Sidney Rand (ambassador)

Sidney Anders Rand (May 9, 1916 – December 16, 2003) was an American ordained Lutheran minister. He served under the Carter administration as United States Ambassador to Norway from 1980 to 1981.^[1]

Biography

Rand was born in Eldred, Minnesota to Charles W. and Alice Pedersen Rand. He lived in Beltrami and Williams, Minnesota, where his father was Superintendent of Schools. Following his father's death in 1920, the family moved to Rothsay, Minnesota, his mother's hometown.^[2] He graduated in 1938 from Concordia College, was ordained at the Lutheran Seminary in St. Paul in 1943 and served as a pastor in northern Minnesota before he joined the Concordia faculty in 1945.

He was president of Waldorf College in Forest City, Iowa, from 1951 to 1956, when he became executive director of college education for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Minneapolis.

In July, 1963, he became President of St. Olaf College, Northfield, Minnesota and served in that capacity until February, 1980, at which time he became United States Ambassador to Norway. He returned to retire in Minneapolis in 1981. Since that time, he has taught part-time at Luther Seminary in St. Paul and has been a consultant to colleges on management studies. He has served as interim President of two colleges, Augustana College, Sioux Falls, South Dakota (1986–87 and 1992–93) and Suomi College (now Finlandia University), Hancock, Michigan (1990–91).^[2]

References