11th Finglish trip August 2011 #36
Marianne Wargelin´s family traces itself to the early Astoria, Oregon Finnish fishing community, mining towns of Upper Michigan and Minnesota, the urban Finntowns of Brooklyn, New York, Worcester, Massachusetts and Waukegan, Illinois, and the industrial villages along Lake Erie.
Marianne was raised within the Finnish American communities of Berkeley, California, Hancock, Michigan, and Fairport Harbor, Ohio, with Finnish as her first language.
Her father Raymond Wargelin was the last President of the Finnish American Lutheran Church-Suomi Synod. He was one of the four Lutheran Church Presidents who led their church bodies into the merger creating the Lutheran Church in America in 1963.
Marianne´s grandfather John Wargelin was an American-Finnish priest and leader of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America. He moved to the United States in 1890 and studied at the Suomi College - Suomi-Opisto. He was ordained a priest in 1906. He served as a parish priest and a teacher at the Suomi-Opisto. From 1950 to 1955 he was the manager of Suomi-Synod. He was active in American-Finnish cultural aspirations. Wargelin was the director of the Suomi-Opisto in 1919-1927 and 1930-1937.
Marianne Wargelin studied literature at the University of Michigan and the University of Minnesota, but switched to American Studies with an emphasis on Finnish American history and culture. Marianne Wargelin is Minneapolis’ Honorary Consul of Finland and president of FinnFest USA.
Next Kip Peltoniemi Minneapolis Minnesota USA