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Author, former English instructor Paul Gruchow dies at 56

By Amy Gage
February 25, 2004

A renowned author in Minnesota and beyond, a conservationist, a former newspaper editor and a former instructor in creative writing at St. Olaf College, Paul Gruchow died of a drug overdose Feb. 22, 2004. He was 56 years old.

Gruchow's books include The Necessity of Empty Places, Journal of a Prairie Year, Discovering the Universe of Home and Travels in Canoe Country.

A farm boy from Montevideo, Minn., Gruchow had lived in Northfield and Moorhead in recent years. He moved his family to the North Shore in 1996 and continued to teach and lecture at colleges and universities throughout the state. According to an obituary in the Star Tribune, he once told an interviewer: "Part of my purpose in writing is to try and convince myself and my fellow partisans of rural life that we have some things to be proud about."

Gruchow is survived by his former wife, Nancy, and two grown children.

Contact David Gonnerman at 507-786-3315 or gonnermd@stolaf.edu.