Dr. Joan N. Buckley

Helene Joan Naglestad was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota to the Reverend Carl and Helene Naglestad. She grew up in Ellsworth, Iowa, where her father was pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church. In 1952 she graduated from St. Olaf College in Northfield, MN, with bachelor degrees in English and music. Chosen by her classmates to teach at the Martin Luther Schule in postwar Rimbach, Germany, she returned to earn her M.A. in English from the University of Chicago in 1956 and then joined the English faculty at Concordia College, Moorhead, MN. She obtained her Ph.D. in English at the University of Iowa. During her 49- year tenure at Concordia, she received several grants through the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Norwegian government, multiple awards and was the first recipient of the Lily B. Gyldenvand professorship of communications.  

Joan’s specialty was American literature, but she taught classes ranging from Henrik Ibsen to Toni Morrison to business writing for management. She blazed trails for women in academics by teaching full time while raising a family. Her expectations for her students were high, and she enjoyed guiding them to excellence. One of her greatest joys was meeting and maintaining ties with former students all over the country.

Norwegian heritage sparked Joan’s study and writing about the Norwegian-American immigrant woman’s experience and Scandinavian humor. She lectured in Norway and in the US, taught Elderhostel and communiversity classes, and edited two volumes of Han Ola og Han Per by Peter J. Rosendahl, an immigrant era comic strip dealing with the daily lives of the immigrants. During her last years she published a short book describing her family’s emigration experience from Norway in the 1800’s and distributed it to each of her relatives so they, too, would know the history. Joan served on the boards for the Vesterheim Museum, the Norwegian American Historical Association, and Tau state (MN) Delta Kappa Gamma, and was active in several Scandinavian groups and Mu Phi Epsilon. 

Joan’s husband of 54 years, Dr. Wendell Buckley, professor of music at Concordia, preceded her in death in 2011. After her retirement in 2005 Joan spent winters in California, enjoying concerts and lectures, attending Grace Lutheran Church in Palo Alto and cheering at her grandsons’ soccer games.

Joan died peacefully with family on  Tuesday, March 12,  in Mountain View, CA, after a brief illness.

Joan was a loving wife and devoted daughter, mother and grandmother. She is survived by her son David and daughter-in-law Beth of San Diego, California, and her daughter Julie and son-in-law Eric Fung of Los Altos, California. Her grandchildren are Aaron and Christine Buckley, and Jeffrey and Justin Fung.

A service will be held on March 23, 2019, at Grace Lutheran Church, Palo Alto, CA. Visitation will be held Saturday, April 6, 2019, from 5:00 to 7:00 P.M., at Wright Funeral Home in Moorhead, MN. A memorial service will be held Sunday, April 7, 2019, at 1:00 P.M., at Trinity Lutheran Church in Moorhead.  Memorials may be directed to the churches or Concordia College.