E. Alan Nordstrom

BIOGRAPHY

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     E. Alan Nordstrom, Jr. joined the faculty of Rollins College in 1970 as an assistant professor of English.  During his time here, Nordstrom has distinguished himself as a notable scholar and helped redefine the goals of a liberal arts education.

     Nordstrom was born on July 17, 1939 in Buffalo, New York.  He attended Yale and went on to teach at the Vermont Academy after the completion of his undergraduate studies in English.  In 1966, Nordstrom earned his Masters in English at the University of Michigan, where he also served as a teaching fellow for two years.  Nordstrom relocated to New York, where he served as assistant professor at Niagara County Community College.  When he joined the Rollins College faculty as assistant professor he was also working towards his Ph. D in English. 

     Over the past forty years, Nordstrom has enriched the minds of students in Shakespeare, English Renaissance Literature, personal and creative writing, and human frontier studies.  He has also maintained an active role outside the classroom, holding memberships in the Shakespeare Association of America, College English Association, National Council for Teachers of English, and the English Modern Language Association.  He has also been involved in the founding of the Fine Arts House, Rollins’ magazine, Brushing and for the Rollins Teaching Learning Center.  For his involvement with such endeavors, Rollins awarded him the Arthur Vining Davis Fellowship.  Additionally, he was honored with the third annual McKean Grant, which allowed him to study Shakespearean stage production with the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-on-Avon, England.  

Nordstrom Discusses Grade School

• "...I got a rather discouraging report card from my fourth grade teacher who said that Alan walks and talks and wastes his time.  And it was true, and fortunately I have been able to make a profession out of it eventually..."
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

• "...When I came down, they invited me to stay at their house and introduced me to several of the faculty and helped me find a place to rent.  It was this personableness I think, on all levels and all aspects of the College.  The comprehensible size of the place – you knew you’d know people and that you’d know them for some time..."

• "...But in the second one, there was a course called Professional Ethics – Marvin Newman taught that and you know, there was a young lady there who was a very strong rival and often beat me..."

• "...It somehow didn’t occur to me until a few years – three or so years after I was here – that yeah, we don’t have a literary magazine, why is that?  And it occurred to a student of mine, Michael Madonick, and we kind of conspired and said let’s start one up..." 
   

• "...It was an intensive tour of mostly Shakespearean drama that was partly situated in Stratford and then moved on in London and we saw every Shakespeare play, and some others.  It was led by Patrick Stewart..."
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

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Nordstrom Discusses his First Impression of Rollins

Nordstrom Discusses the Community of Learners

Nordstrom Discusses the Literary Magazine

Nordstrom Discusses the Shakespeare Festival