Jeanne Lois (Kunau) Narum, aka “a force of nature,” devoted her life to transforming education and enriching communities. She passed away on October 23, 2024, in Washington, D.C. She was 88 years old.
Born on December 22, 1935, in Clinton, Iowa, Jeanne graduated from St. Olaf College in 1957 with a Bachelor of Music in Church Music. During her senior year, she met St. Olaf Professor William (Bill) H.K. Narum when he was the narrator and she the organist for a college production of Camille Saint-Saëns’s “Carnival of the Animals.” Married in September 1957, they began a life together that included several years overseas with three energetic boys in tow, including stints in England (Oxford), the Philippines, and Hawaii. Jeanne and Bill also led the 1971-72 St. Olaf Global Semester—traveling with 31 St. Olaf students (along with their three sons) through 10 countries over a five-month period.
After returning to Northfield, her early work included serving as organist and high school choir director at St. John’s Lutheran Church. She enjoyed performing with local musicians in recitals and small groups, such as with local trumpet virtuoso Russ Pesola. Her commitment to community life extended to many volunteer efforts in town, including working with the Northfield Arts Guild, leading a women’s singing group, and serving on the Northfield Heritage Preservation Commission. Wherever she lived, Jeanne was deeply engaged with her community. She was passionate about the arts, knew and visited all the museums in her beloved Dupont Circle neighborhood (and enjoyed many “working” trips to Paris!), and frequently attended performances at the Kennedy Center and National Cathedral, among other places. Her volunteer work extended from local to global, including a week spent at an orphanage in Peru.
In 1974, she embarked on a career in college development, serving first as Director of Government and Foundation Relations at St. Olaf College, from 1983-85 as Director of Development at Dickinson College (Carlisle, PA), and from 1985-88 as Vice President for Development at Augsburg College in Minneapolis. In 1988, she assumed the helm of the Washington D.C.-based Independent Colleges Office (ICO), a consultancy that, among other things, helped colleges secure more funding.
In 1990, she established and directed Project Kaleidoscope (PKAL), with funding from the Exxon Education Foundation, the National Science Foundation, the W.M. Keck Foundation, and others. PKAL comprised a national “volunteer cadre of leaders and stakeholders in undergraduate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) focused on building and sustaining robust learning environments for students.” After passing PKAL off in 2010, she created the Learning Spaces Collaboratory (LSC), which allowed her to continue her work on designing effective learning spaces up to her death.
In her facilities work, she had a particular talent for bringing people together (not unlike her music directing!), for example bringing architects and designers together with college faculty, staff, administrators, students, and other stakeholders to collectively develop visions and plans for science facilities that “reflected institutional missions, maintained disciplinary rigor, and created environments where students felt they belonged and could thrive in their learning.” Her profound impact across the nation on science education and facility development would later be recognized with no less than eight honorary doctorates.
Her adventurous spirit was demonstrated in 1971, when, while leading the St. Olaf Global Semester with Bill, she was asked to embark on a midnight mission in rural Thailand to negotiate with jail guards to secure the release of a St. Olaf College student (traveling with a different study group) who had been detained—needless to say no guard was a match for her and the student was sprung from captivity (and promptly sent home to the U.S.). This remarkable story was once considered for a Hollywood adaptation starring Debra Winger.
As family matriarch following the passing of her mother Margaret in 2005, Jeanne brought her talent for bringing people together to her family life. Family reunions and holiday gatherings near her hometown of Preston, Iowa, were memorable affairs that featured fresh vegetables, potatoes, corn on the cob, chicken from the backyard coop, elderberry pie, and later, of course—napping uncles. Her children and others remember the phrase too well of “come here once” (which she got from her mother, no doubt) that rarely meant once and almost always signaled a task or chore was around the corner. Always an accomplished cook, her children fondly remember her homemade cinnamon rolls, with less fond memories of her gazpacho (only because we were still too young to truly appreciate it!). In 1972, she became a certified Chinese chef under the tutelage of Titus Chan (one of the few people with a nationally broadcast food program at the time) and became famous among her friends for hosting swank dinner parties with multiple courses throughout the 1970s.
Jeanne was preceded in death by her husband Bill, grandson Stefan, brother Dan, sister-in-law Mary, and brother-in-law Phil. She is survived by: her sons Paul, Peter, and David; daughters-in-law Betsy and Eileen; grandchildren Ingrid, Soren (Elsie), Pearse (Sophie), and Kai; siblings Robert (Sherry), Audrey, Dick (Brenda), and Bill (Renelle); sister-in-law Jan; and countless nieces, nephews, and so on. She will be missed by all.
A memorial service will be held at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Northfield on May 3, 2025. Memorials may be sent to: The William and Jeanne Narum Fund, St. Olaf College, Northfield, MN 55057.
