SR0562 101ST GENERAL ASSEMBLY

SR0562 LRB101 13097 ALS 61933 r

SENATE RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois Senate are saddened to learn of the death of Winton Udell Solberg, who passed away on July 10, 2019; and

WHEREAS, Winton Solberg was born on a farm near Aberdeen, South Dakota to Ole A. and Bertha G. Tschappat Solberg on January 11, 1922; he completed public school in Aberdeen, South Dakota in 1939; he graduated from the University of South Dakota magna cum laude with a degree in history and political science in 1943; he married Constance "Connie" Walton in New York City on November 8, 1952; and

WHEREAS, Winton Solberg was inducted into the United States Army and sent to Officers' Candidate School at Fort Benning, Georgia; he was commissioned a second lieutenant on May 27, 1943 and trained troops for over a year; on September 10, 1944, he sailed for Europe, arriving in England a week later; he landed on Omaha Beach on September 20, 1944 and joined the 115th Infantry Regiment of the 29th Infantry Division near the battlefront at Aachen, Germany; an officer in a heavy weapons platoon, he was on the northern flank of the Allied Expeditionary Forces, and his unit fought in the Battle of the Bulge, after which it advanced to the Elbe River; after the European War ended, he served more than a year in Germany in the Army of Occupation; and

WHEREAS, Winton Solberg was called back to the Army during the Korean War, serving as an instructor at West Point's U.S. Military Academy; he continued his military service by lecturing at the Army Command General Staff School and the Army War College, as well as through summer duties as a Reserve Officer; he retired from the Army as a lieutenant colonel in 1982; and

WHEREAS, Winton Solberg earned both a master's degree and a doctorate in American history from Harvard University; he taught history at Yale University from 1954 until 1958, then at Macalaster College in St. Paul, Minnesota; he joined the history department of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1961; during his academic career, he taught American history around the world, including as a Fulbright professor in Bologna, Italy, at Moscow State University in the USSR, and at the University of Calcutta, India; he held professorships at Konan University in Kobe, Japan, at Loyola University in Madras, India, and at St. Stephen's in Delhi, India; the University of South Dakota conferred an honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters upon him in 1987; the University of Illinois awarded him its highest campus honor, the Chancellor's Medallion, in 2017; he retired from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1991; and

WHEREAS, During his career, Winton Solberg played an active role in the governance of higher education, serving as chairman of the history department, a member of the Senate on the Urbana campus, secretary of the University Senates' Conference in the 1970s, president of the Urbana chapter of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), a member of the Committee on Academic Freedom and Tenure of the AAUP, and vice president of the AAUP; and

WHEREAS, Winton Solberg's expertise was American intellectual and cultural history; he received several awards for excellence in teaching and kept in touch with many former students; his books and articles covered various topics in American thought and culture over the nation's history, including the formation of the American constitution, the Puritan Sabbath in early America, scientific knowledge in early America, and the history of U.S. higher education; he wrote two volumes on the history of the University of Illinois from its beginning to 1904, a book on Illinois' College of Medicine from 1880 to 1920, and a volume on the Big Ten athletic conference from 1985 to 1945; his book Arctic Mirage: The 1913-1920 Expedition in Search of Crocker Land is in press at MacFarland Publishers; the last volume in his series on the history of the University of Illinois is in preparation for the U of I Press, thanks to the help of his friend, colleague, and early graduate student, David Hoeveler; he was writing and researching until his last years and had occupied a study for over 50 years in the University of Illinois main library, where he worked assiduously, many days a week, until he was 96; and

WHEREAS, Winton Solberg was preceded in death by his wife, Connie; his parents; and his brothers, Elmo and Lincoln; and

WHEREAS, Winton Solberg is survived by his children, Gail (Giulio Nicita), Andrew (Yasemin Ciftci), and Kristin (David Seyler); and his grandchildren, Suzanne, Tarkan, Matthew, and Benjamin Solberg, Giulia and Marta Nicita, and John and Stuart Seyler; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE ONE HUNDRED FIRST GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we mourn the passing of Winton Udell Solberg and extend our sincere condolences to his family, friends, and all who knew and loved him; and be it further

RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be presented to the family of Winton Solberg as an expression of our deepest sympathy.