Tannia Hotchkiss, daughter of the late Wesley Akin Hotchkiss, will receive a certificate of commendation in her father’s stead from the Office of Gov. Jim Doyle on Fri., July 27, at the plenary session of the Northland College Board of Trustees. The session begins at 7:45 a.m. and will be held in the Ponzio Campus Center’s Alvord Theatre on the Northland College campus. Ashland Mayor Ed Monroe will also present Tannia Hotchkiss with a proclamation from the city of Ashland that evening during a private dinner.

Wesley Akin Hotchkiss was born in Spooner, Wis. in 1919 and graduated valedictorian of his Minong High School class in 1937. He entered Northland College in 1940, graduating cum laude in 1944 with a major in social science and minors in English and German. Hotchkiss met his wife, Mary Ellen Fink Hotchkiss, at Northland and enjoyed a rich and fulfilling marriage with her for 62 years, until her death in 2003.

In 1996, Hotchkiss wrote, “My gratitude to Northland College is for opening the world to me. Coming from an impoverished north Wisconsin subsistence farm family, as I did, meant that Northland was virtually my only chance for a liberal education. The fact that I could earn my way was a miracle in itself, but even more important, I received an excellent education.”

From Northland, Hotchkiss continued to the Chicago Theological Seminary and the University of Chicago, where he earned masters and doctoral degrees in geography. He was awarded a Doctor of Theology degree from Northland College in 1961, served as a trustee of the college from 1971-1989, was named Trustee Emeritus, and received the Distinguished Alumni Award from Northland in 2000. Throughout his decades of service with the United Church of Christ, Hotchkiss encouraged the development of Northland College – academically, and institutionally. He supported the College’s environmental and ecological emphasis, while agreeing that its liberal arts commitment should also be honored.

Hotchkiss died in January 2007 in Granby, Conn. He was a wise counselor to the Northland College Board of Trustees, an eloquent observer and writer, a committed Christian pastor and interpreter, a man of generous heart and modest nature, a person of unquenchable intellectual curiosity, a possessor of enormous and various talents. Northland College has sought to honor him in many ways as he stands for the best and truest elements of our northern tradition.