Wilma J. Pierson

Wilma J. Pierson, December 5, 1928 – April 14, 2016

Wilma Jean Pierson was born December 5, 1928 in Fargo, ND to Anna and Haakon Kvenild, Norwegian immigrants. It may have been a cold, wintry day in the Red River Valley, but Wilma was born with a warm heart that she shared with all she met for the next 87 years.

Wilma had many loves including her family, her Lutheran faith, her friends and her books. She was proud of her Norwegian roots and still spoke Old Norsk. The world was small for our Mom because she could and did engage people wherever she went. She opened her door and welcomed all to her table.

Her father died when she was three. After her mother remarried to Alf Petersen they moved to Everett, Washington where there was a large Norwegian population. She found her way back to the Red River Valley to attend Concordia College in Moorhead, MN. Her nickname at Concordia was “Professor” as she was an academic through and through. She was an avid reader and loved theology.

She graduated from Concordia College and went on to earn a Master’s in social work at the University of Chicago. She became a spiritual director later in life, earning a second Master’s degree at Creighton University at the age of 70. She lived in the dorms for several summers while completing her Master’s coursework. She believed Education was a gift to be cherished.

Wilma met her future husband while she was in grad school in Chicago. She married R. Warren Pierson in 1954. They lived in Bismarck, Long Beach, CA, Ethiopia, Africa, Seattle, and finally settled in Minot, ND. She served as a social worker for Lutheran Social Services as well as the office manager of her husband’s medical practice. They had five children and eight grandchildren.

Wilma was born and died with wanderlust, asking to go to Washington, D.C. to visit her son and his family just three weeks before her death. She traveled the world, most recently on an Alaskan cruise and a tour of Norway. In 1963 she and her young family packed their bags to move to Ethiopia, where her husband was called to be a medical missionary. They spent four years in a remote area where she lived with electricity only while the sun was up, dealt with roaming wild animals, made meals with creativity because the grocery store was hours away, and learned Amharic and Tigrinian to speak with the locals. But the biggest African adventure was delivering her son Steve while her daughters waited patiently outside to meet the newest member of the family.

Upon their return they settled in Seattle while Warren completed a surgical residency. Again, she created security in their home centered around faith and love. They then moved to Minot, ND, where she spent the next 41 years. In 2011, when the Souris River flood consumed her home, she moved to the welcoming community of Riverview Place in Fargo where she developed many new friends. She began and ended her life in the Red River Valley.

Wilma served on national Boards over the years at Concordia and The American Lutheran Church Women, and local school and civic organizational Boards making lifelong friends in each group. She was very involved in her Lutheran churches everywhere she lived. One pastor described her as “the strongest Lutheran” he knew. She was a founding member of the Minot Commission on the Status of Women as well as an active Board member of the Domestic Violence Crisis Center.
Wilma was known for her wise counsel, quick wit, loving heart, humble nature, advocacy for social justice, strength, and faith-based actions, serving as a mentor and role model for many. To her children, in addition to the above qualities, she was loved and appreciated for her wisdom, friendship, guidance, non-judgmental listening ear, and other maternal qualities too long to list.

She is preceded in death by her husband, Warren, son, David, grandson Jesse Gabriel Pierson and siblings Sylvia Nichols, Arnold Kvenild, and Harold Kvenild. She is survived by daughters, Rosemary, Sue Clay Ellingson, and Karoline, and son Steve Caroline, and her grandchildren Maria and Glen Ellingson, Anna Marie Finck, Stephen Neis, and Isabel, Jillian Wilma, and Abigail Alder Pierson.

A memorial service will be held on Thursday, April 21 at 10:30AM Riverview Place in Fargo with a visitation one hour before.

In lieu of flowers, memorials preferred to Lutheran World Relief, Concordia College-Moorhead, or donor’s choice.