Her Story...
Kært barn har mange navne!
by Lennart Nordtorp Nielsen
It’s a saying, that so perfectly covers the wonderful person, we are here to celebrate. The English translation is: “A beloved child has many names”.
And Shelly, as I knew my best friend of 46 years, was truly loved, and she did have many names, that were attached to the many roles, she played in life:
In her role as daughter, sister, cousin, etc. she was known as Solly.
Her early friends in Dassel knew her as Michelle.
Her close friends and colleges (mostly the same) knew her as Shelly.
Her students knew her as Dr. or Professor Nordtorp-Madson.
But the most cherished of her many roles was as “Mor” (Danish for “Mom”) for our daughter Kirstine, a role that came late in life.
Shelly’s early life with Mom Evelyn (Evie) and Dad Milo, sisters and cousins know better than I, and may speak to that later, but I’ll mention a few things, she told me about.
There were the long, hot, humid, and mosquito-filled days of de-tasseling corn and later working with corn at the Green Giant canning factory in Cokato. She especially blamed the work in the canning factory for only having seen the beginning of many movies, we later watched, because watching the same movies in theaters years before, she usually fell asleep halfway in.
Another memorable story she told me was the famous “Sears Catalog Incident”. Sister Gretchen and Shelly had an argument, that turned physical and involved a heavy Sears catalog and Shelly’s head. The girls later told their mom, that Shelly had hit her head on the window in her room. Given the location of the window and the injuri, however, if would have required Shelly to jump off her bed and pivot 90 degrees in the air before hitting the window frame! But they stuck to the story.
Shelly also found time in high school to participate in, and win, a Miss Dassel competition, but it was mostly on a lark she participated, and she admitted, that she was not very cooperative with the committee once she had won.
Another crowning point, pun intended, of her high school career was when her guidance counselor advised her to seek employment as a beautician or hairdresser, since she obviously did not have an aptitude for the university. She did of course later prove that it was the counselor that could have done well with a career change.
After her third year of college, Shelly decided, with the help of a Danish teacher at the U of M, that a study-abroad-year in Denmark was in order. Part of the Scandinavian Studies program, she went on, started with a stay with a Danish family to acclimate her to the language and culture.
Shelly walked into my life, or I walked into hers, as I arrived a couple of hours after her, on August 2, 1973. We both arrived at my cousin’s farm outside Aarhus, Jutland, Shelly for her stay with her host family, and I to help my cousin during harvest.
I had spent my summer vacations on this farm since I was 10 years old and loved taking part in the harvest. That spring I had finished 18 months of studies in Aarhus for my Master Electricians license and had returned to the island of Sjælland, where I had accepted a job at a power plant. Due to the plant’s vacation schedule, I would not get a vacation that year, and would not get to go to the farm.
However, my cousins neighbor called to ask, if I would be interested in interviewing for a job they had available, where he worked in Aarhus. I was, and I was offered the job, which I accepted with the proviso, that I would not start until a month later, so I could go and help my cousin with the harvest first. I then called the power plant and told them that I would not be starting there.
Just one short month later (but was that ever a busy month!), Shelly relocated to Krogerup Højskole north of Copenhagen to start her studies. For those who do not know, the Danish højskole (literally: high school) concept is continuing education in a boarding school environment, where adults can go back to school to delve into subjects of special interest. The various højskoler in Denmark generally specialize to a degree, such as art, music, politics, literature, language, etc.
It was Shelly’s misfortune that Krogerup focused on politics, and mostly the left-leaning variety, which, in 1973 during Watergate, meant that Shelly constantly had to defend America, without accidently defending Nixon. Shelly had excelled in debate back in high school and had won tournaments, but her lack of fluency in Danish at this point and her fellow students’ insufficient proficiency in English, made it hard to communicate.
But after Christmas, spent with my family, she managed to transfer to Ry Højskole west of Aarhus to a much friendlier environment. And me. In the meantime, I had found myself a small apartment, so we had a place to live, whenever she had a weekend off. No proposals were exchanged, but we agreed that a trans-Atlantic relationship just would not work, so we decided to get married as soon as Shelly’s visa ran out.
