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WHO AM I? My name is Charles Nielsen but that does not tell you much. Some people call me Charles. Some call me Mr. Nielsen. Some call me Professor. Some call me Doctor. All of those are okay, but leave much unsaid.
I was born on the Nielsen farm nine miles north of Arlington and one mile west in 1932. My parents were born in the United States but their parents had emigrated before 1900 from Denmark. I tell the Red Cross when I donate blood, which I have done about 100 times, with a sense of humor I say "I am a full-blooded Dane."
I had five older siblings. We all attended the country Church of God which was on highway 81 nine miles north of Arlington, and attended Quinn country school, which was one mile west of highway 81 on Badger Road.
Both were very positive experiences for me and I am so thankful for the positive influence the friends at church and at school had on my life, and the lives of my siblings.
In 1946 I finished grade school and started attending Arlington High School, riding the school bus with my brother who was three years older than me. I liked nearly everything about Arlington High School. The classes were interesting. The teachers were kind and supportive. The chance to sing in the choir was good. There were about 38 guys and gals in my class, the only one I knew the first day was the one girl who had been with me in grade school for eight years.
I was serious about the courses I took but could not get into sports or after school activities because I rode the school bus and had to get on that 30 minutes after the end of the school day.
My second year in high school my class mates chose me to be class president. I never have known why they did that but it did give me chance to collaborate with other decisions made by the other class presidents and the administration. I continued to enjoy the variety of courses from math, to science, to history, to shop, and singing in the choir. By my junior year I found out I was a fast runner so I did go out for track in the spring and got a few medals for running the short distances.
In the fall of my senior year, 1949, the school assembly gathered with students from all four classes. It was the day to choose a Student Body President. Nominations were made from the floor. My memory is vague but I think two of my classmates were nominated and then a fellow senior nominated me, Charles Nielsen. I was very surprised. I was even more surprised when the votes were counted and I was the new Student Body President. Fortunately I was not riding the school bus that year. My younger brother was a freshman so I drove the family car, a 1940 Chevy.
That got us to school in time for my brother to be in the high school band, and gave me the opportunity to be on the football team in the fall and the track team in the spring off 1950.
So, I graduated in the spring of 1950. Though three of my older siblings had gone to college I never felt much pressure to head that direction, but did decide to enroll in a business college in Sioux Falls. My oldest brother lived there and was a successful insurance sales person. In June of 1950 the USA got involved in the Korean War. Thinking I would soon be drafted I cancelled college plans and stayed home to help Dad on the farm. I knew I did not want to be a farmer, but enjoyed working with Dad in the fall and winter of 1950-51.
By that time our family was attending church in Brookings, where the preaching, the music, the youth activities, the girls were very attractive. In the fall I had my first date with the 15 year old girl who in 1953 became my wife, and still is. The pastor at church suggested I enroll in Anderson College in Anderson, Indiana, where he had attended in the 1930s. With that encouragement I did apply and was accepted. So in the fall of 1951 I started college at Anderson College.
What a change from being a farm kid and attending Arlington High School! I was living in the men's dorm, eating in the cafeteria, taking courses in English, Bible, Zoology, and Spanish. I was surrounded by hundreds of students from all over the United States, and a few from foreign countries.
By my sophomore year I had decided I would major in the social sciences, mainly sociology. I was serious about my study. I had to earn income so I secured a 40 hour a week job in Delco-Remy Division in General Motors, which had a factory a few miles away, working the 4 to midnight shift.
Our marriage was in July of 1953. In June of 1955 I graduated with a B.A. degree and enrolled in the Anderson School of Theology, thinking I would like to be on staff at a church. I completed that three year program in 1958, with honors.
Shortly before graduating one of my professors said I should consider becoming a college professor. I laughed as I walked away, but two years latter I accepted a contract to be an Instructor at South Dakota State College in Brookings. From 1958 to 1960 I was a staff person at a church in St. Joe, Michigan, with responsibilities in music, youth, and Christian education. That had gone well but my wife and I really wanted to get back to the area closer to what we considered home.
