First visit to Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois

 

Color photos by Retiring Guy

Our 37th anniversary road trip turned out to be both a celebration of our marriage and a commemoration of my dad's ordination from Augustana Seminary 80 years ago. On the drive to Rock Island, we even followed a portion of the Mississippi River route we followed on our honeymoon, a winding and hilly stretch of U.S. highways 52 and 67 on the Iowa side of the river, not the terrain typically associated with the Hawkeye State. Augustana is a beautiful campus set on a hill that overlooks the city and river, until the trees got in the way and blocked the view. Its current enrollment is 2500, up from about 500 when Dad attended. 

I selected a few of Dad’s photos from the late 1930s and early 1940s for a than-and-now comparison of the campus. 

Black and white photo by Retiring Guy's Dad

Old Main is an iconic building that serves to symbolize the college. Construction began in 1884 but wasn’t completed initial 1889, when it was dedicated as Memorial Hall. It contained classrooms, faculty room, and a 500-seat chapel used for a variety of functions: religious services, meetings, musical performances, and lectures. It would me e another three years, however, before work on the dome was finished. According to “The Old Main Story”, the building was initially referred to as the “New College Building”. By the 1920s it had earned the moniker of “Main College Building”. In the 1936-1937 college catalog, which corresponds to Dad’s sophomore year, it is officially designated as “Old Main”. 

The building now houses classrooms and faculty offices of a dozen or so departments. It underwent a $13,000,000 renovation in 2012. Finding the entrance door unlocked, we walked inside and inspected the main level. From what we saw, it’s a beautiful and historically sensitive restoration. 

The Seminary Dormitory, as Dad labelled it in his photo album, was constructed in 1923 on Zion Hill, the largest hill on the campus. The building also contained a dining hall. It was connected by walkways to a second building, constructed at the same time, that housed classroom, a library, classrooms, a library, offices, and Ascension Chapel. Since Dad’s years at Augustana, the buildings have been expanded, remodeled, and repurposed. 

In 1962, the Augustana Synod merged with three other Lutheran church groups to form the Lutheran Church in America (LCA). As a result, Augustana Seminary, which had operated as a separate administrative unit since 1948, ceased to exist and merged with the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago. An agreement to sell its land and buildings to the College was finalized in 1967. Now designated Seminary Hall, the building serves as a dormitory for 80 students in two-room units that divide into sleep and study areas. 

Our visit took place during the middle of exam week, With no classes in sessions, we didn’t encounter many students during our stroll of the campus. We visited the library, where we asked about copies of old yearbooks. After consulting with his supervisor, the student assistant provided us with the call number of his collection. I know Dad kept 1 or 2 of his yearbooks, but I don’t recall ever seeing the 1939 edition, the year he graduated from Augustana College. Moreover, the page design looks unfamiliar to me. Not to mention the orange plastic binding combs. 

Note that Dad was one of 3 students named Carl Nelson in his class.

The librarian in charge at the information desk suggested we visit the Special Collections Room on the lower level, which is where the yearbooks were shelved. The young woman working there, a recent library school graduate, was most helpful. She mentioned a clippings file containing information about Augustana graduates. Both Richard and Roger Nyquist’s name appeared when she conducted an online search. Their folders each contained a news release. Dick’s was dated 7/16/1984 and announced the publication of a 4-volume set that he had co-authored with three other colleagues: The Handbook of Infrared and Raman Spectra of Inorganic Compounds and Organic Salts. (Yikes, I surely wouldn’t understand a word of it.) 

 Roger’s news release was published two months earlier (5/21/1984) and announced that he would receive the Outstanding Services Award at an upcoming Alumni Day banquet. Dick’s folder also contained a publisher’s brochure and a photocopy of a brief article in the Rock Island newspaper.