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May 23, 2005

Dr. Murray Haar Recipient of Niebuhr Teaching Award

SIOUX FALLS - Dr. Murray Haar, professor of religion, is the recipient of the Vernon and Mildred Niebuhr Faculty Excellence Award.

The Vernon and Mildred Niebuhr Faculty Excellence Award was established to provide an annual award to recognize excellence in teaching. The winner is chosen for brilliance in classroom teaching. The award is provided by Dick Niebuhr from Aberdeen, S.D., who graduated from Augustana in 1966. It is named in honor of his parents, “because they loved Augustana dearly and because they were my first teachers.” The recipient of the award receives $5,000.

Dr. Haar has also received the Frederick C. Kohlmeyer Distinguished Teaching Professorship, which was established to recognize outstanding teaching.

Dr. Haar came to Augustana in 1978 as an instructor. He received his master’s of divinity from Luther Seminary in St. Paul, and his Ph.D. in biblical studies from Union Theological Seminary in Richmond, Va.

This summer at Augustana he is teaching “Religion and Violence” and “Judaism, Islam and the Christian Faith.” In January, 2006, Dr. Haar and Dr. Sandra Looney, professor of English at Augustana, are teaching a course in India entitled “The Mystery and Mystique of India.”