farmer and Alma was a registered nurse, having graduated from the St. Olaf Hospital nursing program in Austin, MN. Melvin died in 1964 and Alma in 1990.

Leslie G. Rude came to Decorah in the fall of 1949 to enroll at Luther College where he majored in speech after graduating from Granite Falls (Minnesota) High School. His parents, Joseph and Olga Cecilia (Stavne) Rude operated a farm located on U.S. Highway 212 between Sacred Heart and Granite Falls. Joseph’s father, Hans was born in Norway and was the oldest of 12 children. The family farm was near Lunner paa Hadeland; the farm is still in the Ruud family. His father’s mother also came from a Norwegian family (originally from Bolken in Hadeland), but she was born near Sacred Heart. Hans Ruud came to American as an immigrant in the early 1870’s; Hans changed the spelling of his last name to “Rude”. Han’s wife was Emma Roste (Roste is a “stony hill" or “a place where rocks fall''). Hans died in 1934; Emma in 1947.

When Leslie was 4 years old a controversy erupted in the school district where he lived. The previous year his older brother, Ervin had scarlet fever. His illness was blamed on the cold weather he endured when walking the 2 miles to and from school. The rural school was also very cold and drafty. Joseph was a member of the school board. Many parents joined him in advocating closing the rural school and sending the children to town school. The question was, which town school - Sacred Heart or Granite Falls? In 1935 a decision had to be made; the district was rife with controversy and the community bitterly divided. Conservatives wanted to maintain their rural school and progressives wanted to send children by bus to the Granite Falls Public Schools. As the date for the district meeting drew near, each side marshaled its forces. Leslie recalls that his widowed grandmother, Emma (Roste) Rude who lived with his parents, initially rejected his father’s appeal to attend the meeting. Finally, she agreed to attend. The school house was never so crowded. The vote was taken after an acrimonious debate which caused permanent splits between friends and families. The result was a decision to send the children to Granite Falls Public School - the decision was decided by one vote. If Leslie’s grandmother had stayed home, the vote could have failed. Thus, Leslie and his older brothers Orren and Ervin attended Granite Falls Public Schools.

In school Leslie was active in dramatics, journalism and public speaking. As a senior he was business manager for the school year book which involved selling advertising to merchants. He successfully raised and managed more than $1000. This was the beginning of a successful administrative career, although he was unaware of it at the time.

At Luther College he was active in the dramatics club, Campus Players under Helen Adams Bodensteiner, debate and other speech activities and was selected as a staff announcer for KWLC, the Luther College radio station.

Although the name “Rude” is frequently encountered in and around Decorah, as far as known, Leslie is not related to any of them. In Norwegian the name Ruud refers to a clearing of land that is suitable for farming. In Norwegian one frequently runs across the name “ruud” or a shortened version such as “rud” as a suffix - in that case it refers to someone’s clearing: e.g. Smedsrud, Johnsrud, Lovsrud.

Upon completing his B.A. Leslie went to Louisiana State University where he received his M.A. in speech in 1953. At that time the U.S. was involved in the police action in Korea. In July 1953 Luther College asked Leslie to teach speech and serve as the faculty director of KWLC. He said yes, but pointed out he was likely to be drafted. He began his duties at Luther and indeed was called for his physical in 1953 which he passed, despite documentation that he had asthma. He was ordered to report for induction in Minneapolis. He took with him a written statement from his Granite Falls physician saying he had observed Leslie suffer from asthma. This time he was rejected. It was then back to Luther where Leslie served for 3 years.

He then decided he wanted to study for a Ph.D. He resigned his position at Luther and headed for the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana.

In 1952 Marion and Leslie decided they would get married in 1954. While Leslie went off to Louisiana, Marion went to Santa Maria, CA to teach. In 1953 when Leslie was invited to teach at Luther, Marion applied for and was hired to teach at the West Side School in Decorah. Leslie and Marion were married in June 1954.

An interesting sidelight to their marriage was the Decorah School Board’s policy in those days that married women were not permitted to receive tenure - the only exception was women who were beyond the childbearing age or younger women whose husbands were in the military. Marion and Leslie knew the policy existed, but decided to get married anyway. Marion was a very successful teacher and Superintendent Walter Hetzel recommended a contract be extended for a second year. The school board agreed and Marion was the first married woman to serve on the faculty.

When Marion and Leslie moved to Urbana, IL Leslie was a graduate teaching assistant and Marion taught 6th grade at the Urbana Public Schools.

In 1956 Leslie finished his classes and preliminary examination for his doctorate and began his search for a college teaching position. In 1958 Eric was born. In the summer of 1957 Leslie was guest professor at Appalachian State Teachers College, Boone, NC. He was invited to return in 1958. So, when Eric was only a few weeks old, they took off again for the mountains of North Carolina. In the meantime Leslie had accepted a position teaching speech and English at Indiana State Teachers College, Terre Haute, IN to begin in Sep 1958.

In the winter of 1960 Leslie was asked to become the head of the Speech Department at Luther. He accepted the position starting in the fall of 1960. Gregg was born in Terre Haute in a snow storm. That summer the family moved to Decorah. During 1962 Leslie received his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois. His dissertation was “A Rhetorical Analysis of the Minnesota Farmer-Labor Movement".