Equipped to serve during their time at Concordia Nebraska, alumni Lon and Marie Ruhter support youth and families through their work at Boys Town

Marie (Lavicky) Ruhter ’02 grew up about 30 minutes away from Concordia Nebraska. She said she chose to attend because of the university’s renowned art department, but she said she also loved the small campus feel and the many friendships she made during her time there. She has a bachelor of fine arts in commercial art from the university.  

Marie said her vocational path has taken several different directions since graduation. She worked in the graphic design industry on and off for about 10 years but also found herself frequently working with youth with behavioral needs.  

“Obviously Concordia gave me a well-rounded education and experience for being a designer, but I also learned many life skills that would later go on to shape the way [my husband and I] taught our kids both biological and non-biological,” she said. “My professors always did a great job of challenging us in our work and helping us to think critically. It was a great introduction to accepting feedback which is a skill that we would end up teaching to countless teenagers later in our lives. I actually grew up Catholic and so in the beginning I was a little bit of an anomaly. But over my time at Concordia Nebraska, I learned to really dive in to my personal relationship with Christ and to be open to learning all that I can about both faiths. Concordia was full of so many kids who genuinely and passionately celebrated their faith with each other and that has left a lasting impact on me.” 

I believe Concordia Nebraska’s focus on sending students out to be disciples to those in need made a large impact on my personal beliefs. For the first time in my life, I witnessed students that were extremely proud of their faith and talked openly about it daily.

After graduation, Marie worked as a graphic designer for the Nebraska Farm Bureau Federation in Lincoln for about four years. She met and married her husband Lon Ruhter ‘93 within that time, and as part of a career path that he was pursuing at the time, they moved to Texas for a while, where she worked as a graphic designer for McLane Advanced Technologies.  

“Then we found ourselves back in Omaha where I eventually took a job as a graphic designer for Boys Town. This job introduced me to all of the various services that Boys Town offered including the family home program,” she explained. “A series of events followed in the next few years that included another move, the birth of our first child and the economy hitting the construction industry hard which effected Lon’s job at that time. We were brought back to the Boys Town Family-Teacher position which had interested us before, but the timing was not right. Now, the timing seemed to fit perfectly. We became Family-Teachers in the winter of 2009 when our son was one year old. We held that role for almost 11 years and added two more of our own children to our loud and busy family.” 

Based in Nebraska, Boys Town provides compassionate, research-proven education, prevention, training and treatment for behavioral and physical problems in multiple locations throughout the United States with a comprehensive array of services. The Ruhters lived in a home on campus and had eight boys - usually 11-18 years old - that would live with them during their time at Boys Town.  

“We would teach them social and behavioral skills and work with them to improve their relationships, their grades, their behaviors, their health and many other things,” said Marie. “As our children began to approach middle school and get busier with activities it became important to us to transition away from the Family-Teacher position so that we could be more available to their changing needs.”  

Lon and Marie have three children: 15-year-old Austin, 12-year-old Avery and six-year-old Alaina. 

In the summer of 2020, the Ruhters left their Family-Teacher roles, and Lon pursued his career with the Boys Town police department, something that had always held an interest for him. Combining her passion for serving others with her love of graphic design, Marie now works part time with Boys Town’s in-house printing department.  

“When Father Flanagan started Boys Town, he was very passionate about teaching the youth a trade that they could use in life, and working in printing and on a press was one of the trades that was taught,” she explained. “The printing department eventually emerged as a way to provide the printing needs for the village, and we are still here today. As a graphic designer, I can say that the design industry has changed much in some ways since I graduated and took my first job, mainly becoming more digital and web-based and now entering the AI phase.” 

Day-to-day, part of Marie’s time is spent as a graphic designer and the rest of the time is spent seeing the projects through the printing process.  

“We do all things for the organization from hospital brochures to large wall murals to research posters and youth mayor campaign items and so many more,” she said. “On a weekly basis we have so many projects that you can be working on something different every day. We have a UV flatbed printer that can print on a variety of surfaces including golf balls and tumblers. We have a large format printer that can print large wall vinyl and printers that can print everything in between. We service mainly the needs of Boys Town village and hospitals, but we will also do work for other individuals or small business as workload allows.” 

Lon has worked in multiple career fields, most of them focusing on helping youth and their families. He has worked as a behavioral technician, caseworker for adults with disabilities, football coach and Family-Teacher prior to his current role at Boys Town.

“I have been a police officer at Boys Town the last four-and-a-half years,” he said. “A lot of changes have occurred over this time as there is a large focus now on understanding mental illness and the impacts it has on the community. There has been more enhanced training on de-escalation and working through difficult situations with those struggling within this community. This training has increased to compensate for the amount of calls that occur with people in a mental health crisis. Police work has become more community based also.” 

Prior to his work at Boys Town, Lon served in the mental health community for more than 20 years. He has a bachelor of science degree in psychology from Concordia Nebraska, as well as a master’s degree in human services administration from Bellevue University. He discovered Concordia Nebraska when his pastor brought Lon and three friends to the university to check it out. 

“Three of us loved it, and we stayed!” he said. “I formed great friendships that continue to last to today. The university is a very supportive family!” 

He said that during his time on campus many professors and university administrators were deeply involved in students’ spiritual and academic development and personal growth, something that still stands out to him today. 

“I believe Concordia Nebraska’s focus on sending students out to be disciples to those in need made a large impact on my personal beliefs,” he said. “For the first time in my life I witnessed students that were extremely proud of their faith and talked openly about it daily.” 

His daily work at Boys Town includes patrolling, meeting members of the public, working with families and youth in the Boys Town community and handling emergency calls. 

“My job is incredibly fulfilling as I am able to help those in need in some of their darkest and worst moments,” he said. 

Marie recounted that Boys Town was founded by a Catholic priest who encouraged every boy to find faith and religion because he knew how important it would be in their lives. While the Boys Town organization today does not profess to be a “Christian” organization, they still encourage youth to find faith and deepen it in their own way.  

Lon and Marie have both had the opportunity to serve in a variety of ways during their time at Boys Town, and Marie said that Boys Town really exemplifies the saying “it takes a village.”  

“Not only is Boys Town literally its own village, but every department that we have worked with on this campus is dedicated to the mission of helping youth and families. Even the departments that do not work with youth directly take pride in knowing that what they do contributes to the community as a whole,” she said. “We were very blessed to get to call this community home for 10 years and the relationships that we have made are very special to us.” 

Concordia University, Nebraska emphasize the Christ-centered message of the Gospel in the higher education the university delivers. In addition to promoting a supportive culture where students can grow and thrive, Concordia Nebraska promises that students will receive a Lutheran, Christian higher education, built on four foundational promises—community, inquiry, purpose and wisdom—that ensure they will be equipped not only with a set of skills and a degree, but also a sense of Christian vocation and purpose for the future.