Most professors find keeping up with the demands of their job hard enough.
But Marion Nelson, a former chair of the art history department and professor emeritus who died of pancreatic cancer at his home on Sept. 6, loved his area of study enough to hold another full-time job in the arts outside of academics. Nelson was 76. Nelson was the director of Vesterheim, a museum of Norwegian-American art in Decorah, Iowa, for 27 years. His speciality was the Scandinavian immigrant art heritage of the United States, especially Norwegian folk art and handmade crafts. He was, in fact, recognized as the national authority in this area.