassador)
Eleanor Ostman Aune '62 (1962 Ambassador)
Stephen Van Drake '65 (1964 Ambassador)
David Farson (1965 Ambassador)
Michelle Anjara ’67 (1965 Ambassador)
Brigitte Bosshard-Wartenweiler (1965 Ambassador)
Margo Holen Dinneen '65 (1965 Ambassador)
Mie Nakatsu Arntson '65 (1965 Ambassador)
Heidi Breburda (1965 Ambassador)
Gretty Mirdal (1965 Ambassador)
Sally Kinnamon (1966 Host)
Dennis Stromberg '68 (1966 Ambassador)
Jane Reister Conrad '69 (1967 Ambassador)
Mary Spaeth Campbell '68 (1968 Ambassador)
Sally Grimes Alvis '69 (1968 Ambassador)
Malin Karre (1968 Ambassador)
Gregg Larson ’69 (1969 Ambassador)
Judy Davis ’69 (1969 Ambassador)
Laurie Hazen Anderson '69 (1969 Ambassador)
Christine McCulloch McEvoy (1974 Ambassador)
Dirk Verheyen '78 (1976 Ambassador)
Jayne Niemi '79 (1977 Ambassador)
Detlef Busche
Olga Pavlicev Browning
Frederick Santman
Leif Halbo
Dennis Stromberg

You can share your own bio and story here.

 

I had the good fortune of participating in the Ambassadors for Friendship program in the summer of 1960. Our group consisted of Harry Morgan and Kathleen Morgan (who organized the Ambassadors tour); Kofi Annan ’61 from Ghana; Nassar Mazaheri ’62 from Iran; and myself. Both Kofi Annan and Nassar Mazaheri were attending Macalester College, and I was a student at the University of Minnesota.

This was a wonderful program – well conceived and brilliantly carried out at a time when there were no cell phones and emails. Harry and Kathy did a remarkable job of preparing the itinerary and arranging local hospitality. We visited some wonderful sites, met some remarkable people, and had a great time traveling together. We made the trip in a brand new Rambler station wagon donated by American Motors.  The program gave us a good overview of life in different parts of the United States.

Fifty years have passed, but the memories of so many wonderful experiences of this trip are still fresh in my mind. Let me share some of those memories with you:

We had the honor of meeting with President Harry Truman at his library in Independence, Missouri. He spent about one hour with us, and answered many questions we put to him. I was deeply touched by his warmth and simple ways.

We were invited to a picnic in Oklahoma City where President Johnson was the chief guest (he was a Senator at that time campaigning for the Democratic Party nomination which he lost to President Kennedy). I still remember his hand firmly on my shoulder, looking me straight in the eyes, as he spoke to me.

We were in Los Angeles at the time of Democratic Party convention that nominated President John Kennedy. We were invited to tour the convention hall although we were not able to attend the convention proceedings. It was great to see the convention hall, and gain some understanding of the nominating process for presidential candidates.

I am glad to know that the Ambassadors for Friendship program continued for many years. It was a great program, and I hope someone will put this program in motion again.

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Eleanor Ostman Aune '62
1962 Ambassador
View MacDirect profile

Six of us, and our suitcases, packed into a Rambler wagon — and boy, could that car go. It was a challenge to stay within the speed limit, but we had a lot of miles to cover as Jan Trowbridge and our "ambassadors" from Germany, Kenya, Japan (plus one more who escapes my memory) headed south to Iowa, Kansas, Oklahoma, then west to New Mexico, Arizona, California, up the coast to the northwest, then across the Great Plains back to Minnesota.

I remember so many things from those six weeks, among them our first morning on the road when we heard on the car radio a celebrity died (it was either Marilyn Monroe or Ernest Hemingway — I have to check the history books).

I had traveled in Europe for a college summer, and around the U.S., but what made that trip so memorable and unique were families who took us in. There weren't always enough beds, but we managed. They took us to a local baseball game in Iowa, out among the cattle and oil wells in Oklahoma (where a restaurant lunch was chicken-fried steak, my first experience with that dish). We went to neighborhood potlucks (so more small town folks could meet these young women from around the world). We were taken to local dances and a pow wow and parade in Albuquerque. We met city folks and farm families, all sharing the gift of hospitality. One California mom even took me to the doctor to have a cyst lanced — and she paid the $15 bill. I think everyone loved going to Disneyland, and the magnificent scenery of the Grand Canyon and the Redwoods.

We'd made arrangements with families for nearly every night; but, in Bend, Ore., we were without digs. So we stopped at the local jail and asked if they had beds for us. The police chief didn't think that would be seemly, so he made some calls, and we were invited to stay with a family who suddenly had a houseful of guests with no advance warming. We often talk about "Minnesota Nice" but there is "nice all over this country.

Memories galore tumble through my mind, and I could go on, but I look forward to sharing more stories at the reunion. Thanks for asking!

