Longtime Gustavus Adolphus College
Sociology and Anthropology Professor Dies
ST. PETER, Minn. (July 16, 2001) – John W. Prehn, professor of sociology and anthropology at the Gustavus Adolphus College for 37 years, died suddenly on July 14, 2001 at his home in Madison Lake, Minn.
A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. Thursday, July 18 in Christ Chapel at Gustavus.
A graduate of Macalester College, Prehn completed his master’s degree (1960) and Ph.D. (1964) at the University of Iowa. After teaching for a semester at Coe College, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and two years at the University of Puget Sound, Tacoma, Wash., he joined the Gustavus faculty in 1964.
Prehn’s research interests included social microsystems and sociology of the community, social deviance, and research methodology. He was a prolific writer, lecturer, and researcher during his years at Gustavus, and his articles, papers, and abstracts have appeared in Journal of Popular Culture, American Sociological Review, and Teaching Sociology. In 1996 Prehn published Push a Button, Pull a String, a sociological biography of the 1955 high school class of Oregon, Ill. The book provided a personal account of the long-term effects that growing up in the town between the Depression and 1950 had on him and his childhood friends.
Prehn was named the 1993 Distinguished Sociologist by the Sociologists of Minnesota. He was a founding member and the third president of that organization.
He is survived by his wife, Janet, and three sons, Bruce, Jay, and Tim.
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