Starting this year Gustavus will be home to its second Distinguished Endowed Chair, Dr. Greg Aune. This position is an entirely new one created by a generous donation from Jon and Anita Young, and allows one professor to focus on a specific subject. This donation was formally called the Jon and Anita Young Distinguished Endowed Chair in Choral Conducting.

The Distinguished Endowed Chair creates for Aune a position in which he can completely dedicate his energies to the Gustavus choral program. Through the donation, Aune’s salary is paid for, along with extra funds to travel professionally, allowing him to guest direct at various schools and recruit for the Gustavus choral program.

“It frees me up to continue my learning, expand my horizons and continue developing as a professional,” Aune said.

Part of being a Distinguished Endowed Chair is a reduction in teaching load so Aune can focus on the direction of Gustavus choral program.

“It’s a great honor to be chosen,” Aune said of receiving the position. Once Gustavus received the gift from Jon and Anita Young it was up to President Ohle and Provost Mark Braun to decide who to give the position to.

“The intent of the donors was to help raise the choral program to the next level,” Braun said.

“Normally with a position like this a nationwide search is conducted in order to find the best possible candidate. But in this case that search was unnecessary, we felt we already had the right person in place,”  Braun said.

After running the appointment past the music department and receiving their approval, Braun went with Music Department Chair Dr. Scott Moore and told Aune late in August about his new position.

“It came totally out of the blue,” Aune said. “It was a very humbling experience.”

Jon and Anita Young both graduated from Gustavus in 1977 and left with a love not only for the college but its music as well.

“It really speaks so well of the college to have alumni who had such a positive experience at Gustavus that they choose to donate when there are so many deserving organizations out there,” Braun said excitedly when discussing the gift given by the couple.

As mentioned before, Aune’s position is not the first of its kind here at Gustavus. The only other Endowed Chair is Darrell Jodock in the religion department.