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Michelle Anjara ’67
View MacDirect Profile

Thorun Olafsdottir (Iceland) was in my car. We stayed with the family of Terry McManus ’68 in Wessington Springs, South Dakota the first night. That was the beginning of a lifelong friendship. (Terry and I later went to Giverny [Monet Gardens] in 1991 and visited my sister in Rennes afterwards.)

Another unforgettable item was in Texas, in a big town, Austin. We got there late and went to the County Offices to ask for suitable lodging. There was a lawyer there who gave us the key to his house. We stayed there the night but he never showed up for us to thank him. We crossed to Juarez in Mexico. It was not the crime-ridden city then as it has become lately. Somewhere in Louisiana, the family was so gracious and offered chicoree in place of coffee.

Last, Mississippi: We were in a restaurant and whatever we ordered they were "out of." I recall the faces of the black cooks through the kitchen door, peering at us. I seem to have been only slightly alarmed by it all. Karen and the other girl with us seemed more upset than I was.

I did write a journal and if I find it after 40 years I'll fish some other information for you. Of course my recollections might need some "work over" since I may have adjusted what I recall along the years. I would be fascinated if someone from my group corrected what I remember. In any case, that trip truly let us grasp the true nature of your fantastic country. I am forever thankful of Macalester for it.

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Our rainbow coalition of friendship ambassadors soon learned 'friendship' of integrated groups of students in station wagons were unwelcome in Mississippi and Louisiana during our summer of 1964. We walked into a quaint, old if not rickety restaurant in Vicksburg. There was a boardwalk. We descended into civil war, it seemed. We were the only (would-be) patrons. A couple in their sixties, white, came over and said they could not serve us, asking us to leave. I simply asked, "We're hungry so where could we eat?" The man motioned to walk around the corner, along the boardwalk, first restaurant on the right, a black restaurant. We walked in. Most ignored us and we were treated like any customer, warmly and ate well. We got kicked out of a few bars in New Orleans, too. But civil rights leader Rev. Andy Foreman and his black friends hosted us. For a few days, I got a glimpse of seeing the Deep South and its apartheid up close and personal through the eyes of a second-class citizen, the disenfranchised. This galvanized my views against racism and for civil rights, equality and likely had much to do with providing context for my law career.

What I’ve been up to since then:
Through civil disobedience, directly helping bring affirmative action to St. Paul; becoming a CO and representing fellow draft resisters against federal criminal prosecution during the Vietnam War; working and living in Tripoli, Libya (1977-80) as an oil company lawyer and then blowing whistle on company corruption, forced out of the country (persona non grata); overturning 110 years of common law that allowed employers to create handbooks full of lies, making such handbooks implied and enforceable contracts (circa 1983); working more than 10 years total as photojournalist, editor and investigative journalist and columnist; and travelling in so many cultures and languages.

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David Farson
1965 Ambassador

Our time together with the 4 students had a big influence on my life. I remember the lady on a farm in Iowa giving us her last eggs. Since that trip, I have always believed in Americans. I believe in the endurance of the American spirit. Yes, that trip was formative for me.

What I’ve been up to since then:
BriefBio: After a 34 career as a teacher, I am now trying to reinvent myself as a writer. June and I have been married for 43 years.

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Dear Ol' Macalester! Enter Margo in '61, a small town Minnesota girl who, with the exception of International Girl Scout Round-up in '59, had no other travel experience. You promised that, if I worked hard enough, I could travel overseas somehow during my college years. Wow! Did you deliver on that promise!  First you brought many international students into our home and opened my eyes to the world. My first airline flight ever was from San Francisco to Hong Kong in 1964 to work on the SWAP program there. And then you selected me, and many others, to drive and participate in Ambassadors for Friendship, 1965.  12,000 miles, six weeks, a b'zillion memories, and precious international perspectives on "What is that?"  "Why do they do it that way?"… Wow!" Did you open my eyes to the world! I learned far more on the road than in all my classrooms put together! And the friendships we made! Thank you, Mac!

During the 45 years since then I've lived and traveled extensively on six continents with 17 international trips between 1973 and 2001.  A couple of the most spectacular included four and a half months of backpacking and youth hosteling on five continents in '93, trekking the Inca trail into Machu Picchu from above in '97, and trekking almost up to Base Camp of Mount Everest in '99.  You, Macalester, gave me those gifts, and I thank you!

I was also blessed to have a career that I truly loved, teaching smart kids with very unique learning needs (LD, EBD, ADHD, ASD, CP, etc.) for 42 1/2 years up until last year. In 1991, I was married to a wonderful guy, Dick Dinneen, until he was hit by a snowboarder on March 8, 2004 while we skied in Colorado and died shortly thereafter. God blessed me again with a new marriage on December 12, 2009 to Jon Zoller who had been widowed in 2001. We are building our home in Prior Lake, Minn., and beginning a new life.  Thank You, God!

Hope to see you all June 4 through 6!

