Niemi, John A

John Niemi (1933-2004) was born in Michigan to parents who emigrated to the United States from Finland. After graduating from Gogebic Community College in Ironwood, Michigan in 1952 and from Michigan State in 1954, he later earned a Master's Degree from the University of Alaska in Fairbanks and a Ph.D. from the University of California at Los Angeles (1967).

Niemi spent more than fifty years in the field of adult education, much of it at Northern Illinois University (NIU). His early experience teaching functionally illiterate Army enlistees in Alaska began a lifelong interest in adult education for military personnel, and led to a 25-year partnership between NIU and the Great Lakes Naval Training Center. In addition to his work at NIU, Niemi taught and conducted research at the University of Helsinki and other Finnish universities, and organized congresses that brought together American, Finnish, Russian, and Scandinavian adult educators. He wrote more than 150 articles and four books on adult literacy, mass media and adult education, and the use of technologies in the classroom.

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