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Elsie Mallinger was born near Sabin, Minnesota on March 2, 1903, the seventh of nine children. Her parents, John and Elizabeth Mallinger, moved to a farm near Ada, Minnesota when Elsie was young. Elsie entered country school at age four. Eventually she started teaching other students in the back of the class while the teacher continued teaching in the front. Elsie graduated high school at age sixteen and returned to her family’s farm for some time. She then attended Dakota Business College in Fargo, graduating in seven weeks.

In 1968, Concordia College opened Hallett Hall, an all-women’s dormitory, along with Erickson Hall, an all-men’s dormitory.  The dormitories were built as different sections of one complex. It was the first time since the college’s very early years, when its single building was home to both sexes by necessity, that men and women lived in such close proximity. Hoyum Hall was a former women’s dormitory that became the first building on campus to house both male and female students in 2008.

Concordia’s tradition of crowning a homecoming queen began in the 1920s.  Student movements and the influence of the 1960-70s society affected the practice. Due to student concerns, the 1974 Homecoming Chairperson Ken Fitzer substituted the tradition of voting for a homecoming queen with the Don Awards, which was a recognition given to four exemplary senior students. The current practice of crowning both a king and queen began during the homecoming festivities in 1977.

Kathryn “Kathy” Benson spent fifty years of her life employed at Concordia College. Through her work at the Kjos Health Center and beyond, she touched the lives of many and supported both students and staff in their physical and mental wellness. Benson was a deeply valued and beloved figure during her time at the college.

Florence Kruger served as the head of the Home Economics program for much of her thirty-year career at Concordia College. In those thirty years, she made a name for herself, as well as making a lasting impact on the lives of the students that graduated from the program.

Greek society life has been part of Concordia’s campus for many years, despite only one Greek society remaining at Concordia in 2022. Lambda Delta Sigma (LDS) has outlasted other student organizations on campus and has had a deep and complex history since its founding.

Concordia College’s campus houses a select number of academic buildings named after various benefactors as well as historical figures significant to Minnesota. The oldest building on campus, Bishop Whipple, is named after the Epsicopal Bishop Henry Benjamin Whipple. The structure, formerly the home of the Bishop Whipple Academy, was purchased by the Northwestern Lutheran College Association in 1891 in order to establish a Norwegian Lutheran school in Moorhead. While many Concordia students and faculty learn and work in this building on a daily basis, most are unaware of the work done by Bishop Whipple, the namesake of this iconic Concordia building. More so, Bishop Whipple’s connection to and work done for the Dakota and Ojibwe peoples from our region, which is unknown to most of the Concordia population, must be assessed and recognized at a campus wide level. Through his passions and labors, Bishop Whipple helped 265 Dakotas obtain pardon from execution after the US-Dakota War. After this, Whipple continued his mission of advocacy for Native Americans, continuing the work of his missions across the state of Minnesota as well.