Obituary Record

Norman C Bansen
Died on 1/21/2004

None

Enterprise 30 Jan 2004

(Photo) (Veteran Flag)

Norman C. Bansen, 83

Norman C. Bansen, long-time English professor at Dana College in Blair, died Jan. 21, 2004 at the Good Shepherd Home in Blair. Memorial services will be held in April, both in Ferndale, Calif., and at Dana College in Blair.

Bansen, a native Californian, was born Nov. 26, 1920, to Peter H. and Anne M. Bansen at Ferndale. It was there in the valley of the Eel River in northern California that he was baptized and confirmed at Our Savior’s Lutheran Church and attended elementary and secondary school in Ferndale.

He came to Dana as a freshman in 1939 and after serving in the US. Army from 1942 to 1946, much of the time as a captain stationed in India, he returned to Dana where he received his B.A. degree in 1947.

Following a few years as Director of Public Relations at Dana, he joined the faculty as an instructor of English. His professional career at Dana continued until his retirement in 1986 except for a few years when he received his M.A. at the University of Minnesota and a year when he was a visiting professor in the Scandinavian Department at the University of California at Berkeley.

In 1970 Bansen was named to the Order of the Knights of Dannebrog by Frederik IX, King of Denmark, and in 1980 he was awarded an honorary doctorate by Luther College in Decorah, Iowa. Dana College designated him a “Distinguished Alumnus” in 1991. Bansen was one of the founders of the Danish Immigrant Museum in Elk Horn, Iowa. In 1999, Passages from India, a book containing his wartime letters, papers and poems was published by Lur Publications of the Danish Immigrant Archive-Dana College.

His love of gardening, literature, travel and the Danish heritage marked his non-academic life, but Bansen’s greatest contribution was as a teacher. In this role he inspired and affirmed Dana students over a period of four decades. He left a further living legacy on the Dana campus with the Danish beech trees he acquired in 1955 from the city of Odense, Denmark, to commemorate the anniversary of the birth of Hans Christian Andersen, and the linden trees, that circle the oval, which he influenced Berlin’s mayor, Viley Brandt, to send to Dana.

He is survived by his brother and sister-in-law, Lloyd and Ann; a sister-in-law, Dora; and many nieces, nephews and their families. Among these locally are Ted and Margie Bansen and their family. Besides his family, his loss is mourned by a host of friends, colleagues and former students.

Bansen was preceded in death by a brother, Stanley.

Memorials are suggested to the Bansen Scholarship Fund at Dana College.

Enterprise 16 April 2004

Norman C. Bansen, 83

Family, friends, former colleagues and students of Norman C. Bansen will gather for a service of remembrance of his life at 7 p.m. Wednesday, April 28, in Trinity Chapel of the Durham Center at Dana College.

Professor Bansen died on Jan. 21, 2004, at Good Shepherd Home in Blair. Bansen, a native Californian, was born on Nov. 26, 1920, to Peter H. and Ane M. Bansen at Ferndale. He left his beloved Eel Valley in 1939 to attend Dana College. From that time he divided his love and his time between California and Nebraska, Ferndale and Blair. He especially enjoyed his extended coffee sessions in both locales where conversations rivaled culinary treats for his attention. Unbeknownst to both towns and states, Bansen was their ardent promoter, influencing scores of people to visit each.

During his long career in the English Department at Dana, he touched the lives of innumerable students, and during that career he also was responsible for significant physical changes on the campus that he loved. The Copenhagen gas lights, the Danish beech trees, the Linden trees from Berlin and the Sophus Keith Winther memorial are all testimonies to his interests.

Preceding the memorial service, a special blue spruce will be planted in Bansen’s honor on the Dana campus. Dana College President Myrvin Christopherson, Karen Bansen Maguire, Dr. Richard Jorgensen, Dr. Paul Neve and Dr. John W. Nielsen will participate in the memorial service, and following the service, there will be a reception hosted by President and Mrs. Christopherson in The Forum.

~~~ Obituary courtesy of the Washington County Genealogical Society. Newspaper clippings on file in the Blair Public Library at Blair, Nebraska.~~~

Printed in the Washington County Enterprise on 1/30/2004


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