Established on 08.01.2000 by Harold and Merle E. Stokke
Harold and Merle (Ecker) Stokke of rural Grandin, North Dakota were united in Marriage at the Grandin Presbyterian Church on September 17, 1939.
They purchased a neglected farmstead and land overrun with wild oats and weeds in Traill County. For the next twelve (12) years, Harold and Merle built and improved the farm buildings, built a house, acquired machinery, planted a grove of trees, hedges, flower beds, a large vegetable garden and had four children.
Harold, a meticulous and diligent farmer, in over sixty years of farming, raised at various times wheat, barley, oats, corn, flax, sunflowers, soy beans and alfalfa. They milked a small herd of Holstein cows, raised beef cattle, horses, pigs, chickens and several family dogs and cats.
Harold was born in 1910 to Knute and Rebekka Stokke, Norwegian immigrants who had homesteaded in Divide County, in northwest North Dakota. He was the fourth of five children who all helped on the farm. The two boys had to forgo their high school education to help support the family doing odd jobs and shoveling lignite coal into train cars. Farming was challenging due to drought poor yields and poor commodity prices. Rebekka sold cream from their milk cows and helped to deliver babies in the community.
During the 1930’s Harold did farm work wherever he could find it. Then in the fall of 1937, he met the young schoolteacher, Merle Ecker, who had come to teach at the nearby Long Creek School.
Merle was born in 1913 on a farm near Grandin. Her parents, Maurice Ecker, from Maryland and Mabel (Parker) Ecker had moved “WEST” from Illinois seeking affordable farmland. They had two children Merle and Dean and raised two more children of relatives who died young. They all graduated from Grandin High School. Merle grew up learning the skills of a farm wife. She also learned to play the piano, a gift from her Grandmother Parker, who sent a big oak Kimball piano on the train from Chicago to Grandin for Merle.
Merle was educated as a teacher at Moorhead State Teachers College, (now Moorhead state University) and North Dakota Agricultural College (now known as North Dakota State University). She then ventured west to teach grades 1-12 at a rural one-room schoolhouse.
During the years Harold and Merle raised their four children, the family was active at the Presbyterian Church in Grandin. Merle played organ for church services, piano for the choir, taught Sunday school, served as Elder, President of the Women’s Organization. She had all four children take piano lessons and they learned to play on Merle’s old Kimball piano and sing in the choir. They all sang in church and school programs in Grandin. To extend their music education and appreciation of their Norwegian heritage they attended the Concordia Christmas concerts. That became an annual tradition, continued to this day by local family members.
Attending college was expected of the Stokke children. When the oldest, Allan graduated from Grandin High School, he chose Concordia College. He graduated cum laude in 1962 and went onto the University of Chicago Law School. Upon graduation, he moved to California where he served as the prosecutor in the Orange County District Attorney’s office. Soon he started a law practice in criminal law defense. Allan has been an active member of the Newport Beach community, his church, numerous professional organizations, authored two criminal defense law books, has been recognized nationally as Best Lawyers of America and by Concordia College as an “Outstanding Alumni”.
Second child, Marlin attended North Dakota State University for one year then to Wahpeton State School of Science. He then returned home to farm with his father on the family farm. Marlin farmed, managed and enlarged the original acreage carrying on the tradition of continuous improvement and meticulous stewardship of the black soil of the Red River Valley farm. Marlin served twelve (12) years in the ND Air National Guard. He served his community in numerous roles including fire department, township supervisor, church Trustee, usher, building maintenance and Board of director for the Halsted Grain Elevator.
Carole (Stokke) Johnston, their third child attended St Luke’s Hospital School of Nursing in Fargo. She worked as a Registered Nurse for 35 years in Fargo, in positions in Pediatrics, Medical/Surgical units and Home Health. Upon retirement, she attended Concordia College’s Parish Nurse program and served her congregation at Fargo’s Bethlehem Lutheran Church. Her three children attended Concordia College.
Beverly (Stokke) Salomonsen, fourth child attended Concordia College for one year. She decided to enter a nursing program but Concordia didn’t have one. In 1966 she transferred to St Luke’s Hospital School of Nursing in Fargo and became a Registered Nurse, later completing a Bachelors degree at Winona State University. Beverly added Certification in Occupational Health Nursing and worked at IBM –Rochester, Minnesota and Mayo Clinic’s Preventive and Occupational Medicine in the Executive Health Program at Mayo Clinic Rochester. She retired in 2012 after a nursing career of 43 years. Beverly also served in Stephens Ministry and as a Deacon at First Presbyterian Church in Rochester.
In affection and appreciation for Concordia College, Harold and Merle became Concordia C-400 members. In honor of their daughter’s careers as Registered Nurses, they donated a Nursing Scholarship to Concordia.
Harold and Merle were married 64 years. Harold died at age 93 in their home on their farm. Merle died at nearly 101 at harvest time, a few hours just after the wheat crop was combined, very aware of the activity at their farm.
The legacy of higher education, appreciation of music, our ancestry and care giving continues in the Stokke/Ecker families. It includes more cobber graduates, registered nurses, physical therapist, acupuncturists, bioresearch, chiropractor, social worker, orthopedic surgeon and an MD/PHD and farmers, to feed the world.
The Harold and Merle E. Stokke Endowed Nursing Scholarship is awarded by the Office of Financial Aid to students majoring in nursing. Selection is based on financial need and scholastic achievement.