George Norlin
Encyclopedia
University of Colorado at Boulder
The University of Colorado Boulder is a public research university located in Boulder, Colorado...
. During his tenure as president, Norlin oversaw the redesign of the Boulder campus.
Biography
George Norlin was born in ConcordiaConcordia, Kansas
Concordia is a city in and the county seat of Cloud County, Kansas, United States. Located on the Republican River in the Smoky Hills region of the Great Plains, Concordia was founded in 1871 and is an economic and cultural center in north-central Kansas...
, in Cloud County, Kansas
Cloud County, Kansas
Cloud County is a county located in North Central Kansas, in the Central United States. As of the 2010 census, the county population was 9,533. Its county seat and most populous city is Concordia.-19th century:...
, the son of Swedish immigrant parents. He was educated at Hastings College
Hastings College
Hastings College is a private, undergraduate, four-year, residential liberal arts college in Hastings, Nebraska, USA.- History :The college was founded in 1882 by a group of men and women seeking to establish a Presbyterian college dedicated to high academic and cultural standards...
and at the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
. He also attended the Sorbonne
Sorbonne
The Sorbonne is an edifice of the Latin Quarter, in Paris, France, which has been the historical house of the former University of Paris...
in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
. Professor Norlin taught Greek language and literature at the University of Colorado from 1899 to 1917. George Norlin was named acting president of the University of Colorado at Boulder in 1917. By appointment of Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
, Norlin spent the 1932-33 year as Theodore Roosevelt Professor of American Life and Institutions at the University of Berlin. After his time in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, Norlin spoke and wrote articles warning of the dangers of Nazism
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
and anti Semitism. Norlin was a Weil Lecturer at the University of North Carolina
University of North Carolina
Chartered in 1789, the University of North Carolina was one of the first public universities in the United States and the only one to graduate students in the eighteenth century...
(1934) and was also a trustee of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.
During his tenure as President of the University of Colorado, he oversaw the redesign of the Boulder campus under the plans of noted architect, Charles Zeller Klauder. President Norlin is also remembered for resisting efforts by the Ku Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan, often abbreviated KKK and informally known as the Klan, is the name of three distinct past and present far-right organizations in the United States, which have advocated extremist reactionary currents such as white supremacy, white nationalism, and anti-immigration, historically...
, which had taken control of the Colorado
Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...
legislature in about 1922. The Klan insisted he dismiss all Catholic
Catholic
The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...
and Jewish faculty, but he resisted and guided the University through the years until 1926, when the Klan lost control of the legislature and governorship. During that period the University subsisted on a millage built into the state constitution; its budget was cut to zero.
George Norlin died in Boulder, Colorado
Boulder, Colorado
Boulder is the county seat and most populous city of Boulder County and the 11th most populous city in the U.S. state of Colorado. Boulder is located at the base of the foothills of the Rocky Mountains at an elevation of...
. Norlin Library, located in Norlin Quadrangle at the University of Colorado, was named in his honor. The University of Colorado at Boulder offers the Norlin Scholars Program for highly motivated students with excellent academic or creative ability. The George Norlin Award at the University of Colorado honors alumni of the University for distinguished lifetime achievement.
Selected works
- Fascism and Citizenship (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1934)
- Integrity in Education and Other Papers (New York: The Macmillan Co., 1926)
- Isocrates (Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1928)
- An Odious Comparison ( Phi Beta Kappa Addresses, Columbia, Mo., 1917)
- The Quest of American Life (Boulder, Colo: University of Colorado, 1945)
- Things in the Saddle: Selected Essays and Addresses by George Norlin (Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1940)
Other sources
- Benson, Adolph B.; Naboth Hedin Swedes In America (New York: Haskel House Publishers. 1969)
- Ellsworth, Ralph E. (editor) A Voice from Colorado's past for the present : selected writings of George Norlin (Boulder, Colo. : Colorado Associated University Press, c1985)