User:1814K/Norman W. Larson - Professor

Norman Walter Larson, whose parents were Walter Edwin Larson and Catherine Semanko Larson, was born on Aug. 22, 1934, in Minneapolis, Minn. He is an emeritus professor, having taught at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minn., for 32 years (1968-2000). As a non-Catholic from Minneapolis, some people quipped as to how "a Lutheran from Minneapolis got mixed up with all those Irishmen in St. Paul."

With B.A. and M.A. degress and 10 years of professional journalistic experience before going into teaching, Prof. Larson was a hands-on teacher who continued to write along with his teaching. Some of his writing had to do with important issues at St. Thomas. For several summers in the 1990s, about 20 St. Thomas professors participated in a seminar titled "The Idea of the Catholic University." Prof. Larson wrote the following articles:

"The University of St. Thomas’ Statement Regarding the Addressing of Controversial Issues Within the Framework of the Idea of the Catholic University."

www.stthomas.edu/cathstudies/programs/Summeruniversityconf/summerseminar/Larson%201994.pdf

"Media Ethics and Journalism Education at the University of St. Thomas."

www.stthomas.edu/cathstudies/programs/Summeruniversityconf/summerseminar/Larson%201995.pdf

"Academic Freedom in the Classroom."

www.stthomas.edu/cathstudies/programs/Summeruniversityconf/summerseminar/Larson%201997.pdf

Norman is married to the former Judith Jane Fawcett, daughter of the late Dr. A. Maxwell Fawcett and Harriet Daly Fawcett. Judith and Norman have one son, Eric Maxwell Emmanuel Larson, who is married to the former Ruth Ann Kirkwold. Eric and Ruth have two daughters, Candela Joy and Chloe Violet.

Academic Experience

Department of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, Minn., 1968-2000.

William Allen White School of Journalism, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kan., 1967-68.

School of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minn., part time, 1966-67.

Professional Experience

News reporter and copy editor, Minneapolis Tribune, Minneapolis, Minn., 1963-67; also worked several summers through 1975.

Editor of employee newspaper, Minneapolis Gas Co. (Minnegasco), Minneapolis, Minn., 1962-63.

Promotional writer, Insulite Division of Minnesota and Ontario Paper Co., Minneapolis, Minn., 1959-62.

Advertising copywriter, G. H. Tennant Co., Minneapolis, Minn. 1956-57.

Military Service

U.S. Naval Reserve, active duty, 1957-58, first in Washington, D.C., on the staff of All Hands Magazine and then in the public information office on board the aircraft carrier USS Wasp, home-based in Boston, Mass., and deployed with the U.S. 6th Fleet in the Mediterranean.

Education

University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. M.A., 1967. Major, mass communication; minor, American economic history. B.A., 1956. Major, journalism; minor, history. Also took 33 post-M.A. credits, 1970-74 (part time), primarily in future studies and history of education. While an undergraduate at the university, Norman worked all four years on the news staff of the Minnesota Daily, student newspaper; he was a reporter and a night editor and then news editor and associate editor. He was a member of Sigma Delta Chi, now known as the Society of Professional Journalists, and was president of the campus chapter during his senior year. He also belonged to Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity and was inducted into Kappa Tau Alpha, journalism honorary. He is a member of the Minnesota Daily Alumni Association and served on the association's Board and was the Board's representative to the Minnesota Daily Board. In 2004 he was named to the Minnesota Daily Hall of Distinction "for noteworthy contributions to the Minnesota Daily and your respective field." Norman began his journalistic endeavors in seventh grade as editor of his school paper, as well as editor of his Boy Scout troop's newspaper. In high school he was a reporter and then editor-in-chief of the school paper. Immediately after his high school graduation he went to Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., for a summer institute for high school journalists, and received the top honor for reporting.

Current Memberships

Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication.

SPELL (Society for the Preservation of English Language and Literature).

Minnesota Chapter of the Nature Conservancy.

Minnesota Daily Alumni Association.

Saint Paul (Minn.) Chapter of the National Audubon Society.

Nekstad/Larsen/Larson Family

Lars Nekstad, Norman's great-grandather, was a Norwegian fisherman who with his wife, Torrie, lived in a village called Nekstad on the island of Averoy, off the coast of Kristiansund North, Norway. Everyone from that village was named Nekstad. The Nekstads had five sons, only one of whom stayed in Norway. His name was John. The other sons were Oluf (also known as Olaf and Olof), who was Norman's paternal grandfather, Peder (also known as Peter), Anders (also known as Andrew) and Ole. When the brothers emigrated from Norway to the United States, their name was changed to Larsen, meaning the son of Lars. Oluf Larson's wife, the former Anna Frankel, being Swedish, insisted that the name be spelled Larson rather than Larsen since Larson, she said, was the Swedish spelling of the name. In America, Oluf also went by the name of Olof. He and Anna had three daughters, Elvira (Vera), Esther and Alice, and five sons, Albert, Arthur Oden (Odie), Walter, LeRoy (Roy) and Raymond.

The Semanko Family

Gregory Semanko (sometimes referred to as Semanczak, as on his naturalization papers) and the former Mary Zurbey were Norman's maternal grandparents. They emigrated from Becherov, which at that time was in Austria-Hungary and now is part of the Slovak Republic near the Polish border. They had three daughters, Mary, Anna and Katherine (later spelled Catherine) and five sons, John, Michael, Frank, Peter and Sam, and a daughter Anne who died in infancy. Gregory Semanko was one of the founders of St. Mary's Russian Orthodox Church, now known as St. Mary's Orthodox Cathedral, in Northeast Minneapolis.

Email: norman.larson@yahoo.com

Facebook Profile: http://www.facebook.com/norman.larson

Website: http://www.moeville.blogspot.com/