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Our Rector is Fr. David Ottsen
I was born in Iowa and raised in Nebraska. I attended a
small private liberal arts college, Coe College, in Cedar
Rapids, Iowa, where I met Deborah. I had a double major in
political science and physical education. Deborah majored in
history. We were married immediately after we graduated and
just before Deborah started work on her first Master’s
Degree in Library Science. While she was earning her Masters
at the University of Iowa, I taught school and coached.
A year before moving to Austin, Texas to begin seminary our
daughter Carrie was born. In 1979, after five years of
teaching, we moved to Texas for the first time. Deborah
worked in an insurance company in Austin during my seminary
years. When I graduated in 1982, I was called to St.
Andrew’s in Stillwater, Oklahoma, where I served for three
years as curate in the parish and chaplain for students and
faculty at Oklahoma State University.
In 1985 I was called to be Canon of St. Paul’s Cathedral in
Oklahoma City. We were there for three years until I was
called to be Rector at St. Andrew’s in Broken Arrow,
Oklahoma, a suburb of Tulsa. During our years in Stillwater
and Oklahoma City, Deborah had positions in libraries at
Oklahoma State University and Central State University.
After moving to Broken Arrow, Deborah returned to school,
changing careers to Human Resources and earning her second
Master’s Degree in Industrial Organizational Psychology from
the University of Tulsa.
Included among the Diocesan ministries in which I served in
during the 12 years in the Diocese of Oklahoma were
appointed positions as Chair of the Commission on Renewal
and Evangelism, Co-Chair of the Diocesan Anniversary
Committee and I was elected to the Standing Committee.
In 1994, we were given a clear sign from God in regard to
the planting of a new church in the Diocese of Northern
Indiana in South Bend. While everyone’s intent was for a
longer tenure the plant was closed after two years. In
October 1996, I become Rector of St. Paul’s in Mishawaka,
where I have served until being called to St. Peter’s.
During that time Deborah was Human Resource Manager at a
local manufacturing company, then a Human Resource
consultant at a business services company, before founding
her own company, HRHelplink in 2004.
In the Diocese of Northern Indiana I served on the
Congregational Revitalization and Development Committee,
been Dean of the South Bend Deanery, and was elected to the
Standing Committee and as Deputy to General Convention. My
civic involvement has included helping to found CURE (CommUnity
Religious Effort—against racism and violence), leading
efforts against white supremacist groups in the area and as
a result received the Mayor’s Drum Major Award in 2001 and
again as part of a civic organization in 2003.
Our daughter Carrie graduated from high school in 1996 and
then spent a year in French-speaking Belgium as an exchange
student. She returned to the States and eventually graduated
Magna cum laud from St. Mary’s College in 2001. She served
in the JET program, teaching English in Japan for one year
immediately after college. She is currently in her second
year of her Master’s Program in French at the University of
Illinois-Chicago. She intends to pursue a doctorate,
hopefully at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.
Deborah and I enjoy the arts, traveling, movies and music.
Deborah loves to cook and sing. I enjoy writing, both short
prose and poetry (and of course, I have an idea for the
great American novel) and over the past three years have
completed two marathons, both in Minneapolis, where we have
family. Deborah’s mother lives in the Rio Grande Valley of
Texas and I have an extended family member who lives on a
ranch near Fredricksburg. You absolutely must know about the
other member of our family: our wire-haired terror, I mean
terrier, named Ginger. She’s never met anyone she doesn’t
like and she’s told us she’s looking forward to that big
backyard of the Rectory.
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