Born in 1892 in Indianapolis, NATHANIEL BEACH DEXTER was the son of Frank and Emily Dexter and is best known as a Northland College faculty member and Ashland community leader. The family moved to Ashland, Wisconsin, in 1910, after Frank Dexter became Home Missionary for the Northern Wisconsin Congregational churches. Nathaniel Dexter attended Northland College, Ripon College, and the University of Wisconsin, from which he received a master's degree in English, and later studied at the University of Chicago. He taught for one year at Jamestown College, Jamestown, North Dakota, and held a pastorate at Marmath, North Dakota, near the Montana and South Dakota borders. During World War I, Dexter did YMCA work with the Navy. After contracting spinal meningitis, he was unable to work for two years. He spent part of the recuperation period on the Dexter farm at Seeley, Wisconsin, where he developed the interest in farming and the community which motivated much of his later work in community development.
In 1921, Dexter returned to work, first as business manager for Northland College, and then as its publications editor. He also became a member of its English Department. In 1928, he married his colleague, Harriet Harmon.
When Northland, a Congregational Church-affiliated four-year college, faced severe financial difficulties after the 1929 stock market crash, Dexter began to develop a student self-help program which employed students in food production as well as in craft shop production for the local and regional giftware trade. A copper and wood workshop began in 1930 and the college printshop became part of the program. With Northland's need for economic austerity in mind, Dexter resigned in 1933, leaving the program in charge of a student foreman. The Dexters moved to Chicago with their two recently adopted children, Beatrice and Raymond. Nathaniel Dexter earned a master's degree at the University of Chicago, and then served as an educational advisor at two Illinois Civilian Conservation Corps camps.
In 1942, the Dexter family returned to Ashland. Nathaniel returned to Northland College, where he continued to work out his ideas about community development through handcrafts and small businesses. He began a pottery workshop at the college to promote the use of native clays. In 1950, he became involved in regional community development efforts through a University Extension five-county conference. During 1956-1959, he implemented a community development program partially funded through the federal Board of Fundamental Education. The project extended Northland's industrial and arts departments with Dexter in charge of the fieldwork to bring about regional economic growth through small business development.
After his retirement in 1961, Dexter began an official history of Northland College. The project was interrupted when the Dexters accepted a one-year appointment at Haigazian College in Beirut, Lebanon, but resumed after their return. The History of Northland College was published in 1968.
Nathaniel Dexter died on October 2, 1973 after a long illness.
HARRIET HARMON DEXTER, educator and civic leader, born December 21, 1897 in St. Paul, also came of a family long active in the Congregational Church ministry. She graduated from high school in Cable, Wisconsin, where her father, Andrew Harmon, was a highly respected clergyman and local leader. She then attended Cotner College in Lincoln, Nebraska, and earned a Master of Religious Education degree at the College of the Bible of Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky.
Harriet Harmon began teaching in 1923 at the Normal School for Men in Hofeihsein Anhwei Province, China. She was then employed as Supervisor of Children's Work for the Council of Religious Education in Columbus, Ohio. In 1927 she joined the Northland College faculty as Dean of Women and French instructor. After her marriage to Dexter in 1928, her faculty position was terminated.
After the Dexters moved to Chicago in 1933, Harriet Dexter returned to work as the first editor of Churchwoman, the interdenominational journal of the United Church Women. During 1937, she worked in New York City for the Council for Social Action of the Congregational and Christian Churches. When the Dexters returned to Ashland, Harriet served as admissions counselor at Northland. She became a professor of English in 1944, and later became Dean of Women. At her retirement in 1967, the College awarded her an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters. In 1971, she served as Acting President during a six-month interim between administrations. Later that year, she became Director of Alumni Relations. In 1976, she again retired.
Harriet Dexter was also very active in community cultural and church activities. She directed the Ashland Presbyterian Congregational Church choir, and served on the congregation's worship, library, social action, and Christian education committees. She wrote radio broadcasts on religious matters, and imbued her public speaking activities and writing with her concern for Christian fellowship. Two books written with her sister Margueritte Bro discuss religious thought in modern life. A third book, What's Right with Race Relations, 1958, drew widespread praise as a well-researched moderate view of national progress in race relations.
Mrs. Dexter's community service included leadership in several organizations, among them the Northland College Dames, the American Association of University Women, the local arts council, the Northwest Wisconsin Library System, and the Wisconsin Humanities Committee. In 1976, her contributions received community-wide recognition at a Veterans of Foreign Wars program honoring her as Outstanding Citizen of the Year. At that time, Northland College announced a scholarship fund bearing her name. Harriet Dexter died on February 12, 1980.
