Byron and Kathryn Swanson Scholarship for Environmental Ethics

Byron and Kathryn Swanson liked to do things together whenever possible. If you called their home you would likely talk to both of them. When they were invited to direct CLU’s senior mentor program, they agreed to be co-directors. And once they decided to endow a scholarship as part of their legacy, their plan soon evolved into two scholarships—each one focused on a different priority. The Byron and Kathryn Swanson Scholarship for Environmental Ethics was the first to be defined, funded and awarded.

The Swansons came to CLU in 1979 from Midland Lutheran College in Nebraska in order for Byron to accept a position on the religion faculty. He had earned degrees from Augustana College, Augustana Theological Seminary, Yale Divinity School and Princeton Theological Seminary. He had also served in a parish and had been a professor for 11 years. One of Byron’s strengths was teaching Reformation history, but as early as 1980 he had a special interest in ecology. He also loved life and people, and in 1991 was voted professor of the year by CLU students.

Both Byron and Kathryn were deeply concerned with social issues, one of them being the safekeeping of God’s creation—the environment. It was Byron who developed a popular course on environmental ethics. Even after his 1995 retirement (and before their move to Colorado), Byron continued to teach the course because he saw that students’ lives were being changed by the subject matter.

Kathryn Swanson was the daughter of the Rev. Dr. Carl and Ruth Segerhammar. She earned her baccalaureate degree at Bethany College in Kansas. Kathryn had a flair for art, and the move to CLC allowed her to become a student again. She earned her master’s degree in education with an emphasis in art in 1982 and soon thereafter became CLU’s director of women’s programs. In that position she provided support for reentry women through the women’s resource center on campus. For several years she directed a very successful one-day event for women called Creative Options, the proceeds from which eventually endowed the Creative Options Scholarship. The Swansons’ positive impact on the campus was unmistakable.

It was no surprise when Kathryn chose to focus her endowed award on women who return to college to finish their degree after a time gap in their education. The Kathryn and Byron Swanson Scholarship for Reentry Women was awarded for the first time on Honors Day 2008