by Joel Willsey
Class of 2024
Three Generations of Crown College
Crown College has a distinct history of legacy families, which are families with multiple generations who have attended the institution. We had the opportunity to sit down with St. Paul Bible College Alumnus and former Crown College Board of Trustee member Rev. Dean Morin ‘65 and his family, representing three generations of Crown.
Dean served as a pastor with the Christian and Missionary Alliance for many years, pastoring primarily in churches around Minnesota. For the last 15 years, Dean has been a pastor at Grace Church in Eden Prairie, where he serves today as a care pastor.
Laying the Foundation
Dean did not grow up attending church. However, one night when he was in high school, Dean found himself attending a church service with neighbors who invited him. At the church, there was a traveling preaching team from St. Paul Bible College (SPBC), including Pastor Merrill Bakk. Pastor Bakk posed the open question to the congregation: “Someone is supposed to be saved here tonight. So, I’m going to pray at the altar here and wait till that person comes up.” Dean went forward that night, received prayer, and chose to start a relationship with Jesus. However, when Dean left the service, he said he still felt empty. He was quickly encouraged that this was just the start of a relationship with Jesus Christ and that he needed to open up the Bible and start reading about who Jesus was and why He came to Earth.
Dean learned more and more about Jesus and was compelled to dig deeper and deeper into his new faith. Later that year, in August, Dean decided he wanted to attend St. Paul Bible College. To earn money for school, he fought wildfires in his home state of Montana. A few weeks later he had earned enough money for school. He earned enough to move and enroll in classes at SPBC a few weeks later: “That’s how I got to St. Paul Bible College, being saved by Pastor Merrill Bakk,” said Dean.
Not too long after enrolling at SPBC, Dean remembers meeting a girl named Carol outside of the old dining center at the Sherburne Avenue campus. Carol was working at a local ice cream shop and Dean kindly offered to walk with her after work in the evenings so she would not have to walk alone late at night. That’s where their relationship started, and after a couple of years of dating, they got married.
Dean graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Missions from SPBC. He described his experience by saying, “I took classes such as linguistics and many missions courses. I even took a pastoral care course which I thought was odd, but I’m glad I went through it because it helped me in pastoral care settings. Theology also became my favorite subject,” Dean said. “Dr. Stanton Richardson was one of my favorite professors. He not only taught theology, he lived it out and was an example to his students.” Dean said his time at SPBC prepared him for a long career in pastoral ministry and built a biblical foundation of faith for his walk with the Lord.
Second Generation at Crown
Like many Crown legacy families, Dean and Carol’s children all attended Crown College. Kim (Morin) Follis, class of ‘93, earned a bachelor’s degree in teaching. During her time at Crown, Kim was involved in the choir and says she experienced deep spiritual growth and encouragement in her walk with the Lord. Kim describes enjoying her time at Crown by saying: “I liked the smaller atmosphere where you got to know people and they got to know you. People wanted the best for me!” Kim also says she was poured into spiritually during her time at Crown and reflected on her spiritual growth. “You look back and realize you’re not the same person you were when you started. A lot of spiritual growth happened over the four years,” she said. “We met lifelong friends that we still stay up to date with, and many professors and staff took me under their wing, Diana Stimmel was one who did that for me.”
Dean and Carol’s son-in-law, Monte Follis, is a class of ’93 graduate. Monte didn’t grow up going to church much but became involved with a local alliance church in his hometown after his mom began attending a Bible study at the church. While Monte was in high school, he visited SPBC with his youth group. At the time he was not interested in attending SPBC, but he decided to have his test scores sent to the college anyway. That summer, Monte attended the Alliance Youth LIFE Conference in Ft. Collins, Colorado, and was planning to enter the Army. At LIFE, Monte says he realized Jesus had more to offer him than he was allowing.
“A speaker was talking about accepting Christ as your Savior and the Lord of our lives,” Monte said. “The speaker asked people to come forward, I went forward, and there in that moment I surrendered my life to Christ.” When Monte returned home, he was greeted by an acceptance letter from SPBC. God had made His plans clear to Monte, and Monte followed. “When I came to Crown, I think I knew who Noah and Moses were but I couldn’t tell you which one parted the Red Sea and which one built a boat! I learned a lot while I was here.” It was during his academic career at Crown College that Monte felt a calling in his life to enter into youth ministry, which he’s been doing for over 30 years.
Third Generation Arrives at Crown in 2024
Kim and Monte’s daughter, Kira, started attending Crown in Fall of 2024. Kira plans to major in communication arts and literature. Kira is very excited to be at Crown and says she has always felt at home at Crown. While the choice to come to Crown seemed obvious to Kira, she realized she had never asked God if it was His plan.
“It had always been my plan to come to Crown but over the past year I realized that I hadn’t actually asked God about where He wanted me to go. So, I started praying about it.” Kira said she asked the Lord to make it clear if she was supposed to go to Crown and He did. “Things just kept falling in place and it was clear I was supposed to be here!” When asked what drew Kira to Crown she simply said, “The Christian atmosphere. I’m really excited to be in a community of other Christians! I’m eager to make close Christian friendships and grow in my faith.”
Dean’s first wife, Carol, passed away in 2011. Dean has since remarried and he and his wife, Elbia, live in Eden Prairie, Minnesota. In his spare time, Dean says he enjoys sports, his ‘39 Chevy coupe, and time with family. He also looks forward to visits from his granddaughter Kira throughout the school year.
