St. Cloud State wishes Canada a very happy 150th anniversary.
On this most auspicious Canada Day, we highlight a few of the many St. Cloud State connections to our sister nation five hours north of campus.
Ray Boughen ’60 (b. 1937) is a former educator and consultant who served seven years as a Conservative member of the House of Commons for south-central Saskatchewan. Boughen worked 35 years as a guidance counselor, teacher, vice-principal of an elementary school, principal of Peacock Collegiate, director of education, registrar and director of provincial examinations and student records.
In 1993, he opened a consulting firm, Educational Consulting and Counselling Services. From 1994-2000, he was mayor of Moose Jaw, a community of about 33,000 in southern Saskatchewan.
Jim Grunerud (1917-2010) taught educational administration at St. Cloud State from 1959-83. Grunerud was born Waseca, Minnesota, and raised on a farm in Saskatchewan.
During World War II, he served with the Royal Canadian Dragoons. Within weeks of enlistment in 1940, his unit was in the Battle of Britain. Barely trained and uncertain, Grunerud found his motivation when he dug wounded and dead children from the rubble of a bombed elementary school in Sussex. Grunerud went on to see action in Italy, France, Belgium, Holland and Germany. He was wounded three times and, notably, fought on Juno Beach in Normandy, France during the D-Day Invasion. Read more about his service in the war.
A doctoral graduate of University of California, Berkeley, Grunerud was a founder of the St. Cloud State’s Honors Program and served as president of the Faculty Senate. The St. Cloud State University Foundation offers James and Muriel Grunerud scholarships in three areas: Educational administration, history and English.
Mark Hartigan (b. 1977) played forward for men’s Huskies Hockey from 1999-2002. He holds career records for most goals per game (0.72), most points per game (1.39) and most goals (86). The Lethbridge, Alberta, native was a WCHA Player of the Year, first team All-American and a Hobey Baker finalist. He is a realtor in Fort MacMurray, Alberta.
William Marcellous Lindgren (1922-1993) enlisted during World War II in the Canadian Armed Forces, serving in Ontario, Manitoba and London, England. In London, he did British Broadcasting Corporation broadcasts to Canadian units in the European theater of operations. A long-time St. Cloud State professor, Lindgren is known for the Asian art collection he gifted the University.
His long-rumored role as an American spy in post-war China was confirmed in an autobiography he wrote for University Archives. As an employee of California Texas Oil Co. and Pfizer Pharmaceutical, Lindgren found himself in the middle of events that changed the geo-political landscape of the 20th century. Among these were the birth of Communist China, the Chinese invasion of Tibet, and the French-Viet Minh conflict and subsequent Vietnam War.
A world traveler, Lindgren ended his days where they began, an hour east of campus in Isanti County, population 38,413. A scholarship in his name supports students of Chinese or Filipino ancestry pursuing majors in the College of Liberal Arts or the College of Science and Engineering.
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Rhianna (Koch) Little ’98 (b. 1977) is a pediatric orthopedic surgeon in San Antonio, Texas. Little earned St. Cloud State bachelor’s degrees in athletic training and exercise science and was an Excellence in Leadership Award winner. In 2001, she graduated from the University of North Dakota with a master’s degree exercise physiology.
In 2007, she graduated from the University of South Alabama College of Medicine. She did her orthopedic surgery residency at the University of Kansas School of Medicine and her pediatric orthopedic fellowship at Connecticut Children’s Medical Center. Little was born in Winnipeg and lived in Canada through her high school years.
Steve MacDonald (b. 1980) is preparing for his fourth season as assistant coach for women’s Huskies Hockey. A graduate of the University of Winnipeg, he previously served as women’s hockey assistant coach at University of Minnesota-Duluth. From 2007-2011, MacDonald held multiple leadership positions for the hockey team at Balmoral Hall School for Girls in Winnipeg, Manitoba. In 2010, he was an assistant coach on the Hockey Canada women’s under-18 national team. MacDonald was born in Winnipeg. He was raised in Winnipeg and in Kenora, Ontario.
Brendan J. McDonald ’54 (1930-1994) was St. Cloud State president from 1982-92. McDonald helped launch St. Cloud State’s Division I men’s hockey program and lobbied for construction of the arena now known as Herb Brooks National Hockey Center. The arena’s main rink bears McDonald’s name. He guided an $8 million renovation and expansion of Stewart Hall near the center of campus. He was born in Regina, Saskatchewan shortly after his parents emigrated from Ireland.
