Dale Haworth

19 May 2023
Dale Haworth

Dale Haworth, age 98, died on May 14 in Santa Fe, NM. Dale taught Art History at Carleton for 36 years, beginning in 1960 and retiring as professor emeritus in 1996. During that time, he was also the Director of International Studies (1970–1971), Director of Exhibitions and Curator of the Carleton Art Collection (1980–1996), and chaired the Asian Studies as well as Art and Art History departments. Whether in the classroom or on Off-Campus Study or Alumni trips, Dale’s enthusiasm for art and architecture was infectious. His energy, kindness, knowledge, and dedication to teaching and his students made him a respected and welcoming colleague, mentor, and friend to many.

In addition to having a deep understanding of the history of art in the past several millennia, Dale was also an accomplished artist and brought an artist’s eye and sensibility to viewing art and architecture. He had wide-ranging art historical interests, which he drew on for the many and varied art exhibits he arranged at the College. He was also ahead of his time in promoting the study of crafts, ceramics, prints, folk art, and other media traditionally undervalued in academic art history. Dale continued to be active reviewing publications in his field until this past year.

Dale played an important role in developing and improving Off-Campus Study at Carleton. Teaching off-campus requires a different approach than on-campus and Dale thrived in these settings. He continued his many seminars in Greece with years of successful alumni trips to many places around the world. Dale’s sense of fun was evident on those trips and here in Northfield, including an occasional trip to Dairy Queen for a Turtle Pecan Cluster Blizzard.

Dale was married to Karen Beall and had three children (Brooke, Leah ’76, and Nick), five grandchildren, and six great grandchildren. See a more detailed obituary from Dale’s family.

An Art and Art History Department gathering to remember Dale Haworth and Lauren Soth will take place during Reunion on Friday, June 16, at 2pm, in Boliou. A celebration of Dale’s life will be held later in Santa Fe. Donations in memory of Dale may be made to the Haworth/Beall Fund for Off Campus Studies to enable Carleton students with financial need to study abroad.

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Comments

  • 2023-05-19 11:49:40
    Chris Grace (Studio Art, '87)

    Dale was my first faculty friend as a student at Carleton--I was a sophomore on his Greek Seminar in the fall of 1984. My wife (Katy Roberts '88) and I have remained in touch with Karen and Dale ever since. Dale’s eye was superb and his enthusiasm for art, travel, and adventure was indomitable and inspiring. He adored our kids and they felt the same about him.

    We last visited them this February, in Santa Fe. Katy brought along a computer slideshow of images from our trip to Greece last October, which retraced some of the steps I took as a student nearly 40 years ago. Unfortunately, it was jumbled by a glitch and the orderly presentation became an old-fashioned random slide drop art history quiz, much to Dale's amusement, because even in his diminished state he could name every spot and temple and statue we showed him. At the end he sat back with a big sigh and a grin, and declared, "I feel like I've just been on a trip back to Greece!"

    • 2023-05-25 12:41:59
      Karen Beall

      Thanks Chris for this and for the visits and emails through the years. I trust our paths will cross again.

      Love to the four of you, Karen

    • 2023-05-25 18:47:35
      Karen

      Chris, Thanks for this as well as your email to me at home. Dale certainly enjoyed his trip back to Greece with you
      a couple of months ago!

  • 2023-05-19 14:26:13
    Cherif Keita

    Dale was truly a man who had great class. He and Karen were also very welcoming of new people in the Carleton community. He will be missed. May he rest in peace!