To make the whole deal a little easier to swallow for Shelly’s parents, we also decided it should be done in the US, since we at that point expected to live in Denmark. So, after about a week short of 1 year of knowing each other, we married on July 27, 1974 in Dassel. About three weeks later, we were back in Aarhus.
Shelly then enrolled in a dress design and seamstress course at Bloch Tilskæreskole in Aarhus, a decision that served her well in her future art history career. The spring of 1975 saw her enroll in art history, Scandinavian art, and Danish at the University of Aarhus. She even excelled in Danish at this point, and to the point, that she gave a course in American art to her fellow students, in Danish.
She was also a couple of times commended for her excellent grasp of the English language by tourists asking her for directions!
By Christmas time of 1975 it became clear to us that we either should buy a house in Denmark and make Shelly’s stay permanent or try our luck in the US. We started laying plans for moving and for an extended European vacation, after we packed up our belongings for shipment. While the ship sailed west, Shelly and I drove down through Germany, Austria, Italy, and Switzerland. We had a wonderful time in our old VW minibus.
Back in the US we, in short order, got a job for me, an apartment, and Shelly back at the U of M to finish up her bachelor’s degree, including transfer of credits from Aarhus. She got her diploma in June of ’77, followed by her master’s in art history in 1980.
During the seventies, Shelly also volunteered at the American-Swedish Institute or ASI, especially with exhibits. At the ASI she made a number of lifelong friendships in the Scandinavian community.
During much of the eighties, Shelly worked at the Design Department at the U of M and it’s Goldstein Gallery, where she, with her mentor Dr. Tim Blade, worked with exhibits. She also did a lot of outreach for the U to outstate organizations where she gave lectures for local groups, among other things about Finnish migration and folk art and liaison work with museums.
Shelly also found time to serve as president of the Danish American Fellowship from 1982 to 1987, which also, in 1990 led to her heavy involvement with the “Scandinavia Today” event held on the Nicollet Mall.
The mid and late eighties were taken up with research and her PhD dissertation. She got a grant to study in Denmark, where she had found the subject of her dissertation topic: the Danish hovedvandsæg. Shelly received her PhD in 1990 from the U of M.
The early nineties were spent at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, where she again was involved with exhibits and gave lectures to various groups.
Shelly had always tended to procrastinate, and in the following case, did she ever! She was 40 years old when she announced, that now she wanted a child. Given the late start, so to speak, it was by no means a given, that we’d succeed, so we agreed to give it a year. And nothing happened, and trust me, we tried hard.
Then after we had officially given up, we struck gold and, procrastinating like her Mom, Kissi arrived late on May 28, 1994 (Shelly had expected her on her own birthday of May 20, when she turned 42), but Kissi, being Kissi, wanted her own birthday.
She Started motherhood and a position at the University of St. Thomas, at almost the same time, and Shelly being Shelly, she excelled at both! And whilst raising her own daughter, she also helped all her other “kids” at St. Thomas on their way, just like she had done at the U of M, where she was a much sought-after student advisor.
She loved teaching and she did so with humor, wit, and a brilliant mind. One of her concepts she especially liked, was getting a class to create a small medieval town out of the building on the St. Thomas campus.
The students had to form small teams to research the various buildings and to justify their inclusion in the “town”, and the teams would have to include enough trades to make the town sustainable. All this, of course, forced the teams to research life in a medieval village thoroughly!
At home Shelly used her training in dress design to clothe Kirstine through her early years, and later she played a very active roll at Kissi’s school where she fixed hair and makeup for the performers (maybe that high school counselor hadn’t been completely wrong).
She once scared the daylights out of me when she suddenly entered our living room in green face paint as The Wicked Witch of the West, and, of course, less so as The Cowardly Lyon.
As if all this is not enough, Shelly also found time for a once-a-year gig at St. Mary’s Chapel at the University of St. Thomas. She was the third wheel of the Baroque Music performance every February for 20 years.
Chris Kachian on guitar and David Jenkins on harpsichord took care of the music and Shelly did her stand-up comedy routine (with slides) enlightening the audience about the art and people of the time and location of the given year’s performance.
And finally, Shelly was on the board of Skovsøen (the Danish part of the Concordia College Language Villages) for many years.
