Then & Now: A History of Rice County, Faribault & Communities

Preface & acknowledgements
committee for 30 years, and served on the Wacouta
District Boy Scout Council. He has received the
Council's prestigious Silver Beaver award for service.
He's also a live master of ceremonies and song
leader at frequent Rice County social events.
Swanberg's journalistic desires first were whetted
in Worthington, Minn., where ie was born Jan. 25, 1903.
As a 14-year-old pressman-reporter for the
Worthington Glove, he reported births and deaths,
wrote about tea parties and made certain the Globe
went to press on time. After a year as the Globe's
"utility man" -at age 15 - his finger was smashed in
a press. The injury temporarily cost him his job, but it
didn't diminish his love for newspapers.
Swanberg graduated from Worthington High
School in 1921 and from the University of Minnesota in
1926.
At the University he was president of the
All-University Council, was chosen "representative
Minnesotan" among college and university students
and was an athletic team yell leader (before the advent
of female cheerleaders).
He was active on the University student newspaper
and yearbook staffs, and was a member of the Iron
Wedge honor society.
He graduated from the University's College of
Education, but after two years of teaching, he "felt like
a square peg in a round hole." He decided to try
journalism, and joined the Daily News.
He's been with the Faribault newspaper since that
time. Although semi-retired, he's in his Daily News
office every weekday, almost every Saturday and an
occasional Sunday. His knowledge of Rice County's
past - its people, places and events - is appreciated
by his Daily News colleagues, who rely on Swan bert as
the newspaper's ''historian-in-residence.''
Swanberg has looked at hundreds of pages of copy,
read hundreds of thousands of words and examined
scores of photographs in editing "Then & Now". But
his work would have been fruitless without the help of
the dozens of volunteers who did research, wrote
articles and provided photographs. Their efforts,
combined with Swanberg's expertise, make this book a
truly countywide Bicentennial project.
Mrs. Lester
(Martina) Bursik
publisher,
''Then and Now''
Book is her idea
Mrs. Lester (Martina) Bursik, librarian of the
Buckham Memorial Library, Faribault, is credited
with the idea of having a Rice County History Book as a
fitting project for the county Bicentennial
Commission's observance of the nation's 200th
birthday. As long as a year ago she interested county
and Faribault city officials in the project. She has
served as publisher of the book, ''Then and Now,'' and
has spent countless hours to assure fulfillment of her
idea.
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