Passions for baseball, Victorian literature, travel, and running characterize David Wee , graduate of St. Olaf (1961), member of the St. Olaf English department since 1965, and former Senior Tutor of the Paracollege. In fact, David was one of the founders of the Paracollege, the "design-your-own-major parallel college." He created and has taught for 25 years a course called "Baseball and American Values"; he continues to teach first-year writing, creative writing, and Victorian literature, the topic of his PhD thesis (Stanford, 1967). A regular January Interim short story course in the North Cascade wilderness of Holden Village, and leading the Global Semester three times have given him extensive experience with off-campus and international studies.
As a Commissioner (1992-96) of the North Central Association regional accrediting agency, and as its president (1999-00), David makes frequent accreditation visits to other colleges. He also served on the Governing Board of Holden Village, and on the Board of the Division for Higher Education of the ELCA.
An All-American runner as an undergraduate, David holds the world record for the two-mile run in the 38-year-old category (9:32), and continues to run in competitions with a team from Northfield named "the Band of 10,000 Aches." He is an assistant coach of the St. Olaf women's cross-country team.
David is married to another St. Olaf graduate, Karen Herseth Wee, a poet. They have three children: a poet/creative writing teacher, a professional juggler, and a college English professor.
David is retiring during the 2004-2005 academic year after 40 years of teaching at St. Olaf.
