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Prof. Carl Edwin Lindgren
By
D. S. Sherman, A. Raman and D. Pritchard
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Sweden It was a cold winter morning over 100 years ago when the Lindgren brothers, Edwin and John, sailed from their homeland of Sweden across the Atlantic Ocean to the eastern United States. Both of the brothers were engineers and were later instrumental in the construction of many bridges and tunnels throughout the eastern United States (i.e. Swed Tunnel and others).
United States
Edwin married and
produced two sons, Carl and Leon. In a strange twist of fate, the two
sons married the
Corder
sisters from Cordertown. The village of
Cordertown was a thriving four-mile square community that had been
created by the decedents of
Edward Corder, an English laborer in
the early eighteenth century.
Mississippi
Over two hundred years
later, in 1965, Carl Lindgren, Sr., a transportation specialist, his
wife Ruby and their son, Carl, Jr., moved from the mountains of
south-western Virginia to the flatlands of Mississippi. Ironically, it
was a winter morning with temperatures hovering at twenty degrees below
zero that the family placed their packaged belongings into a truck and
moved onto a new fresh and promising life near the gently flowing waters
of the
Tallahatchie River.
As young Carl Lindgren matured he developed an altruistic attitude toward his fellow man. He consistently participated in humanitarian activities that took him to areas of the state that were volatile. In one humanitarian program the climate was so unstable that Dr. Lindgren was brutally attacked and nearly beaten and kicked to death. The nerve damage that he received during this incident reminds him daily, some 38 years later, of the painful consequences of standing firm in one’s beliefs. However, he still fondly remembers his activities with the civil rights campaigns, including the marches, the Washington March in August 28, 1963 (working from a distance), the Poor People's Campaign of 1968, Resurrection City, his photographic exhibition of the city (Southern Exposure - A journal of politics and culture vol XX, no. 1) and his years with Head Start (Mississippi in the 1970s) and Job Corps (1980). For many years, Lindgren worked with James Figgs who is a veteran of more than 30 national NAACP conventions and referred to Carl as his "blue eyed soul brother." Carl Edwin Lindgren, Jr. attended a local high school in Shannon, Mississippi and then attended Northwest Mississippi Community College. In 1972, he entered the University of Mississippi, also known as Ole Miss. Today, the University is ranked 8th nationally for its production of Rhodes Scholars and has produced numerous Truman and Goldwater scholars since 1998. While an undergraduate and graduate student, Dr. Lindgren received the Academic Achievement Scholarship Award and membership in the honor societies of Phi Theta Kappa, Phi Delta Kappa, Kappa Delta Pi and Phi Alpha Theta (University of Florida). He excelled in physics and chemistry but later chose to follow a professional path in the fields of history, psychology and education. He continued his studies at the university and earned his Master of Education degree in 1977. During this same time, he was an E.D.P.A. Fellow and an Honors Fellow of the Robert A. Taft Institute of Government at Queens College. Although a historian, psychologist and educationist by heart, he also enjoyed his classes with Dr. Lucy Turnbull (Bryn Mawr and Radcliffe), Prof. Stan Easton and Dr. Evelyn Way. In the 1970s he did correspondence research with Dr. J. B. Rhine on parapsychology and was a member of the Parapsychological Association. He was also a student of the noted psychologist, Dr. John Wolfe (behaviorist) and medievalist Dr. Allen Cabaniss, F.R.Hist.S. Lindgren was an undergraduate and graduate student in Near Eastern history under Brigadier General Dr. James J. Cooke, FRHistS - "Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Mississippi and former Visiting Professor of History and Strategy at the US Air Force War College ... [Dr. Cooke is the author] of many books on 20th century war history." James Cooke has also worked with scholars Peter Liddle and Hugh Cecil in various historical works and is a contributor to numerous journals. Lindgren also conducted research under the mentorship of Drs. Joseph Bruening and his close friend and mentor Dr. Stanley Easton. England “In the fall of 1981, he traveled to England to spend three and a half years working as an educational consultant and Middle School tutor. While there, his educational and cultural interests led him to seek membership in several societies including: the Royal Asiatic Society, British Archaeological Association, the Royal Institution, the Royal Society of Health (Fellow grade) and the Royal Historical Society. … Today, he remains their staunch advocate and works to promote their activities both in the U.S. and abroad.” (P. Bolton, Ole Miss Alumni Review, 42:41) 
“Lindgren’s interest in art and landscape evolved while talking daily walks from Parliament Square and Bridge Street to Trafalgar Square. Minicab jaunts to Aldwych, and visits to the British Museum, Museum Tavern (frequently visited in another era by Karl Marx), and the familiar haunts of Charles Dickens, Yeats, and Samuel Johnson intensified his devotion to culture and history. Favorite recreational sojourns included the Strand and Fleet Street, the pubs of the Sun, Lamb (Dickens’ locale) and the Red Lion, as well as frequent shopping on Oxford Street near Sherlock Holmes’ 221-B Baker Street.” (P. Bolton, Ole Miss Alumni Review, 42:41). College of Preceptors In 1989, Lindgren enrolled in a well-known teaching college in London. In 1993, he was awarded the postgraduate teaching Fellowship (F.C.P.) of the Royal Chartered College of Preceptors based on his thesis of 30,000 words that embodied the "results of original and experimental work in education" (College of Preceptors, 1989, p.c.). Today the school is known as the College of Teachers. Also between 1990-93, Lindgren dealt in Egyptian artifacts and was a member of the London Egypt Exploration Society. He sold and collected Middle Eastern artifacts and did small archaeological digs in Panola County. Between 1993 and 1999 he also earned his Specialist degree in Education (S.Ed.) from the University of Mississippi and his Doctor of Education (D.Ed.) degree from the University of South Africa (UNISA) in Pretoria, South Africa. He later received several other certificates and fellowships. Pain Research In the 1990s Dr. Lindgren conducted extensive volunteer work for a local hospice and under a private and government grant conducted research in energy medicine as a possible