'Where I belonged'
$5 million university center donor went to 'all girls' Hamline during second World War.
Serri Graslie
Issue date: 1/26/10 Section: News
Nearly 60 years later, Anderson recalls a campus life far different from the Hamline of today. She remembers that all of the women lived in Manor and ate together with the women's dean at a specific time every day. No one was allowed out after 10 p.m. and indeed, she said, no one had much of a social life during the war.
"We were serious because we knew we were at war and knew we wanted to have a job when we got out," she said. "We didn't have dates of course but spent our time making fudge and just staying up late and visiting. It wasn't all bad."
After graduating in 1946, Anderson took a job at the tuberculosis sanatorium in Hennepin County where she worked in the outpatient office dealing with the family members of patients.
She stayed for three years before applying to work at Mayo Clinic.
But before moving to Rochester her plans changed when, as she says, "Mr. Dennis Anderson came along."
The two met because their daily streetcar routes crossed on the way to work in downtown Minneapolis.
"We both got on the front of the car, got off at the same spot, went to breakfast in the same restaurant and went to work a block apart, so we got to know each other," she said.
Dennis Anderson graduated from Concordia College in Moorhead and was a bookkeeper at Cargill when they met.
They married in the fall of 1949, and in 1951 moved to South Dakota to help out on Carol's family farm in Sully County. From there, farming became a way of life for the Andersons.
They lived in Rapid City, S.D. during the winters but were "suitcase farmers" in the summertime and stayed in an old farmhouse without any running water.
In addition to farm management, Dennis also helped found the South Dakota Wheat Growers Association and American State Bank in Rapid City.
And while Carol never went into social work after Hamline, she said she still found uses for her education throughout her life.
"I wouldn't have been as happy or compatible without it," she said. "And it was good to get out of South Dakota for a while."
Beyond managing the farm, Anderson said she was committed to women's issues and had an active political life.
Among other things, she worked with the League of Women Voters, was a president of the Rapid City YMCA, helped on various campaigns and even ran for state legislature.
But it was a position on the university Board of Trustees from 1993 to 2001 that brought her closer to her alma matter. Ultimately, it reinvigorated a relationship and inspired the couple to give back last fall in the form of a $5 million donation earmarked for the new university center.
"Education is our goal … that's where our money does the most good," she said.
"We were serious because we knew we were at war and knew we wanted to have a job when we got out," she said. "We didn't have dates of course but spent our time making fudge and just staying up late and visiting. It wasn't all bad."
After graduating in 1946, Anderson took a job at the tuberculosis sanatorium in Hennepin County where she worked in the outpatient office dealing with the family members of patients.
She stayed for three years before applying to work at Mayo Clinic.
But before moving to Rochester her plans changed when, as she says, "Mr. Dennis Anderson came along."
The two met because their daily streetcar routes crossed on the way to work in downtown Minneapolis.
"We both got on the front of the car, got off at the same spot, went to breakfast in the same restaurant and went to work a block apart, so we got to know each other," she said.
Dennis Anderson graduated from Concordia College in Moorhead and was a bookkeeper at Cargill when they met.
They married in the fall of 1949, and in 1951 moved to South Dakota to help out on Carol's family farm in Sully County. From there, farming became a way of life for the Andersons.
They lived in Rapid City, S.D. during the winters but were "suitcase farmers" in the summertime and stayed in an old farmhouse without any running water.
In addition to farm management, Dennis also helped found the South Dakota Wheat Growers Association and American State Bank in Rapid City.
And while Carol never went into social work after Hamline, she said she still found uses for her education throughout her life.
"I wouldn't have been as happy or compatible without it," she said. "And it was good to get out of South Dakota for a while."
Beyond managing the farm, Anderson said she was committed to women's issues and had an active political life.
Among other things, she worked with the League of Women Voters, was a president of the Rapid City YMCA, helped on various campaigns and even ran for state legislature.
But it was a position on the university Board of Trustees from 1993 to 2001 that brought her closer to her alma matter. Ultimately, it reinvigorated a relationship and inspired the couple to give back last fall in the form of a $5 million donation earmarked for the new university center.
"Education is our goal … that's where our money does the most good," she said.
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