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Mie Nakatsu Arntson
St. Catherine Alum 1965
1965 Ambassador

I participated in the program of Ambassadors for Friendship in 1965 after graduating from the University of St. Catherine. It was one of the few most valuable experience to me then and my vision has certainly opened up through driving and living with other foreign students and seeing many parts of the United States. I returned to Japan that year and now I live in Austin, Texas. It was such a long time ago when this event took place and I have difficulty remembering the names of my teammates but I do have a photo album of all the fun memories. I am semi-retired from conference interpreting and patent translation. I would love to get reacquainted with any of the team members.

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Sally Kinnamon
Host from Richardson, Texas '66

The Ambassadors for Friendship station wagon pulled in the driveway.  The visit was expected; the visitors were a surprise.  With no e-mail or cell phones to herald their arrival, or to brief us on their make-up, the five in our family (including three very young sons) watched as the six weary, bedraggled college guys unfolded from the car.

There they were, representing five continents, with skin of every hue, hair from blond to black-- yet already companions and fellow travelers, laughing and joking about their adventures. I’m afraid I never really absorbed family names, but I still remember the first names, or in some cases, what we called them—Prasad from India, Matt from Cameroon, “Wow” from Japan, Arild from Norway and Mark and Dennis, the intrepid U.S. driver-guides. This was our family’s first opportunity for a real international experience.  We weren’t sure what to expect or how we should “be.” But—there are two particular instances that have stayed with me.

You see, it was also the first opportunity I had to provide food for six “growing” (and as it turned out, VERY hungry college guys).  I had no idea how much food to have on hand.  I had prepared what I thought would be plenty.  It became little more than hors d'oeuvres!  Fortunately, one phone call to some dear friends from our local church brought much food very soon to fill those empty stomachs.

My second memory may seem mundane, but was of great philosophical significance to me.  It seemed they all needed laundry done.  I showed them to the washer; and since we had no dryer, they set out to the back yard to hang their clothes on the big square clothes line.  There they were, one person to a side—an advertisement for world unity.  You see, as unalike as they were on the outside, they were hanging up identical underwear! Of course, we took them to a big mall (unique at that time) and introduced them to high-powered lawyers and interesting business magnates, and we had a terrific time. But more than that, for us, the hosts, we learned just a little more about our world and the possibilities of living together.

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One of the interesting incidents on our Ambassador's trip occurred as we visited the headquarters of the John Birch Society. As we walked to the entrance, Prasad, our Indian member, and I were buttonholed by a lady coming out of the John Birch Society. She asked Prasad what country he was from. He replied he was from India. She then told him that India was a communist country. Prasad, being the gentleman that he was, asked her why she thought India was a communist country. She informed him that India had had a big state funeral for Nehru and that big state funerals were a sure sign of a communist country. Prasad then asked her, "What about the state funeral held in Washington, D.C., for President Kennedy?" She replied, "That proves he was a communist too.”

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Thanks to my Ambassadors for Friendship tour in 1967 I came to realize how vast the American West is, yet how small the world can be in terms of human bonds of friendship and shared concerns and values.  I will never forget the three days it took to drive across Texas, from sticky hot humid Houston to sunny scorched El Paso.  Yet I discovered that my international student car mates, the three young women from Vietnam (Huong Norton, Macalester, '69), Norway (Anne Grethe Anderson), and  Austria (Rotraud Binder), liked the same music, clothes, and movies I liked and had similar questions about personal paths for the future.  My co-driver, Norene Johnson, Macalester, '67, had graduated in January and already begun teaching elementary school in St. Paul and seemed quite mature and settled in comparison!  (The fourth international student, from Taiwan, dropped out due to illness just three days into the trip.)

We set out from St. Paul in mid-July for a six-week trip taking a circular route that took us south through St. Louis, Little Rock, and New Orleans; then west across the vastness of Texas to Las Cruces, N.M., and Phoenix, the Grand Canyon, and on to California.  We relished the California experience, from Disneyland north to the charm of San Francisco during "the summer of love." Then we turned back east and into the beauty of the mountains of the West.  We marveled at Lake Tahoe, drove through the Nevada desert, and learned about the Mormon history and culture in Salt Lake City.  Then we went north to the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone and sampled ranch life in Cody, Wyo., staying in a real bunkhouse.  We headed into the home stretch going through the Black Hills and Sioux Falls, S.D. and arrived back at Macalester a few days before the fall semester began.

Of the many memories I have, our overnight stay in the jail in a small west Texas town, Sonora, stands out.  While we had planned stays with families at most points on our route, because of the difficulty in estimating driving time across Texas we had an unplanned night.  We arrived in the county seat in late afternoon and parked next to the court house, the largest building in town.  A volleyball net occupied space next to the dusty court house lawn that was being sprinkled as the heat of the day faded.  We introduced ourselves to a few folks standing nearby and were invited to join in the picnic they were preparing.  We met the deputy sheriffs on duty, who kindly let us stay in the jail (since it was empty), which was air conditioned, instead of camping out for the night.  We had a wonderful evening playing volleyball, sharing the picnic, and getting to know the officers and their young families.  Not only that, but we got superior accommodations and a great story to tell!  When we told this story to Huong Norton's adoptive parents in Phoenix they related it to a friendly newspaper reporter who came by to do a story about Ambassadors for Friendship and take a photo of us.  I still have the newspaper clipping, with a headline stating, "Texas Shows Hospitality: Girls Spent Night in Jail”!

