Professor of History and Norwegian
Ph.D., University of Minnesota
Major in U.S. History, Minor in Scandinavian Studies
lovoll@stolaf.edu
Odd S. Lovoll was born October 6, 1934 in Norway.
He immigrated to the United States in 1946 and is a
naturalized United States citizen. Lovoll received his
education both in Norway and in the United States, passing
university exams in Norwegian at the University of Bergen in
1961 and in History at the University of Oslo in 1966 and
1967. Before returning to the United States in 1967, he
taught in the Norwegian secondary school system. He holds
an M.A. (1969) in United States history from the University
of North Dakota, where he served on the faculty from 1967
to 1970, and a Ph.D. (1973) in United States history with
specialization in Immigration from the University of
Minnesota. His doctoral dissertation was published in 1975
as a Sesquicentennial Publication of Norwegian immigration
to the United States titled, A Folk Epic: The Bygdelag in
America.
He retired from the King Olav V Chair in
Scandinavian-American Studies at St. Olaf College on
December 31, 2000 after serving thirty years on the St. Olaf
faculty. He was the first occupant of the Chair. Lovoll
continues in his professorship, a part-time appointment in
History at the University of Oslo, Norway.
From 1980 until 2001 he served as publication editor for
The Norwegian-American Historical Association. In that capacity
he edited and supervised publication of thirty-two volumes.
Eighteen books carry his name either as author or editor and
he has published some fifty articles mainly on Norwegian
American and Scandinavian-American immigration; he has published in
both Norway and the United States. Two of his
most recent book publications are revised editions of Det
lofterike landet. En norskamerikansk historie published by the
University of Oslo Press in 1983, and revised in 1997, and an
English version, The Promise of America: A History of the
Norwegian-American People, published in 1984 and in a revised
edition in 1999 by the University of Minnesota Press. The
Promise Fulfilled: A Portrait of Norwegian Americans Today
(Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1998), and a
Norwegian translation titled Innfriddelofter. Et norskamerikansk
samtidsbilde (Oslo: Vett & Viten, 1999) are also recent
publications. In 1988 he published the first book-length study
of Norwegians in a large metropolitan area, A Century of
Urban Life: The Norwegians in Chicago Before 1930, which
received Award of Superior Achievement, the Illinois State
Historical Society. In 2005 he published a study of the
Norwegian historical experience in three small towns in west-
central Minnesota, Norske smabyer pa praerien.
Ed kulturhistorisk studie, published in an English-language
edition in 2006 as Norwegians on the Prairie: Ethnicity and
the Development of the Country Town. He was decorated with
the Knight's Cross First Class of the Royal Norwegian Order of
Merit in 1986 by King Olav V, and in 1989 he was inducted into
membership in The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters.
He occupies one of nine chairs in the Academy reserved for
foreign historians.
In 1958 he marrid Else Navekvien Lovoll. Their children are
Audrey Merete Lovoll Syversen, born 1960, married to Helge
Syversen, and residing in Norway; and Ronald Lovoll, born
1963, married to Margit Paulson, and residing in Northfield,
Minnesota. Else and Odd Lovoll have five grandchildren, Andrea
Kristen Lovoll, Peter Magnar Lovoll, Jon Elias Lovoll, Martin
Lovoll Syversen, and Kristian Lovoll Syversen.
