Ann Milliken Pederson was born to Charles Milliken and Doris (Holmquist) Milliken on May 20, 1957, in Bozeman, Montana. As she grew up, first in Belgrade and then in Bozeman, Ann came to embody the strength of the mountains that she grew to love. She was indeed a force.

Ann's way of being in the world took root in her early years.

Ann's parents nurtured both her love of music—she learned to play flute and piano as a child—and her love of the natural world by sending her to summer camps at Christikon, an ELCA faith-based summer camp in the Absaroka/Beartooth Mountains, and, later, Sky Ranch, a Lutheran camp in the Colorado Rockies. Over the years, she became a part of camp life in multiple ways: She was a camper, a cook and, in time, a counselor at both Christikon and Sky Ranch.

At Christikon, Camp Director Stan West nurtured a faith life grounded in the environment and literature, a combination that suited Ann well. As a counselor there, Ann led hikes and backpack groups as she developed confidence, outdoor skills, and an ability to connect with young campers. During these summers, she befriended an old prospector, Charlie Rasnick, who lived year-round in the mountains. For Ann, it was more important that Charlie approve of her future husband than anyone else, including her parents. Charlie taught Ann how to stake a mining claim, how to slow down, and how to calmly disobey authority when appropriate, the last of these a lesson that she took quite seriously throughout her life.

In 1978, after years of being a camper and staff member at Christikon, Ann decided that she needed a change. She took a position at Sky Ranch as a backpack counselor and met Gary Pederson. A fellow counselor who hailed from Sisseton, South Dakota, Gary was working at Sky Ranch for one summer before starting his career as a band director. Ann and Gary fell in love, a love that would only grow deeper as their 47 years of marriage flew by. They spent the next school year, respectively, at Montana State University and Chester Area Schools, taking any opportunity they could to get together. Ann more or less proposed to Gary over the phone in February of 1979, and the two were married in August before moving to the Twin Cities where Ann started seminary studies. Eventually, Ann decided that LSTC in Chicago would be a better fit for her so she and Gary moved to Chicago where she completed a master's degree, a parish internship, and a doctorate in theology. After graduating with her doctorate in 1990, Ann accepted a position teaching in the Religion and Philosophy Department at Augustana College in Sioux Falls. Gary continued as a band director, eventually becoming a teacher for the Sioux Falls School District.

Ann's early years in Montana shaped who she was and who she would become as a professor of religion at Augustana, where she taught religion for 34 years and played a major role in the development of the medical humanities minor. Ann's gifts were many, but her ability to discern connections between religion and other disciplines, science in particular, was extraordinary. She became a leader in her field, a scholar known for inviting others to think, feel and see old topics in new ways. At Augustana, Ann taught interdisciplinary courses with scientists, medical doctors, and colleagues from across the disciplines. She published five books that examined the relationship between religion and music, geography, and our bodies. Over the years, Ann presented at national and international conferences on science and religion, pedagogy, and feminist theology. She collaborated with both well-known theologians, both in the United States and internationally, and with faculty across the disciplines at Augustana and beyond.

Though Ann was a noted scholar in her field, she is best remembered as a teacher, mentor, and friend to her students. Her former students, upon learning that Ann had entered home hospice, sent myriad letters, cards, emails, and videos to her. Each message serves as a beautiful testimonial to Ann's lifelong influence on her students.

Ann's love of the outdoors and her deep-seated desire to connect with "the minute particulars" of God's creation remained integral to her growth as a human being over the years. Once Ann had moved from the mountains of Montana to the prairie of South Dakota, she set about becoming intimately familiar with her new surroundings. At the drop of a hat, she and Gary would pack the car, load up the dogs, and head out to explore the Great Plains. Truly, Ann's was a life-long love affair with all aspects of God's creation. Gary and Ann captured the essence of their many journeys with Ann's words and Gary's drawings and paintings, which merged to create an ongoing travel journal.

Ann shaped her life with great intent. She loved to play cards with her friends, to participate in sing-a longs whenever her husband got out his guitar, and to shop, particularly with her mother Doris and her friends. She nurtured strong relationships and stayed closely connected to four of her childhood friends, who came to visit when Ann was in hospice. Over the years, she and Gary shared their home with many pets—a boxer, a doodle, two Airedales, two standard poodles, and a cat named Fartblossom. Ann's relationship with her dogs became integral to her theology, as did most all parts of Ann's life. She concluded that dogs, like humans, are created in the image of God, which, she said, should not be understood as a "simple reflection." In one article, she noted that "[h]uman beings aren't all that God cares about or is revealed in."

Ann embodied and practiced many traits—compassion, empathy, a strong ability to think and reason, a ready and lively imagination, and an openness to all. As a teacher of theology, she made it clear to students that they could ask any question they desired. Those who knew Ann knew too that she was generous to a fault. If she saw a book that she thought someone should read, she sent it to that person. One student recalled that Ann had once sent him a rocking chair that sat in her office and that she thought he should have.

In one of Ann's many articles, she reflected on her way of being in the world: "Let's stop in the fields of our God-given imaginations and invite the whole creation into the image of God's grace and glory. If we never explore, we might miss the miracle that was there all along."

For the past six years, Ann lived with a very rare cancer, a Solitary Fibrous Tumor which has no history of cure. Ever the teachers, Ann and Gary shared their experience with cancer on a Substack blog and in an art show, "Roadtrip with Cancer," at USD Sanford School of Medicine. Ann died on July 15, 2026, in her home surrounded by family and friends. She is preceded in death by her mother, Doris (Holmquist) Milliken, and her father, Charles (Chuck) Milliken.

A memorial service will be held on Saturday, September 26th, at 11:00 am, at the Augustana Chapel with a reception to follow (same location). Memorial gifts can be made to the Dr. Ann Milliken Pederson Endowed Scholarship at Augustana University, Administration Building, 2001 S. Summit Avenue, Sioux Falls, SD 57197. To make an online donation, please go to www.Augie.edu/give, click on "ways to give," and then "give today," and note in the designated area that the gift should go to the Dr. Ann Milliken Pederson Endowed Scholarship. You may also use this link Here.