Business Briefs: EP alum elected ELCA bishop; Lifetouch founders to Hall of Fame

Middeke-Conlin elected ELCA bishop

The Rev. Rebecca Middeke-Conlin took office July 1 for a six-year term as bishop of the Arkansas-Oklahoma Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). Middeke-Conlin is a 1999 graduate of Eden Prairie High School and the daughter of Bill and Pat Middeke of Eden Prairie.

Middeke-Conlin was elected during a May synod assembly in Tulsa. She has served as director for evangelical mission and associate for youth and young adult ministry in the Arkansas-Oklahoma Synod since 2021. Prior to that, she served as pastor of St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Easton, Pa., from 2016 to 2021; as pastor of Good Shepherd Lutheran in Easton, Pa., from 2019 to 2021; as associate pastor of Lutheran Church of the Holy Spirit in Emmaus, Pa., from 2014 to 2015; and as pastor of Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Georgetown, Conn., from 2009 to 2014.

Lifetouch founders inaugurated to school photographers Hall of Fame

Eldon Rothgeb and R. Bruce Reinecker, the founders of what became Lifetouch, were inducted posthumously into the inaugural class of the School Photographers of America Hall of Fame in July. Rothgeb and Reinecker, traveling salesmen who had worked for a school photography company in Kansas City, Missouri, in the early 1930s, raised $500 in 1936 to open their own company. National School Studios grew substantially over the years and was later named Lifetouch National School Studios Inc. In 2018, Shutterfly purchased Lifetouch. The Eden Prairie Shutterfly campus, formerly Lifetouch, is located on Viking Drive north of Interstate 494.