Ver Steeg, Clarence Lester 1922-

Clarence Lester Ver Steeg was born December 28, 1922, to John Arie and Annie (Vischer) Ver Steeg. One of twelve children, Ver Steeg spent his entire youth in the town of his birth, Orange City, Iowa. He was an excellent student, receiving high marks throughout his primary education. After graduating from high school in 1940, he attended Northwestern Junior College, now Northwestern College, in Orange City. To earn money while a student Ver Steeg embarked on a brief career selling imported Dutch novelties.

Ver Steeg joined the United States Army Air Forces in 1942 and, after basic and flight training, was sent overseas to the South Pacific. From 1943 to 1945, he saw combat as a navigator in a B-24 squadron. Participating in missions over Hong Kong, New Guinea, and the Philippines, Ver Steeg accumulated over 400 hours of combat flight experience. Among the military decorations he received was the Air Medal with three oak leaf clusters and five battle stars.

Ver Steeg did not allow the war to preclude the achievement of personal goals. In 1943, he married fellow Orange City native Dorothy Ann DeVries. He received his B.A. degree in absentia from Morningside College in 1943. After the close of World War II and his discharge from the military, Ver Steeg enrolled at Columbia University in New York City. There he received his M.A. degree in political science in 1946 and his Ph.D. in history in 1950. His dissertation was a study of the Revolutionary War financier and patriot Robert Morris. While pursuing his graduate degrees, Ver Steeg served as a lecturer and instructor in Columbia's History Department.

Northwestern University appointed Ver Steeg an instructor of history in 1950. For the next two years his major teaching responsibilities included his department's survey course in American history. In 1952, Northwestern promoted Ver Steeg to assistant professor and he became an associate professor in 1955. Ver Steeg attained the rank of full professor in 1959. That same year he took up position as visiting professor at Harvard University. While spending the 1959-1960 academic year at Harvard Ver Steeg served as the First Senior Member of the Center for the Study of Liberty in America. In 1966, he lectured on American history at the Summer Institute of Stanford University held at Alpach, Austria.

After teaching at Northwestern for twenty-five years, Ver Steeg accepted appointment as Dean of its Graduate School. From 1975 to 1986, Ver Steeg served the Graduate School with distinction. His tenure saw many improvements made in the structure and functions of the school, in the promotion of research, and in the development of the life sciences. In 1986, he stepped down from his deanship and resumed his teaching responsibilities. Ver Steeg would go on to teach courses in American history until his retirement in 1992.

Ver Steeg served on many university committees, most significantly during the 1960s as chairman of the Northwestern Faculty Committee to Plan and Build the New University Library. Working with the noted architect Walter Netsch, he played a crucial role in the development, design, and construction of the new library. Ver Steeg was also chairman of the Northwestern University Faculty Committee to Plan the Future of the University (1962-1965), another prominent committee, which made significant contributions to Northwestern during a period of considerable change.

A prolific author, Ver Steeg published eleven monographs and textbooks, dozens of scholarly articles, and more one hundred book reviews (see Publications List below). He received the Albert J. Beveridge Prize of the American Historical Association in 1952 for his book, Robert Morris, Revolutionary Financier (University of Pennsylvania Press). Northwestern recognized his many contributions to the university by establishing the Clarence L. Ver Steeg Professorship in the Arts and Sciences. In 2006, the Ver Steegs funded an endowment at Northwestern for the Dorothy Ann and Clarence L. Ver Steeg Distinguished Research Fellow award, the university's first endowed recognition for excellence in research by a Northwestern faculty member.

Ver Steeg died July 2, 2007, at the Presbyterian Homes of Evanston, Illinois. A funeral service and burial took place July 5th at Orange City, Iowa.

From the guide to the Clarence L. Ver Steeg (1922-2007) Papers, 1927-2000, (Northwestern University Archives)

Clarence Lester Ver Steeg was born December 28, 1922, to John Arie and Annie (Vischer) Ver Steeg. One of twelve children, Ver Steeg spent his entire youth in the town of his birth, Orange City, Iowa. He was an excellent student, receiving high marks throughout his primary education. After graduating from high school in 1940, he attended Northwestern Junior College, now Northwestern College, in Orange City. To earn money while a student Ver Steeg embarked on a brief career selling imported Dutch novelties.

Ver Steeg joined the United States Army Air Forces in 1942 and, after basic and flight training, was sent overseas to the South Pacific. From 1943 to 1945, he saw combat as a navigator in a B-24 squadron. Participating in missions over Hong Kong, New Guinea, and the Philippines, Ver Steeg accumulated over 400 hours of combat flight experience. Among the military decorations he received was the Air Medal with three oak leaf clusters and five battle stars.

Ver Steeg did not allow the war to preclude the achievement of personal goals. In 1943, he married fellow Orange City native Dorothy Ann DeVries. He received his B.A. degree in absentia from Morningside College in 1943. After the close of World War II and his discharge from the military, Ver Steeg enrolled at Columbia University in New York City. There he received his M.A. degree in political science in 1946 and his Ph.D. in history in 1950. His dissertation was a study of the Revolutionary War financier and patriot Robert Morris. While pursuing his graduate degrees, Ver Steeg served as a lecturer and instructor in Columbia's History Department.

Northwestern University appointed Ver Steeg an instructor of history in 1950. For the next two years his major teaching responsibilities included his department's survey course in American history. In 1952, Northwestern promoted Ver Steeg to assistant professor and he became an associate professor in 1955. Ver Steeg attained the rank of full professor in 1959. That same year he took up position as visiting professor at Harvard University. While spending the 1959-1960 academic year at Harvard Ver Steeg served as the First Senior Member of the Center for the Study of Liberty in America. In 1966, he lectured on American history at the Summer Institute of Stanford University held at Alpach, Austria.