My experience in the western states during my Ambassadors trip influenced my choice of locale for my life.  I lived in California from 1972 -1982, graduating from U.C. Davis School of Law and beginning my health law career with the California Department of Health.  In 1982 I joined the newly formed health law department of Intermountain Healthcare, a large non-profit, integrated healthcare system in Salt Lake City.  I now divide my time between homes in Salt Lake City and Sun Valley, Idaho, enjoying a part-time (mostly electronic) health law consulting practice while taking full advantage of the mountain climate and scenery by skiing, snowshoeing, hiking and bicycling.

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Mary Spaeth Campbell '68
1968 Ambassador

I recently unearthed a little notebook that contains a sketchy list of our 1968 Ambassadors travel stops and the names and addresses of our hosts.  There are checkmarks next to the host names – proof that we were well mannered and sent notes thanking them for their hospitality.

Here is some of our itinerary, as recorded in a "Reader's Digest," abbreviated format:

NYC: We met our group at JFK; took a Circle Line bus tour; dined at Mama Leone's; went to West Side Story at the Lincoln Center; had a swimming party at Harry Morgan's following a tour of Reader's Digest; and stayed at the RD headquarters VIP lodge and the Kittle House.

Philadelphia: We toured the city and had a swimming party.

Washington, D.C.: Much touring...

Charleston:  Rest and showers!

Norris, Tenn.: Toured the Tennessee Valley Authority dam.  Picnic in the Smokey Mountains.  Ate great Southern food and homemade ice cream.

Memphis: Lunch at a cotton plantation.  Discussion with the Tennessee Civil Rights Commission.  Met the Memphis mayor.  More swimming.

Little Rock: Toured the Little Rock AFB.  Goof-off time including a movie, luncheon and yet another swimming party.

Oklahoma City: An all-girls overnight and shopping.

Lubbock, Texas: Girls at one host house and guys at another. 50 people attended a party for us, complete with live music and group singing.

Sante Fe:  Touring in town.  Picnic near Los Almos and a tour of the scientific museum there.  Saw "La Traviata" at the San Francisco Opera.  Swimming party at the Driscoll's. Attended a Hopi Kachina dance at a nearby Pueblo.

Grand Canyon: Brief stop en route to Williams where we slept on a church floor.

Needles, Calif.: Swimming and TV viewing of the Republican Convention.

Los Angeles: Beach time, Disneyland, Sunset Strip, UCLA International Center.

Santa Barbara area: camped out and visited Solvaag.

San Francisco:  Dinner at Omar Kiam's hosted by George Mardikian.  Picnic at Golden Gate Park.  Dinner at Fisherman's Wharf.  Visited Berkeley.

Lake Tahoe:  Stayed (by ourselves) in a three-bedroom A-frame.  Partied on with adult beverages, guitars, reading, etc.

Elko, Nev.: Overnight stay in a church.

Salt Lake City:  Attended an Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Ward steak dinner in a canyon near Brighton, complete with a musical review.  Toured University of Utah; went to an organ recital at the Temple.  Toured the Latter-day Saints visitor’s center.

Craig, Wyo.: Overnight stop.

Denver:  Visited the AF Academy and took in a rodeo.  Pretended to all be the children of our hostess when her date arrived to pick her up!

Breckenridge, Colo.:  Relaxed in a home built like a Swedish Chalet.

Torrington, Wyo.:  overnight stop.

Spearfish, S.D.: Had a picnic and attended the passion play.  Went to Mt. Rushmore.

Parker, S.D.: Toured road horses and had steak dinner at a Hereford ranch.

My notes ended here, but I also remember a visit to Sally's family cabin in Minnesota. Very likely other wonderful stops were also omitted in my travel log. I look forward to seeing the '68 travel companions and filling in the blanks!

I’ve been married for 40 years and a resident of Lincoln, Neb., since 1972. We had one daughter who was killed in 2000 in an avalanche.

I attended two graduate programs: MAT at University of Chicago and JD at the University of Nebraska. I had teaching stints in Chicago at New Trier High School and the Lab School at the University of Chicago. I also taught in Lincoln, Neb., at Irving Jr. High School and Lincoln East Sr. High School. I served on the committee counsel at the Nebraska Unicameral and a counsel in a law firm, and I owned of my own lobbying firm.

I had an "encore career" as the assistant to the superintendent for governmental relations for the Lincoln Public Schools.