    • 2023-05-25 12:37:39
      Karen Beall

      Thank you so much for your note. I remember well when we had you both over for a meal when you first arrived at Carleton. I hope all is well with you and your family (now grown!). Dale and I remained love birds to the last breath and had a wonderful 27 years based in Santa Fe while still exploring other continents and involved in many activities. We never quite got around to 'retirement' but enjoyed every moment. I have so much to be grateful for. Our last time on campus was 2010 when granddaughter Liz Haworth Evison graduated and Dale sent back his cap and gown and marched.
      Dale had a long and always interesting life as he was always curious to learn more. Best to you, Karen

  • 2023-05-19 17:16:39
    Fred Hagstrom

    Dale's teaching was driven by his love of art and his huge enthusiasm for it. This was central to his teaching on off campus trips to Greece, but also in everything that he focused on- from the Parthenon to folk arts of Mexico or Japan. I think he did a great service to our students, and also to alumni on the numerous trips he and Karen led, in showing how much art could add to our lives. His sense of enthusiasm and wonder was crucial to that. I also think that he and Karen were important in adding to what off campus studies has become at Carleton. And we should remember that for years Dale ran an exhibition program on a shoestring budget. The storage area was a re-purposed janitorial closet, sometimes with a bucket to hold water from a leaking pipe. Despite that kind of a situation, our community had years of exhibitions that were fostered by Dale.

  • 2023-05-19 17:25:15
    Sara Lowman

    I was on the Greek study abroad trip in the Fall of 1982; Dale had a profound impact of my life. I remember writing in my journal, and then meeting with Dale to discuss my ramblings along with many other topics. Dale was like a life coach—to me and many others—in the best way. He lived a long, full life—he will be missed!

    • 2023-05-25 12:39:17
      Karen Beall

      Thank you Sara. I remember your letter to Dale on, I believe, his 90th or 95th birthday. You told us you had a child who had gone off campus and the change you saw in her as you realized the Greece program had changed you. Best, Karen

  • 2023-05-20 10:19:59
    Nancy Lee '87

    Another alumni of Dale's 1984 art history seminar in Greece here. Dale made the world our classroom, from museums to archaeological sites to tavernas. He taught us to notice the details. After returning from Greece, when I applied for a fellowship to continue studies in archaeology, Dale not only helped me write the application but did so over burgers at the Reub rather than his office. (His treat.) An example of how he went out of his way to connect with students. I'm forever grateful for his help with the fellowship. Sorry to say, after graduation, I failed to keep in touch. So, a decade or two later when I was on campus for reunion, I was astounded to hear from a classmate that Dale was asking after me. He remembered me and wanted to see me?! (Me? Not the most distinguished scholar, not an art history major, not a recent student.) We had a great catchup session then. I can't say I kept in much better touch after that -- until recently when, inspired by a classmate at our 35th reunion, I struck up a conversation with Dale and Karen over email. I feel so fortunate to have had this recent contact with Dale and seen how his intellectual curiosity and joie de vivre were as strong as ever at age 98+. He was an inspiration to the end.

    • 2023-05-25 12:42:53
      Karen Beall

      So nice Nancy and for the emails directly to our home email recently. The book went in the mail to you this morning. Love, Karen

  • 2023-05-20 19:45:55
    Dave Bailey '85

    Dale was an incredible teacher, mentor and friend. Even at a small, progressive college like Carleton he stood out for his innovative approach to teaching and for his commitment to engaging young students as whole persons. I’ll never forget how, in a gusty hotel lobby in Crete, he told us he’d better not find us in our rooms with noses in books, when we could be out in town seeing life lived another way. The confidence he put in us to learn directly from observation and experience required both faith and humility, from him and from us. Even as often as I fail, his wisdom in teaching with the place, rather than merely about it, has remained a model. To this day it shapes my own teaching, parenting, and ways of making art. Once I probably took it too far, hosting Karen and Dale at an off-, off-grid adobe I’d rented in the New Mexican desert. Dale drank it all in with his typical, gleeful curiosity, even braving the rattlers that nightly patrolled the path to the outhouse. That Karen and Dale later relocated to Santa Fe was a testimony to his spirit of adventure, not to mention his resilience in the face of youthful miscalculation. Our various visits in New Mexico over the following years were a great joy, Dale always brimming with ideas and objects from his current research, anecdotes from recent trips, and infectious anticipation of upcoming journeys. When he shared his politics, they were always around questions of where a hand up was needed and how to give it, in a fair shake. But nothing compared to the care and delight he took in his students, and the ways he would light up when speaking of their projects, accomplishments, families and larger lives. This extended, multi-generational community was dear to him above all. For his enduring friendship, for his lifelong mentoring, and for the gift of the circle he drew together and nurtured, I’ll be forever grateful.

