Mounds National Monument, the Office of the State Archeologist, and to Luther College for curation and use by future scholars.

Dr. Field, a founder and Charter Member of the Iowa Archeological Society in 1950, served as its first Vice-President and later as President. He was named President Emeritus at the Society’s 30th anniversary meeting at McGregor in 1980 at which time he was also presented the Keyes-Orr Award.

An avid local historian and storyteller who addressed both adult groups and schoolchildren, he was a frequent Public Speaker who exuded his interest in northeast Iowa’s settlement period, folklore, and Native American culture, especially the Winnebago tribe frequenting the area. Fascinated by his Norwegian heritage as well as by Scandinavian history and mythology, he cherished his membership in Symra (Norwegian Literary Society). Especially during his later years Dr. Field was noted as a popular volunteer tour guide through the Pioneer cabins of Vesterheim, the Norwegian-American Museum, and at the Porter House Museum where he served on the first Board of Trustees and also as Vice-President of the Board. In 1982 the Winneshiek County Historical Society, of which he was a member, recognized Dr. Field “for being instrumental in the acquisition of Porter House by the Winneshiek County Historical Society and for its development and welfare" since 1966 when Bert Porter deeded his home and its contents to the Society.

Dr. Henry Paul Field Decorah, Iowa

Field was also honored as Chamber of Commerce Man of the Month in 1971 and as a Golden Anniversary member in 1982. He was a member of the Congregational United Church of Christ.

Dr. Field’s literary and historical articles were published in The Iowan, Wallace’s Farmer. The Des Moines Reqister Sunday Book Review, and in the Journal of the Iowa Archeological Society. Literature, Science and History in all its variations (World, American, state, local, Scandinavian and family history) fascinated him. An omnivorous reader, he enjoyed reading to the accompaniment of classical music, often a Strauss waltz.

Iduna and Henry Paul Field Christmas 1966

Following Dr. Field’s death in Decorah on 26 Dec 1987 he was remembered in the Iowa Archeological Society Newsletter of 1988 for his “characteristic droll humor” by Society members who “knew him as a friend and broadly-based scholar” admired for “his candor, directness, and sense of the ridiculous in all of us, including himself."

In addition to his three children, Bert and Anne Field of Newport Beach, CA, John and Mary Field of Glen Ellen, CA, and Elizabeth and James Hogan of Hastings-on-Hudson, NY Dr. field had seven grandchildren, Michael, Jeffrey, and Gregory Field, Catherine Lese Field Schwebel and Genevieve Field, and James John IV and Justin Field Hogan; as of 1995 there were two great-grandchildren, Samantha Field and Austin Field.

Field, Iduna (Bertel)

(Elizabeth Field Hogan)

Iduna Mari Bertel Field was born 19 May 1898 in O'Neill, NE, the daughter of Swedish immigrants, Andrew (24 Apr 1861 near Nora, Orebro, Sweden) and Mathilda Holmstedt Bertel (13 Mar 1867 in Hjo, Sweden). Her father named her for Iduna, the goddess in Norse mythology who was “Keeper of the Apples of Youth.” She had six brothers and sisters, Birger, Alphiid, Svea, Sigurd, Gustaf and Hildur. Iduna was the first graduate of Pillager High School in Pillager, MN where she was raised on a farm.

Iduna Field graduated from the University of Iowa with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1926. She was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and was also awarded First Prize for Poetry in the Iowa Literary Magazine (lowa Scribblers) contest.

She taught English and Journalism at Lincoln High School in Des Moines prior to her marriage to Dr. Henry