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I picked up the Rambler at Mac after dinner, drove to Wisconsin for gas and asked how to turn on the headlights. I went to Chicago to pick up Randy and Mary who drove to New York City – all in the first 24 hours. We stayed in a quality hotel. (It had the same exact picture on two walls.)  We met our 10 foreign students and three other drivers.  

We traveled with two students from each of the five Scandinavian countries south to Tennessee, Oklahoma, California, Colorado, and back through the Black Hills.  We stopped at many Stucky's for gas and peanut brittle.  All of us went to Disneyland one day for $80.  We then had to deliver students back to host families in the middle of the night somewhere in Los Angeles.  We stayed on a very cold beach one night. We watched the number of MacDonalds burgers climb and tried to explain what peanut butter tasted like, without tasting it.  

I was lucky enough to see Time’s Square, the Statue of Liberty and Reader's Digest Headquarters; visit Washington DC; stay overnight at San Ildefanson Pueblo; drink beer and eat chocolate candy with our host in Oklahoma; stay at Lake Tahoe and Breckenridge, Col.; see the Black Hills; and meet so many great people. Our three cars were co-ed and lots of fun.  We learned how to pass in no passing zones safely and enjoyed saying "he's paying" and point to the first car. I learned how little I really knew about our country and other people.  I also learned that I love to travel.  It was an unforgettable experience.

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Malin Karre
1968 Ambassador

I spent 1968-69 at Macalester and went back to Stockholm University in Sweden. I joined the Swedish Foreign Service in 1975 and have spent almost 17 years in altogether five foreign countries, apart from Sweden, since. The first 12 years I had my husband and our two daughters with me, but my husband has passed away, and my daughters are long since grown up. Currently I am the Swedish Ambassador to Egypt. 

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Gregg Larson ’69
1969 Ambassador
View MacDirect Profile

I'm from the Class of 1969 and was part of the 1969 Ambassadors Tour with John Beattie ’70. We had four student travelers with us: Ben Sy (Phillipines), Gerhard -1 (Germany), Gerhard-2 (Germany), and Michel (Algeria). Sorry, I can't remember the last names of the others. John lives in the Twin Cities.

The highlight of our trip was at the beginning — racing down to Florida in two days to watch the launch of Apollo 11, the first moon landing, from Cape Kennedy. Former Vice President Humphrey arranged for the invitations, and we sat in the VIP stands at the launch site with Lyndon Johnson, John Connelly, Johnnie Carson, Spiro Agnew, and other notables and not-so-notables. We got a special limo tour of the Space Center the next day, and then traveled on to the Houston Space Center where we saw the splash-down from the balcony of the Mission Control center. Lots of other great experiences en route.

The women's tour was guided by Martha Heeren and Laurie Hazen, both Class of 1969. I recall that they had Birgitta (Danish), Jay (Indian), Yoshiko (Japanese), and, I think, Maria (Costa Rica). We scheduled regular stops en route to meet up with their car. Martha currently lives in Sydney, Australia, and Laurie Anderson lives in the Twin Cities.

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Judy Seppanen Davis ’69
1969 Ambassador

Suzanne Smith and I accompanied Naz Pakizegi (Mac '69, Iran), Vibeke Steineger (St. Olaf, Norway), Blandina Wagner (St. Catherines, Germany), and Mariette Givoiset (University of Iowa, France) on this 1969 Tour. Here are a few memories:

Naz saying the landscape felt like home when I thought it was the most desolate.

Mariette cooking French onion soup and quiche in a Berkeley kitchen: haven't these onions cooked enough yet?

Looking for bears in Yellowstone with one of the guy's groups: did you guys really sleep in the car? We had Suzanne's family tent, and Vibeke could always charm someone into sharing a campsite when the campgrounds were full.

Searching for the time and location of Mass in National Parks and small towns with limited Catholic populations so that Blandina could attend

Freezing in those thin sleeping bags while camping next to a snow bank in Sequoia National Park

Seeing so much of the country that was new to me as well as to our international friends

I moved from Minnesota to Oregon in 1970. I have lived near the Columbia River in Oregon and Washington ever since. (We traveled in Oregon on our Ambassador's trip, but not as far north as the Columbia River.) I have taught math, raised a family, returned to graduate school in urban studies, done research on transportation and land use issues, and I am now retired in the Columbia River Gorge, where I serve on the Gorge Commission, the regional planning agency.

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Laurie Hazen Anderson ’69
richard8ruben@yahoo.com
1969 Ambassador

Even though some of the details of our 1969 trip are fuzzy, the lasting impression is that we had an unbelievably wonderful time, six young women driving approximately 10,000 miles in six weeks. Members of our group were: Jai Devi Ramachar of India, Maria Conejo of Costa Rica, Toshiko Kushima of Japan, and Birgitta Nielsen of Denmark, organizers Martha Heeren and myself from Macalester. We saw the Arch in St. Louis; jazz in New Orleans; a space center and immense ranches in Texas; stars' homes, hippies and the Golden Gate Bridge in Los Angeles and San Francisco. Yellow Stone, the Grand Canyon, and Mt. Rushmore were also on our trek. I have pictures of us sailing, horseback riding, and going to a movie set in Santa Fe. We were featured in an article, picture and all, in a newspaper in Memphis.

