Norlin, George, 1871-1942

George Norlin was born in 1871, near Concordia, Kansas. He graduated from Hastings College in Nebraska with an A.B. degree and was appointed instructor at Hastings University, where he remained until 1896. Norlin was awarded a Fellowship in Greek at the University of Chicago and pursued his graduate studies and receive a his Ph.D. in 1900. In 1899, he was appointed Professor of Greek at the University of Colorado. Four years later, Norlin was given a leave of absence to travel and study abroad. While in France and Switzerland, he met Miss Minnie Covert Dutcher, from Cleveland, Ohio, whom he married on June 21, 1904. In 1905, Mr. and Mrs. Norlin had their only child, Agnes. In 1917, Norlin was named acting president for Livingston Farrand, who had gone to France during World War I as head of the American Red Cross effort there. When Farrand informed the Board of Regents that he would not return, Norlin was appointed president of the University of Colorado in 1919. George Norlin remained president of the University until June 30, 1939. As president, Norlin expanded the University's enrollment, extended and improved the campus, and elevated its standards. During his presidency, the University of Colorado enlarged its enrollment from 1,570 students in 1919 to 4,437 in 1939. Nolin was an effective political activist. During the 1920s, Norlin wrote essays and gave speeches which were critical of the Scopes "Monkey" Trial. In 1924, he rebuffed the blandishments of the Ku Klux Klan governor of Colorado, who offered him legislative support in return for firing Jewish and Catholic faculty. Also in the 1920s, George Norlin and his wife joined the newly established Cosmopolitan Club, a student organization which welcomed international students and provided them a social and political forum. During his presidency, Norlin kept close ties with the black community in Boulder. The University paid for its resistance to the Klan, as the pro-Klan majority in the State Legislature retaliated during budget appropriations. During the 1930s, President Norlin visited Germany several times during the rise of the Nazi Party to power. After a year in Germany as lecturer on American Civilization at Berlin University in 1933, Norlin spoke and wrote articles warning of the dangers of Nazism and anti-Semitism. Faculty members added their signatures to an "Open Letter from American Scholars to their Colleagues in Poland," sponsored by the International League of Academic Freedom, to protest anti-Semitism in Poland in 1937. During November, 1938, Norlin sponsored a faculty letter to the US State Department condemning Nazi anti-Semitic actions. In February of 1939, Norlin approved the Faculty Senate plan to address discrimination both on and off campus, the first of its kind at the University of Colorado. George Norlin retired in 1939, and died in 1942.

Author, historian, educator, and president of the University of Colorado at Boulder.