Biography: Peter Olesen Lund, Chair Pro Tem

Chair Pro Tem of the Board of Directors and immediate past president, Peter Olesen Lund, joined NHGMC in September, 2002, as a member of our support staff. Peter, a very proud Danish American and lifelong academician, grew up in Newington, Connecticut, and currently resides in Concord, New Hampshire. He has also served on the Board as an at-large member and as vice president. In 2010, he became president, succeeding Chuck Hill. Peter’s cool, calm, kind, and optimistic leadership style has been an inspiration to us.

Later in 2014, Peter leaves NHGMC (sadly for us) to fulfill his dream of earning a PhD in Education at The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio.

Throughout his adult life, Peter has been a technology education teacher. Semi-retired now, he still works as a “job share” teacher in the Nashua Public Schools. “I’ve always wanted to teach school. I made a clear decision in my junior year of high school to be a teacher. I’ve always also been very interested in tools and machines, having had a father who was also into it,” says Peter. In his hometown, Peter was inspired by a family friend who was a Danish cabinet maker. “He was very patient and encouraged me in various projects and woodworking when I was a small child… I looked around New England for teacher-prep schools for industrial arts and settled on Keene State College, partially because of the program and partially because my family used to summer outside of Keene in Walpole and Alstead, New Hampshire. Mom and Dad had a cottage there. So I was going away to school, but still also very familiar with the area.”

“I became a teacher because I enjoyed the learning process as experienced from so many of my teachers in the Newington public schools and because I had the ability to mix tools with teaching — machines, power tools. There was a program called Industrial Arts in the school system, and that was something I really enjoyed, so it made a good fit! Several family members were also teachers, my aunts were teachers, so having their encouragement as a student, having them really speak well about their teaching experiences, also inspired me to be a teacher.”

Peter has a superlative academic history. He holds several degrees — an Associates in Machine Processes and a Bachelors in Industrial Education from Keene State College, as well as a Masters in Industrial Science – Technology Education from Colorado State University. He also has pursued a PhD in Education from The Ohio State University, Columbus. His major content area is STEM – Technology Education with a cognate in Diversity and Multi-cultural education. From 1977 to 1994, Peter taught Technology Education, grades six through eight, at Timberlane Regional School District, in Plaistow, New Hampshire. From 1995 to when he retired in 2009, he taught Technology Education, grade seven, at Exeter Region Cooperative School District. He has also taught in the Salem, New Hampshire, School District, Adjunct at Keene State College, and the Nashua public schools.

Much of the man that Peter is today is rooted in his proud Danish heritage. He is second generation Danish-American. All his grandparents were immigrants from Denmark, and they settled in Connecticut. His father was born in Newington. “I’ve been ‘home’ to Denmark three times — 1978, 1994, and 2010. It’s very grounding to go back to where your lineage is from. There’s a piece of land in the most western point on the mainland of Denmark where my grandfather on my mother’s side was born and raised on a farm. A large piece of his original farmland is an open space in perpetuity now, protected by the state of Denmark. I walked the fields where he once tended sheep. It’s so centering and grounding to know where you came from. Denmark is the oldest continuous kingdom of any monarchy in the world, and it has the oldest flag. The lineage of the current queen is from 950 AD!”

During childhood, Peter was ethnically connected with Danish culture. “I am the youngest of three. I have a brother eleven years older and a sister two years older… Danish was spoken around me. My mother spoke Danish, but my father did not… We also belonged to the Danish Lutheran Church, and until 1971, the minister at the church was bilingual… I can understand Danish spoken slowly, and I can put sentences together to get the conversation going, but it’s not correct in tense or in singular-plural form or in masculine-feminine form and all the trappings of the language. It’s funny, the first time I went home to Denmark, I stood on the front steps to my father’s cousin’s home, and I told him in my proudest Danish that I was his female cousin from the United States!”

When Peter became acquainted with NHGMC in 2002, he wanted to contribute to NHGMC in some way. “When I became aware of the chorus, I didn’t have the time necessary to be a singing member. Rehearsal time and personal-practice time weren’t available to me. But I realized it was wonderful being able to contribute as a support staff member… Yes, I’ve always enjoyed singing. Initially it was through youth choir at church in Newington. After youth choir, it continued with church adult choir. My first large-scale singing experience was in a choral group for Newington’s one-hundredth anniversary — the Centennial Chorus. I was a youth member of that in 1971. I did nothing more than church choirs in different locations until I went to Colorado State. There I had the opportunity to participate in the University chorus, a ninety-member male and female choral group. I did that for two semesters.”

Peter played several musical instruments in childhood. “I took piano lessons for a few years, as well as drums in elementary school, and I even played trombone for a while, but not very well. I am at my very best when I’m playing the stereo.”

As an adult, Peter has cultivated a spiritual life via his deep Christian faith. “Born and raised Lutheran, I really embraced the Lutheran theology and am very pleased that it was the basis for my awareness and knowledge of the Christian faith. I’m currently a member of an American Baptist Church, and I appreciate the components of that faith and find it to be a nice complement to my roots. I’m active in the church. I currently chair a board and one committee, and I do a lot of volunteer work with the church and with the region — the American Baptists of Vermont and New Hampshire.” Peter was elected the church’s current voting delegate to the region, and he was just appointed the region’s delegate to the New Hampshire Council of Churches in Concord, a Christian faith-based consortium of ten different denominations. Peter is actively involved with church charity-outreach programs.