My contract at SDSC for 1960-61 was to teach occasional courses in Religion and help with the research program in the Economics Department.
That focus was on Business Ethics and was directed by Professor Phillip VanVlack. I decided I would takes courses to get an M.S. degree in Sociology and also courses which could lead to becoming a high school teacher.
I really enjoyed the variety of courses I taught, the courses I took, and enjoyed being a faculty member. Being a faculty member was a thrill and the courses I took convinced me I wanted to be a generalist, not becoming a specialist in one specific field within sociology.
I knew that in 1963 I would finish my M.S. degree so I explored other jobs and took a faculty position at Dickinson State College in Dickinson, North Dakota. I was an Associate Professor teaching courses in sociology and business/economics. I really enjoyed being a generalist and at that college with only about 900 students most faculty could not concentrate on one small subject, such at ethnic relations or geography.
In 1966 I was offered a faculty position at Warner Pacific College in Portland, Oregon. One of my seminary professors was now the President of Warner Pacific College and he really wanted me for a full-time faculty position in the Social Science Department. My wife and I had four children by that time, and new other family members who liked living in Oregon, so we decided I would sign the contract to teach at WPC. In August of 1966 we arrived in Portland, ready to get acquainted with a new city, a new college, and ready for being a professor in a large urban area, with students from around the world, but mainly from the west coast.
It was obvious to me that I enjoyed being a generalist, not a specialist in one small academic area. My students needed a wide variety of courses and we faculty provided that. I not only taught at Warner Pacific, but had the opportunity to occasionally teach elsewhere. For example, the Oregon State Correctional Institution asked me to teach so I got acquainted with inmates there who were young when they got sent to prison, none for first degree murder. It was a pleasure to do this.
While teaching at Warner Pacific College for the 30 years before I retired I had many students who had criminal background, but they were leaving that behind. Many of my students persuaded careers in social services, law, education, etc.
In Portland I decided not to become a therapist or counselor, but to become community organizer. In 1981 I helped put together Operation Nightwatch Portland, which is still growing. The emphasis is on responding to the needs of street people who are homeless and in need of a place to come in the evening for safety, food, and perhaps a pair of socks. I also served on the Public Policy Committee of Ecumenical Ministries of Portland, focused on improving the legislation being chosen at our State Legislature. I also served on the Board on North Portland YMCA.
I also went overseas to study and encourage. My wife and I went to Costa Rica to study what that society was like. We had church friends there who put us in touch with not only what the church is doing, but what other agencies are doing. For example we learned a little about their government, their health care system, their criminal justice systems (why they have armed guards at the entrance to a bank).
I went for one week with Mercy Corp International to the Philippines to observe what they do there in agriculture and to consider what changes could improve Mercy Corps. My wife and I went to Kazakhstan to teach at Kazak American Free University to help students their improve their use of English, to understand social systems, to think about ethics in life, and to prepare for possible changes in their lives now that Kazakhstan was no longer dominated by the Soviet Union.
We also attended an international church conference in Frankfort to understand what churches do in different places. From there rented an auto and visited ancestry places in Denmark.
On three occasions I took additional graduate study. Spent six weeks at Nebraska State University in courses in economics. Spent two weeks one summer at University of Southern California in courses on aging. And, occasionally took sociology courses locally at Portland State University.
There was no local way to complete a doctoral program. The expense of going elsewhere was out of range. Plus, I already had more college credits then most faculty with doctorates, and I had written two theses. I was under no local pressure to get a Ph. D. However, fourteen years after I retired from my teaching career the Warner Pacific College faculty and Board of Trustees honored me with a Doctor of Humane Letters.
I still correspond with former students living various places, for example, the Congo, Tunisia, Egypt, Kazakhstan, and Mexico.
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