Qualey, Carlton C. (Carlton Chester), 1904-....

Under a grant from the Hill Family Foundation of St. Paul MN, 11 University of Minnesota faculty members and Professor C.C. Qualey from Carleton College were able to spend a month studying life in the USSR.

Historian, educator.

Carlton Chester Orlando Qualey was born December 17, 1904 in Spring Grove, Minnesota, the son of Ole O. (1858-1937) and Clara Amalia Knatterud (1868-1947) Qualey. He spent his boyhood in Spring Grove, graduating from Spring Grove High School in 1922. He enrolled in a teacher training program at the high school and received a common school teaching certificate. At the age of 18 he was appointed a teacher in School District 85 (Houston County, Minn.). He taught there for two years before entering St. Olaf College (Northfield, Minnesota) in 1925. After his graduation in 1929 with a degree in history, he received a graduate teaching assistantship at the University of Minnesota. He received a Master of Arts in history in 1930.

A fellowship from Columbia University enabled him to teach and earn his doctorate in history in 1938. During this time he also was working as an historian with the National Park Service. He taught at Columbia University (Bard College, Teachers College, Graduate School), 1936-1944; Swarthmore College, 1944-1945; Columbia Graduate School, 1945-1946; and Carleton College (Northfield, Minn.), 1946-1970. He also served as a visiting professor at other schools, 1951-1976. In addition, he served as the superintendent of the Minnesota Historical Society, 1947-1948, returning there in 1970 as a research fellow and initiator of the Ethnic History Project (1973-1981).

His fields of research were European migrations to America, and Scandinavian emigration in particular.

He married Elizabeth Cummings in 1933. They had two children: John and Mary. Carlton Qualey died March 25, 1988.