Norman Clifford Stageberg was born April 7, 1905, at Owatonna, Minnesota. He received a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Minnesota in 1926, a Master of Arts degree from the University of Iowa in 1932, and a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin in 1946. Before coming to UNI, Stageberg was a teacher at Valley Springs, Minnesota, from 1926-1929, and served as head of the English department at Faribault, Minnesota High School from 1929-1939. From 1942-1946 he served in the U.S. Army. He again served in the military from 1951-1953 with the Air Force as an instructor at Air University and the University of Alabama. Norman Stageberg joined the UNI faculty in 1946 as Assistant Professor of English. He retired in 1972 with the rank of professor, which he achieved in 1960. He was a highly respected scholar with expertise in languages, linguistics, ambiguity, and meaning. Stageberg was most noted at UNI for creating a pioneering program in TEFL, Teaching of English as a Foreign language, in the 1960s. Stageberg married first, in 1937, Alma, who died in 1975; then second, in 1975, Elaine McDavitt, a UNI faculty member, who died in 1979; and third, June Suzuki Talbott, a member of the UNI library staff. Stageberg died on March 18, 1984. Under the terms of his will, he donated his professional linguistics collection to the UNI library. That collection remains intact in the Rod Library Special Collections division. June Stageberg provided funds in Professor Stageberg's memory to furnish the Special Collections reading room. That gift was commemorated with a ceremony in Special Collections on April 18, 1997.
Archives Record Series: 14/03/14 Norman C. Stageberg Papers