NDEA Foundation Receives Anstrom Family Endowment

Early in 2006, NDEA Executive Director Joe Westby received a surprise email from Decker Anstrom of Norfolk, VA.  Anstrom, who is president and chief executive officer of Landmark Communications where he is also chairman of The Weather Channel, wanted to establish a substantial scholarship fund through the NDEA Foundation in honor of his parents Ron and Ann Anstrom, who had both been teachers in North Dakota.

With his father being a math and science teacher and his mother an English teacher, Anstrom places a great emphasis on public education and its role in the development of children and of this country as a whole.

Anstrom was never a student in any of his mother’s classes, but he describes her as a frustrated English teacher.  “She never figured out why high school freshmen instinctively never understood the beauty of Shakespeare,” he said.

But his father was another matter.  ‘Most of the high schools I attended were small,” he said.  “My graduating class at Drayton had only 24 students.  So, it was hard to not have my father as a math teacher,”

“He was an extraordinarily gifted teacher,” said Anstrom.  “He really was the best teacher I ever had, and he was a wonderful role model for me in terms of really understanding the joys of math.”  According to Anstrom, his father was always trying to give him a ‘B,’ but was forced to keep handing out the ‘A’s.’  “I never gave him that satisfaction in the six years he taught me,” he said.

Although Anstrom’s grandparents on his father’s side came from Sweden during World War I and settled in upper North Dakota during the opening part of the last Century and his mother was originally from the South, his family moved quite frequently.  During their careers both of his parents were teachers not only in North Dakota, but also in South Carolina, Colorado, Wyoming, Oregon, and northern Minnesota.  “So, I grew up in an environment where books mattered and school mattered,” he said. 

“There wasn’t even a television in our home when I was growing up, which is quite ironic because of the job I’m doing now.” Anstrom explained the reason the family moved around so much was because his father had a penchant for organizing teacher unions wherever he took a job.  “He always taught in small towns,” said Anstrom. 

“The general cycle was that he would come in his first year to teach and pledge not to get involved in terms of arguing at the school board meetings about what teachers should be paid. “At the end of his first year, he would get involved in organizing a union,” he said.  “The second year, was always a building year.  The third year of teaching was the year where everything was worked out with the school board through the union process, and it was time to move on to the next community because of the politics of the local school board.”

Although Anstrom’s father, Ron died several years go, his mother, Ann still lives in a retirement community in the Washington, DC area.  He also has a sister who is a bilingual education expert at George Washington University in Washington, DC.

After graduating from Drayton High School, Anstrom attended Macalester College in St. Paul, MN.  “I had a wonderful experience there for four years and then attended graduate school for one year at Princeton.  Then, it was off to a part-time job in Washington, DC.  I never made it back to finish my graduate degree, he said.

With the election of Jimmy Carter in 1976, Anstrom worked with the Office of Management and Budget on the creation of the New Department of Education.   He then moved to the Office of Presidential Personnel, which is the office that recruits all presidential appointments.   He assisted in recruiting the Secretary and other senior appointees for the first Department of Education. 

Following the election of President Reagan, Anstrom joined a consulting firm that included Walter Mondale.  During Mondale’s election campaign, Anstrom carried the education portfolio and was involved in getting the endorsement of the National Education Association.  Following the election he worked for Searson Lehman Brothers and handled the accounts of non-profit organizations including the NEA.

In 1987, Anstrom began working for the National Cable Television Association.  He became the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Weather Channel in 1999, and in 2002 he became the President and Chief Operating Office of Landmark Communications, Inc.  Landmark is a privately held communications company, and its holdings include The Weather Channel.

In accepting the endowment for the NDEA Foundation, President Joe Kroeber said that this endowment will have a significant impact on the teachers receiving the scholarships and on the future of the NDEA Foundation.  NDEA President Gloria Lokken noted that Anstrom may have left North Dakota, but his gift and the work his parents did as public school teachers will have a lasting impact on the Association’s effort to provide Great Public Schools for Every Child in North Dakota.   Anstrom Scholarships Available In 2007

The Ron and Ann Anstrom Endowment will annually fund up to two full summer scholarships.  One scholarship will be in english with the other being awarded in math or science or a math/science combination.  The first scholarships will be awarded in April, 2007.

Applications for the scholarships, which are open only to NDEA members, may be obtained by contacting NDEA or visiting the NDEA website at www.ndea.org .