Martha (Stoa) Bakke ’62 died Nov. 16.
Bakke died Nov. 16. Martha was born to Martha and Norris Stoa in 1940 in Minot, N.D. Martha was a graduate of the nursing program at Pacific Lutheran University. In 1966, after several years of nursing in Minneapolis, she signed a five-year commitment with the Lutheran Church in America to nurse in India in an area where leprosy was prevalent. She didn’t want to teach or preach; she wanted to be a nurse. The volunteers going to India were sent to the University of Chicago for an intensive course in Telagu in the summer of 1966. Martha and Harold were married on Jan. 2, 1972. The year after their marriage, Martha and Harold traveled around the United States and Canada in their VW bus. Martha and Harold have been members of Immanuel Lutheran Church in Seattle’s downtown from the time of their marriage–a church where acts of imagination have put “love your neighbor” into practice. For a time, Martha was parish nurse at the church, until she herself needed the help that she had once given to others. Martha came of age in the ’60s–which of course means that she observed the vibrant issues of the era: the Vietnam war, Civil Rights, the Women’s Movement–all of which demonstrated the necessity for individuals to become informed, to think, to debate, to take a stand. She was a voracious reader and in fact ordered subscriptions for herself and others as soon as Ms. magazine began. She attended graduations for her nieces and nephew, having been brought up in a home where a college degree was considered as much a sacrament as baptism. The Lord Bless you and keep you, Martha/ The Lord make His face to shine upon you/ The Lord lift up His countenance upon you/ And give you peace, Martha Marie, wife of Harold; mother of Lisa Bakke ’96 and Ellen, grandmother of Aurora and Iris; aunt of Sarah and Emily, Michelle and Jeremy; sister of Phil and sister-in-law of Kristi; sister-in-law of Chris; and sister of mine for 70 of your 74 years; daughter of Norris Stoa and Martha Marie Jordahl Stoa; granddaughter of Martha Marie Wangen Jordahl; great-granddaughter of Martha Marie Winjum Wangen. The Lord watch between Me and Thee while we are absent one from the other.
