In Memoriam: Alvera Mickelsen, 1919-2016

Alvera Mickelsen, a Christian feminist scholar and former professor at Wheaton College in Illinois and Bethel University in St. Paul, Minnesota, died on July 12. She was 97 years old.

A daughter of Swedish immigrants, Mickelsen grew up on a farm in La Porte, Indiana. She was the first member of her family to attend college and earned a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree at Wheaton College in Illinois. She held a second master’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.

Mickelsen worked as an editor of Christian magazines in Chicago before landing a teaching job at Wheaton College. In 1968, she joined the faculty at Bethel University and taught there until her retirement in 1986. She was the editor of Women, Authority, and the Bible (InterVarsity Press, 1986).