Former CWS director, faculty member dies

M Arthur Huseboe, executive director of the Center for Western Studies for 20 years, died Saturday, March 13, at his home in Sioux Falls after a long bout with cancer. He was 78 years old.

In addition to his time at the Center for Western Studies (CWS), Huseboe also served as the chair of the Humanities department for 19 years and was a professor in the English department for nearly 40 years.

His colleagues remember Huseboe as an inspirational and supportive leader in all his pursuits.

"I first met Art Huseboe on my way into the Humanities Building one January afternoon," Harry Thompson, Huseboe's successor as executive director of CWS, said. "He said to me, ‘I understand you will be teaching some classes for the English department this semester.'" "Within a few weeks, he had recruited me to assist him in the first of countless projects we worked on together over the next 25 years—in this case, a conference for the state's humanities scholars, which resulted in the book A Common Land, A Diverse People."

However, Huseboe's deep connection with Augustana began even before he started teaching in the English department. A native of Sioux Falls, he received his B.A. in English and speech/drama from Augustana in 1953, and it was at Augustana where he met his future wife, Doris, while they were both students. Doris also went on to continue her career with Augustana, serving as the associate vice president for development until 1993. She died in 1996.

Ron Robinson, the Augustana College English professor Emeritus, fondly remembers the Huseboes for their passion for the college and everyone involved in it.

"In a moment of quiet reflection after Doris' death, Art told me that when he and Doris discovered they could have no children of their own, they had decided to adopt en masse the students of Augustana," Robinson said. "That revelation explains much of what made Art and Doris what they became."

During Huseboe's time at Augustana, he also served on many Augustana committees, including the Library Committee, Concert and Lecture Committee, Personnel Council, Augustana Research Institute, Augustana College 125th Anniversary Committee (chair) and Viking Days Parade (marshal and color commentator).

Also at Augustana, Huseboe was a co-founder of the CWS and a member of its board of directors before being appointed executive director in 1989 by President Lloyd Svendsbye. As director, he oversaw the addition of the Dakota Conference, June Event, and Boe Forum on Public Affairs, the fundraising and construction of the Fantle Building in 2001 and growth in the areas of archives and library, book publishing and art collections and exhibitions. He was also co-founder of Nordland Fest in 1974 and the Nordland Heritage Foundation in 1975, serving as the latter's executive director from 1985-2008.

Thompson includes Huseboe to as one of the major factors that made Augustana what it is today.

"For several decades beginning in the 1960s, Art Huseboe was a major figure in the life of Augustana College," Thompson said.

In addition to his service on the Augustana campus, Huseboe was very involved in the community surrounding the college. Among his substantial contributions to South Dakota and to the Sioux Falls community, was his service as a board member of the South Dakota Symphony Orchestra (1966-2006; president, 1971-1975), South Dakota Centennial Commission, South Dakota Humanities Council (chair), South Dakota Humanities Foundation (co-founder and president), Sioux Empire Arts Council, Minnehaha County Historical Society (vice president), community concerts and First Lutheran Church Men (president, 1967-1968). He also served on the boards of such national organizations as the Federation of State Humanities Councils and the Western Literature Association (president).

Furthermore, Huseboe was a writer, editor and publisher of numerous books, many on the topics of South Dakota, the Midwest and Augustana.

Robinson cites Huseboe's sense of humor and innate playfulness as a contributing factor behind his powerful imagination and leadership skills.

"I came into our shared office once to discover Art crouched down, playing with a stripped-down windup car, and beaming with delight," Robinson said. "He was fascinated with novel mechanical ideas, and he was a great fan of Buckminster Fuller. Art came up with an idea for a combination helium-hot-air balloon, one enclosed within the other, which he was convinced could circle the globe without setting down."

Amanda Jenson, the collections assistant for CWS, remembers Huseboe as a great storyteller.

"He loved to talk about events that he had witnessed or events that he had taken part in," Jenson said. "He loved to talk. He could talk for hours."

His family, friends and colleagues will always remember Huseboe's enthusiasm for teaching and his love of knowledge.

"His lectures on English literature were legendary," Robinson said. "Art made seemingly mundane but essential things like grammar and punctuation as vivid as possible." One of his techniques was to assign each member of the class a role as a part of speech. Then he would get everybody up on their feet and have them join hands to form sentences. It was a brilliant device. As I've said before, it's hard to forget what a conjunctive adverb is, if you've actually been one."

Jenson echoes Robinson in remembering Huseboe as a man who found his passion in working with students.

"Art gave everything that he had to his students at Augustana," Jenson said. "He loved what he did and loved working directly with students."

Robinson predicts that Huseboe's passion for and hard work with the CWS will guide the center well into the future.

"He was a man of intellect, a man of vision and a man of feeling, and I hold that all these attributes issued from a single source," Robinson said. "And that source was love."