Harold Dixon and John Kriegelstein have accepted the Alaska Conference Committee’s June 30 invitation to serve, respectively, as treasurer and superintendent of schools.
Merle Greenway, who served for many years as Alaska Conference treasurer, superintendent of schools, and youth camp overseer, has moved to the East Coast to serve as superintendent of schools in the Southern New England Conference of Seventh-day Adventists.
Dixon, an outstanding musician and experienced business manager and accountant, takes the top treasury job after serving for four years as Alaska Conference undertreasurer.
Kriegelstein, a career educator in the Seventh-day Adventist Church, comes to Alaska from southern Oregon, where for the past five years he has served as principal of Milo Adventist Academy, near Canyonville.
A native of the Syracuse, N.Y., area, Kriegelstein graduated from high school at Union Springs Academy, where he met his wife-to-be, Jenienne. Jenienne grew up on dairy farms in upstate New York, near Cortland.
They attended Atlantic Union College, where they married while he majored in mathematics and secondary education and she in elementary education.
After they graduated, they moved in August 1973 to Anchorage, sight unseen, to teach for five years in the Anchorage Adventist School (later Anchorage Junior Academy).
They both received M.Ed. degrees from Walla Walla College in 1977, where John also completed requirements for an elementary teaching certificate. Sons Kellsie and Jeffrey were born during their years of teaching in Anchorage.
Their third son, Jason, was born later, while the couple taught in the Kelso/Longview Adventist School, in Washington. While teaching in other schools, John pursued his Ph.D. in educational administration and computer science from the University of Oregon.
The couple’s first taste of life on a boarding school campus came in the early 1990s, when John was invited to become principal of Mt. Ellis Academy, near Bozeman, Mont. During their four years in Montana, Jenienne served as principal and seventh- and eighth-grade teacher at nearby Mount Ellis Elementary School.
In 1997, John was asked to become principal of Milo Adventist Academy, where Jenienne became director of admissions and marketing and taught Bible and English.
Harold Dixon
While the Kriegelsteins were teaching in Montana, Dixon was serving in Montana Conference and Academy finance, and the families became well acquainted.
Dixon’s wife, Janelle, shares her husband’s professional interest in music and teaches piano lessons and serves as an organist in two churches.
Their daughter, Lara, works as resource development director at Portland Adventist Services in Portland, Ore.
Dixon, who has a master’s degree in music from Pacific Union College, taught for 14 years in New Mexico, California, and Montana, as his skills in management and business administration were recognized and called upon more and more frequently.
Though now concentrating professionally on business and management, he continues to expand his musical interests, and last November soloed in the role of Jesus in an Anchorage production of J.S. Bach’s St. Matthew’s Passion.
“We are grateful that these men and their families are willing to dedicate their tremendous talents to the Alaska Conference,” says Russ Johnson, Conference president.
“We do appreciate the tremendous contributions the Greenways made in Alaska, and we feel fortunate indeed that Harold and Janelle and John and Jenienne will carry on this work in our great state.” •
John Kriegelstein has been named superintendent of schools for the Alaska Conference.
Harold Dixon, new Alaska Conference treasurer, with wife Janelle and daughter Lara.