Kyle McLaughlin ’99, physician and former captain of men’s Huskies Hockey.
Kyle McLaughlin ’99 (b. 1976) earned two bachelor’s degrees while playing defense and serving as captain for men’s Huskies Hockey. He was a three-time winner of the outstanding student-athlete award named for former president McDonald and his wife, Vernie (Bangtson) McDonald ’53 ’64.. McLaughlin was the school’s first WCHA Student-Athlete of the Year.
An emergency and sports medicine physician in Canmore, Alberta, McLaughlin earned his medical degree at University of Calgary. McLaughlin also serves as medical director for Banff National Park mountain rescue and heli-skiing medical director for Canadian Mountain Holidays. He’s gained national attention for fundraising on behalf of mitochondrial disease research and programs. Among his fundraising efforts, he has competed in benefit triathlons.
Angela Mundis ’17 (b. 1970) earned, at the age of 47, a St. Cloud State bachelor’s degree in geography with an emphasis in geographic information science (GIS). Her performance in the classroom, in her campus job and in the Geography Club, earned Mundis an Excellence in Leadership Award and a speaking slot at her own graduation exercises. She interned with GeoCom, a national provider of public safety GIS systems. Mundis continues her college career this fall as a graduate assistant for the Office of Alumni Relations. She is pursuing a self-designed master’s degree that focuses on geography. Born in Saint John, New Brunswick, Mundis became a U.S. citizen in 2017.
Daniel David Pratt ’64 ’68 (b. 1942) is a professor emeritus in the Department of Educational Studies at the University of British Columbia (UBC). He holds a cross appointment to the Faculty of Medicine in the school’s Centre for Health Education Scholarship. He’s also been a faculty member since 2009 at Harvard University’s Harvard Macy Institute, an international incubator for innovators in health care education.
In 2008, Pratt earned Canada’s most prestigious university teaching award, the 3M National Teaching Fellowship. In 2011, he was inducted into the Adult and Continuing Education International Hall of Fame. In 2012, Pratt and UBC colleague John Collins won an award from the American Association for Adult and Continuing Education for creating the Teaching Perspectives Inventory (TPI). As of August 2016, more than 400,000 people had taken the TPI, a free, self-scoring inventory that promotes a pluralistic understanding of teaching and helps respondents reflect on their teaching and the teaching of others. The White Bear Lake, Minnesota native holds a doctorate from the University of Washington, Seattle.
Melanie Pudsey ’05 (b. 1982) played four years for women’s Huskies Hockey while earning a bachelor’s degree in aviation. After college, Pudsey played a season of professional hockey with Toronto Aeros of the National Women’s Hockey League. A native of Erin, Ontario, Pudsey is a 2nd. Lt. in the Royal Canadian Air Force. She flies the CC-177 Globemaster III aircraft out of Canadian Forces Base Trenton, northeast of Toronto.
Sheila Stenzel, director of MineralsEd, a partnership between teachers and the minerals industry in British Columbia
Sheila Rae Stenzel ’79 (b. 1954) is director of MineralsEd, a partnership between teachers and the minerals industry in British Columbia. The Vancouver-based nonprofit helps teachers develop educational materials to support learning about minerals, mining and geoscience. She is a recipient of the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum’s Order of Sancta Barbara, which recognized the role of women in developing Canadian mining communities. St. Barbara, a third- and fourth-century martyr, is the patron saint of mining in the Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic and Anglican traditions.
Born and raised in southern Minnesota, Stenzel earned St. Cloud State bachelor’s degrees in biology and earth science. She holds a master’s degree in geology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a doctorate in geology from Memorial University, St. John’s Newfoundland.
Kobi (Kawamoto) Trevis ’07 (b. 1980) is fourth on the career points list (99) and third on the career assists list (64) for women’s Huskies Hockey. After college, the play-making defender from Surrey, British Columbia played two seasons for Team Canada. She also played professional hockey for the Vancouver Griffins of the National Women’s Hockey League and the Minnesota Whitecaps of the Western Women’s Hockey League. Today, she is director of operations for Steele Fitness, a Minnesota-based, boutique fitness chain within the Snap Fitness empire.