    • 2023-05-25 12:44:19
      Karen Beall

      As always, Dave, you are so eloquent. I wish Dale could read what you just wrote here and in your email to me at home. And I trust we will find ways to see one another in the years to come as we have for 4 decades. Love, Karen

  • 2023-05-21 17:08:55
    Mary Lewis Grow

    Dale was warm and engaging, with a whimsical sense of humor that was often reflected in the wonderful pen and ink drawings he made over the years. Each year's holiday card from Karen and Dale featured one of Dale's sketches, usually of a memorable site from their travels.

    The Asian art history class he taught and that I audited before my first long stay in Asia greatly enhanced my own travels and experiences there.

    Dale's advice on leading a successful off-campus studies seminar helped Roy craft his own subsequent Beijing Seminars. Dale advised Roy not to pick his seminar's participants solely based on g.p.a. or success in the classroom. Rather, he advised, pick students who will wear well -- whose flexibility and good company will insure their group compatibility. "Pick students you like," he counseled.

    In Santa Fe, Karen and Dale found ways to donate their time in ways that drew on their interests and talents. They helped apply a new coat of adobe to a historic church; they volunteered at the International Folk Art festival, among other activities.

    There was an affirming heartiness to Dale's expressions of friendship. His life had a meaningful and positive impact on friends and students alike. We will miss him!

  • 2023-05-24 17:44:51
    Margret Swanson '77

    My favorite memory of professor Haworth is from my 1st class with him: a freshman seminar that attracted future Studio Art majors like me. We were assigned to create & submit something with texture. I put 2 fried eggs from Burton on a plate of dirt. Haworth wasn’t in his office so I slid it under his locked office door for him to find another day. My only easy A at Carleton!

  • 2023-05-24 19:30:41
    Michelle (Missy) Stempien

    Dale was the reason I became an art history major and why I work in museums. I needed a break from science classes, and I took his Early Christian and Byzantine Art class in the Winter of '91. His love for art was infectious and I felt welcome and inspired in his class. I was also part of the Fall 1992 Greek Art and Architecture study abroad program and I signed up for that particular trip because of Dale. The first day on Crete, he challenged us to find our way from the hotel to Knossos. It was a bit terrifying but when we all made it, he congratulated us and challenged us to be that adventurous for the entire term. And he was right there with us, hiking through the sites, playing Ultimate Frisbee with us at the stadium at Delphi (wearing a sheet "borrowed" from the hotel), and getting in trouble with the guards by lying on the floor to look at the Apollo sculpture in Olympia. It was an especially good day if you happened to be with Dale when he went for his afternoon coffee or gelato. It was Dale who taught me that the object is our most important primary source of information, and I think of him every time I share that with my docents. He supported me through grad school applications, encouraging me to pursue Museum Studies in addition to Art History and he and Karen kept up with me over the past 30 years, following my career and my family. I looked forward to their Christmas greetings each year to see Dale's wonderful drawings and read about their latest adventure. My life is so much richer because of Dale. 98 years on this earth is not enough time with this amazing person. I will miss him terribly.

    • 2023-05-25 12:41:05
      Karen Beall

      Dear Missy,

      Thank you so much for this lovely remembrance of Dale. I remember so much about you from the seminar and am so pleased we have stayed in touch. How is the Greek chair doing? xox, Karen

    • 2023-05-28 21:13:16
      Michelle (Missy) Stempien

      Dear Karen- I think the "Greek" chair left the family awhile back but I do remember if being at my parents' table for many years after I hauled it all the way home. Thank you for such a wonderful memory. I am thinking of you daily and sending you much love and hugs after Dale's passing. You two were such a special and loving couple. My reunion is in a few weeks so John and I will be at the remembrance service for Dale and Lauren that will be held at Boliou and we will be thinking of you.