The young women in our group definitely enjoyed meeting up with the guys in Gregg Larson and John Beattie's group. My recollection is that we met in New Orleans, at a southern plantation, and the Ponderosa out west. I also recall that two of our International students were very fond of each other...

Two incidents I'll never forget occurred while camping. In a Grand Canyon campground we were settling down to eat our meal, it was arranged on our picnic table. Suddenly a bear appeared out of the trees right behind us. As the cool headed American, I advised the group to back slowly toward the station wagon. Well that lasted for about three steps before we all broke for the Rambler and clamored over each other to pile in. Luckily the bear was only interested in our food, not us, and munched our whole meal as we watched helplessly from the car.

The second incident happened on the Texas plains. We were in between big cities and had to camp that night. No obvious sites showed themselves. It was late in the day, time to find a place. We stopped at a very rustic house to ask advice. The young man who came out to talk to us said we could camp on his family's property. We had to follow him in his truck for a long way on a dirt road. We stopped on a barren hillside and soon built a fire, probably cooking something. Later as it got dark, he stayed with us as the girls taught us dances from their countries. We all danced and sang around the fire under the stars. Later he left and we rolled out our sleeping bags and slept without a tent. I remember waking to hear the sound of stampeding cattle in the distance and hoped they weren't coming our way. They didn't; what a night!

The year before I had the good fortune of traveling to Europe on SWAP, another Macalester program. I thought nothing could ever match that experience. But this trip did match it with the generosity of people we met, the camaraderie of the group, the beautiful geography of the country, and the wonderful adventures we experienced.

My husband, Dick Anderson of Macalester, and I celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary this year! We have two grown children who live in the metro area. We are both retired teachers, I taught elementary school in Burnsville, Minn. We are really enjoying retirement and are doing a lot of traveling and spending time at our lake home in Wisconsin.

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Brigitte Bosshard
bbosshard@hotmail.com

I have very fond memories of these six weeks: traveling ten thousand miles in a car, being able to visit practically everything I had hoped to see west of the Mississippi, spending time with American families, camping near the Grand Canyon (where it was freezing cold), enjoying the attractions of Las Vegas and getting to know big cities like San Francisco, Los Angeles Houston and New Orleans.

In my summary I wrote: "Traveling by car was a great pleasure. In this way we were very flexible. Our small group always found accommodation, in a family or in the tent. At the beginning we did not know each other, but soon we became friends. It was an unusual but wonderful experience to be part of a "family" of five different nations. Whenever we had to solve problems concerning our trip, our democratic way of voting prevented serious disagreements".

I am still thankful for the hospitality of all the Americans who invited us to their homes and let us take part in their family life. We were invited to luxurious homes with pool and servants (Rotary Club), small apartments with young families with children (we slept in the living room with sleeping bags), a ranch (9000 acres, 900 cattle, 50 horses), small farms, in the house of a dentist near the Mexican border, where we had steaks and french fries for breakfast. The "spontaneous" stops were sometimes very adventurous. Once we slept in the basement of a church (with thousand large black beetles). I am still surprised at myself that I did all this when I was young. I am not really a spontaneous person. I like to plan things and wish to know what I can expect. Since then I have never traveled in this way again.

Hans and I have been living at Kilchberg near Zurich for more than 40 years. Now we are both retired. Hans was with the Reader's Digest until 1998 and I was working for the Philips Company until 2004. There I was responsible for the Customer's Magazine of Philips Lighting. Now Hans is busy as a freelance journalist and I do some volunteer work. We have two daughters — and now three grandchildren. Andrea is a diplomat and has been working for the Swiss Embassy in Washington, D.C., for the last four years. Her husband is a Russian artist (painting) and they have two children. The other daughter, Martina, is living in Zurich with her husband and a baby.

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Christine McCulloch McEvoy
1974 Ambassador
christinemcevoy@tiscali.co.uk

I was lucky enough to participate in the Ambassadors for Friendship tour of
summer 1974. I was an exchange student from Stirling University in Scotland.
My name was Christine McCulloch (now McEvoy).

It was a once in a lifetime experience and I have some great memories. I have
lost touch with my Macalester friends and would like to find out how they are
doing.

Best wishes for the reunion!

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In 1975, I came to Macalester from The Netherlands for what was expected to be a one-year study experience. In the end, I graduated from Macalester in 1978 and went on to graduate study and academic work in California, staying 25 years in the U.S. before re-locating to Berlin, Germany.

At that time, Macalester still had something called Interim, between Fall and Spring. I signed up for the Ambassadors trip, which took place in January 1976. The trip involved the following sites: Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C.; Richmond, Va.; Charleston, S.C.; St. Augustine, Fla.; Atlanta; Nashville; and St. Louis Mo. I believe that we travelled with a group of about 20-30 students.

