{"id":23563,"date":"2016-04-12T15:38:15","date_gmt":"2016-04-12T20:38:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/?p=23563"},"modified":"2016-04-13T13:10:12","modified_gmt":"2016-04-13T18:10:12","slug":"34th-distinguished-minnesotan-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/2016\/04\/12\/34th-distinguished-minnesotan-award\/","title":{"rendered":"Dr. Darby and Geri Nelson Named BSU’s 34th Distinguished Minnesotans"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dr. Darby and Geri Nelson, philanthropists from Champlin, Minn., will be the recipients of Bemidji State University’s 34th Distinguished Minnesotan award.<\/p>\n

First presented by Bemidji State in 1981, the Distinguished Minnesotan Award acknowledges the contributions of current or former residents of the state who have performed exemplary service to the people of Minnesota or the United States. This will be the second Distinguished Minnesotan award with multiple recipients, joining Paul and Shiela Wellstone in 2007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
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The Nelsons were featured<\/a> in the spring-summer 2015 edition of Bemidji State University<\/em><\/a> magazine<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

The Distinguished Minnesotan traditionally delivers Bemidji State’s Commencement address. The university’s 97th Commencement ceremony will be held May 6 at the Sanford Center in Bemidji.<\/p>\n

In March 2015, the Nelsons created Bemidji State University’s Helping Hands (Naadamaageng<\/em>) Student Assistance Fund for American Indian students. The fund provides cash awards, which can range from $100-750, intended to help native students overcome an immediate financial obstacle that might otherwise thwart their academic progress.<\/p>\n

A July, 2015, feature story on the Nelsons in the Osseo Press and News said the Nelsons’ desire to support Native students stemmed from Darby’s childhood. He was born on an Indian reservation near Minnesota’s Lake Vermilion, where he learned about Native culture.<\/p>\n

In addition, the president of the then-Bemidji State Teachers College helped Darby’s father, Miles, stay in school and go on to get his first teaching job in Red Lake, Minn., which has created a strong sense of personal loyalty to Bemidji State – even though neither he nor Geri had ever attended the university themselves.<\/p>\n

“We owe such a debt to Bemidji,” Darby said, “and this is one way we can really say thank you, by means of helping Indian kids have a fighting chance.”<\/p>\n

The Naadamaageng<\/em> Student Assistance Fund is just part of a broad range of philanthropic efforts the Nelsons have spearheaded across Minnesota and internationally. They previously have donated to The Nature Conservancy, an organization that Darby also served as a trustee; their alma mater, the University of Minnesota, including its Itasca Biological Field Station in Itasca State Park, where the Nelsons met and fell in love in 1966; the League of Women Voters Minnesota; and Anoka-Ramsey Community College, where Darby taught for 35 years. He received multiple teaching awards and was named College Science Teacher of the Year by the Minnesota Academy of Science and the Minnesota Science Teachers’ Association.<\/p>\n

Bemidji State University’s Distinguished Minnesotan award was presented annually from 1981-2009, and was not awarded in 2010 or 2012.<\/p>\n

Contact<\/b><\/p>\n