The Rowberg Prize

The Rowberg Prize recognizes excellence in historical writing
by St. Olaf history majors.  The history department invites
junior and sophomore history majors to submit papers for
this year’s prize.  Papers must be submitted by Friday,
March 19th to be considered for the contest.

The Leland R. Rowberg Memorial Fund was established as a
gift to the College by Mr. and Mrs. A. A. Rowberg in memory
of their son, who died in France during World War II. 
Rowberg, a member of the Class of '44, was drafted into
service in 1943, and was with General Patton's Third Army
as it pressed eastward in the liberation of France following
the Normandy invasion.  He was killed in action in the vicinity
of Metz on 9 October 1944.  The Rowbergs' strong interest in history guided their choice to establish a memorial fund to
support excellence in historical writing.  Mr. Rowberg was a
early member of the Norwegian-American Historical Society, president of the Rice County Historical Society and, after his retirement, a founder and officer of the Loudoun County
Historical Society in Virginia.

Students will compete for a first prize award of $350 and a
second prize of $250.  Papers on any historical topic, meeting
the criteria outlined below, will be eligible.  Submissions may
be made only by juniors and sophomores who have declared
as history majors.  The award will be announced before the
end of the spring 2010 semester.  The department reserves
the right to make no award.     

Guidelines and procedure for submissions:

  1. The paper must be on a historical topic.  Although the
    paper need not have been written for a history class,
    it should focus on a significant historiographic issue
    and/or be based on primary sources.
  2. If the paper was written for a college class, the
    submitted version should be rewritten in light of the professor’s comments.
  3. Students may submit only one paper per year.
  4. The paper must be 12-pages or longer
    (double-spaced, 1” margins, 12-point font).
  5. Use Turabian or Chicago citation format.
  6. Please prepare the paper for blind review.  Put your
    name only on the title page.  Each page of the paper
    should include a header with the title (abbreviated)
    and page number.
  7. Submit three copies of the paper to Nancy Hollinger,
    the history department’s administrative assistant
    (Holland 513), no later than noon on Friday,
    March 19th, 2010.

After a brief lapse, the Rowberg Prize is being reinstituted
in 2010.  The History Department expects to continue an
annual award of the prize.