I will finish here, but I hope, that I may have triggered some memories, that some of you may want to share with the rest of us!
by Lennart Nordtorp Nielsen
It’s a saying, that so perfectly covers the wonderful person, we are here to celebrate. The English translation is: “A beloved child has many names”.
And Shelly, as I knew my best friend of 46 years, was truly loved, and she did have many names, that were attached to the many roles, she played in life:
In her role as daughter, sister, cousin, etc. she was known as Solly.
Her early friends in Dassel knew her as Michelle.
Her close friends and colleges (mostly the same) knew her as Shelly.
Her students knew her as Dr. or Professor Nordtorp-Madson.
But the most cherished of her many roles was as “Mor” (Danish for “Mom”) for our daughter Kirstine, a role that came late in life.
Shelly’s early life with Mom Evelyn (Evie) and Dad Milo, sisters and cousins know better than I, and may speak to that later, but I’ll mention a few things, she told me about.
There were the long, hot, humid, and mosquito-filled days of de-tasseling corn and later working with corn at the Green Giant canning factory in Cokato. She especially blamed the work in the canning factory for only having seen the beginning of many movies, we later watched, because watching the same movies in theaters years before, she usually fell asleep halfway in.
Another memorable story she told me was the famous “Sears Catalog Incident”. Sister Gretchen and Shelly had an argument, that turned physical and involved a heavy Sears catalog and Shelly’s head. The girls later told their mom, that Shelly had hit her head on the window in her room. Given the location of the window and the injuri, however, if would have required Shelly to jump off her bed and pivot 90 degrees in the air before hitting the window frame! But they stuck to the story.
Shelly also found time in high school to participate in, and win, a Miss Dassel competition, but it was mostly on a lark she participated, and she admitted, that she was not very cooperative with the committee once she had won.
Another crowning point, pun intended, of her high school career was when her guidance counselor advised her to seek employment as a beautician or hairdresser, since she obviously did not have an aptitude for the university. She did of course later prove that it was the counselor that could have done well with a career change.
After her third year of college, Shelly decided, with the help of a Danish teacher at the U of M, that a study-abroad-year in Denmark was in order. Part of the Scandinavian Studies program, she went on, started with a stay with a Danish family to acclimate her to the language and culture.
Shelly walked into my life, or I walked into hers, as I arrived a couple of hours after her, on August 2, 1973. We both arrived at my cousin’s farm outside Aarhus, Jutland, Shelly for her stay with her host family, and I to help my cousin during harvest.
I had spent my summer vacations on this farm since I was 10 years old and loved taking part in the harvest. That spring I had finished 18 months of studies in Aarhus for my Master Electricians license and had returned to the island of Sjælland, where I had accepted a job at a power plant. Due to the plant’s vacation schedule, I would not get a vacation that year, and would not get to go to the farm.
However, my cousins neighbor called to ask, if I would be interested in interviewing for a job they had available, where he worked in Aarhus. I was, and I was offered the job, which I accepted with the proviso, that I would not start until a month later, so I could go and help my cousin with the harvest first. I then called the power plant and told them that I would not be starting there.
Just one short month later (but was that ever a busy month!), Shelly relocated to Krogerup Højskole north of Copenhagen to start her studies. For those who do not know, the Danish højskole (literally: high school) concept is continuing education in a boarding school environment, where adults can go back to school to delve into subjects of special interest. The various højskoler in Denmark generally specialize to a degree, such as art, music, politics, literature, language, etc.
It was Shelly’s misfortune that Krogerup focused on politics, and mostly the left-leaning variety, which, in 1973 during Watergate, meant that Shelly constantly had to defend America, without accidently defending Nixon. Shelly had excelled in debate back in high school and had won tournaments, but her lack of fluency in Danish at this point and her fellow students’ insufficient proficiency in English, made it hard to communicate.
But after Christmas, spent with my family, she managed to transfer to Ry Højskole west of Aarhus to a much friendlier environment. And me. In the meantime, I had found myself a small apartment, so we had a place to live, whenever she had a weekend off. No proposals were exchanged, but we agreed that a trans-Atlantic relationship just would not work, so we decided to get married as soon as Shelly’s visa ran out.
