Bothne, Gisle, 1860-1934

Gisle Christian Johnson Bothne was born on September 7, 1860 in Frederickshald, Norway, the son of Thrond Johnson and Johanne Okland Bothne. He received his early education in Norway. The family emigrated to the United States in 1876 when Bothne's father accepted a professorial position at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa. Bothne enrolled in Luther College and received his bachelor of arts degree in 1878. He then pursued graduate work at Northwestern University in Watertown, Wisconsin (1878-1879) and Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland (1880). He received his master of arts degree from Luther College in 1881 and immediately became an instructor at that school, eventually becoming head of both the Scandinavian language and literature and the Greek departments. He also taught mathematics. He continued his graduate work at John Hopkins University in 1883-1884 and in the latter year was made a full professor at Luther College. In 1904 and 1905 he also spent a year studying at the universities of Oslo and Berlin and in Athens.

In 1907 he accepted the position of associate professor of Scandinavian languages and literature at the University of Minnesota. He was appointed head of that department in 1919, a position he held until his 1929 retirement.

He was the author of the History of Luther College, 1897, received the Order of St. Olaf from the King of Norway in 1911 and was appointed to the rank of Commander in 1926, represented the University of Minnesota at the centennial celebrations of Royal Frederick's University, Kristiania, Norway in 1911 and Norway's constitution in 1914, was president of the Norse-American centennial celebration held in St. Paul in 1925, and was a guest of the Norwegian government at the 1928 Henrik Ibsen centenary in Oslo. He was also a member and officer of Lambda Alpha Psi fraternity, Det Norske Selskab of America, the Norwegian National League, the Modern Language Association of America, and the Minnesota Historical Society, and was an honorary member of the Norwegian-Danish Press Association of America.

Bothne married Katherine Elise Brandt on June 27, 1895. The couple had two daughters, Dikka J. and Agnes M.

He died in Minneapolis on December 8, 1934.

Biographical data was taken from the collection; from Who Was Who in America, Vol. I, 1897-1942 (Marquis - Who's Who, Inc., Chicago: 1968), p. 119; and from the St. Paul Dispatch, Dec. 8, 1934, p. 1.

From the guide to the Gisle Bothne papers., 1896-1934., (Minnesota Historical Society)