Hofsommer, Don L. 1938- (Donovan Lowell Hofsommer)

PERSONAL:

Born April 10, 1938, in Fort Dodge, IA; son of Vernie G. and Helma J. Hofsommer; married Sandra L. Rusch (a professor), June 13, 1964; children: Kathryn Anne, Kristine Beret, Knute Lars. Education: University of Northern Iowa, B.A., 1960, M.A., 1966; Oklahoma State University, Ph.D., 1973. Religion: Presbyterian.

ADDRESSES:

Home—St. Cloud, MN. Office—Department of History, St. Cloud University, St. Cloud, MN 56301.

CAREER:

High school history teacher in Fairfield, IA, 1961-65; Lea College, Albert Lea, MN, instructor in history, 1966-70; Wayland College, Plainview, TX, associate professor of history and head of department, 1973-81; Southern Pacific Transportation Co., San Francisco, CA, special representative and historian, 1981-85; Burlington Northern, Inc., Seattle, WA, historical consultant, 1985-87; guest professor in history, University of Montana, 1986-87; Augustana College, Center for Western Studies, Sioux Falls, SD, executive director, 1987-89; St. Cloud State University, St. Cloud, MN, professor of history and director of department, 1989—. Military service: Iowa National Guard, 1960-66.

MEMBER:

Organization of American Historians, Western History Association, Railway and Locomotive Historical Association, National Railway Historical Association, Lexington Group, State Historical Society of Iowa, Texas Historical Society, Phi Alpha Theta, Phi Delta Kappa.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Award from American Association for State and Local History, 1976, for Prairie Oasis; Muriel H. Wright Heritage Endowment Award, Oklahoma Historical Society, 1979; Railroad History Award, book category, Railway and Locomotive Historical Society, for The Southern Pacific, 1901-1985, 1988; excellence in teaching award, St. Cloud State University, 1992; Award of Merit, American Association for State and Local History, for Steel Trails of Hawkeyeland: Iowa's Railroad Experience, 2006.

WRITINGS:

Prairie Oasis: The Railroads, Steamboats, and Resorts of Iowa's Spirit Lake Country, Waukon & Mississippi Press (Des Moines, IA), 1975.

(Compiler) Railroads of the Trans-Mississippi West: A Selected Bibliography of Books, Llano Estacado Museum (Plainview, TX), 1976.

Katy Northwest: The Story of a Branch Line Railroad, Pruett (Boulder, CO), 1976.

(Editor) Railroads in Oklahoma, Oklahoma Historical Society (Oklahoma City, OK), 1977.

(Editor) Railroads in the West, Sunflower University Press (Manhattan, KS), 1978.

The Southern Pacific, 1901-1985, Texas A & M University Press (College Station, TX), 1986.

(With R.W. Hidy, M.E. Hidy, and R.V. Scott) The Great Northern Railway: A History, Harvard Business School (Boston, MA), 1988.

The Quanah Route: A History of the Quanah, Acme & Pacific Railway, Texas A& M University Press (College Station, TX), 1991.

(With H. Roger Grant and Osmund Overby) St. Louis Union Station: A Place for People, a Place for Trains, St. Louis Mercantile Library Assoc. (St. Louis, MO), 1994.

Grand Trunk Corporation: Canadian National Railways in the United States, 1971-1992, Michigan State University Press (East Lansing, MI), 1995.

The Tootin' Louie: A History of the Minneapolis & St. Louis Railway, University of Minnesota Press (Minneapolis, MN), 2004.

Minneapolis and the Age of Railways, University of Minnesota Press (Minneapolis, MN), 2005.

The Hook and Eye: A History of the Iowa Central Railway, University of Minnesota Press (Minneapolis, MN), 2005.

Steel Trails of Hawkeyeland: Iowa's Railroad Experience, Indiana University Press (Bloomington, IN), 2005.

Also author of the foreword for the book Rails to the North Star: A Minnesota Railroad Atlas, by Richard S. Prosser, University of Minnesota Press (Minneapolis, MN), 2007. Contributor of more than thirty articles to history and transportation journals and to newspapers. Editor of Lexington Newsletter; member of editorial board of Railroad History.

