Established on 03.22.1986 by Inga Dovre †
This scholarship honors the memory of Nels and Inga Dovre, who were farmers in Yellow Medicine County in Southwestern Minnesota. Both were the children of Norwegian immigrants. They attended one-room country schools followed by high school. Inga attended Madison Lutheran Normal School, where she made many good friends and prepared to be a teacher. She taught school in Taunton and Frost, Minnesota, before her marriage to Nels. Following high school, Nels attended a mechanics school before joining his brother in a farming partnership near Minneota, Minnesota. Nels was a progressive farmer who always studied new developments in agriculture and pursued opportunities for growth.
Both Nels and Inga were active in church and community activities. They had five children, four of whom pursued higher education and went on to professional careers (three teachers and one nurse). One of the teachers, Paul, attended Concordia College and would spend his career at the college as a teacher, dean, and president. Son Ralph, who pursued an education at a local technical school in ag-related fields, would join, and then succeed, his father in the farm operation.
This family understood how important education was in effectively providing for oneself and influencing the affairs of the neighborhood and the world. Given their rural and farming background, the children established this scholarship for the benefit of Concordia students from rural and farming backgrounds.
Faith and family were at the center of Nels and Inga's lives. Farmers had unique insight into the work of the Creator, and this farm family learned the intimate connections between faith and work, faith and family, and faith and eternity. Soli Deo Gloria.
The Nels and Inga Dovre Endowed Scholarship is awarded by the Office of Financial Aid, with preference given to students from rural areas.