Bob's Early Years
Lyle and Elmer Hanson 1997
Brothers of Robert Paul Hanson
Professor Robert P. Hanson or Bob as he was known to his family and friends, spent his early years in Ashland, Wisconsin
The years 1924 through 1944 were difficult years. The country was in a severe depression and the Hanson family was trying to make a living in a marginal unproductive farming area.
The economic struggle did not overshadow Bob's educational ventures. Much credit should be given to his very committed and loving parents and work program at Northland College. There were others who influenced Bob during these years. He became acquainted with Guy Burnham, harbour master and local historian, who had a great influence on his life. Guy liked a young curious mind and in Bob he found someone he could challenge to explore and question the world around him. Also, Bob's Uncle Harlan Bergquist stimulated interest in rocks.
While attending high school, Bob helped found the Explorers club that had Morgan Sherlock, the history teacher as counselor. One of their accomplishments was to locate and chart the portage route from Lake Superior to the Mississippi River
While at Ashland and living on the farm, Bob found the outdoors to be his laboratory. Everything interested him - butterflies, insects, rocks and even the self-sustaining ecosystem in the small creek that ran though our front yard.
Wildflowers held a great fascination for him, which led to a series of articles he wrote for the local newspaper, The Ashland Daily Press
. These articles in their entirety are included in a later section of this book. His series called In Bloom This Week-End
ran in the summer of 1940. Readers became intimately involved, taking his articles and driving through the area attempting to locate each and every flower he had mentioned.
While living on the farm, Bob added a wildflower area and a pool to our mother's flower garden which attracted numerous visitors from Ashland.
Chequamegon Bay area and especially Bad River, Kakagon Slough, and Long Island were favorite exploration haunts for him.
Bob graduated summa cum laude from Ashland High Schoolin June 1936. He continued his education at Northland College at Ashland graduating summa cum laude in June 1940. Following graduation he took a job with the Census Bureau in Washington D.C. With the advent of World War II, he enlisted in the Army Medical Corp and seved at The Army Medical Center in Washington D.C. and at Grosse Isle in the St. lawrence Seaway for the Allied Command.
Upon being discharged from the army Bob was accepted for post graduate studies at the University of Wisconsin at Madison where he resided until his death in 1987. Shortly after moving to Madison Bob married Martha Goodlet, who he had met while stationed at the Army Medical Center. They had two children, a son Allan and a daughter Diane.