SIDELIGHTS:

Don L. Hofsommer is an Iowa-born writer and educator who has a fascination for the railroads of the United States. The author of numerous books on the old railroad lines, he has done extensive research on the history of the railroads, both in the United States and Canada. In The Quanah Route: A History of the Quanah, Acme & Pacific Railway, Hofsommer offers readers a history of one of the shortline railroads, a line in Texas that ran a mere 118 miles. Like many small roads, the shortline began with the intention of eventually meeting with a major depot, but needs or financing stopped it short and it remained in use only for local travelers or shipments. H. Roger Grant, in a review for Business History Review, remarked: "Hofsommer does a splendid job of discussing labor relations and overall train operations. He indicates both the strengths and the weaknesses of a paternalistic management that followed a hands-on philosophy."

The Southern Pacific, 1901-1985, features a larger, more important railroad line. Hofsommer details the history of the line from the attempted merger of the Southern and Union Pacific lines in 1900 to the mid-1980s, when the Southern Pacific succumbed to bankruptcy. Stephen Salsbury, writing for Business History Review, called The Southern Pacific, 1901-1985, "a model work," and added that "the book is probably the most lavish and beautiful volume ever issued by a university press."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Historical Review, February 1, 1988, Benjamin Franklin, review of The Southern Pacific, 1901-1985, p. 243.

Annals of Iowa, winter, 2006, Rebecca Conard, review of Steel Trails of Hawkeyeland: Iowa's Railroad Experience, pp. 77-80.

Business History Review, September 22, 1987, Stephen Salsbury, review of The Southern Pacific, 1901-1985, p. 495; September 22, 1988, H. Roger Grant, review of The Great Northern Railway: A History, p. 529; summer 1991, H. Roger Grant, review of The Quanah Route: A History of the Quanah, Acme and Pacific Railway, p. 426.

Enterprise & Society: The International Journal of Business History, September, 2006, Albert Churella, reviews of The Tootin' Louie: A History of the Minneapolis & St. Louis Railway, Steel Trails of Hawkeyeland, and Minneapolis and the Age of Railways, pp. 581-591.

Journal of American History, June 1, 1989, Daniel E. Turbeville, review of The Great Northern Railway, p. 263.

Journal of the West, January 1, 1989, Ross R. Cotroneo, review of The Great Northern Railway, p. 122; January 1, 1993, Keith L. Bryant, review of The Quanah Route, p. 90.

Library Journal, May 1, 1986, Paul B. Cors, review of The Southern Pacific, 1901-1985, p. 117.

Minnesota History, summer, 2006, Carlos Schwantes, review of Minneapolis and the Age of Railways, p. 81.

Model Railroader, October 1, 1991, George Drury, review of The Quanah Route, p. 36.

Pacific Historical Review, November 1, 1987, Ward McAffe, review of The Southern Pacific, 1901-1985, p. 578; November 1, 1990, W. Thomas White, review of The Great Northern Railway, p. 565.

Reference & Research Book News, December 1, 1996, review of Grand Trunk Corporation: Canadian National Railways in the United States, 1971-1992, p. 71; August 1, 2006, reviews of Minneapolis and the Age of Railways and The Hook and Eye: A History of the Iowa Central Railway.

SciTech Book News, June 1, 2005, review of The Tootin' Louie, p. 8.

Southwestern Historical Quarterly, July 1, 1993, Robert J. Macdonald, review of The Quanah Route, p. 174.

Technology and Culture, April 1, 1988, John F. Stover, review of The Southern Pacific, 1901-1985, p. 310; October 1, 1989, James A. Ward, review of The Great Northern Railway, p. 1057.

Trains Magazine, July 1, 1991, George H. Drury, review of The Quanah Route, p. 68; October 1, 1996, Kevin P. Keefe, review of Grand Trunk Corporation, p. 81.

Western Historical Quarterly, May 1, 1992, review of The Quanah Route, p. 258.