Established on 04.08.2019 by Dr. Julie Buckley and Dr. David Buckley

The children of Dr. Joan N. Buckley created this scholarship to honor their mother’s academic legacy at Concordia College.

Helene Joan Naglestad was born in Minneapolis, MN, to the Reverend Carl and Helene Naglestad. She grew up in Ellsworth, IA, where her father was pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church. In 1952, she graduated from St. Olaf College in Northfield, MN, with bachelor degrees in English and music. Chosen by her classmates to teach at the Martin Luther Schule in postwar Rimbach, Germany, she returned to earn her M.A. in English from the University of Chicago in 1956 and then joined the English faculty at Concordia College, Moorhead, MN. She obtained her Ph.D. in English at the University of Iowa. During her 49- year tenure at Concordia, she received several grants through the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Norwegian government, multiple awards and was the first recipient of the Lily B. Gyldenvand professorship of communications.  

Joan’s specialty was American literature, but she taught classes ranging from Henrik Ibsen to Toni Morrison to business writing for management. She blazed trails for women in academics by teaching full-time while raising a family. Her expectations for her students were high, and she enjoyed guiding them to excellence. One of her greatest joys was meeting and maintaining ties with former students all over the country.

Norwegian heritage sparked Joan’s study and writing about the Norwegian-American immigrant woman’s experience and Scandinavian humor. She lectured in Norway and in the US, taught Elderhostel and communiversity classes, and edited two volumes of Han Ola og Han Per by Peter J. Rosendahl, an immigrant era comic strip dealing with the daily lives of the immigrants. During her last years she published a short book describing her family’s emigration experience from Norway in the 1800’s and distributed it to each of her relatives so they, too, would know the history. Joan served on the boards for the Vesterheim Museum, the Norwegian American Historical Association, and Tau state (MN) Delta Kappa Gamma, and was active in several Scandinavian groups and Mu Phi Epsilon. 

Joan shared her love of the written word with her husband of 54 years, Dr. Wendell D. Buckley who was a professor of music at Concordia for thirty-eight years, and their two children, Dr. David Buckley, and Dr. Julie Buckley.

The Dr. Joan N. Buckley English Endowed Scholarship is awarded by the Office of Financial Aid to students majoring or minoring in English with preference given to students interested in American literature, communications or business writing for management. Selection will be based on scholastic achievement and financial need.