Established on 04.14.16 by Margaret Beenken, Mark Beenken '84, and Eric Beenken '88 †
Ken married Margaret (Hanson) Beenken on Sept. 12, 1959. Their marriage was blessed with two sons, Mark ‘84 and Eric ‘88, both Concordia College graduates. Ken and Margaret’s eldest granddaughter, Mary, also joined the Cobber family and graduated in 2012.
Ken graduated from Waldorf and Morningside Colleges and served in the US Army between earning his associate’s and bachelor’s degrees. Waldorf’s Lutheran liberal arts environment, in his words, “set my life in a different direction.” His experiences at Waldorf lent a deep appreciation for the mission statement of Concordia College. Ken served as the Director of Reserve Accounting for Fingerhut Corporation, where he worked for 39 years. He was active in both his church and his community and volunteered for many years at Fairview Southdale Hospital in Edina, MN.
Margaret chose nursing as her vocation. She graduated from Fairview School of Nursing in 1956 and served patients in Albert Lee, Fargo, and Minneapolis over the course of her career. She was inspired by her mother, Lily Hanson, who attended a normal school, currently known as a teacher’s college, and served as a teacher first in rural one-room schoolhouses and later in a small-town elementary school. Her father, Renhard Hanson, while not having the opportunity to study beyond an 8th-grade education, saw the transformative value of education and was deeply supportive of his family pursuing higher education.
In their retirement, Ken and Margaret traveled extensively. Ken continued to attend weekly bible study classes with a steadfast community of church friends until all but the last months of his life. For their children and grandchildren, Ken and Margaret were patient teachers of many things, most of all, how to be a grateful and gracious servant of God. Margaret shares that they are committed to “making it possible” for the next generation to realize their dream of a Concordia education.
The Kenneth and Margaret Beenken Family Endowed Scholarship is awarded by the Office of Financial Aid to students majoring in nursing, the sciences, or in one of the programs within the Offutt School of Business. Additionally, this scholarship is awarded to students of any major planning to enter the seminary after graduation or planning for a career in ministry.