This is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.
During the Golden Age of steam boating on the Upper Mississippi River, no job was more critical than that performed by the rapids pilots who were brought on board to take boats safely up or down the treacherous fourteen miles of Rock Island Rapids between LeClaire and Davenport, Iowa. The skill and knowledge of these forty to fifty men has become legendary.
The last of them is still alive. In December of 1995, Dr. Conrad Bergendoff turned one hundred. From 1934 until 1962, he was president of Augustana, a small sternwheel college in Rock Island. His pilot house was the chapel in Old Main, his wheel, a pulpit. As with any good pilot, he steered by faith as well as sight, trusting his vision and the river itself. His inaugural address in 1934 laid down a channel for the college which never wavered in spite of the tricks of shadows along the way. Not for the faint of heart were the rapids that lay ahead, where other colleges were already sinking or drifting off course. Down this littered and twisting channel, Dr. Bergendoff guided Augustana through the shallow waters of the Great Depression, past the snags and sandbars and sloughs of World War II, and the whirlpool of veterans returning to school, beyond the Korean War, out into the still waters of the Silent Generation. The college was in good shape, her hull sound, the timbers uncracked, and the engines eager for the journey ahead.
Having done his job, Dr. Bergendoff turned the wheel over to another pilot. He is a passenger, now, though he had not entirely given up his habit of pointing out a dangerous current now and then. At one hundred, his eyes are no longer so clear, but his vision is still bright. Among his memorabilia are a still growing number of honorary degrees, titles and awards from schools and institutions around the world.
But I have no doubt that the title which means the most to him is the one that does not need to be printed on a piece of paper and framed on a wall, the title he earned himself: Conrad Bergendoff, The Faithful Pilot.
Rock Island Lines with Roald Tweet is underwritten by Augustana College, Rock Island, Illinois.
