Covenant News

Memorial Services Saturday, Monday for Hazel Anderson

ROCKFORD, IL (December 22, 2003) - A memorial service will be conducted at 1:30 p.m. Saturday, December 27, for Hazel Anderson (Mrs. Harold E.), the first full-time administrator for Covenant Women Ministries (CWM).

The service will be held in the Fellowship Center at Covenant Village of Northbrook in Northbrook, Illinois. Officiating will be Chaplains Dick Bergstrom and Dr. Quentin Nelson, along with Craig Swanson, pastor of Northbrook Covenant Church.

A second memorial service will be conducted at 1:30 p.m. on Monday, December 29, at Bethesda Covenant Church in Rockford, Illinois. (This corrects previous information on service times). Associate pastor David Wood will officiate and Don Njaa, retired executive director of the Department of the Ordered Ministry, will give the meditation. A private family internment will precede the service, officiated by Wood.

Anderson died on Friday at Brandel Care Center at Northbrook The 98-year-old Anderson was a longtime parishioner at Bethesda Covenant, according to her son, Craig, a longtime Covenant pastor and former associate superintendent of the Central Conference.

Shortly after her husband died, Anderson assumed the office of executive director of CWM on February 1, 1967, beginning a five-year term, according to CWM Executive Minister Ruth Hill. According to records from Covenant Women Heritage: 1916-1980, written by Erma Chinander, "she had chaired Survey Committee, understood its provisions and the implementations necessary to make the changes that significantly restructured the organization. She established the national office, wrote the handbook for local organizations and generally led Covenant Women in Unified Plan of structure. She also strengthened the emphasis on social programs."

Among other things, she began a Special Interest Missionaries program in 1968, a ministry connecting local women ministries with career women missionaries in Covenant churches.

Anderson was born October 30, 1905, in Rockford, Illinois. She completed nurses training at Rockford's Swedish American Hospital in 1927 and eventually became a nursing arts instructor and floor supervisor. She married Harold E. (Andy) Anderson on June 4, 1932. She had participated actively in CWM in the Central Conference before serving the n ational office. She also served two terms as a member of the Covenant's Board of Benevolence and as secretary of Friends of North Park College.

She is survived by two sons, Craig (Dottie) of Punta Gorda, Florida, and Charles "Bart" (Kathy) of Wilmette, Illinois; five grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren. Her husband and two children, John and Barbara, preceded her in death. Anderson was a fraternal twin of Rev. Harold C. Peterson, an ordained Covenant minister, and a sister to Judith Peterson, a commissioned Covenant missionary to China. They also preceded her in death.

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