The newest members of the Becker Graduate Hall of Fame were inducted last Friday night during the Graduation Ceremony for the BHS Class of 2015.  BHS seniors Sydney Mastey and Danielle Girtz introduced the two honorees, Kristine Gilyard Kelly (Class of 1973) and Roger Erickson, (Class of 1971), who each spoke briefly about their lives and the time they spent growing up in the Becker schools.

 

 Kristine was a registered nurse with 38 years experience which included working in intensive care units.  She listed her most exciting time in her profession as “travel nursing for two years in Washington, Hawaii, California, and Nevada, and two six-month assignments in intensive care units.

 

 During one roller coaster week in July, 1989 she was married in Becker,  moved, completed her master’s of science degree with a nursing education focus at the University of Minnesota and interviewed for her current teaching position at Inver Hills Community College.  She and her husband, Pat, have lived in Woodbury, MN for the past 18 years.

 

 She has spent 26 years teaching nursing at IHCC, where she was named the Teacher of the Year for 1999 by a vote of the students.  She cited caring for elderly patients as her favorite area of nursing, and she is certified as a gerontological nurse practitioner.

 

Currently, she is a nursing consultant, and teaches Kaplan Review Courses in the upper Midwest.

 

Kristine credits the musical opportunities she enjoyed at BHS for her lifelong love of music.  She continues to play  the piano and the accordion, and performs with a Sweet Adeline chorus group, which sings four-part barbershop harmony. 

 

In retirement, she plans to return to Becker to work with her family in their various businesses.

 

Roger grew up on a dairy farm north of Becker and is the son of Elaine Erickson and the late Ernest Erickson. He comes from a family of 10 children. 

After high school, Roger operated Erickson Trucking for 14 years, and he and his wife Sandy started farming in 1979. They are one of three remaining family owned dairy farms in Sherburne County, and he serves as a First District Creamery Unit Officer.  They farm 160 acres north of Becker on the site of Roger’s grandfather’s family farm.  

 

Roger and Sandy have three children and eight grandchildren.  His faith and his family are the most important things in his life, and he believes his rewards will be in heaven.

 

A gifted musician, he has helped lead music in church since 1989. He plays piano, accordion and banjo. 

 

Roger was also a Sunday School and confirmation teacher for many years, and has served on the church council and elder board at Glendorado Lutheran, Abundant Grace and the Snake River Church.

 

On a trip to Nashville, Tennessee several years ago, Roger and Sandy met Johnny Cash’s sister Joanne Cash and her husband Harry Yates at a church service there and asked them if they would consider traveling to Minnesota to perform in his new hay barn. After two years, they agreed, and Roger and Sandy hosted the first of four annual Hay Barn Gospel outdoor revivals with local musicians and Joanne Cash as the headliner for three nights. When Cash made the trip from the airport in Minneapolis to Roger’s farm, she told him that “Becker may not be the end of the world, but surely you could see it from here.” 

 

Roger has served as a substitute pastor on several occasions at Snake River Free Church where his great, great uncle Benedict Ellefson was the first pastor.  Roger also participated in prison and jail ministry for over 10 years and has enjoyed sharing the gospel through weekly Bible studies with inmates at many different prisons.  He has also helped with the monthly music jams at the Woodbriar Senior Apartments in Becker for five years.

 

He has also coordinated music at the Kragero one-room school north of Becker for the past 21 years. The school has special meaning for Roger, as he and five of the oldest kids in the Erickson family went there until it was consolidated with Becker schools in 1967.

 

Roger has always had a heart for others and his goal is to bless people the Lord brings into his life every day. He makes a point to encourage others.