Sterling College’s Former Interim President Dr. Albert Anderson passed away on Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2014, after a brief illness. Anderson was 86.

From 2003-05, Dr. Anderson served as the interim president following President Ed Johnson’s departure. Prior to his naming, Dr. Anderson served as Sterling College’s vice president for academic affairs.

Albert was born April 3, 1928, to Albert and Agnes Anderson in Wahpeton, N.D., and had three older siblings, Edward, Delores, and Dorothea. After graduation from high school in 1946, he entered the U.S. Marine Corps where he earned the rank of Sergeant before discharge in 1948. That fall, he entered Concordia College where he was drawn to study of philosophy through the teaching of Reidar Thomte. Upon graduation from Concordia in 1951, Thomte encouraged Albert to study for a year at the University of Copenhagen to deepen his knowledge of Kierkegaard.

Upon returning to the U.S., he married Anita Gisvold, his high school sweetheart, Aug. 7, 1952. They were married for nearly 62 years and raised five children, Per, Solveig, Dagny, Thor, and Berit, who with their spouses, Sandra, Ed, Yara, and Ed have 13 children and one grandchild.

Albert continued his graduate education at Luther Theological Seminary, University of Minnesota, and Harvard University. He joined the philosophy department at Concordia College in 1960. He taught for eight years and served as associate academic dean for a year before becoming the first provost of The Tri-College University in 1969. In 1976, he was appointed president of Lenoir Rhyne College in Hickory, N.C., where he served for six years. For the remainder of his career, he held various executive leadership positions at church-related liberal arts colleges, including Sterling College and the University of Minnesota.

His published writings include works on Soren Kierkegaard, the ethics of philanthropy and fundraising, and higher education leadership. At the time of his death, he was finishing a book on Johan Georg Hamann and was editor for the Theology for Life series of Lutheran University Press.

Albert loved music and was a gifted artist who explored the worlds of religious and philosophical ideas and of nature through sculpting wood, arranging stained glass, and bending wrought iron. He enjoyed fishing and hunting for the table, which he learned from his parents and pursued with friends, children, and grandchildren. Memorial gifts can be sent to Concordia College, Moorhead, M.N., and designated for the philosophy scholarship fund to be established in his name.