Musser, William

(Bill Musser)

William Merton Musser was the last of 4 children to Willard and llyn (Ingvalson) Musser (fortunately so, since llyn was 48 and Willard was 53 years old at Bill’s birth). He was educated in the Spring Grove Public Schools and was active in a wide variety of school organizations (except athletics)-the Newhouse Norsemen 4-H Club, and the Luther League of Highland Lutheran Church where he was baptized, confirmed and attended Sunday School and worship services with his family. In the summer of 1975, in connection with a Spanish class, he traveled to Mexico City for a ten-day education tour, which whetted his appetite for international travel and interest in foreign cultures. He graduated from Spring Grove High School in 1976. He went on to attend Luther College and received his B.A. magna cum laude with majors in religion and classical studies in 1980. During his college years he participated in a three-week travel seminar in Greece and Israel and did significant independent study in the area of Holocaust and Jewish studies (particularly in connection with his senior research paper for Luther) and in Roman Catholic Church history (while staying for 3 weeks at New Melleray Abbey near Dubuque). After a year of theological study at Luther Seminary in St. Paul he returned to Decorah to work as a tour coordinator for Vesterheim, the Norwegian-American Museum. During the following 5 years—with a nine month hiatus in 1983-84 while he worked as an interim program director at Sugar Creek Bible Camp in Ferryville, Wl—Bill worked for Vesterheim in a variety of capacities, including managing the Museum Gift Shop, editing the Museum newsletter, doing library/archives work and research, functioning as the Development Office assistant, and finally as the Associate Director of Development in 1986.

His work for the Museum had instilled in him an interest in the lives of immigrant and refugee Americans, and a 3-week long visit to war-torn El Salvador in Jan of 1986 acted as a catalyst for him in deciding to leave Vesterheim and take up a position in refugee work that fall. From 1986-1987 Bill was the Director of Northeast Iowa Refugee Coordination Services, Inc., a private non-profit organization with office space located at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church. After a year of refugee work Bill returned to theological study, this time at Wartburg Seminary in Dubuque, with the intention of completing his Master of Arts in religion there. By the end of the school year he had completed all requirements but the M.A. thesis. Meanwhile he became the recipient of a stipend to study theology in Neuendettelsau, Germany at the Augustana Hochschule (theological seminary) for the following year, and in the fall of 1988 traveled to Germany for language training and theological study. During that year he toured the country and visited Switzerland as well. He returned from Europe 3 months before the momentous occasion of the destruction of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Wanting to come back “home" to Decorah he found several part-time jobs in the community to sustain himself. Primary among these were teaching English as a second language to refugees through Northeast Iowa Community College, becoming a partner (co-owner/operator) in Hometown Taxi and supervising work-study students in the evenings at the Luther College library. In addition to his work Bill began playing Scandinavian and old-time music on the bass fiddle (with friends Jon and Beth Hoven Rotto and Jim Skurdall in a band called Foot-Notes), hoping to help carry on the tradition of dancing at the Highlandville schoolhouse which he had enjoyed since his high school days.

William M. Musser

When Bill was hired in a fill time position as a cataloging assistant in the library’s Technical Services department in 1992 he left the cab partnership and his other part-time work. Bill is currently still in the cataloging position at Luther College and playing music with Foot-Notes. He has also resumed teaching English as a Second Language on a part-time basis, and has been doing course work in art and Norwegian at Luther. In May-June 1994 he was able to fulfill a longtime wish to visit Norway and see the land that indirectly influenced much of his life. Given a penchant for things international, he will probably find another place on the globe to visit soon.

Musser, William H. and Emelia (Blegen)

(Bill Musser)

William Henry Musser was born during the middle of the Civil War on a farm in Pleasant Twp on 21 Mar 1863, He was the third child of Michael and Elizabeth (Fye) Musser (see Michael Musser story for further information). Will (as he was called by family and friends) was educated in the Daubney rural school and in his daily life learned the necessary skills of farm work as well as the blacksmith’s art, which became his primary occupation later in life. On 27 Nov 1897, in a ceremony in Pleasant Twp, he married Emelia Blegen (also spelled ’Amelia" on official records; known most often by the nickname “Milla”), born on 20 Sep 1862 to Norwegian immigrants Ole A. and Johanna (Renaas) Blegen (see Ole and