means of pain cessation in clients. He also edited two works on auras and energy medicine. The research was NON PRODUCTIVE and no correlation was found between any form of energy medicine and cessation of pain or disease. However some alternative health and medical care programs that do show signs of limiting pain include: PETS, TENS, EMS, massage, diet, cardiac exercises (treadmill, etc.), sleep, certain herbs (limited benefit), relaxation techniques, biofeedback (limited) and some use of vitamin therapy (limited). Things that do NOT work include over 95 percent of the other so called energy medicine quackery (current opinion. He is also a clinical hypnotherapist (ex: "psychotherapy that facilitates suggestion, reeducation, or analysis by hypnosis") and works with chronic pain and cancer patients (under a medical doctor's supervision). Also note the University issue. The Total Quality Years Do you still remember Dr. Deming and his Total Quality Management (TQM - 1982)? It seems only yesterday that W. Edwards Deming states, "Define your mission/vision/goal -- aim for constant improvement in the product or service you offer your clients. You cannot do this without maintaining a high level of motivation and satisfaction in the people that comprise your organization -- consider that an aspect of your goal." Much has change in these last few years. His first introduction to Deming came in the way of an extremely attractive, scholarly and brilliant businesswoman and professor named Dr. Julie E. Horine. Julie has just started at Ole Miss as a professor and was already making waves in the business and academic world. Being brilliant is not always the best way to proceed at a small southern university. Faulkner had discovered this rather early on. That is why he climbed trees on the School of Education property, had lavish parties, moved to Virginia, always wanted a British knighthood and generally always ignored authority. Julie, when Lindgren first met her, was on top of the business world be having recently be appointed a faculty member of the Department of Educational Leadership at Ole Miss. She was also a two year veteran of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award Board of Examiners. Her work was also sponsored by the NASA and ASQC. As she stated about Lindgren, "To someone who truly understands that quality a journey - not a destination." Dr. Horine and Lindgren published 5 peer review articles together in TQM. For the Love of Photography 
Over a fifteen year period (1990-2005), Dr. Lindgren has written over one hundred articles and published six books, as well as delivering numerous lectures and conducting research in the fields of photography, history, genealogy, archaeology, medicine and health. Many of these endeavors were on his beloved Panola County. He has also taken over 1000 photographs, many of which have appeared in exhibitions in England, India, China, Africa and the States. Regarding photography, Cathryn Maya of the Southeast Missourian said: … Lindgren’s goal as a professional photographer, writer, historian ... is to capture the passage of time, freezing it momentarily, preserving it for all time to come.” Lindgren, in the same interview, stated, “I prefer to aim my camera when all breathing has ceased … When time has ebbed and it is perpetually 3 o’clock on a Sunday afternoon. … There are no people in my photographs. … I show desolation and look for the neutrality [lack of involvement] you have without people in the foreground. In the absence of people, you can show the building that would normally be in the background of a family picture by itself, with no change; rather just as a moment in time. ... Yet, underneath the still photograph there exists a static feeling like something will soon take place.” In his photographs, Lindgren works to immortalize the Mississippi countryside Faulkner made famous. [Note photographic section] 
Prof. Lindgren is currently a professor at American Military University, an on-line nationally and regionally accredited institution catering to the educational needs of active duty military personnel. The university has over 15,000 students worldwide, about 80% in active duty, and is based in Charles Town, West Virginia. In 2005, he was awarded the Military Order of Maurice for his work with the U.S. military. It was during his work at American Military University that Lindgren became interested in the educational background of Panola County and wrote two exhaustive works of over 700 pages exploring the historical and sociological ramifications of education in Panola County as well as an in-depth comparison of North and South Panola schools. In the year 2004, he was awarded the Anniversary Medal of the Assembly of Russian Nobility by Prince Andrei Obolensky, Marshal of the Assembly. He was also admitted as an honorary fellow to the Historical Genealogical Society of Moscow.Finally, in recognition of his generous financial contributions towards funding humanitarian relief, Lindgren has received the the Grand Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Red Cross of the Republic of Congo and the Red Cross of the Republic of the Ivory Coast. Besides his educational work, Dr. Lindgren serves as Secretary General to the exiled King of Rwanda, His Majesty Kigeli V and advisor to His Royal Highness Prince Hso Khan Pha of Yawnghwe on educational and the humanitarian relief matters for the oppressed Shan minority in Burma. Despite the passing of over one hundred years since the arrival of the two Swedish bothers Lindgren, the grandson of Edwin, still has contact with his Old World roots. Over the past ten years, Dr. Lindgren has received numerous European decorations (note coat-of-arms). When asked what is his most interesting and challenging endeavor, Dr. Lindgren responded by saying that his work in chronic pain and the health sciences are the most rewarding. Today, Lindgren is also helping the poor and sick in Rwanda, Ethiopia, the Sudan and in S.E. Asia. Pictures: Sanna Lennartsson, Courthouse, steamboat, British Museum, Panola County, AMU. References:
Internet References:
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Upon his
arrival in America, Edward worked as a survey chainman for a young
surveyor, George Washington. He assisted Washington survey the five
million acres of Thomas Fairfax, 6th Baron Fairfax of Cameron that
stretched between the Rappahannock and Potomac rivers. “Corder was a
favored tenant of Lord Fairfax … and was probably hand-picked by Fairfax
to accompany the inexperienced surveyor Washington on his first ever
surveying expedition in July 1749.” (L. Henderson, 15 Jan. 1996, p.c.)
He later supported Washington in his entry into the
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