Background and Career
Naeseth was born in Valley City, North Dakota in 1913, the son of a Lutheran clergyman. As a young boy, he sought to follow in his father's footsteps, but an uncle recognized early on that Naeseth had more of the traits of a librarian. The uncle turned out to be right and Naeseth eventually received degrees in history and library science. He worked as a professional librarian for three universities before retiring from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1978, where he had been associate director.
Naeseth is most well known for his magnum opus, Norwegian Immigrants to the United States: A Biographical Directory. For this work, Naeseth was awarded the Knight’s Cross, First Class, Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav in 1978. The Norwegian-American Genealogical Center & Naeseth Library in Madison, Wisconsin is named in his honor. Naeseth was also the director and chief researcher of the Vesterheim Genealogical Center from 1974 to 1994, and after his death the research chair was named in his honor. Naeseth served as associate director of the libraries of the University of Wisconsin–Madison from 1948 to 1978. He was also chairman of the Church Council of the American Lutheran Church.
Read more about this topic: Gerhard Brandt Naeseth
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