Help Fill Uncle Rolf’s Bucket and Finish His Book

Dear Family, Friends & Friends of Friends:

I post this in the spirit of supporting a very special person whose  life is about to become very bright with your help. 

I recently had a very honest and moving conversation about “bucket lists” with Rolf Kristian Stang.  Uncle Rolf (as we Greek first cousins all call him, although most of us are related by marriage rather than blood) ) is my Aunt Jeanne’s brother.   I’ve  known him my entire  life and have  many happy  memories of him  at the Stang family’s cottage in Redgranite, Wisconsin. Learning about his life, sharing family stories with him’, and of course , attending the ubiquitous Friday fish-fries of the area are among my favorite life experiences. 

Our recent conversation led to a “bucket list” conversation. Uncle Rolf is 85 now, and has an unfinished book about a highly celebrated Norwegian opera star, Kirsten Flagstad. A professional vocalist himself, Rolf has revered her since he first heard her perform in 1955. Her story is a tragic one: in the wake of World War II, false rumors about Nazi sympathies besmirched her name and left her penniless. When at last she was exonerated, her best years as a Wagnerian soprano were behind her.

Uncle Rolf’s book, which reflects her brilliant career and the wrongs that befell her, is 80% done.

In order to complete it, Uncle Rolf must find his way to Norway, where his parents were born, twice more. As fluent and articulate in Norwegian as he is in English, he intends to interview Kirsten Flagstad’s great-neice, the only still-living relative, and comb through family letters and diaries. It is his heart’s desire, as he says, “..to lift the burden of these false rumors from her reputation, and to restore her image as the crown jewel of Wagnerian opera. “

As a a professional musician and opera lover himself, Uncle Rolf has both the expertise and passion to complete this project, and is in excellent health. But because he chose many years ago to follow his passion for vocal music, acting and cultural pursuits, he is not a man of great means, and is living modestly on a small pension and freelance acting work. 

i was happy to discover GoFundMe as a way to make Uncle Rolf’s dream come true. We calculate that $15,000 will be enough to fund the necessary trips, and I hope you will share this with your friends as well.  We have a chance here to make a huge difference in Uncle Rolf’s life with very little cost per individual. 

For more on Uncle Rolf and his many accomplishments, I invite you to google Rolf Kristian Stang.  He’s had a full life of immersion in Nordic Culture in the US, recognized and knighted by the Norwegian Crown, King Harold V, in 1998. He was inducted into the Scandinavian American Hall of Fame in 1997, and in 2000 was commissioned to appear as Lief Eriksson at the Smithsonian Discovery Museum as an adjunct to the “Vikings:The North Atlantic Saga”’exhibit. In doing so, he became the sole recipient of The Sons of Norway Lief Eriksson Millenium Citation. 
  

I thank you in advance for contributing to this GoFundMe project for Uncle Rolf.  I might
add that this man has spent his entire life helping others. This is a chance to pay it forward!