Star Tribune
Former Gustavus Adolphus College President Axel Steuer, who led school through aftermath of 1998 tornado, dies at 81
ST. PETER, MINN. – Axel Steuer, a multilingual academic who immigrated to the U.S. in the 1950s and guided colleges in Minnesota and Illinois, died Aug. 14 at his home in Edina after a battle with cancer. He was 81.
After coming to America from war-ravaged Germany as a child, Steuer went on to learn English, become a scholar, meet his future wife while studying at Harvard University and helm Gustavus Adolphus College during one of the most critical moments in its history.
“What a success story,” said Ken Westphal, who was in charge of finances at Gustavus during Steuer’s tenure.
Steuer was most known for guiding Gustavus through the aftermath of an outbreak of tornadoes that ravaged southern Minnesota on March 29, 1998. The rare March storms killed two people, injured dozens and caused millions in damages.
A tornado with winds up to 175 mph devastated the campus, damaging a half-dozen buildings beyond repair. Among the losses: some 2,000 trees and the spire of the college’s Christ Chapel, which was snapped in two. Students had to pick through shards of glass after the storm broke 80% of the windows at the college, according to a short history of Gustavus.
The more than $50 million in damage had some questioning whether the college could reopen the following fall — or ever again. But Steuer declared that classes would begin as soon as possible. Classes resumed three weeks later with sessions conducted in mobile homes provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
A tornado hit Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minn., in March 1998, destroying some 2,000 trees and shattering 80% of the windows on campus buildings. (Tom Wallace — STAR TRIBUNE/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
If Steuer had not pushed for Gustavus to reopen that spring, there’s a chance the college wouldn’t be here today, Westphal said. He recalled people wondering if incoming freshman would be able to attend in the fall.
Westphal said other Minnesota colleges considered whether they should prepare for an influx of transfers from Gustavus.
Star Tribune
A second person has been charged in connection with an attack on a north Minneapolis homeless shelter that forced dozens of women and children to relocate last week.
A second person has been charged in connection with an attack on a north Minneapolis homeless shelter that forced dozens of women and children to relocate last week.
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Robbinsdale is considering renaming a beloved park named after a family that tainted the city with racial covenants.
The city council will hold a public hearing to potentially rename Sanborn Park Tuesday evening.
The park was named after the Sanborn family, which owned much of the land throughout Robbinsdale in the early 1900s. They placed racial covenants on their real estate, prohibiting “any person or persons of Chinese, Japanese, Moorish, Turkish, Negro, Mongolian or African blood or descent” from leasing or mortgaging their properties, according to Mapping Prejudice, a University of Minnesota database of racial covenants in the Twin Cities metro.
Racial covenants were used to segregate the metro during the early to mid 1900s, the effects of which are still present. In 1948, the U.S. Supreme Court declared racial covenants unconstitutional, and Minnesota outlawed them in 1953. Thus, the covenants hold no legal power but remain on deeds to scattered properties around the Twin Cities.
The Robbinsdale City Council, with the assistance of the city’s Human Rights Commission, established naming and renaming policy for parks and facilities in the spring that places emphasis on names with “equity/inclusiveness, service to the community, and/or observe local history.”
The council will hear public comments on two Sanborn Park name change proposals Tuesday.
The Human Rights Commission is proposing the name Castile Park, in honor of Philando Castile, a Black man killed by police during a traffic stop in Falcon Heights in 2016.
Some Robbinsdale residents said they did not want the park to be renamed after Castile.
The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office added five charges of third-degree murder Monday against Derrick Thompson in the car crash from June 2023 that killed five young Somali women in Minneapolis.
Reached by phone, Thompson’s attorney, Tyler Bliss, said he had no comment. Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said in a prepared statement that Thompson’s “lengthy record of dangerous driving, the trail of devastation he’s left in his wake, and his conduct in this case make these more serious charges appropriate.”
Terms of the plea called for Thompson to serve between 32 and 38 years in prison and in return the county would drop the other five charges of criminal vehicular homicide while operating a motor vehicle in a gross or negligent manner.
Derrick Thompson (Hennepin County Jail)
The crash came after Thompson allegedly ran a red light at 95 mph in Minneapolis last year, killing the five young women and devastating the Twin Cities Somali community. The victims were: Sabiriin Ali, 17, of Bloomington; Sahra Gesaade, 20, of Brooklyn Center; Salma Abdikadir, 20, of St. Louis Park; Sagal Hersi, 19, of Minneapolis; and Siham Adam, 19, of Minneapolis. On the night they were killed, the women were on their way home after running last-minute errands before a friend’s wedding the next day.
According to court documents, Thompson was observed driving at 95 mph on Interstate 35W in a Cadillac Escalade. A state trooper followed but did not turn on his lights. Thompson exited on Lake Street and plowed through a red light, hitting a Honda Civic with such force that it was pushed out of the intersection and pinned against a retaining wall. The five women in the Civic died at the scene.
