Biographical
Sketch
Theodore Blegen was born
on 16 July 1891 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. During World War II he directed
the National Historical Service, preparing materials for the U.S. Army's
G.I. Roundtable. In 1928-29 he was a Guggenheim Fellow and studied in
Norway. He served as a professor of history at Hamline University, was
superintendent of the Minnesota Historical Society, and was elected
president of the Mississippi Valley Historical Association (Organization
of American Historians).
Blegen was dean of the University
of Minnesota's graduate school when he conceived of a plan for systematically
collecting and preserving the sources of forest history in the Lakes
States. He began seeking funds to support the project, and industry
representatives such as the Weyerhaeuser family of St. Paul, Minnesota,
and Tacoma, Washington, heeded the call. The Forest Products History
Foundation (Forest History Society) resulted from this initial effort
to preserve the history of the American forest products industry.
Blegen was a director or
corporate member of the Society from its inception in 1946 until his
death. He served two terms as president, was elected a Fellow of the
Society in 1963, and for more than twenty years served on the Society's
executive committee. Upon hearing of his passing away on 18 July 1969
after a long illness, FHS executive director Elwood R. Maunder urged
the FHS Board of Directors to establish a memorial endowment fund to
carry on Blegen's support for young scholars of American history who
research, write, and publish studies relating to forest history. The
Society's Theodore C. Blegen Award was
thus born.
