obituaries

A love of people's stories drew Norma Weldon Rowe to sociology and a vocation in teaching.

Her own story was one that took her around the world and across the country before she came to the Twin Cities, where she died on New Year's Day at 83.

Although she visited places such as China, Turkey, Cuba, Finland, England, India and Papua New Guinea, she was born to a Port Angeles, Wash., family that preferred to stay put, said her daughter, Julia Rowe, of Chicago.

As a young woman, she followed stories up and down the West Coast as a reporter for Sunset Magazine.

In the early 1960s, she earned a master's degree in anthropology at the University of California-Berkeley. While there, she met Bill Rowe, who shared her love of travel.

They married in 1963. During an extended visit to Yugoslavia, they adopted their daughter from a Belgrade orphanage.

"They had to stay in Belgrade for a number of weeks and convince the local Communist Party officials that they were appropriate parents," said Julia's husband, Josh Radinsky.

The Rowes embarked on a series of field studies in India, and Papua New Guinea.

Among Julia Rowe's first memories, she said, are the grass hut where they lived in Papua New Guinea and the pet pig they received as a gift.

"She just loved being exposed to people who were different from her," Julia Rowe said, "and she just adored having me with her."

In the late '60s, the family returned to the United States, to Durham, N.C., then to Minneapolis, where they adopted Julia's brother, Jim.

Her marriage didn't last, and single parenthood limited the scope of Rowe's travel, but her enthusiasm remained.

Julia Rowe recalls road trips all over the United States.

"She would regale us with stories along the way, about the native people who were there," Julia Rowe said. "She would talk about the land forms and why each region of the U.S. was like it was."

Rowe began the Women's Studies program at Inver Hills Community College in 1972. She moved on to what was then called Minneapolis Community College; she joined the faculty in 1982.

A devotion to social justice dovetailed with a passion for community colleges, her daughter said: "It was not elitist. It was designed to be inclusive and bring people in, and help people actualize continued learning."

Elaine Hauff is a psychology professor and close friend who shared class time and office space and, briefly, living quarters.

"She was really an extraordinary teacher," Hauff said. "Students who had her loved her because she could draw on such a rich background. She had traveled widely and done field work. She could discuss a concept in class in terms of what she personally knew about it. ... [Her experience] just it made it come alive."

She retired in 1997.

She had one last adventure two years ago, when her nephew Michael Emmick took her on a return trip to Papua New Guinea. She was 81 and already ailing when she went.

In addition to her children Julia and Jim, of Minneapolis, Rowe is survived by four grandchildren.

A memorial service will be held at 5:30 p.m. Thursday at Whitney Hall, Minneapolis Community Technical College, 1501 Hennepin Av., Minneapolis.

Maria Elena Baca • 612-673-4409