Caroline Jean Lund arrived at Carleton in September 1962 from nearby Minneapolis with the ideal social profile.
Her father was a lawyer and she had been brought up in the Lutheran Church.
At high school she had done well in art, English, history and philosophy and planned to be a history teacher.
She was rated “absolutely reliable” and a girl who would give “outstanding cooperation” to the college authorities.
One of her high school counselors indicated that she lacked strong leadership qualities and that she “never leads her fellows.”
She wrote to Carleton in January 1962 saying: “My life up to now has been quite ordinary, but it is still a life, so I suppose it is worth writing about.
“I was a 'war baby' and my father didn't see me until I was about a year old.
“When he came home from overseas, we moved from Superior, Wisconsin, where my mother grew up, to Minneapolis, and have lived here ever since.
“At first we lived in an apartment and then in a house on the east side. My father was exceptionally good to us. He helped me make up my mind to go to college. He has always been a great influence to me.
“I had an early interest in art and have always had a very active imagination. I came to school thinking I would study English and art.
“My idea at Carleton was to become independent and to get my education; I was not particularly eager to be out in activities. There were a few friends here and there but no one whom I felt particularly close to. I did go out socially with them and went home often during the weekends.
“I thought I might like to teach history and I liked philosophy also. My favorite teachers were competent and sympathetic. I felt as if I were getting a good college education. At first, we had an apartment, and later shared a duplex with another family. Since both my parents worked, my sister and I were left quite alone in the mornings and after school.
I remember our first dog and my coming home from school and having to clean up his mess on the kitchen floor. He had to stay inside while we were at school because the neighbors didn't like dogs.
I also remember my fourth grade teacher, who loved Grieg's Peer Gynt Suite, and played the record for my class until we all came to love it too.
When I was in fifth grade we moved to Edina where we live now. During my years at Edina, I had associated with about the same types of people until two summers ago when I went berry-picking on a farm outside of Minneapolis. The other pickers were kids from all over the city, most of whom needed the money.
A girl I met there, Barb invited me to her slumber party, and at her house that night I met an entirely new kind of people. Her grandfather was there until about midnight. He was drunk and happily told us girls of his World War I experiences and the women he had known.
Later that night, Barb's brother drifted in. He was also drunk, and started a discussion of marriage and politics with one of the girls. Barb's mother, a large, grey-haired woman who looked like she had endured a lot, tried to persuade her son to go to bed and leave us girls alone, but he was enjoying himself and paid no attention to her.
Still later, another brother appeared and went down into the sheltered basement to have a party with some of his friends. I had never seen anything like this and went home feeling fascinated with my discovery.
My main interest is reading. I enjoy many kinds of books and usually get quite carried away with the good ones. It usually takes a few days before I can disentangle myself from the ideas of the book, enough to consider it objectively. At college I hope to do a lot of reading, and to broaden my mind by meeting new people and ideas.
(At this stage, Miss Lund was 17½ years old.)
Her sheltered and pampered upbringing was revealed when she answered the Carleton questionnaire about her previous “work experience.” Lund replied:
“Picked strawberries and raspberries; volunteer work at a hospital — answered phone at main desk, paged doctors, filed charts, ran errands; and piano lessons — gave piano lessons to a little boy.”
At Carleton, Lund's horizons expanded. She joined the folk dancing group, the critic's circle, the Chinese discussion group and the Women's League Cabinet.
She became correspondence secretary of the Carleton Students' Association, contributed to The Carletonian newspaper, and like Douglas Jenness and Mary-Alice Waters, joined the pacifist Student Peace Union.
Her moment of 'fame' came in 1964 when she took a leading part in organizing the annual May celebrations. The college press bureau put out a release saying:
Three Minneapolis, Minnesota area students at Carleton College are chairmen of committees for the college's 57 annual May Fete celebration on May 15, 16 and 17.
They are: Miss Marie Foss, senior from Edina, co-chairman of the Open House and Tea to be held in Boliou, the art building; Miss Caroline J. Lund, sophomore in charge of publicity; and Sally P. Seidel, senior and general co-chairman of the whole event.
Combining the annual May Fete weekend with a French-flavored Fine Arts Festival, the students have given the nom de plume ‘Mai Fete de Beaux Arts’ to this year's celebration. Events will include art exhibition, dramatic productions and adventures in prose and poetry.
Lund appeared at Carleton as a simple country girl without ambition or sophistication. She seemed the same when she graduated.
This, however, was not the case. Either in the Chinese discussion group, or at folk dancing or in the Women's League Cabinet, she was persuaded to become a member of the SWP with leadership potential. Then it was just a question of “plugging her in.”