After teaching at Northwestern for twenty-five years, Ver Steeg accepted appointment as Dean of its Graduate School. From 1975 to 1986, Ver Steeg served the Graduate School with distinction. His tenure saw many improvements made in the structure and functions of the school, in the promotion of research, and in the development of the life sciences. In 1986, he stepped down from his deanship and resumed his teaching responsibilities. Ver Steeg would go on to teach courses in American history until his retirement in 1992.

Ver Steeg served on many university committees, most significantly during the 1960s as chairman of the Northwestern Faculty Committee to Plan and Build the New University Library. Working with the noted architect Walter Netsch, he played a crucial role in the development, design, and construction of the new library. Ver Steeg was also chairman of the Northwestern University Faculty Committee to Plan the Future of the University (1962-1965), another prominent committee, which made significant contributions to Northwestern during a period of considerable change.

A prolific author, Ver Steeg published eleven monographs and textbooks, dozens of scholarly articles, and more one hundred book reviews (see Publications List below). He received the Albert J. Beveridge Prize of the American Historical Association in 1952 for his book, Robert Morris, Revolutionary Financier (University of Pennsylvania Press). Northwestern recognized his many contributions to the university by establishing the Clarence L. Ver Steeg Professorship in the Arts and Sciences. In 2006, the Ver Steegs funded an endowment at Northwestern for the Dorothy Ann and Clarence L. Ver Steeg Distinguished Research Fellow award, the university's first endowed recognition for excellence in research by a Northwestern faculty member.

Ver Steeg died July 2, 2007, at the Presbyterian Homes of Evanston, Illinois. A funeral service and burial took place July 5th at Orange City, Iowa.

From the guide to the Graduate School Records of the Dean, Clarence L. Ver Steeg, 1945-1986, (Northwestern University Archives)

Toward the end of the 1950's, Northwestern University had outgrown the space and structure of Deering Library, which had been built in 1933 as a closed-stacks library with a capacity of 500,000 volumes. An increase in enrollment, expanding collections, and changing research habits made creating an additional library building a necessity. By the early 1960s, Deering held over a million volumes and, while the stacks had been opened to browsing in 1951, the layout of the building no longer met the needs of its users. At the request of President J. Roscoe Miller, an Ad Hoc University Library Planning Committee was established on May 10, 1961 to begin planning a proposed addition to Deering Library. The committee was composed of Professor of History Clarence Ver Steeg, Chairman; Professor of English Richard Ellman; Assistant Librarian David Jolly; University Librarian Jens Nyholm; Director of Plant Properties John Sanderson; Professor of Economics Robert Strotz; and Graduate School Dean Moody Prior.

Through the active leadership of Chairman Ver Steeg, who spent many years working diligently on this project, much was accomplished in relatively short time. The Planning Committee researched other college and university library projects; made several site visits; and interviewed departments, faculty, staff, and students. Much of the final library plan was developed through this series of interviews with the community members who would be using the building. With this data, the committee was able to make decisions about collection development, access, and work spaces. Information was gathered on elements such as use of journals, reserve materials, typing room needs, and smoking areas, but essentially the question was how the new library could best support scholarship at that time and in the coming years. Though there were differing opinions and philosophies, the committee was able to reach consensus on the main issues and forged a vision of what the new library would entail.

In addition to periodic and yearly progress reports, the Planning Committee produced a formal document on June 22, 1962 synopsizing its work and decisions. After presenting the report to President Miller for his acceptance, the plan was then approved by the University's Board of Trustees and the project moved into a new phase. The Planning Committee was reconstituted as the Library Building Committee with the same membership on July 12, 1962, once the Administration had approved the plan and the architects had been asked to draw up preliminary designs. Walter Netsch of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), while not an official member of the committee, was the lead architect and attended many of the meetings. Mr. Netsch's assistant, Thomas Houha, was also a regular attendee.

Form and function went hand-in-hand as the shape of the new library developed. Close contact and cooperation between the committee and the architects informed the process of creating both the physical building and its intended use and functional structure. The eventual design consisted of three semi-independent, circular towers envisioned by Walter Netsch along the guidelines of what would become his "Field Theory" approach to architecture. Among other duties, the Building Committee also helped manage the ongoing construction and contractors, made decisions about interior design, developed tour and orientation materials, and provided input for press releases.

The overarching question faced by the Committee was: what is a university library? The first of the main issues under scrutiny was balancing the demands of undergraduate versus graduate students. Northwestern chose the somewhat iconoclastic route of creating an "integrated" new library in which both student groups would share equal access to the space and collections. They attempted to balance the needs of these groups by creating the second focus of the committee, in consort with respective academic departments, that they called "core" collections. These were non-circulating copies of the central and most used and influential works in a given discipline. A third focus was the layout of the stacks and Northwestern again bucked tradition going with a radial design for the bookshelves. The theory was that having books arranged in radiating shelves would allow a reader/researcher more direct visual access to the collection, seeing "120,000 volumes" simultaneously. A fourth main theme was the uniqueness of the building itself. By choosing an avant-garde design, Northwestern was making a statement to the public and the academic community. It was supposed to represent the forward thinking of the University, signal an embrace of contemporary scholarship, and set the stage for future additions to Northwestern's new Lakefill campus.

The library opened to the public on January 19, 1970 and was dedicated officially on October 21 of the same year. It is unclear as to when exactly that the Library Building Committee ended its duties; there remained some unfinished work on both interior spaces and the building's information retrieval systems. At some point in its early use, though, control over decisions reverted back to the standing Faculty Library Committee.

From the guide to the Records of the University Library Planning Committee Chairman, Clarence Ver Steeg, 1951-2001, 1961-1970, (Northwestern University Archives)