Rhoda J. Hansen

Rhoda J. Hansen passed away Thursday morning, May 8, 2008, at Villa Maria in Fargo. She was a great teacher.Rhoda Jean Godown was born December 23, 1928, to Jennings Bryan and Arta Godown in Guthrie County, Iowa. On December 20, 1958, she married Delmar J. Hansen and they were together until he passed away in January of this year.During their almost 50 years of marriage, they shared a deep love for theatre, literature, music and art. She served as dialogue coach for the MSU Moorhead Straw Hat Players from 1963 to 1989 – and in April 2006, MSUM named the Rhoda Hansen Green Room in her honor.Rhoda received her baccalaureate degree in speech and English in 1950, from Central College in Pella, IA. She served as director of speech and theatre at Newton High School in Newton, IA, for most of the 1950s. After her marriage, Rhoda taught English and speech at Fargo North High School, where she was director of speech from 1968 to 1989.Rhoda served on the North Dakota High School Speech Advisory Board for eight years and as its president for four years. She also served two years as a member of the University of North Dakota Writing Task Force.Rhoda was awarded a Double Diamond Key for her coaching by the National Forensic League in 1974 and she was inducted into the North Dakota Speech and Theatre Association Hall of Fame in 1987. She was "Teacher of the Year" at Fargo North High School in 1984, and in 1998 she was welcomed into the school's Hall of Fame.Rhoda was a gifted performance coach who understood the range of creative possibilities when language and art aim to entertain and enlighten. She was kind and thoughtful and supportive and wise. She leaves a legion of grateful students.Rhoda was preceded in death by her husband, her father and mother and her sister Phyllis Tonn. She is survived by her daughter, Karen Don Rohde, her grandchildren, Kathleen and Jonathan Krause, and her sister, Mary Harvey of Davenport, Iowa as well as nieces Laura Forseth and Martha Tonn.Rhoda Hansen's outstanding work with theatre students will be remembered June 12th and 14th during the 45th Anniversary and Alumni Reunion of the Straw Hat Players.Rhoda will be inurned at Riverside Cemetery in Moorhead.The family prefers memorials to the Delmar and Rhoda Hansen Endowed Scholarship in care of the MSUM Alumni Foundation: 1104 7th Ave. S., Moorhead, MN, 56563.