  • 2023-05-25 08:05:30
    Pam Reister '77

    I took a year away from Carleton to work and travel in Europe. Dale worked with me to get credit for a comprehensive tour of cathedrals. Although he was not in Europe he was responsible for a great experience and was keen to read my cathedral journal when I returned. Also, he and Karen were lovely, gracious hosts, welcoming so many to their home.

  • 2023-05-25 16:11:53
    Peggy Bradley Timmerman ('80)

    While I did not know Dale outside of class and was not fortunate to go on an oversees study with him, I just want to say that his kind and caring demeanor was a big factor in this very shy student's decision to become an art history major. I enjoyed his classes and his enthusiasm for all kinds of art! I am saddened to hear of his passing but he certainly lived a very long and very full life. Rest in peace, Dale.

  • 2023-05-27 21:51:14
    Jennette Lee '86

    My condolences to Karen and family members. I'm so glad you all got to enjoy Dale the Great for 98 years! I remember Dale (Prof. Haworth to me--I never could get the hang of calling most of my profs by their first names!) with the intent look behind his glasses, his flyaway hair and his likewise always-in-motion brown suitcoat as I filed slides in the (now how quaint!) slide library in Boliou. I also appreciated Dale as my advisor and mentor, even though I did not wind up in the arts field. I loved the creativity he encouraged us to pursue even as we read through gigantic tomes on Asian Art and Greek Art. My roommates were probably driven to distraction by my repeated playing of the same cassette with music from the Tang Dynasty (or several centuries close) to accompany my tempura painting on a coffee-dyed scroll cloth with of Ladies Doing Something (you can see that I did not keep up with the art!) I sincerely hope this scroll is somewhere in my house. Likewise for the tiny sculpted figure of Athena that was my assignment for the replica of the Parthenon in Dale’s Greek Art and Architecture class--I have a feeling that the little gold-painted figurine went wherever the model went. Most of all, I revered Dale for his kind demeanor—as I read through other student reminiscences, I wish I had gone on one of his study abroad trips—how exactly do we contribute to the Haworth/Beall Fund for Off Campus Studies? Is there a link?

    • 2023-05-28 11:02:59
      Karen

      So nice to hear from you. I remember you well and we had exchanges over the years. SO nice to think you would like to add to the fund for off campus. Just send a check (or I suppose call with a credit card?) to Carleton c/o the Development Office and mark it for the Haworth/Beall fun so it gets to the right place. Be well.

  • 2023-05-29 04:04:53
    Lillian Frost Dean

    Dale Haworth’s “Art Appreciation” class in 1965 changed my life! I was on a “math or science major” track at Carleton and took Dale’s class as an “extra” 4th course. For the first time, I really viewed a work of art from an aesthetic point of view.

    I ended up as an art history major (tutored especially by Lauren Soth, another lost friend) followed by a career in environmental planning. As a volunteer, I now lead architectural walking tours in Detroit, Michigan and Richmond, Virginia — often thinking back to the wonderful art classes presented by Dale.

    About 12 years ago I was very happy to visit with Dale and Karen at their Santa Fe home. Dale’s volunteer work and continued involvement with art from the Southwest was inspiring!

    Thank you Dale.. for your teaching and inspiration for so many years!

