Robert Esbjornson
The Edgar M. Carlson Award for Innovative Teaching was established by the Board of Trustees of Gustavus Adolphus College to honor Dr. Edgar Carlson for his years of distinguished leader ship as president and in recognition of his commitment to academic excellence. Each year, as a result of a nomination process involving faculty, students, and administrators, the award, in the amount of $1,500, is presented to a member of the Gustavus faculty in recognition of effective and innovative teaching.
The recipient of this year’s award is Professor Robert Esbjornson of the Department of Religion.
Professor Esbjornson has been a member of the faculty since 1950, and has been a creative and innovative teacher during his entire tenure as a member of the Department of Religion. His courses, though solid in conformity with their catalog descriptions, never remain static. Lecture notes that have yellowed with age may be found in his files but never in his briefcase. There is always a fresh approach, a relevant application, a timely treatment. His special interest is ethics and ranges from particular attention to the professions and vocations to the wider concerns of the environment. Though he regards his classroom as his primary arena, his concerns extend to students wherever they are and for years after they have left this place.
One of his colleagues describes Bob in the following words, “…no other person – teacher, administrator, student, or staff – has so consistently urged renewal, rethinking, reform, all in the spirit of rejoicing. He brings to his colleagues and … to his classes an air of excitement.”
Another of his co-workers says, “Everything I have heard about Robert Esbjornson’s classroom instruction leads me to conclude that he is challenging, thoughtful, dynamic, sympathetic, and, above all, imaginative in his approach to his students and his subject matter. These are the qualities that make an innovative teacher.”
One does not speak of you, Bob, as a person, without including your lovely wife, Ruth. Together, in a very special and important way, you represent what this college tries to say and what it tries to be. A good friend of yours, in words better than mine, says this about both of you. “They bring a sense of concern for everyone and everything. If they ever knew how to be hostile, they have forgotten how to use that knowledge. It isn’t that they can’t and don’t make hard decisions – they can and do -but they always ‘speak the truth in love’.”
Bob, I think you know what I mean when I say that I am so pleased to be the one who, in behalf of your students and your colleagues, is privileged to present you with the Edgar M. Carlson Award for 1979.
Presented by Kyle Montague
Professor of Economics and Business
1978 Recipient of the Edgar M. Carlson Award