John Maakestad was returning home from a date late one night in 1950 on the campus of St. Olaf College in Northfield when a girl clumsily twirling on the ice rink caught his eye.

"I fell down. He picked me up," said Bobbie Maakestad, recalling the moment she fell in love with her husband. "I never let go of him and we never slowed down after that."

The St. Olaf art professor, father, husband, outdoor enthusiast and conservationist died of complications from pneumonia April 10 at St. Vincent Hospital in Little Rock, Ark. He was 83.

From helping his wife to her feet, to mentoring his students and guiding fellow adventurers along many of his extreme hiking, biking and cross-country skiing treks throughout the United States, Maakestad became known to those around him as a "reluctant leader."

"People navigated to him because he was a strong leader, but he didn't necessarily like that role," said son Tom of his father's humble yet "magnetic" personality. "I remember he always talked to everyone on the trails. Anyone who traveled with him had to be patient, because he felt it was his responsibility to make sure everyone he encountered was OK."

John Norris Maakestad was born in Whitehall, Wis. He was raised in Rochester, where his father was pastor of Zumbro Lutheran Church. After receiving bachelor's degrees in art and English from St. Olaf, Maakestad married Barbara (Bobbie) Shefveland in 1951. The couple raised four sons on a farm near Nerstrand, Minn.

His love for the land around him inspired Maakestad to put a conservation easement on his 80-acre property to make sure it could never be sold to developers. In a 2002 interview with the Star Tribune, Maakestad said he considered the nearby Nerstrand-Big Woods State Park his "playground" and that he wanted to re-create that same feeling at home. He planted trees on the property ever since.

But Maakestad's most passionate energy went into his work in the art department at St. Olaf College. After serving two years during the Korean War, and earning a master's degree in fine arts from the University of Iowa, he joined the St. Olaf staff in 1956 teaching painting, drawing, design, printmaking and sculpture as well as art history.

Right out of graduate school, Maakestad was mostly a modernist, expressionist landscape painter. His work progressed through the 1960s and changed frequently, from sculpture to silk screening and printmaking, then back to large abstract paintings. His son said he was "restless with his style ... he had a lot of energy and didn't like to do the same thing over and over."

He also exhibited widely in colleges and galleries throughout the Upper Midwest.

After 37 years, including an eight-year stint as chair of the art department, Maakestad retired in 1994. But he never stopped making art or being involved with students. Bobbie Maakestad said until the day he died, he continued to hear from students. That "gave him the most joy," his wife said. "Knowing that something he did enriched their lives."

Joe Shaw, a longtime friend and professor emeritus of religion at St. Olaf, has one of Maakestad's most recent paintings adorning his living room wall. Shaw purchased it at one of Maakestad's final art shows last year.

Shaw will most remember Maakestad for two things: "He taught me to appreciate those things that are easily overlooked," he said. "He was like a walking camera who captured everything around him. And he had an instinctively quiet, natural and unforced way of helping people."

In addition to his wife and Tom, Maakestad is survived by three other sons Erik, Jon and Rolf; a sister, Solveig Beckmen, and five grandchildren.

Services will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday, April 21, at St. John's Lutheran Church in Northfield, with visitation one hour before.

Aimée Blanchette • 612-673-1715