Alice Stangland Kirn was born on October 1, 1932 in Max, Minnesota, the daughter of Esther Anderson Stangeland (1898-1949) and George Elmer Stangeland (1894-1988). Alice grew up with nine close siblings on a small farm in Sand Lake Township in northern Minnesota. Their collective childhood experiences are the source of many wonderful family stories which Alice documented. Following her mother’s death from breast cancer in 1949, Alice spent her senior year of high school living with her sister Lorraine and brother-in-law Delbert Isaacson’s family in Dassel, MN, graduating from Dassel High School in 1950. She then worked as a secretary for the Ford-McNutt Glass Company in Minneapolis. With dreams of becoming a teacher, but little money, she took a second job at the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association typing receipts for contributions. While there, she was fortunate to secure a full work scholarship to attend Bob Jones University in Greenville, SC. Alice received her undergraduate degree in Education from Bob Jones in 1957. She began her career teaching English at Muskegon Heights High School in Michigan. There she met her soon-to-be husband, John Kirn, a forensics teacher at a rival high school. Alice and John were married on July 2, 1960, in Dassel, MN. The young couple moved to East Lansing, MI where John enrolled in graduate school and Alice taught high-school full time and took graduate courses in the summer. She received her M.A. in English Literature from Michigan State University in 1965.
In 1962 Alice and John moved to Geneseo, NY where John was a professor of Speech Communication at SUNY Geneseo and Alice taught freshman English part-time. They had a son, John Frederick Jr., in 1962 and daughter, Andrea Leigh, in 1966. In 1970, after a year’s sabbatical in Denton, Texas, the family moved to Wappingers Falls, NY. John taught at Dutchess Community College and Alice taught full-time, and was chair of the English Department, at Arlington High School from 1971 until she retired in 1994. Alice’s passion was teaching poetry and Russian Literature. Her students loved her enthusiasm and willingness to let them express themselves. Many of her fellow English teachers became her dearest life-long friends. Alice loved to read, which carried her through life, even into her final days. In 1994 Alice and John retired.
Throughout their marriage and retirement, Alice and John loved to bicycle, ski, and travel. They were active members of the Mid-Hudson Bicycle Club and Alice would often commute on bike to Arlington High School. Alice and John bicycled throughout England, Scotland, and Wales with their children in 1978, and celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary with a bike trip to Belgium and the Netherlands in 1985. Winter holidays and weekends were often spent skiing in upstate New York, Massachusetts, or Vermont. During summer or school holidays, Alice and John visited family in Minnesota, Michigan, Ohio, Virginia, and Montana whenever possible. After retiring, they traveled extensively in the U.S. and abroad, often accompanied by John’s sister Marjorie Kirn.
In retirement, Alice’s passions were gardening, family history, and spending time with her grandchildren. Alice loved to garden and cultivating blueberries, raspberries, and strawberries were her specialty. Alice joined Telelaget, an organization for Norwegian-Americans with roots in Telemark, Norway. She made five trips to Norway between 1996 and 2012, locating ancestral farms and meeting relatives. She excelled at bringing family members together. Many of her newly met Norwegian relatives traveled to the U.S. in 2001 for a week-long celebration of Stangland Family descendants held in Max, MN, which Alice organized. In 2005, she brought two hundred relatives together for a celebration of the Stangeland family’s 150-year history in America, held at the Old Muskego Church on the grounds of Luther Seminary in St. Paul, MN. Alice served on the Telelaget board for eight years and from 2005 to 2015 edited the Telesoga, a biannual publication of heritage stories. Alice wrote many articles for the Telesoga, helped to edit numerous Telelaget publications, and self-published three books on the Stangeland family and their Norwegian ancestry.
Alice was also devoted to her grandchildren. When she wasn’t visiting them in Virginia, grandsons Johnnie and Andy spent many summer weeks in New York and twice traveled cross-country with her. In 2009, Alice and John moved to Helena, MT, to be closer to their daughter and granddaughter Kelsey with whom Alice also shared a deep and loving relationship. Alice excelled at documenting humorous stories as her grandchildren grew, which she loved to tell and retell. She made keepsake albums of their time together. Her entire family will remember her selfless generosity, unwavering support, and life-long love of learning. She lived a life of quiet humility, service to others, and commitment to Quaker principles of non-violence and world peace.
Alice is survived by her son John Kirn, Jr. (Deanna) of Midlothian, VA; daughter Andrea Pipp (Michael) of Helena, MT; grandchildren John Kirn III of San Mateo, CA, Andrew Kirn (Julie) of Manteo, NC, and Kelsey Pipp, of Atlanta, GA; siblings Hazel Lambert and Kenneth Stangland and dozens of loving nieces and nephews.
Alice is preceded in death by her husband of 50 years, John; parents Esther and George Stangland; sisters Dorothy Edlund, Marie Peterson, Lorraine Isaacson; and brothers Delmer Stangland, Gerald Stangland, Donald Stangland and baby Delmer Stangland.
There will be no visitation. At her request, Alice’s body has been donated to the WWAMI Medical Education Program for Medical Study and Research at Montana State University. A celebration of life will be held in Minnesota at a later date. Memorials may be sent in Alice’s name to the Poughkeepsie [NY] Quaker Meeting [https://poughkeepsiequakers.org], the Dassel Area [MN] Historical Society [https://dassel.com/hs/page/dassel-area-historical-society], or Peak Boxing, a supportive exercise community that Alice treasured in Helena, MT for people with Parkinson’s disease [c/o Jennifer Buszka
9 Harvest Lane, East Helena MT 59635].
Service Schedule
Services are pending at this time or no services will be held. If available, please see obituary for more information.
Service Schedule
Services are pending at this time or no services will be held. If available, please see obituary for more information.
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Jane Gregory says
Alice Kirn, with generous and remarkable energy, was an inspiring role model for the teachers and students who worked with her. Her unique approaches to teaching and learning offered so many creative ideas. We inherited many of these ways of engaging students and applied them in our own classrooms. Continuing into retirement, her approach to the challenges spanned decades of devotion to learning, traveling, writing and research, discovering new authors and meeting the challenges of our political times by keeping up with current concerns. I am grateful for the years of our friendship and for Andrea and John who have shared their love of her with a remarkable account of her ninety-one years.