- She was known then as Mrs. Henderson—“no first name,” she says; “just Mrs. Henderson.”
- Tasked with “projecting the Scandinavian image of the new library,” the Landskrona, Sweden, native had to promise to stay blond, and to never lose her accent (check and check, by the way).
- PLU’s strict dress code prohibited her, along with every other woman on campus, from wearing pants.
And some things have not changed. Referencing an early photo of the Mortvedt Library, Ringdahl laughs: “You can see we still have the same chairs and tables.”
As PLU celebrates its 125th anniversary, Ringdahl is marking her 50th year at PLU—and it’s hard to imagine any one person who knows PLU better.
In presentations around campus, Ringdahl narrates this shared history with an institutional memory that suggests she really is the PLU Archives—and with humble humor.
“Here I am projecting the Scandinavian image at the new library,” Ringdahl says of a 1967 photo.
Six presidents have served PLU over Ringdahl’s single tenure, so clearly she has witnessed, and lived, a lot of history:
- the creation of BANTU (the black student union) on campus and recognition of Black History Month;
- campus unrest during the Vietnam war and the National Crisis Forum (“the only time Finals were cancelled”);
- the opening of Mortvedt Library in 1967 and the all-campus book-moving party it took to stock it;
- the opening of PLU’s Scandinavian Cultural Center;
- royal visits, including by the king and queen of Sweden (a “particular highlight”);
- PLU’s centennial celebration in 1990—and, of course, its quasquicentennial in 2015.
- (She also divorced Mr. Henderson: “I decided I liked my job at PLU better than him,” she quips.)
“I’ve kind of woven my way through PLU,” Ringdahl says.
“People from all over the world write to say they hadn’t heard their grandparents’ voices before,” Ringdahl says.
These days (“50 years later, with a few more pounds and a few more wrinkles,” she says), Ringdahl is working three-fourths time and contemplating—but only contemplating—retirement.
“Next May, I may retire,” she says. “I have to retire sometime.”