All in all, it was a truly unique experience. I had the opportunity to see a major slice of the U.S., and I recall that both the Bicentennial theme and the North-South legacy played a significant role in what we saw and learned. One of the memories that really stands out was my stay at the home of an African American family in Richmond, Va. I was there together with a fellow participant from what was then still called Zaire. We had a terrific conversation with this family about history, colonialism, race relations, civil rights, etc.

The formal assignment for this trip, for which we received academic credit, was to write a diary. I pulled it out of my files again recently and can only smile now at some of the reflections I composed at that younger age, impressed by all that I saw and experienced. The Ambassadors trip was surely one of my "defining" experiences at Mac!

A little more about me:

• Graduate study at UC Berkeley (Ph.D. in Political Science in 1988).
• Taught as Assistant and Associate Professor of Political Science at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles.
• Director of the FU-BEST (Berlin European Studies) Program at the Freie Universität Berlin since 2005.

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Jayne Niemi '79
1977 Ambassador
View MacDirect profile

In the fall of 1976, my second year at Mac, I saw the Ambassadors for Friendship course listed as an option for Interim 1977. I don't remember much about the application process except for two things — one was waiting to hear whether I was accepted, and the other was my sweet sister offering to fund the parts of the trip we couldn't otherwise cover. I still remember schlepping to the IC (now the President's house) at some early hour on a frigid January day to board the bus. No Ramblers for us — we were on a lovely motorcoach for the month, exploring the American Southwest.

It was my first ever view of mountains as we drove out West and then south to New Mexico, Arizona, California (San Diego, LA, San Francisco), then Salt Lake City, and back home. This many years later, without memory aids in front of me, I may have forgotten some stops.

The group was about one third US students, and the rest international. Kim Brown was our fearless leader! Our home-stay hosts were great, entertaining us as well as feeding us. Some of us had dinner at Yahya Armajani's home. We went to Disneyland, the San Diego Zoo, whale watching, and had countless other adventures. It was my first glimpse of ocean, and first time on rapid transit (BART).

I wish I could put my hands on the journal I kept. Somewhere there is a photo album too. The memories? Well, those will be with me always. It was a grand opportunity for a young girl from the Iron Range to start to see the world. A good start, but just a start, mind you!

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Olga Pavlicev Browning

We are retired from professional jobs, but we have new "careers" in country living and love it. We do our projects mostly by ourselves, so there is always something going on that requires our presence. It is not likely that I will join you for the Ambassadors reunion. Please give my greetings to everybody and have fun.

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Gretty Mirdal
1965 Ambassador

I left you all before the end of our trip to come to Denmark. I am still here, married to the same man, almost living in the same house, and affiliated to the same University for the last 45 years! But a lot has happened in between. I have two daughters, an architect (37) and a designer (33). I am a professor of transcultural and clinical psychology at the University of Copenhagen, and I have been connected to the European Science Foundation in Strasbourg for the past ten years, traveling throughout Europe, and occasionally to Turkey.

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Heidi Breburda
1965 Ambassador

My permanent address is now on the isle of Mallorca in the Mediterranean-after having roamed the world for quite a bit. I do hope I can come for the reunion-although my son is getting married this summer in Germany. I`ve got 2 boys and 2 girls, 4 grandchildren, living in Berlin, Stuttgart, Brussels and Ethiopea.

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Detlef Busche

The Ambassadors for Friendship travel through the western United States turned out to be very decisive for my future career, though in a quite unexpected way. Having returned to the Free University of Berlin, I resumed by studies there, with emphasis on American Studies, Geography being my minor. There I took a course on the Geomorphology of the Western United States, and as someone else chickened out at the very last moment, I not only presented my own seminar paper, but also on the topic the other student should have dealt with. I had learned so much during our travel, that it did not take me too much work to do so. Surprisingly, the professor was so impressed that he asked me whether I would like to join him on a half-year's research stay at the newly founded desert research station of Bardai, in northern Chad. I accepted, fell in love with the desert during what became a nine-months stay in the very heart of the Sahara, changed my major from American Studies to Geography and then also wrote my Ph.D. thesis on a Saharan topic.

It did not mean, however, that I lost all interest in American Studies. I became one of the founding staff of the newly set up section of American Geography at the John F. Kennedy-Center of American Studies at the Free University of Berlin, and thus lived comfortably in two highly different worlds. Right after my Ph.D. graduation, I was offered a job at the Geography Department of the University of Wuerzburg. For the next few years desert field work there concentrated on Iran, as a civil war had brought an end to research in northern Chad. But by 1977 an expedition of our department could be organized to northern Niger, where we then continued to do original research up to the present; my last expedition was in 1990, though. In the mean time Iran had been closed for political reasons, but in 1993 I could resume official contact with Iranian colleagues again and resume research there and conduct student trips.

In 1989 an interdisciplinary research program with the geologists and mineralogists of our university on Namibia was launched. I joined, and thus came to know another desert region of the world.

