ST. OLAF COLLEGE is pleased to publish this record of significant events to the history of the College as remembered by Miss Gertrud Hilleboe. The author of Manitou Analecta is well qualified to reminisce. After undergraduate days at St. Olaf she later occupied the position of Dean of Women for 43 years. She also served as a teacher of Latin.
Miss Hilleboe’s memory is impressive both in the breadth of college activities it embraces and in the degree of detail with which many events are recalled. Her story also makes no secret of her love for St. Olaf and its ideals. She is one of those whose contribution to the College far, exceeded any normal requirements of the positions she held or responsibilities which were hers.
During the decade preceding the Centennial of the College in 1974 St. Olaf will publish personal histories such as Manitou Analecta. The first was My Years at St. Olaf by Paul G. Schmidt; published in 1967.
March 18, 1968
SIDNEY A. RAND, President
On many occasions both formal and informal during the years I was privileged to serve as Dean of Women at St. Olaf I have been called upon to tell something of the background and early history of St. Olaf and the days when I went to college as well as incidents of later years. Repeatedly I have been requested to put some of these accounts into writing. It is in answer to these “tell me a story” requests that I am recording most informally some of my remembrances and experiences. I make no attempt at any connected historical presentation. But it is my hope that this collection of jottings from Manitou Heights may be of help to some future St. Olaf historian and even in its present limited scope prove a happy reminder to former students of their days at St. Olaf.
Gertrude M. Hilleboe
Manitou Analecta
Chapters:
Introduction and Foreword
Early Contacts
St. Olaf Builders
“Loyal and Faithful“
Student Life
Ytterboe Hall Boarding Club
War Comes to St. Olaf
When the Chapel Burned
Dearest of “Homes on the Circling Heights”
A Dream Come True
Second World War Years
Getting Back to “Normalcy”
Some Distinguished Campus Visitors
“The Play’s the Thing”
‘Once Upon a Time’ Traditions and Other Miscellany
Our College Songs