As we noted in the eighth installment of “From the Archives,” the title of Sigurd Olson’s fifth book, Open Horizons, inspired the title for the Institute’s long-running newsletter Horizons. His book was also an inspiration for the Institute’s first capital campaign, “Open Horizons”. As the organizers of the campaign explain in a little pamphlet titled…

Sigurd F. Olson titled his fifth book Open Horizons, and in the book’s introduction, he writes that what “a man finally becomes, how he adjusts himself to this world, is a composite of all the horizons he has explored, for they have marked him and left indelible imprints on his attitude and convictions and given…

In 1975, a small, eight-page pamphlet was produced that is described on its cover as “a publication of Northland: A Liberal Arts – Environmental College.” Titled Sigurd Olson Writes about Northland College, the origin of this pamphlet can be traced back to the 1973 summer meeting of the Northland College Board of Trustees. At this…

By the spring of 1973, the Sigurd Olson Institute of Environmental Studies, still less than a year old, was humming with activity. Three Johnson Lectures had been delivered. A pilot environmental education program had been established with schools in nearby Drummond and Cable, Wisconsin. The largest government grant in the College’s history had been secured…

Sam Johnson was an early supporter of environmental studies at Northland College. In 1970, he provided a grant through The Johnson Wax Fund to develop an environmental studies curriculum at the College, and two years later, an additional grant and personal gift from Johnson helped to launch the Sigurd Olson Institute of Environmental Studies with…

An essential component of Bob Matteson’s vision for the Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute was an advisory board. Matteson made clear that the board’s responsibilities were advisory, rather than legal, and, as he explains in his history of the Institute, he was careful to schedule meetings of the board when fall “foliage was peaking” and spring…

In its early days, what was then the Sigurd Olson Institute of Environmental Studies was based in Bobb Hall. The basement, to be specific. Co-founder and Executive Director Bob Matteson spent countless hours in this space, shepherding an advisory board and collaborating with the College’s Environmental Studies Committee.