Gustavus Adolphus College - Gustavian Yearbook (St Peter, MN)

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:,..:,-1m:.1g.., b l A 1 . :JF -e .1-ff--f--0' J ,Mi ,gn ,fs ff- - 2'v'ng '.'x,w 'N H , ytpfrf ' ' 195 f v 't 5 'A ' ., iii:-itgjisiw . 152: -5255, It ,E?3jteJgal,Q2... W??4fiat5I,RSS1fiimdfafiiilt511931121 .1 J.,-. 1 1 ERIK NORELIUS. D. D., LL. D. IN MEMORIAM R. ERIC NORELIUS, founder of Gustavus Adolphus College, was born in Hassela, Helsingland, Sweden, Oct. 26, 1833, and died at his home in Vasa, Minnesota, March 15, 1916, at the age of eighty-two years, four months and nineteen days. He was ordained pastor at the age of twenty-three and was thus in his sixtieth year of service when called Home by the Master to whom he gave his life in faithful service. Dr. Norelius received his elementary education in Sweden, continued his studies at the Capital University in Columbus, Ohio, and was ordained minister in Dixon, Illinois, in 1856. After his ordination he became pastor of the Swedish Lutheran churches at Red Wing, Cannon Falls, and Vasa, which he had helped to organize Tx, A - --., ..., . ,,. ,x xy--5 . ,M , HM., ,, Var., 513, A 1 .. -JH , 'i'Q5f ' '.'-QHTH '11 ,. .ic . V .pu 16

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. L . ,Q J 'V .M B. ,sf N If r .J lr, If r- - j -rj l It fr r:ff-A-st1.:1:ea.itillimb..f.f'J1.1'fafFNl1..,.7.123.ft fil4J,..g-ff,f-ffi.--P:'wvff'+ee.t. ,455 l ,J . . . . .. , , .. , . .. -- V -. . - ,W . . ., . . W H H f 1- - r Jfwfj Y-Y-.---M--.f ..,. ,J 1.4 3. t, ,.', wi , 1 ., -7 .- nj F, V 1, . IA, If 4, . V U sary evil, a thing to be tolerated and overlooked but not sanctioned. They must be given ofiicial existence. They must be revamped and Htted into the life of the school. We want high standards of athletic life and such are possible only with proper equipment. We want clean athletics, therefore these must be worked into the general program of the college. Here is no desire to sacrifice the better things of mind and soul for the brute standards of the cannibal and the caveman. It is to the young man, in those adventurous years when the athletic appeal is predominant, that the call of the college comes. Whatever direction is to be given to his energies, in after-life, in that open season when he is available for college work, a good gymnasium is a powerful drawing card. College means inhnitely more than athletics, but to win the high school boy, college must minister to his athletic interest, and the college must win the high school boy. A new gymnasium is therefore a project that must be focal for every energy and interest that serves Gustavus. This gymnasium must be built, not as a makeshift, but adequate to every future need. The Gustavian brings the friends'of the school no more cheerful message than this, that such a gymnasium is under way. At the last meeting of the Alumni Association it was decided to attack the problem in earnest. The forces have been actively organized and the campaign is on. There is no other proposition that at present lies closer to the hearts of the studentbody. It is a project that should enlist all alumni and former students in a post-graduate course of college spirit. It is a project that lies well within the range of our power. College chums, fellows all, a long pull -and a strong pull for the new gymnasium! GYMNASIUM COMMITTEE. , ,-.' 'ks , ,. 7' .g 4 on V j4.lgf,1 F lj I5 4

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' Y. - r' 1 '.' nr ' ' . - 'X '-'vs tx 1' ,J f' ' ' ep' Vin ' '- 1' f, ,yr Y' ' : 5 l llvjf lf' VT 1 if 5...,jfgggrf!atfQrs'tiairrjfiiarftiiffarfsQM2l'Qrf,...,,mf,.i . or ti f. the previous year. In 1857 he established the Minnesota Posten, the first Swedish newspaper published in the state of Minnesota. Thus in the fifties he was a younger contemporary of the pioneer ministers of the Augustana Synod, Hasselquist, Esbjorn, Carlsson, O. Andreen, and Jonas Swenson. His stay, however, at Red Wing and neighboring places was short, for in the year 1858 he accepted the editorship of the i'Hemlandet in Chicago. This work he pursued for a year, when on account of ill health he was forced to resign, whereupon he accepted a call to the Swedish Lutheran church in Attica, Indiana. He remained in Attica only a year and in 1860 accepted another call as a traveling Lutheran minister in Minnesota. During the following year he came in contact with nearly every Swede in Minnesota, traveling from place to place on foot or on horseback. In 1861 he moved to St. Paul, where his family resided for a year, when he was called back to his old congregations at Red Wing and Vasa, his last charge. The next year, 1862, he founded a Swedish academy at Red Wing. This school was the nucleus around which centered the efforts of the early Swedish pioneers of Minnesota, and which later became Gustavus Adolphus College at St. Peter. Dr. Norelius saw that Minnesota was to become the principal home of the Swedish people in America, and realized that if all that was best in the glorious traditions of the Swedish race, and in the Lutheran faith, which they had so valiantly cham- pioned, was to be preserved to Swedish Americans, an institution true to those ideals was necessary. To make real this cherished ambition he labored, apioneer among pioneers, supported as they were by that spirit of indefatigable persistence, patience, and fortitude of mind, which makes dear to us the memory of these struggling people. There was little to give, yet funds were scraped together and the beginning was made with Dr. Norelius as the first president. The result today of his untiring efforts is Gustavus Adolphus College, which, tho in name it commemorates the Swedish King and champion of -the faith, stands, in another sense, a monument to that good and noble man, the founder of our school, Doctor Norelius. It is, therefore, in a spirit of reverence and respect that we Set aside these pages of our Annual as a tribute to his memory. Dr. Norelius was esteemed a great man not only in Minnesota, but thruout the United States and in Sweden. He was twice elected president of the Augustana Synod, first in 1874 and again in 1958. In 1903 he was honored with knighthood in the North Star Order by King Oscar II, receiving the Commanderis Cross of this Order about live years ago. Dr. Norelius' career in the fields of journalism and literature has been deeply interwoven with the progress of the Swedish Americans of the Northwest, he being the first editor of the Minnesota Stats Tidning and author of several works in history, among them The History of the Swedish Americans of Minnesota. His was a life of noble, self-sacrificing service, especially for the church and her educational institutions. He was a man with a strong personality, will power, and staunch faith in Cod and his fellow-men. His name and memory will always inspire us to serve nobly and faithfully. 7 Y ., Y V WV W W H 17' .., , K. . . W.,..-f, . Y.. W .' . e ff V ., Pr sr 1 . , ', ll, .A.w-.- ,, '- J tl f N 5 lg., ,L E V t., ..1,,. ,,....,.,,... vm .r H , X, 17