Lloyd Svendsbye, 83, a former president of Luther Seminary, died March 2 after suffering a stroke. He had been living in Eden Prairie for the last three years. A North Dakota native, Svendsbye studied at Concordia College in Moorhead, Minn., and went on to Luther Seminary in St. Paul, where he graduated in 1954. He worked as an assistant pastor at Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church in Minneapolis and then returned to Concordia to teach until 1966, when he became editor-in-chief at Augsburg Fortress Publishers. In 1971, he became academic dean at St. Olaf College in Northfield. He joined Luther Theological Seminary in 1974 and oversaw its merger with Northwestern Theological Seminary in 1980. He was preceded in death by his wife, Anne, and is survived by two sisters, Adeline Elverud of Rugby, N.D., and Jean Brusven, of Dayton, Ohio, and a brother, Edward, of Pueblo West, Colo. His funeral was held at Normandale Lutheran Church in Edina on March 14 with interment at Lakewood Cemetery in Minneapolis.