    Lillian Dean ‘68

  • 2023-05-29 10:39:02
    Floyd Martin '73

    I was at Carleton 1969-73 when the two art historians were Dale Haworth and Lauren Soth, both of whom taught me a lot. Dale’s ability to bring so many types of art, and periods of art, to life, through his knowledge of cultural and historical contexts was eye-opening for me, and I also found his enthusiasm about so many periods of art appealing. He also encouraged me to go on a study abroad program to London and Florence, and from that I developed my life-long interest in British art and architecture. When I decided I wanted to become an art history professor myself, he was a key model. Two courses I especially remember were one on Greek Art (which met at 8 am) and one he taught with Henry Woodward on 19th century Art and Music. The Greek Art course gave me a foundation that served me well in appreciating the classical foundation of so much of western art history. The Art and Music course taught me that looking at various art forms together could be very rewarding, and that course too gave me a foundation for offering interdisciplinary courses in my own teaching. Though we lost contact over the years, I was happy we had an email exchange in the spring of 2021. This came about after Alison Kettering gave an on-line lecture for a student symposium I organized, and she told me, since she was at Carleton after my time, that she had asked Dale about me and he had looked in his old gradebooks to verify my credentials! Like many others, I am fortunate to have had such a wonderful teacher as Dale Haworth.

  • 2023-06-12 15:16:45
    alison kettering

    Dale was a valued colleague and friend for many years. During my first year at Carleton, way back in 1968-69, he was incredibly supportive of my beginning efforts at teaching – I was a real newbie, a 25 year-old grad student hired as a sabbatical replacement for Lauren Soth. I couldn’t have gotten through the year without Dale. After returning to Carleton 14 years later, when I was no longer team-teaching with him, my admiration shifted to his skills with off campus seminars in Greece. I loved hearing the raves from returning students. I also admired the imaginative exhibitions that he mounted on a shoestring budget, in his position as curator of the Carleton gallery, with Karen playing a vital role.
    Not least, Dale was a valued friend who, along with Karen, opened up their house countless times not only to us but to many others. Their warmth and hospitality were legend. After his retirement, I looked forward to the marvelous sketches, from far-flung travels, that decorated the annual holiday greeting cards they sent. Retirement was filled not only with travel but with volunteer work in the Santa Fe arts community, an important model for me in my own retirement. Thank you, Dale.

  • 2023-06-14 00:15:02
    Janet Hero Dodge ‘68

    I was lured away from biology to a major in art history after my eyes were opened to the world of art in the classrooms of Dale Haworth and Lauren Soth. At that time I also became enamored with ceramics. No pottery classes were taught at Carleton but I was able to do independent study classes with Tim Lloyd. In my junior year Dale suggested to me that I should apply for a Carleton in Japan summer program. I told him I couldn’t afford such a trip. He followed up with securing scholarship money which allowed me to go. I was able to study in a very concentrated and disciplined way with a potter there while also learning and writing about Japanese aesthetics in relation to the tea ceremony. Upon returning to Carleton I taught interested students as an extracurricular activity. After graduating I was able to study pottery with Marguerite Wildenhain, who was a student of the Bauhaus, and ultimately I became a professional potter for over 50 years. I will be forever grateful to Dale for the crucial part he played in shaping my life. Actually his influence extended to the third generation in my family! Because of my experience in Japan my son went to Japan for three years to teach English and it was there that he met his wife to be. In fact he is in Japan traveling with his wife and their daughter as I write this. It was with a heavy heart that I heard of Dale’s passing. He was a wonderful man and a fine teacher and mentor.

  • 2023-06-15 16:43:11
    Jennifer Will Labovitz '85

    I was a sophomore on Dale’s Greece Seminar in 1982. He took a gamble on me for which I have forever been grateful. Although I entertained the idea of an Art History major, post Greece I opted to join the Religion department. I chuckle thinking of a conversation I had with Professor Ann Patrick. “What really happened on that Greek Seminar?” she asked after the department had unexpectedly gained several new majors. Dale was a true liberal arts professor - he pushed us not only to find our own paths, but to seek how those paths and the world around us were interwoven with art and art history. He never stopped asking questions of us. He was a man of great humor, curiousity, and kindness.

    I was lucky to have spent many holidays with Dale and his wife Karen at my parent’s home in Northfield. Wonderful memories of tall Dale sporting a kitchen apron carving the turkey, or washing the many dishes flanked by Bob Will and Bill Child. His joyful presence filled the room. His long friendship with and enduring love for my parents was deeply appreciated. Dale, wherever you are now, know there are many of us whose interest in and love for art have roots in your passionate teaching.

