Roald Tweet
Writer and Narrator of 'Rock Island Lines'Beginning 1995, historian and folklorist Dr. Roald Tweet spun his stories of the Mississippi Valley to a devoted audience on WVIK. Dr. Tweet published three books as well as numerous literary articles and recorded segments of "Rock Island Lines." His inspiration was that "kidney-shaped limestone island plunked down in the middle of the Mississippi River," a logical site for a storyteller like Dr. Tweet.
It was from Rock Island’s rich heritage that Dr. Tweet spun his histories, biographies and "stretchers." Among his favorite topics were railroads and riverboats, which he combined on a CD in celebration of the Grand Excursion in 2004. "Rock Island Lines with Roald Tweet" received awards from the Illinois Historical Society as well as the Towner Award from the Illinois Humanities Council.
Dr. Tweet was professor emeritus, retired from the Augustana College English department, where he was professor and Conrad Bergendoff Chair in the Humanities. A writer and radio personality, Dr. Tweet was also an accomplished woodcarver and whittler.
Dr. Tweet left us in November of 2020, but his legacy lives on. You can hear many of his Rock Island Lines in podcast form here and also in a forthcoming book from WVIK and East Hall Press.
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CommunityThis is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.It’s customary, they say, for the captain to go down with his ship. But for loyalty, here's a Rock Island story that…
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CommunityThis is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.Frequent visitors to Rock Island have noticed a peculiarity along the Upper Mississippi Valley: the towns on the west…
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CommunityThis is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.If people took professors more seriously, this would be a better world.I'm thinking of a humanities professor at a…
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CommunityThis is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.Several times a day, airplanes descend over Rock Island, riding the wind down toward the airport, one or two hundred…
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CommunityThis is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.Before I moved to the Mississippi River, I used to worry about God. He never seemed to have much fun. Oh, no question…
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CommunityThis is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.For the past ten years, Rock Island has suffered a plague of those silly signs now seen almost everywhere—signs with…
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CommunityThis is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.Like most Midwesterners, the folks who live around Rock Island are sturdy, but cautious. Seldom the first to try a new…
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CommunityThis is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.A few days ago, I stopped in at a New Age bookstore and coffee house near Rock Island to browse.On one shelf I found a…
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CommunityThis is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.Folks around here once took their right to vote seriously. They cared about who won.That was one-hundred and fifty…
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CommunityThis is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.We Rock Islanders who live along the Mississippi River don't hold much for lakes, those little puddles that dot the…