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.Earlier this summer, Father James Grubb celebrated the 40th year of his ordination with a solemn High Mass at his…
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CommunityThis is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.When Bailey Davenport won the race for mayor of Rock Island in 1861, he already had several unofficial titles. Some…
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CommunityThis is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.In 1856, Rock Island became a battleground in the transportation wars. In May of that year, the tracks of the Chicago…
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CommunityThis is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.The Swedish immigrants who came to the Rock Island area by the hundreds in the 1880s and ‘90s to work for John Deere…
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CommunityThis is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.You may have heard of Huckleberry Finn who once lived a hundred miles or so downstream of Rock Island. Huck never told…
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CommunityThis is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.Early each March, we Rock Islanders who plan to attend the spring concert begin taking our places in the amphitheater…
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CommunityThis is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.Every few decades, the cities surrounding Rock Island come down with a severe case of togetherness. They shift into a…
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CommunityThis is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.“There is no zeal like a convert's zeal,” goes an old truism. That is doubly true when it comes to the computer. Those…
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CommunityThis is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.There is local geological evidence that the Great Deluge began at Rock Island. God practiced flooding the Mississippi…
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CommunityThis is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.Forget the image of frontier schools you've seen in Westerns and on television: rough wooden benches and an incompetent…