Karl Lindholm

Emeritus Dean of Advising and Assistant Professor of American Studies

I returned to my alma mater in 1976 after teaching and coaching in secondary schools for eight years in Maine and Ohio. The same year I became Dean Lindholm at Middlebury my dad stopped being Dean Lindholm at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine, after 32 years: the Admissions Office at Bates is the “Lindholm House.” I was thus raised in Lewiston, attending public schools there before coming to Middlebury as a student, where I majored in English and enjoyed the extra-curriculum (playing on the basketball and baseball teams, writing for the Campus newspaper, taking on responsibilities in residential life as a Junior Fellow and House Director).

I worked alongside legendary Dean of Students Erica Wonnacott for twelve years and succeeded her when she retired in 1988. When the Commons System was introduced in 1991, my wife (Brett Millier, the Reginald Cook Professor of American Literature) and I were the first Faculty Heads of Atwater Commons, a position we held until 1999. Though it all happened quite by accident, I served as a Faculty Head (Atwater, Ross, and Brainerd) or Dean (Cook and Wonnacott) of all five residential Commons at Middlebury. For 19 years, I was the Study Abroad Adviser, handling the administration of all Middlebury students not attending Middlebury language schools abroad.

I earned my B.A. in English from Middlebury (1967) and my Ph.D in American Studies in American Studies from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. I have taught a variety of courses in the American Studies Program at Middlebury, including courses each fall that were designated College Writing Courses. I offer two courses on baseball in the American Studies curriculum, “Baseball, Literature, and American Culture,” and “Segregation in America: Baseball’s ‘Negro leagues.’” My course on the Vietnam War “Telling a True War Story: Vietnam” invites my Middlebury schoolmates who served in Vietnam to tell their stories and assist in the class. “Roads Less Traveled: the Literature and Culture of Northern New England,” is essentially an examination of the Yankee archetype. “Innocents Abroad: Americans and Cross-Cultural Conflict,” has been offered on a number of occasions as a First-Year Seminar.” I taught for 20 years in the Pre-Enrollment Program, a summer enrichment program for entering first-year students.

At present, I am completing a biography of William Clarence Matthews, an early black baseball pioneer and political figure. I have finished a memoir of my teen-age years in Maine as a golf caddy, “Caddy Camp: Of Boys, Men, Gold, and War,” that I hope to see in print this year. I also write a sports column for the local Middlebury newspaper, the Addison County Independent.

I have four wonderful children: Jane (Host of “Vermont Edition” on Vermont Public Radio), David (graduate student and soccer coach), Peter, (a junior at Middlebury College), and Annie (on a “gap year” before college, studying and traveling in Africa and Spain).

Brett, Peter, Annie and I spent the academic year, 2013-14, in Cameroon, West Africa, where Brett has a Fulbright Fellowship and taught at the national university. Peter and Annie attended the American School of Yaounde (ASOY), and I taught two literature courses there.

As an athlete as a young man, a coach, fan, and scholar of sports, I have often focused my writing on sports and its value to individuals and communities, and its impact generally on American culture. Much of the content on this website reflects my interest in sports and society.

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