Service to Community Earns Orono Man Distinguished Alumni Award

Information provided by the Orono School District

In the Orono School District’s new Strategic Plan, “relationships” is identified as a core value.  

Perhaps no one embodies the significance of that value better than Lowell Seashore, the recipient of this year’s Distinguished Alumni Award.

Seashore was honored May 22 at the school's Academic and Scholarship Awards Night. More than $40,000 in scholarships were also presented to graduating seniors that evening.

Among his many fond memories of attending school in Orono was an experience that gave him insight into what his calling might be. Seashore recalls a junior high coach so negative that he didn’t play team sports again until college.  

“I figured if one coach could be that devastating, then one coach could be that positive,” he said.

And today, the 1968 OHS graduate enjoys a legacy of serving his community and its youth through not only coaching but by being a mentor, foster parent and author.

For 28 years, Seashore has served as the chief operating officer and board chair of Youth Investment Foundation (YIF). The Hamel-based Christian nonprofit works with at-risk junior and senior high youth throughout Minnesota. In addition, YIF operates Timber Bay Camp and Retreat Center near Lake Mille Lacs. It serves some 4,000 young people every year, about half of which are mentored by YIF on a regular basis.

Seashore’s introduction to foster parenting began as a single man when he came to the aid of a homeless youth.  

“I just thought it was the right thing to do and it just kept growing,” he says.  

In all, he helped nine young men and three families outside of the system and another 23 young men as an approved foster parent.

Seashore’s wife of 30 years, Susie, said “I do” despite the demands of foster parenting and quickly became an integral part of the success.  

“She keeps the cookie jar filled with her famous chocolate chip cookies and rolls out the welcome mat for all youth who drop [by] their home,” wrote Julie Stieve in her nomination.

Susie is a 1978 OHS graduate and daughter of former OHS mathematics teacher Don Boylan.  

“Really, my wife should be the Alumni of the Year,” says Seashore. “She’s the real hero who keeps me going.”  

As an extension of his mentoring and fostering experiences, Seashore wrote and published a curriculum for men (“Dangerous Men”) and women (“Unveil”) to help their spiritual fight for purity. Both are now used on college campuses across the United States and in four additional countries.

Ten years after graduating, Seashore returned to OHS to become its first varsity boys’ soccer coach. He helped build the program with now-head coach Brad Carlson. Seashore held that position for 14 years and still maintains contact with many of his former players, as well as many of the young men he has mentored or fostered.

As someone who values relationships, Seashore appreciates the small size of Orono and believes the education students receive here is top-notch.  “I recommend it to people still,” he said, and is “very honored” to receive the recognition.  

“I enjoy being in this community,” he said.