SEVENTH GENERATION

117. John Robert Bengtson ⁽¹⁷⁶⁾ was born on 21 Nov 1919 in Chicago, Illinois. He died on 21 Oct 1996 in Florida. John was educated in the Chicago public school system at Hate Elementary School and Senn High School. He attended Augustana College in accordance with the wishes of his parents. He served in the Army from July 1942 to January 1946. He graduated from Augustana in 1946. He received an M.A. from the University of Iowa in 1947, taught in Burlington, Iowa, at Burlington Junior College from 1947 to 1950, attended the University of Iowa from 1950 to 1953, and received his PhD in history in 1953. He taught at the University of Minnesota for one year, and then worked for the Minnesota Historical Society from 1954 to 1959. He taught for two years at North State College in Aberdeen, South Dakota, and then took a position at the University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh where he taught from 1961 until his retirement in 1983. He was promoted to full professor in 1966, served as chair of the history department from 1964 to 1971, and retired as Professor Emeritus of history. His book, Nazi War Aims, Plans for the Thousand Year Reich, was published by Augustana. He and his wife lived in Neenah, Wisconsin, until they moved to Florida in 1992.

He was married to Gertrude Raab on 21 Dec 1945 in Baltimore, Maryland. Gertrude Raab⁽¹⁷⁶⁾ was born on 18 Jun 1921 in Vienna, Austria. She emigrated in 1940 from to America. Gertrude was educated as a child in the public schools of Vienna. She received her R.N from John Hopkins Nursign School in September, 1945, her B.S. from Northern State College in Aberdeen, South Dakota, in 1961, and her M.S. from the University of Wisconsin at Oshkosh in 1966. She was a nursing supervisor at Winnebago Mental Health Institute from 1961, and after receiving her M.S. was promoted to director of nursing in 1966, a position she held until her retirement in 1985.

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