Organ music set the stage in the main hall of the Luther College Center for Faith and Life Friday morning as crowds filled the room, waiting to celebrate the official presentation of the Decorah university’s new leader.
By the time the procession began, bringing in higher education leaders from Luther and beyond, the sounds of a full concert band and the college’s Nordic Choir filled the air. Representatives from Wartburg College in Waverly, Loras College in Dubuque and more than two dozen more institutions led President Brad Chamberlain into the ceremony — part of Luther’s homecoming celebrations.
“It was really important to us that this was a Luther moment and not a moment just for me,” Chamberlain said in an interview. “I’ve talked a lot since October about (how) this is our next chapter together, not my chapter, and so we really wanted all part of the inauguration and homecoming to come together, all of the service itself to be about the group rather than an individual.”
