Zenith City: Stories from Duluth

Acknowledgments

it is not possible, I think, to write a book like Zenith City without acknowledging those who contributed anecdotes or information included in the text or whose emotional buttressing sustained the author through the process of completing the manuscript. I am especially indebted to those Duluthians whose presence both enriched my life and gave birth to the stories in this book. They could not have known that their mere presence, shenanigans, foibles, or friendship of thirty or forty or fifty years ago would one day surface in a book written by their old neighborhood or school chum. Beyond my immediate family, from my boyhood gang there’s Dick and the late Bruce Hassinger, Dick Graver, Larry Greenberg, and the late Dick and Dennis Gappa, Rodger Rowe, Jerry Sorenson— the kids I encountered almost daily. The neighborhood wasn’t void of girls, but we paid them scant prepubescent heed. Much of my early life was influenced by the sports teams on which I played. While not recognizing it at the time, the teams and our games insinuated themselves into my subconscious, reemerging decades later in yarns often long-forgotten by my buddies. I am indebted to those old teammates, as I am to lifelong friends developed in the Duluth Central High School class of : Ron Raver, Dave Baker, Ralph Golberg, Paul Wicklund, Bill Swiler, Frank Tomars, Norm Gill, Al Merry, the late Peter Patronas, and the late Ray Karkkainen . There were college pals, too—Bill Gilchrist, Harold Segal, and I also encountered Dan Kossoff, my folk-singing partner, at the University of Minnesota–Duluth, who, with his wife Dinah, graciously hosted me in their Jacksonville, Florida, home during my treatment for prostate cancer. An added plus in our five-decade friendship, Dan likes my stories. acknowledgments 173 174 | Acknowledgments I remain deeply indebted to my wife, Judith, a tireless first reader, editor par excellence, and best friend, and brothers David and Stephen, who read and critiqued much of the manuscript. Over nearly four decades, I’ve run numerous stories and quips by my Mississippi and Rum River fishing partner, Jack Bibee. His positive responses encouraged the development of several of these essays. Fellow author Bob Lacy read and critiqued the entire manuscript during our weekly sessions at our favorite Caribou Coffee establishment . Phyllis Goldin and Wanda Brown have provided encouragement and friendship since our shared residencies at the Anderson Center for Disciplinary Studies in Red Wing, Minnesota, in the late s. Barry Schreiber and Barbara Rudquist offered continual support , and Barry, professor of criminal justice at St. Cloud State University , has had me address his classes on the Duluth lynchings for more than ten years. Thanks also to Kristian Tvedten, who prepared the manuscript, and to Todd Orjala, former editor of the University of Minnesota Press, who suggested concentrating on my Duluth hometown in this collection. ...