Helen Krahn; President of Academic Senate at Pierce

Helen Krahn, the president of the Academic Senate at Pierce College who died March 19, will be remembered in a memorial service next week by faculty, students, family and friends.

The outdoor ceremony, to be held April 6 on the lawn next to the college’s Campus Center, will begin at 1:30 p.m.

Krahn, who lived in Port Hueneme, died of complications of coronary disease, according to Pierce spokesman Mike Cornner. She was 61.

She had been the head of the college’s Academic Senate since 1997. For more than a decade, she also directed the college’s International Students Program, which serves more than 200 foreign students.

“She liked working with young people and students of other countries because of the vast insights other students could offer,” said friend Chandra Pesheck, 29, of Port Hueneme. “She enjoyed the cultural exchange.” Krahn traveled as far as Beijing and Taiwan to recruit students, Pesheck said.

Born in 1938 on a family farm in Seymour, Wis., Krahn received a bachelor’s degree in comprehensive social service in 1960 at Capital University in Columbus, Ohio, and a master’s degree in counseling education two years later at Ohio State University, also in Columbus.

In 1962, at only 24, Krahn became one of the youngest female college administrators in the United States. As dean of women at Moorhead State College in Minnesota, she was listed in the publication “Who’s Who Among Women,” said Cornner.

In the 1960s and ‘70s, Krahn held administrative posts at Mount St. Mary’s College in Los Angeles and Cal State Northridge, where her last position was coordinator of the university’s credentials unit in the credential preparation office. In 1980, Krahn began working full time as a counselor at Pierce.

She soon found her niche helping international students, said friend and Pierce English instructor Richard Follett. Krahn often invited the students to her home, including for Thanksgiving dinner, he said.

“She was a real mother to them,” said Follett, 52, of Van Nuys. “She would call them at home. She would also chew them out when they were not doing the right thing.”

*

Krahn, who was married and divorced twice, is survived by her mother, Catherine Krahn of Seymour; two sisters, Donna Wendelburg, also of Seymour, and Phyllis Gillespie of Hortonville, Wis.; a brother, James Krahn of Vernonia, Ore.; and a nephew, Jay Wendelburg of Ventura.

In lieu of flowers, her family has asked that any donations be made to the Helen Krahn International Students Scholarship. For information, call David Schutzer at Pierce College, (818) 710-4283.