Ken & Linda Holmen: Community connection and paying it forward

Jul 9, 2025

“I joined MPR in the 70s. I moved from Forest City, Iowa to the Twin Cities to attend Augsburg University. I started listening and started giving.” Ken and Linda Holmen are long-term generous MPR supporters.  

Growing up in Forest City, Ken shared that the local paper was “the font of all knowledge.” He appeared in the paper often because of music, sports, and academics. As Ken was attending college, John K. Hanson (founder/owner of Winnebago Industries and a strong community supporter) asked Ken “what I was going to do with my life. He gave my dad the business card of the president of a bank. I found out John owned several banks. When I visited with the bank president, he told me that John would help pay for my education.  And that helped support me for a number of years”. 

Ken graduated from Augsburg University and the University of Minnesota Medical School. He completed his residency and post graduate medical education in 1983, became an anesthesiologist and launched his clinical practice working at a number of metro hospitals. 

After completing his training “I called Mr. Hansen to say thank you, and recognize that I owe you some money, and he said, I don't need any money, but you—you will need to pay it forward.“ That’s when Linda and I recognized that paying it forward would be an important part of our life – academic institutions, health care organizations, music organizations (especially the National Lutheran Choir), the church, and other organizations which support our community. That's also one of the reasons why we support public radio.” 

Ken met Linda Bailey Holmen at Augsburg and music has been an important part of their lives.  Linda minored in music (played in the Augsburg Band and still plays in community groups) and became a piano teacher. Ken sang in the Augsburg Choir (and still sings with the National Lutheran Choir).  Later they met Michael Barone, classical host of Pipedreams and other MPR hosts including Brian Newhouse, Steve Staruch, and many other musicians. who became their friends. 

“Our sense of affinity with the mission of MPR has grown with us, especially the sense of community. When you are on the road and you hear a Performance Today, or the news with Cathy Wurzer, there’s a connection point.” 

Ken transitioned from a clinical leader role to an executive role when he became a senior leader at HealthPartners in 2005. He attributes his move to CEO of CentraCare in 2014 in St. Cloud to being at the right place at the right time.  “The sense of community in outstate Minnesota is marvelous, and something that resonates very deeply with us”.  

Mary Brainerd, then the HealthPartners President/CEO, invited him to join the MPR Board of Directors.  “I've been on several boards over the years, and MPR’s is fascinating—very talented people with shared sense of purpose and commitment to our communities. Jean Taylor is the right person at the right place at the right time, and she has a team of talented colleagues”.

For Ken it’s the sense of community that APM | MPR wants to create with its listenership. “Whether it’s All Things Considered, Marketplace, Your Classical, KNOW, The Current, podcasts and other content - I think there's a sense of community that people are eager to identify with.  In challenging times, public institutions are at their best when they can give oxygen to hope”. 

As Ken notes, “all of us wrestle with change, and the MPR Board has been wrestling with some significant challenges - decreases in government funding, and a very profound shift in how media is consumed.  Two things are going to be true at the same time - we certainly must acknowledge reality, and we need to invest. Like Wayne Gretzky said—we must skate to where the puck is going to be. And so how do we collectively understand where that puck is going to be and then skate there?  I believe MPR’s secret sauce, as we change, is to focus on building community with our listeners, supporters and the public. I think a sense of community is about some kind of shared story.” 

Ken and Linda Holmen have made a $100,000 gift to MPR’s capital campaign to invest in that shared story.