The ACA International Education Foundation scholarship honors the memory of ACA member Robert E. Loomer and ACA staff member Irvin “Dempsey” Mortenson.
1/8/2020 11:00
The Loomer-Mortenson Scholarship was created by Dalton Sheppard Jr., ACA’s 1985/86 president, in memory of ACA instructor Robert E. Loomer of Boston and an ACA staff member Irvin “Dempsey” Mortenson of Minneapolis, who both passed away early in life.
Loomer, a longtime ACA instructor who set the standard for appearance and preparation for ACA seminars, ran a successful agency in Boston with his wife, Linda. Loomer had been named ACA’s Instructor of the Year in 1979. He coached and trained many new instructors and was an active member of the New England Collectors Association, reports Debra Ciskey, IFCCE, executive vice president of The Collections Coach LLC, in an ACA History article published in the December issue of Collector magazine.
Loomer knew that ACA instructors touch the lives of their students in many different ways, including ways the instructor can never know. Loomer died of cancer in 1984.
His friend, Dempsey Mortenson, who died of cancer in 1981 at age 49, had the same outlook on life. Before joining ACA, Mortenson and his wife Jerene, worked in Tanganyika, Africa, teaching at a school for girls before moving on to Tanzania, where they were instrumental in the founding and building of the Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Center. Upon the family’s return to the U.S. after working in Africa for 14 years, Mortenson worked at the Minnesota State Capitol, where he met John W. Johnson, ACA’s CEO, during Johnson’s state legislative career. Johnson brought Mortenson to ACA. Mortenson lived by his motto, “Be kind and always leave everything just a little bit better than the way you found it.”
Stay tuned for upcoming announcements about the 2020 Loomer-Mortenson Scholarship Program and Collectors Challenge.
Pictured at the top of the article are Robert E. Loomer, left, and Irvin “Dempsey” Mortenson, right.
At right, Holly Norcutt, a junior at the University of Minnesota majoring in elementary education and the daughter of Maxene Norcutt, ACA International’s head bookkeeper, receives the first Loomer-Mortenson Scholarship check from Sheppard Jr. in 1985.