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The honor recognizes a lifetime of leadership and generosity that will benefit generations of Oles.

Nearly seven decades after they first walked the halls of St. Olaf College as students, Senior Regent O. Jay Tomson ’58 and Patricia (Pat) Tomson ’59 returned to the Hill to receive one of the college’s highest honors, recognizing a lifetime of leadership and generosity that will benefit generations of Oles. 

The college awarded the Founders Medal to the couple during the Founders Day chapel service on November 5, honoring their extraordinary contributions to St. Olaf and their enduring commitment to its mission of preparing students for lives of purpose and service. 

“The Founders Medal is one of the highest honors the college can bestow,” President Susan Rundell Singer told the students, faculty, staff, alumni, regents, and friends of the college gathered in Boe Memorial Chapel. “It recognizes individuals whose extraordinary contributions have significantly advanced the college’s mission and improved the lives and outcomes of St. Olaf students today and for centuries to come.”

Established to recognize those whose generosity and leadership have transformed the college, the Founders Medal honors recipients as modern founders of St. Olaf. The award was presented for the first time in 2025 to Senior Regent Dean Buntrock ‘55. 

Rundell Singer and St. Olaf Board of Regents Chair Stephanie Fehr ’87 conferred the medal on the Tomsons.

“Many others are worthy and deserving of receiving the St. Olaf Founders Medal, but I do not believe anyone could be more grateful than Pat and I are,” O. Jay said to those gathered for the service. 

The Tomsons’ relationship with St. Olaf — and with one another — began almost 70 years ago, when they met at a student mixer in 1956. Their shared appreciation for Norwegian culture and values sparked a lifelong partnership, and they were married in the chapel on the top floor Hilleboe Hall in 1958, surrounded by family and classmates. A student string ensemble filled the intimate ceremony with classical music, which was officiated by then-College Pastor Clifford Swanson ‘42. 

O. Jay graduated as an economics and business major in the spring of that year, while Pat completed her major in sociology in 1959. 

“Now, after 68 years together, we look back with gratitude on those generous days and decades,” O. Jay said. “St. Olaf’s founders intended that we would gain a measure of enlightenment here — one that would serve as our moral compass and point us toward our true north. We received that — and so much more.”

After graduation, O. Jay built a distinguished career in finance, beginning with positions at the U.S. Treasury and Federal Reserve before acquiring and leading First Citizens Financial Corporation. He later served as president of both the Iowa Independent Bankers Association and the Independent Community Bankers of America. 

Pat pursued her passion for helping others by earning a master’s degree in counseling and dedicating her career to supporting and advocating for children and families through her work as a family therapist and nonprofit leader. 

Together, the Tomsons have contributed more than $8.9 million to St. Olaf, endowing the Tomson Family Professorship in Law and Economics, funding the revitalization of Tomson Hall, and supporting Christmas Festival streaming, the Buntrock Institute for Freedom and Community, and other initiatives, including the purchase of the new Steinway grand piano in Boe Memorial Chapel.

“St. Olaf was our first safe harbor — it welcomed us, challenged us, molded us, sometimes scolded us, and encouraged us,” Pat said, in what she noted was her first opportunity to speak in Boe Memorial Chapel. “St. Olaf has blessed our lives in countless ways, keeping us firmly anchored in our Christian faith. We have tried to return our gratitude with our time, talent, and resources. We want the students who attend St. Olaf today to gain the lifelong values that Jay and I acquired here.”

O. Jay’s leadership has extended to the college’s Board of Regents, which he joined in 1995. He served as board chair from 2006 to 2010, helping guide St. Olaf through a period of institutional improvement, the presidential search that elected President Emeritus David Anderson ‘74 to the role, and key academic initiatives. He continues to serve as a senior regent.

During a luncheon honoring the couple following the chapel service, Board of Regents Chair Stephanie Fehr ‘87 reflected on the lasting impact of O. Jay’s leadership. 

“O. Jay and Pat represent a dogged commitment to service, helping others, and sharing what they have to better their communities, whether at St. Olaf, through Iowa, or beyond,” she said. “As a regent and chair, I’m struck by the number of changes for the better that O. Jay and his fellow regents made over 15 years at the turn of the millennium — but I’m also struck by [the Tomsons’] focus on growing communities and leading through excellence, service, and philanthropy to make a positive difference wherever they can.”

Associate Professor and Tomson Family Chair of Law and Economics Colin Harris, who also directs the Public Affairs Conversation, emphasized how the couple’s support has strengthened the foundation of a St. Olaf education. 

“The Tomsons, through O. Jay’s engagement as a regent and foundational support of projects like Regents Hall, Tomson Hall, and the endowed chair, are rare thinkers and givers, in that they wish to undergird foundational costs that make so much more possible,” he said. “Supporting brick-and-mortar projects, like construction costs for building improvements, is really about creating those spaces that advance teaching and learning. Endowed chairs, like the Tomson Family Endowed Chair in Law and Economics, support the people who shape and deliver that learning. Both of these directly enable us to provide our students with an education based in servant leadership and service learning.”

Harris further emphasized the thread between the Tomsons’ generosity and the college’s commitment to developing engaged citizens. 

“The connection between serving the common good, leading through community, and sharing our learning applies to a lot of what we do at St. Olaf to help Oles be empowered change-makers,” he said. “ Pat and O. Jay, thank you for this endowed chair, for all the things you have done for this college, and especially for your vision and belief in those values that make a St. Olaf education meaningful.” 

In his remarks to those gathered, O. Jay shared that his and Pat’s commitment to the college and its mission is rooted in a deep sense of gratitude for the experiences and relationships that have shaped their lives. 

“There is a remarkable magnetism on the Hill that continues to draw us back, as it has so many times before,” he said. “The large sundial on the south wall of Rolvaag Library reminds us that our lives are made of days, our days of hours, and our hours of minutes — and that we should use the time we are given to serve God’s will. As we approach our 10th decade of life, we have come to appreciate the rhythms of time. We hope we have had a meaningful influence on its cadence.”

More than 150 years after St. Olaf’s founding, the Tomsons’ generosity reflects the same spirit of service and community that inspired the college’s earliest supporters — ensuring that generations of Oles to come will have opportunities to learn, grow, and make a difference in the world.