As Peter has lived in several different parts of the country, where does he like it the most? “I am very comfortable here in New England, but could easily live in Colorado again — and I really enjoyed Columbus! I don’t want to go down South because I don’t like big bugs. In Ohio, it was nice not to have the mosquitoes carry you away; it has less humidity, and it stays lighter there. I’m not drawn to the dead of winter here, but I don’t really mind it, either. It’s tolerable to me. I don’t run away from it.”

Peter’s favorite types of music are acoustic music, folk, and light jazz. “I love piano music and high church organ music, classical organ type music. I also like the folk groups from the 60s and 70s. In the late 80s, New Hampshire Public Radio had a fund raiser in Nashua at the Unitarian Universalist Church, and I went to that with a number of friends. After the fact, a guy from the radio station came over to me and said, ‘On the survey we passed out tonight, you’re the third most ‘connected reason’ people got here tonight! Other ‘reasons’ were newspaper ads, radio ads, and so on. I was quite the groupie with public radio at one point!”

One of Peter’s big interests is reading. “I love reading poetry and short stories. I don’t like novels and tend to gravitate toward things that are short… I did get the first volume of the Sam Clemens biography… but he’s from my original growing-up roots… I am enamored with Mark Twain, who he was, how he wrote, and I especially appreciate his poem The War Prayer.”

Peter also likes to travel, and he loves little out-of-the-way coffee shops and quaint restaurants with live music. The Lazy Lion restaurant in Deerfield, New Hampshire, is his current big favorite. “At church, and with people who I’ve come to know for many years, if they want to know something about a good place to eat, I’m the go-to guy! Chances are I’ve got good information on the best place to eat in practically any town or city across the nation — Columbus, Fort Collins, Denver, Cleveland, New York City, anywhere in New England… in Worcester, Hartford, West Hartford, and on and on! I always gravitate toward good restaurants and find the ones that aren’t part of a chain, the single proprietorships. This knowledge could come in handy in retirement. I could publish a little ‘food walk’!”

“When I travel, I enjoy driving and I enjoy the train. The train is one of my favorite modes, especially between here and Ohio…”

Peter’s favorite musicals are The Sound of Music, Jesus Christ Superstar, Godspell, and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. His favorite movies are Madam X, Bernadette, and Oh, God! Food-wise? “I’m a basic meat-and-potatoes guy — things like steak and prime rib, though I have to intentionally not gravitate to that!” His favorite color is red.

Why does Peter want a PhD?  He is on his way to The Ohio State University to finish earning his PhD to fulfill yet another lifelong dream — to teach young people how to teach! “I really still thrive in an academic setting, and, at the college level, I would really like an opportunity to teach people who want to learn how to teach.” In a sense, this would bring the joy of Peter’s profession full circle — first as a child inspired to teach by his teachers, then as a teacher imparting his knowledge to children, and finally as a teacher teaching young people who are themselves inspired to become teachers. This will be the latest chapter  in Peter’s lifelong record of achievement. Peter holds many academic awards and honors, including New Hampshire Classroom Teacher of the Year, 1984, from the NH Department of Education, as well as New Hampshire Industrial Arts Teacher of the Year,1982. He is also a member of fifteen professional and academic associations!

Peter’s thoughts about the chorus and the guys: “I have found that music is a point of commonality with people, and I appreciate and am aware that the chorus can be a point of commonality for audiences who may or may not be comfortable with an orientation other than straight. I see the chorus as important in creating that point of common ground. I see the music as a point of transcendence for any discomfort that people may have with different orientations… There are real healthy friendships with the people in the chorus, a real sense of camaraderie and mutual aid and support within the singing membership and the Board. I am personally inspired by the dedication of the singing members, as well as Gary’s contribution as our accompanist and Luc’s as our artistic director. Individually and collectively, they are an inspiration to me, to want to participate in and support their combined efforts, as a Board member… The chorus is growing well, and audience attendance is from a broader demographic than it used to be, both in age as well as orientation.”

His most memorable chorus moment: Our Spring 2003 concert, Take Five, in Manchester, when Luc introduced and sang his solo, Old Man River. “The first time Luc introduced that song, his parents were attending for their first concert. It was very moving. He dedicated the song to them after coming out to them that same week. It was the most profound experience yet with the chorus, and to see their love and his love exchanged so affirmingly and publicly was the most memorable and most powerful experience in my time with the chorus.” (Read more about it in Luc’s biography!)

His thoughts about serving as president of the Board: “I enjoyed being president of the Board and really appreciate the team of board members. It’s a good, hard-working group that focuses on the common good.”

One thing that most people don’t know about Peter: “As a young child, I was enrolled in tap dance class with the Ann K. Pim School of Dance in Wethersfield. I enjoyed tap dancing at that time. Subsequent to that, I took ballroom dancing lessons, also with Ann Pim. Ann asked my Mom and Dad if they would enroll me so that her son would have another boy his age in the dance class!” Peter hasn’t tap-danced as an adult, but there’s a second time for everything!

He also wants you all to know he has beautiful nieces and nephews — two nieces, one nephew, and six great nieces and great nephews.

Peter is currently single. Our thoughtful, kind-hearted, and accomplished president, like other single chorus fellows, makes a great catch. The qualities he values most in a potential partner: “Awareness and appreciation for all of life’s subtleties, the good and the bad, a sense of self, and an understanding of faith in God or something beyond our human condition.”

The main theme that’s governed Peter’s life: Good old fashion generosity and charity. “I think humanity is at its best when an individual member is reaching out to help another. We should be looking for ways to assist someone near or far from us in whatever their need might be. That’s when we’re at our best, when we’re helping somebody else.”