{"id":641,"date":"2009-07-01T19:34:25","date_gmt":"2009-07-01T19:34:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/?p=641"},"modified":"2017-05-24T13:56:49","modified_gmt":"2017-05-24T13:56:49","slug":"the-personality-of-place-gus-office","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/2009\/07\/01\/the-personality-of-place-gus-office\/","title":{"rendered":"The personality of place &#8211; Gus\u2019 office"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By Stephen Geffre<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-647\" title=\"gus\" src=\"http:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2012\/10\/gus.jpg\" alt=\"Don \u201cGus\u201d Gustafson sits in his office\" width=\"335\" height=\"224\" \/>In summer 1974, history professor Don \u201cGus\u201d Gustafson took a paintbrush and a can of green paint and colored his walls to match his personality. Then the self-proclaimed \u201cpack rat\u201d began to stuff his office with knick-knacks, bric-a-brac, and tchotchkes collected on his travels and received from students.<\/p>\n<p>More than 35 years later, neither Gus\u2019 walls nor the personality of this sandal-clad, longest-tenured professor at Augsburg have faded.<\/p>\n<p><strong><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-643 size-full\" title=\"chair\" src=\"http:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2012\/10\/chair.jpg\" alt=\"Close-up photo of wolf skin\" width=\"94\" height=\"140\" \/>Rocking chair<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Purchased for $5 at an estate sale in 1966, his large rocking chair has been a constant companion in Gus\u2019 office. The wolf skin that now covers the chair was bought at a little antique shop in Jordan, Minn. It was added to his office after the cats on his farm outside of St. Peter scratched on it one-too-many times.<\/p>\n<p><strong><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-644 size-full\" title=\"che\" src=\"http:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2012\/10\/che.jpg\" alt=\"Che artwork\" width=\"114\" height=\"140\" \/>Che Guevara<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The photo of a mural located near the Plaza de la Revoluci\u00f3n in Havana came from Steven Grande \u201903, and the Che finger puppet came from Libby Merrill \u201905. Che is a major figure in Gus\u2019 history seminar course.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-645 size-full\" title=\"clock\" src=\"http:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2012\/10\/clock.jpg\" alt=\"Clock from China\" width=\"140\" height=\"87\" \/>China clock<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Given to him by Paul Cumings \u201906, the clock actually does not work. But tiny murals of Mao and the masses holding their little red books are too cool to not display.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Xi\u2019an terra cotta warriors<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Picked up on the street near Xi\u2019an, China. Upon closer inspection one knows why they were sold on the street\u2014 they\u2019re broken.<\/p>\n<p><strong><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-648 size-full\" title=\"maiden\" src=\"http:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2012\/10\/maiden.jpg\" alt=\"Statue from Athens\" width=\"83\" height=\"140\" \/>Burned maiden<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A kitschy little statue bought in the early \u201970s in Athens, Ga., at a strange souvenir shop that had suffered a major fire. Gus says she\u2019s one hot lady.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Gus ginger ale<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A gift from his wife, Bev, to add to Gus\u2019 \u201cthings with my name on it\u201d collection. Not seen in this photo is a stack of \u201cGus\u201d books.<\/p>\n<p><strong><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-642 size-full\" title=\"africanicon\" src=\"http:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2012\/10\/africanicon.jpg\" alt=\"African icon of womanhood\" width=\"56\" height=\"140\" \/>African sculpture<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A traditional African icon of womanhood. Gus keeps it because his master\u2019s thesis was on Africa.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Tiger beer<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Brought back from Singapore by Sudy Rao \u201997. He and Bev collect tiger things.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Climber of the Great Wall<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>An \u201cofficial\u201d certificate, proving that Gus climbed the Great Wall of China. Alas, the \u201cWitnessed by\u201d line is blank.<\/p>\n<p><strong><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-646 size-full\" title=\"group\" src=\"http:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2012\/10\/group.jpg\" alt=\"Group photo taken in India\" width=\"198\" height=\"140\" \/>Group photo<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Photographs of the last group of students Gus took to India in 1991. One side shows the day they arrived in India, and the other side was taken after three months\u2019 exploration of Indian culture. After some quick tabulating, Gus figures he\u2019s visited more than 50 countries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Stephen Geffre In summer 1974, history professor Don \u201cGus\u201d Gustafson took a paintbrush and a can of green paint and colored his walls to match his personality. Then the self-proclaimed \u201cpack rat\u201d began to stuff his office with knick-knacks, bric-a-brac, and tchotchkes collected on his travels and received from students. More than 35 years <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[40],"class_list":["post-641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured-stories","tag-summer-2009"],"wps_subtitle":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=641"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7848,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641\/revisions\/7848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}