  • 2023-07-08 15:28:00
    Martha Paas

    It has taken me several weeks to be able to write this letter. I find it hard to subject to the discipline of writing feelings about a friend like Dale with whom we have shared so much. I have decided that rather than comment on the things for which Dale was renowned at Carleton—his teaching, intellectual interests across several disciplines, his kindness as a mentor and colleague, his legendary off-campus study trips and his inspired Art Exhibits—I will instead leave that to others who participated in them to speak. Instead, I want to talk about our friendship and why I will always remember him.

    I first met Dale and Karen when they returned from Washington and were at a dinner party at the home of Ann and Phil Niles. I remember seeing a tall, handsome man striding across the living room followed by a beautiful woman with her hair in a French twist. Later I was invited by Dale to talk about my research in German economic history at an informal gathering at his house with other faculty members. I was taken by how interested an art historian was in economic history, and that was the first hint of the sort of mind Dale had. Curious, well-read and imaginative-he followed ideas that interested him wherever they led. I learned that Karen's mother was an economist from Denmark, so we had lots to talk about, and I was privileged to meet her and Karen's father later when they came to visit. And so our friendship grew.

    Over the years we shared so many nice times together­ meals at each other's hous·es, private jokes that made us laugh: the pink flamingo (that appeared periodically on each other's lawns), Moon Pies (and the fun of taking pictures all over Europe with the moon pies—did I mention in the bathtub?), Dairy Queen (we once invited them to go with us to Dairy Queen but they were reluctant because they had just finished a garlicky meal, so we donned masks and put a DQ cup on the front of the car and picked them up), and sharing intellectual interests (our trip to Japan would not have been what it was without their helpful suggestions).

    They were kind to our family (small things like Dale's sitting with Anne outside the car at Castle Rising, and major things, such as the party they had in which they read the order of service at the exact time Emily's marriage took place in Germany so that my mother, who couldn't attend the wedding, could feel part of it. One of the nicest pictures I have of her is from that evening, and one of the nicest memories is Dale's retirement party, where we made a buffet table with dishes from his favorite places and activities: Japan, Greece, his poker parties, and a cake like an adobe house. After everyone left we presented him with flamingo slippers and Karen with bunny slippers. We laughed until midnight. Years later it was coffee walnut cake that brought smiles! He drew a picture of our beloved cat J.D. and caught his little soul exactly. That picture graces now the grandchildren's room at our house and makes me happy every time I see it.

    Then there were the trips together: to Denmark, with its amazing churches; to England, with time in Cambridge, Shepton Mallet, Charleston Farm House, Constable Country, places with links to Dale's ancestry; to Germany, with time in the Erzgebirge, Dresden, and MeiBen; and not so long ago, Christmas in Santa Fe. All were enriched and made unforgettable because of their wonderful company.

    Dale and Karen were unfailingly generous with appreciation whenever we made any small gesture of affection: I made a hand­ knitted sweater for baby granddaughter Liz (overlooking the amateur knitting, it was labeled an "heirloom"), a gift of Moon Pies, Genius Square, balloons, baby clothes, photos, all of which were so kindly acknowledged and made us think they were meaningful.

    Karen and Dale were as close as any couple I have known. I heard Dale smile and say many times: "My bride, my bride." In the last years of his life when he was ill, Karen courageously and cheerfully carried on with the goal of making each day happy. With comforting care, careful selection of doctors, restaurant meals with friends, concerts and lectures of interest, Dale could not have doubted how much he was loved.

    I tend to remember certain people when I hear pieces of music. Vaughn Williams's "The Lark Ascending" reminds me of Dale. He was the sincerest friend, a person I knew I could count on, and along with all of his abilities, sense of humor and gentlemanly demeanor, my abiding memory of him are of his drawings of the sweetest little bunnies that ever were.

    bunny drawing

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