Personal life
David Hetland was born in Fargo, ND on October 21, 1947, and moved to Grand Forks as a young child.[1] He graduated from Grand Forks Central High School in 1965 before going to college at Concordia College, graduating in 1969 with a bachelor’s degree in art.[2] He married Mary Shjeflo in 1971 and had one daughter. Kristen Hetland, in 1978 with Shjeflo.[3]
After graduating, Hetland became the director for Bill Snyder Films, Inc. in 1969—ten years later he moved on to start his own advertising agency and design firm, Hetland LTD. Along with that, he became the director of communications at Concordia in 1975, doing so until 1982. He then retained a consulting position at Concordia as director of special projects while running Hetland LTD.[4]
In 2003, he was diagnosed with cancer of the throat and lymph nodes, [5] and died three years later on April 16, 2006, at fifty-eight years old. [6]
[1] Tom Jensen, “Works of Wonder,” Fargo-Moorhead Magazine, November 2000. Hetland, David Biography Files Collection, Concordia College Archives.
[2] “David J. Hetland Obituary,” The Forum, April 19, 2006. Hetland, David Biography Files Collection, Concordia College Archives.
[3] Sherri Richards “Liturgical Artis Hetland Dies,” The Forum, April 17, 2006. Hetland, David Biography Files Collection, Concordia College Archives.
[4] Richards, “Liturgical.”
[5] Erin Hemme Froslie, “The Faithful Art of Healing,” The Forum, October 17, 2004. Hetland, David Biography Files Collection, Concordia College Archives.
[6] Richards, “Liturgical.”