Community celebrating a Valley couple's lasting impact on local schools, organizations

Education, early learning and supporting marginalized communities has been a lifelong focus for Karl and Joyce Lund.

Longtime Valley residents, the Lunds have made a lasting impact on many in the community with their involvement in local schools, church communities and organizations that work to help those in need. The powerful husband-wife team celebrate their time in Alaska as they prepare for the next chapter of their lives in the Lower 48.

“Alaska has been great for us and we’ll just be trying a different chapter in our life when we leave,” Karl said. “It’ll be so different, but another challenge.”

A retirement celebration for the Lunds will be held Saturday May 10 at the Museum of Alaska Transportation and Industry from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. to celebrate the work they have done for the community.

Karl and Joyce first met in Colorado, when Karl worked as an assistant professor in a program that assisted teachers that were working with families of migrant workers. Joyce was a bilingual teacher at one of the schools Karl visited in Rocky Ford, Colorado. With a desire to help others, the two tackled their goals together to better the lives of those around them and they recently celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary.

“We’ve always been a team,” Joyce said.

In 1974, both Karl and Joyce felt the need to serve in missionary work in South America. A former student of Karl’s was living in Alaska, and suggested the two visit one of the remote villages and consider practicing their missionary work stateside. With Karl’s background in curriculum development and assisting migrant families in the Southern United States and other marginalized communities, and Joyce’s history of bilingual studies, the two decided to visit Hooper Bay in the Lower Yukon School District in 1979. After their initial visit, they decided to give it a go.

The Lunds would end up living and teaching in Hooper Bay for six years. Joyce taught kindergarten at the local school and Karl taught biology and science. The two worked with the organization Reading is Fundamental to bring thousands of new books to the village during the time they were there. Joyce was also the organist at the church and helped teach English as a second language.

“We felt we could learn so much, not only about them, but about us,” Karl said.

One of Karl’s major accomplishments was submitting a proposal with his students for a grant to purchase a small wind generator for the village. They received the grant and spent the next three years getting the generator up and running. Because of that initial investment into the community, Hooper Bay is now home to three large wind generators.

Joyce explained that while they were still in the country, their time in Hooper Bay felt like a foreign missionary experience, complete with the integration into another culture and another language.

“We did all we could to be a part of the community,” Joyce said. “We were just who we were.”

The Lunds added two boys to their family while in Hooper Bay and decided to move to the Valley after their second was born in 1985. Joyce would work at Tanaina Elementary School and Karl worked as a federal programs coordinator. In 1986, it was brought to Karl’s attention that there were no Head Start opportunities for families in the Valley. He approached the small Head Start operation in Chugiak, called Chugiak Children’s Services, and asked what it would take to have Head Start in the Valley.

“I went there and I talked to them and I asked them, ‘Do you think it would be possible to have Head Start in the Valley?’ And they said, ‘Not if you start by yourself, but we could possibly expand.’ And that’s exactly what happened,” Karl said.

What started out of two small classrooms in Chugiak has now grown to include four sites throughout the Valley under the name, CCS Early Learning. Karl would serve on the board of directors for 37 years until retiring from his role in early 2025.

“We have a lot of kids that need it in the Valley,” Karl said. “I’m very proud of the fact that the program has grown so much.”

In 1995, the Lunds lost one of their sons in a tragic car accident. A pastor from Trinity Lutheran Church approached the Lunds and asked if they would start a grief support group. For the past 27 years, the support group, affiliated with the national organization Compassionate Friends, has met every Thursday at Trinity Lutheran Church from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.

Interacting with so many people who have also faced loss and grief in their lives helped the Lunds to move forward with their own lives and used it as fuel to serve others.

“Karl and I serve as an inspiration that you can move on, you can still have a life,” Joyce said. “We felt that it was something that we needed to do.”

Joyce would eventually move to teach at Finger Lake Elementary School and retired from the Mat-Su School District in 2011. After her retirement, the Lunds wanted to serve a mission in Central America and traveled to Panama to see what the opportunity was like. They would decide that the work would be too remote, having already served their time working in remote areas of Western Alaska.

On a whim, Joyce applied for a position at Our Lady of the Valley Catholic School. A day after her retirement party from the school district, a nun from the catholic school called Joyce to interview her for the position.

“We finished the interview, and she said, ‘Mrs. Lund, you don’t have to go so far to do mission work. Why don’t you do it in Wasilla?’” Joyce said.

Joyce accepted the role and the Lunds decided to tackle their new mission as a team. Joyce would be asked to be principal during her second year and she and Karl took on the role together. The school would grow over their time there, including the addition of three large portable classrooms.

They would work at the school for 14 years, with Karl retiring from the role last year and Joyce taking a step back from principal and becoming a teacher in her final year.

“It has been an absolute mission,” Joyce said. “It’s been a real experience.”

The Lunds have held many other roles in the Valley to include managing community and international outreach programs through Our Lady of the Valley Catholic School, managing the garden at Trinity Lutheran Church in Palmer, and serving as an accompanist and music leader at both of their churches. The two have supported each other and commonly served with each others’ church communities, with Karl being Lutheran and Joyce being Catholic. Joyce described their relationship as being very ecumenical.

The Lunds will be moving to Washington D.C. to be closer to their son. They have plans to enjoy the museums and history that the area provides. They also plan to enjoy the music and concert scene, while traveling internationally for both themselves and to serve others.

“It’s going to be really different,” Karl said. “We’ve been pretty much involved in the Valley here and when we move to Washington D.C., we’ll try to find some other ways to get involved there.”

After leaving the state of Alaska and spending over 40 years helping their communities, the Lunds encourage people of every age to continue learning and further their education. They also encourage people to help those around them, especially those that may be struggling.

“It helped us as a couple, and it helped us realize there’s a really big job out here in education for all of our kids in Alaska and everywhere, but particularly in Alaska,” Joyce said.