To make the whole deal a little easier to swallow for Shelly’s parents, we also decided it should be done in the US, since we at that point expected to live in Denmark. So, after about a week short of 1 year of knowing each other, we married on July 27, 1974 in Dassel. About three weeks later, we were back in Aarhus.
Shelly then enrolled in a dress design and seamstress course at Bloch Tilskæreskole in Aarhus, a decision that served her well in her future art history career. The spring of 1975 saw her enroll in art history, Scandinavian art, and Danish at the University of Aarhus. She even excelled in Danish at this point, and to the point, that she gave a course in American art to her fellow students, in Danish.
She was also a couple of times commended for her excellent grasp of the English language by tourists asking her for directions!
By Christmas time of 1975 it became clear to us that we either should buy a house in Denmark and make Shelly’s stay permanent or try our luck in the US. We started laying plans for moving and for an extended European vacation, after we packed up our belongings for shipment. While the ship sailed west, Shelly and I drove down through Germany, Austria, Italy, and Switzerland. We had a wonderful time in our old VW minibus.
Back in the US we, in short order, got a job for me, an apartment, and Shelly back at the U of M to finish up her bachelor’s degree, including transfer of credits from Aarhus. She got her diploma in June of ’77, followed by her master’s in art history in 1980.
During the seventies, Shelly also volunteered at the American-Swedish Institute or ASI, especially with exhibits. At the ASI she made a number of lifelong friendships in the Scandinavian community.
During much of the eighties, Shelly worked at the Design Department at the U of M and it’s Goldstein Gallery, where she, with her mentor Dr. Tim Blade, worked with exhibits. She also did a lot of outreach for the U to outstate organizations where she gave lectures for local groups, among other things about Finnish migration and folk art and liaison work with museums.
Shelly also found time to serve as president of the Danish American Fellowship from 1982 to 1987, which also, in 1990 led to her heavy involvement with the “Scandinavia Today” event held on the Nicollet Mall.
The mid and late eighties were taken up with research and her PhD dissertation. She got a grant to study in Denmark, where she had found the subject of her dissertation topic: the Danish hovedvandsæg. Shelly received her PhD in 1990 from the U of M.
The early nineties were spent at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, where she again was involved with exhibits and gave lectures to various groups.
Shelly had always tended to procrastinate, and in the following case, did she ever! She was 40 years old when she announced, that now she wanted a child. Given the late start, so to speak, it was by no means a given, that we’d succeed, so we agreed to give it a year. And nothing happened, and trust me, we tried hard.
Then after we had officially given up, we struck gold and, procrastinating like her Mom, Kissi arrived late on May 28, 1994 (Shelly had expected her on her own birthday of May 20, when she turned 42), but Kissi, being Kissi, wanted her own birthday.
She Started motherhood and a position at the University of St. Thomas, at almost the same time, and Shelly being Shelly, she excelled at both! And whilst raising her own daughter, she also helped all her other “kids” at St. Thomas on their way, just like she had done at the U of M, where she was a much sought-after student advisor.
She loved teaching and she did so with humor, wit, and a brilliant mind. One of her concepts she especially liked, was getting a class to create a small medieval town out of the building on the St. Thomas campus.
The students had to form small teams to research the various buildings and to justify their inclusion in the “town”, and the teams would have to include enough trades to make the town sustainable. All this, of course, forced the teams to research life in a medieval village thoroughly!
At home Shelly used her training in dress design to clothe Kirstine through her early years, and later she played a very active roll at Kissi’s school where she fixed hair and makeup for the performers (maybe that high school counselor hadn’t been completely wrong).
She once scared the daylights out of me when she suddenly entered our living room in green face paint as The Wicked Witch of the West, and, of course, less so as The Cowardly Lyon.
As if all this is not enough, Shelly also found time for a once-a-year gig at St. Mary’s Chapel at the University of St. Thomas. She was the third wheel of the Baroque Music performance every February for 20 years.
Chris Kachian on guitar and David Jenkins on harpsichord took care of the music and Shelly did her stand-up comedy routine (with slides) enlightening the audience about the art and people of the time and location of the given year’s performance.
And finally, Shelly was on the board of Skovsøen (the Danish part of the Concordia College Language Villages) for many years.
I will finish here, but I hope, that I may have triggered some memories, that some of you may want to share with the rest of us!