Edgar Eklof treasured Swedish music, life

Edgar Eklof of Golden Valley, a choral leader and former college teacher, was once honored by the king of Sweden for his contribution to Swedish-American culture.

Eklof, who led Minneapolis' American Swedish Institute's Male Chorus for 37 years, died Dec. 1 in Minneapolis. The longtime Minneapolis resident was 80.

"He really is an institution within the life of Swedish America, and its relation to the long male choral tradition in Sweden," said William Beyer, a director of the American Swedish Institute.

Beyer is also a male chorus member.

"He's beloved as a friend and a taskmaster by his brethren in the ASI male chorus," said Beyer, adding Eklof had a commanding presence.

"When you met him, he had a warm smile and infectious chuckle," Beyer said.

In 1978, Eklof received the King of Sweden's personal gold medal; in 2000, a gold medal award from the American Union of Swedish Singers; in 2007, a Distinguished Service Award from the Swedish Council of America and in June, he was named Swede of the Year during the Svenskarnas Dag celebration in Minneapolis.

After service as an Army military policeman in Germany, he attended St. Paul's Bethel College, completing a degree in voice at the University of Minnesota about 1950.

Later he earned a master's degree at New York's Manhattan School of Music.

During the 1950s and '60s, he taught college at several schools around the nation, teaching voice and choral music.

He returned to the Twin Cities in 1962, and over the next dozen years taught at Roseville's Northwestern College and Minneapolis' Augsburg College.

Robert Karlen, a retired Augsburg music professor, said Eklof was a fine baritone and sang professionally in operas and musicals. "He was very popular among the students," Karlen said. "He had very high expectations of them." Though officially retired from his post at the American Swedish Institute in May, he last led the male chorus in June.

His former wife, Grace, died in 2001.

His son Albert died in 2004.

He is survived by his daughter, Ann Lindenberg of Maple Grove; two sisters, Ellen Anderson of Trumbull, Conn., and Betty Peterson of New Brighton; two grandchildren and special friend Barbara Palmer of Wayzata.