John E. Norton
Vasa's Swedish American of the Year 2010
John E. Norton was born in 1936, the son of Swedish-American watercolor artist Paul N. Norton and Lucy McClean Norton, a graduate of Augustana College in Rock Island and rural elementary school teacher in Muscatine County, Iowa. John Norton’s great-great grandfather Olof Nordin was one of the immigrants who followed Swedish Lutheran clergyman Lars-Paul Esbjörn from Gästrikland to Andover, Illinois, in 1849.
John received a degree in Political Science from Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois, and studied Swedish at Augustana in 1958. After a year´s study at Föreningen Nordens folk high school Biskops Arnö, near Uppsala, he continued graduate studies at Stockholm University, and later received his Masters Degree in American Studies from the University of Minnesota, with emphasis on immigration to North America.
He served as a junior officer in the U.S. army in Germany, where he also acted as escort officer for visiting Scandinavian military. He taught Command and General Staff College subjects in Munich, Germany, and other sites in the United States, and was retired in 1990 as a Military Intelligence Foreign Area Officer. He served over 32 years in both active and reserve status.
As a volunteer, John E. Norton has been board member of Scandinavian Seminar, The American Scandinavian Association at Augustana College, and the Augustana Historical Society in Rock Island, where he edits their quarterly newsletter, and the Bishop Hill Heritage Association, devoted to restoration of this pioneering Swedish "prairie Utopia." He has served as guide and host for tourist groups ranging from Swedish government and military, to cultural representatives, farmers and students of history from Scandinavia. He has maintained his Swedish language through those connections, and values his Swedish background highly.
Since 1987, he has led popular "Elderhostel"/Exploritas educational tours to Scandinavia for American seniors, and since 1997 to Germany, Switzerland, Austria and central Europe. His interests and hobbies include historic research, photography and outdoor activities. John E. Norton and his wife Janet, a St. Olaf College graduate, have two grown children and two grandchildren.