As for the United States, in 1969, one year after I had married and the first of our two children had been born, I had the opportunity of a three-month student field trip to the southeastern U.S., during which I could separate from the group for a month of field work in the desert regions of the Southwest. In the following years I was regularly teaching courses on American Geography, both physical and human, up to my retirement in 2008. Another tie was language. Together with a German-American, I translated the then leading German geomorphology text book into English, and ever since I have been active translating geography papers into English for colleagues. My personal research publications concentrated on African and Iranian desert research, though.

In 1997 I was slowed down abruptly by a severe heart attack, but obviously I survived, could resume my work after about 9 months and feel quite well, with the appropriate permanent medication, except that I can no longer race up steep mountains. I am still quite active after retirement, both in adult education, working in a local historical society of the village north of Wuerzburg, where we live, and am tying up all those loose ends of scientific work, for which there was not enough time during the normal university treadmill.

As you see from this brief vita: had I not been granted that Macalester scholarship, I would probably never have made in to the Sahara, and instead of a university career, I would simply have become a high school teacher for English and Geography - which financially would have been the better choice, though.

I regret today that I never cared too much about keeping in touch with people I had come to know, but life was always so busy that I felt I needed all my time for the present project under way. Also with Kerrin I had lost all contact, although we had been on the same Free University exchange scholarship. She discovered my whereabouts thanks to the internet. Unfortunately, I also did not keep any contact with the other non-American members of our group, which is really a pity, in hindsight.

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Frederick Santman

I am currently an internist in Rotterdam. The year I spent in the States, including my Ambassadors for Friendship experience, was pivotal in my life. One of the things that happened as a result of this experience was that I was selected as one of 40 representatives from the Netherlands to staff the Dutch pavilion at the Montreal expo (world's fair) in 1967. Subsequent to that experience I returned to Holland to work on my medical degree and then, because I had such a good experience in the States and in Canada and because I was comfortable over there, I spent four years at a residency in Winnipeg.

The Ambassadors for Friendship program was wonderful for me. I believe that travel and international experiences make me much more willing to try new experiences and also be more accepting of others with different cultural backgrounds than others he has met who have seldom, if ever, ventured away from their hometowns.

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Leif Halbo

American politics is important for the whole world, and we were delighted when Barrach Obama was elected president. I have read his two books and got respect and admiration for him. To Europeans it is difficult to understand the resistance to his health reform. But we hope his path will be easier now, both in the US and abroad. That reminds me on our stay in 1965 with Mr. Thaddeus Parr and his wife (in Texas?) - he a rich, self made man, they both very much republicans. I discussed/quarreled with his wife most of the night, and we corresponded for a number of years afterwards. Such episodes made the tour very valuable and memorable to me - I thought I learnt a lot about how Americans think. But she found me to be very ungrateful, criticizing the US which has been so good to Norway and to me in particular. Another memorable visit was to the B52 pilot. Not an aggressive war-monger as I might have expected in advance, but a very reflected idealist who felt he made a contribution to world peace - which he possibly did.

I got my PhD in applied physics at Purdue in 1970. Before that I also got married to a Norwegian girl, and we had two children before returning to Norway (in 1970). Since then I have worked some 10 years in a research institute, another 10 years in the multinational ABB in Norway on electronics production technology. The last 20 years in Norwegian Metrology (=measurement technology) Service - a Norwegian governmental mini-version of the American NIST (National Institute for Standards and Technology). I retired last year at the mandatory age 70 from NMS. But I feel like you: Work and contact with a working environment is interesting. So now I have a part time job in a small (7 employees) electronics company. We have lived in Oslo almost all the time, except for two years in Kenya where I was a teacher at University of Nairobi. I also spent 1/2 year at Cornell University in 1980 and have been to the US for a number of meetings and conferences. But now the urge for traveling is not so strong any more. Laziness? We "only" have the two children and 2 1/2 grandchildren (my daughter expects in July).

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Dennis Stromberg

Ambassadors for Friendship had a major impact on my life. My short bio for Ambassadors, (which I recently found) said I was going to become a lawyer in a small Pennsylvania town! My life and career never got close to that scenario.

Because of Ambassadors and SWAP (Germany), I developed a life goal to work and live internationally. This led me to work for Caterpillar Tractor, which I targeted because it was the 3rd largest US exporter at that time. Due to luck, and some badgering, we were lucky to begin living in Geneva, Switzerland at the ripe age of 25. From this starting point,(and with a few different companies) we ended up living over 19 years in Europe (based in Spain, England, Switzerland and the Netherlands). We also lived back in the United States every few years in a variety of places. My last job, before going into semi retirement, was working for a Caterpillar dealer in Harrisburg, Pa.

The international bug has proven to be generational. One son- born in Switzerland and a Mac grad- lives in France working for a sailboat company. The other son presently lives in Singapore teaching and composing music after living in Turkey and Viet Nam.

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