HONORING NOLS PRESIDENTS
- NOLS Self-Assembly
- Sep 22
- 4 min read
Updated: Sep 25
To Honor NOLS Presidents on NOLS 60th Anniversary
Celebrate Their Legacy Online, at Lander HQ and in the Public Forum
Celebrate NOLS Presidents Online
The world is online these days. Many more NOLS alumni and prospects go to nols.edu/about/history to read about NOLS history than read Kate Dernocoeur's well researched A Worthy Expedition. Unfortunately unlike the printed book, NOLS digital history leaves out basic and fundamental facts about the school's history.
Glaringly absent is any mention of NOLS Presidents other than Paul Petzoldt. Unlike NOLS Founders Day, the digital history does not bestow NOLS foundership on leaderless and nameless students who had "gathered near Lander". Instead, NOLS' digital history names Paul only to leave out every other NOLS President!
Does NOLS 1965 - 2025 digital history mention the following NOLS Presidents?
YES OR NO
Paul Petzoldt (1965–1975) YES
John Hamren (1975) NO
Peter Simer (1975–1983) NO
Jim Ratz (1984–1995) NO
John Gans (1995–2019) NO
Terri Watson (2020–2023) NO
Sandy Colhoun (2023–present) NO
For inspiration and to promote discussion about how NOLS can best update its digital history to honor NOLS Presidents, we asked Perplexity, an AI bot, to "write a 1,000 word NOLS history in the style of Kate Dernocoeur and include all NOLS Presidents from 1965 to 2025". Please click the button below to see what came back
Celebrate NOLS Presidents at Lander Headquarters
The Importance of Temporary Shelters and a Permanent Structure at NOLS
NOLS started in Sinks Canyon by the Popo Agie River in a small cabin originally built as a support structure for the Sinks Canyon Power Plant. A modest shelter for what was to become an international outdoors school. The importance of bringing shelter, finding shelter or making temporary shelter has always been an essential part of NOLS teaching how to not just survive, but survive comfortably, in the wilderness. Thelma-Fly, tarps, A-frame, dome, double wall, and ultralight tents have been introduced on NOLS courses as technology advanced.
There is a striking contrast between NOLS temporary shelters in the wilderness and the permanence of NOLS headquarters in Lander. The structure is visually massive and big enough to house all the front country functions of an international school. Built in 2001, its presence says, “NOLS is here to stay in Lander. HQ is never going to be moved like a lightweight tent.” Until recently, all NOLS Presidents and their Executive Team have lived in Lander and worked in HQ. Leadership was actively connected to the Rocky Mountain Branch just down Lincoln Street in the Lumberyard.
Now things have changed. The NOLS Executive Team is dispersed. Necessary overhead cost reductions have fewer people working at Headquarters. Some who live in Lander say HQ feels empty, is locked and semi-abandoned. Would NOLS have been better off having HQ more like a tent?
For its 60th Anniversary, NOLS should reaffirm the permanence of its Headquarters. Even with a dispersed Executive Team, NOLS can make this work. The school's physical center needs to hold. One symbol of this commitment is an HQ Wall of Honor for past NOLS Presidents, which was started by John Gans. The next step is to review its current status. By visibly celebrating the leadership legacy at HQ, NOLS reinforces continuity and a sense of place for staff and visitors, reminding all that the school’s foundation remains anchored in Wyoming even as NOLS adapts and grows.
Celebrate NOLS Presidents in the Public Forum
In 2019, NOLS established its first-ever endowed chair to honor the legacy of President John Gans. Permanently funded by donor contributions, the Gans Chair for Public Policy gives NOLS a strong voice in the public forum, dedicated to protecting the wilderness classrooms that embody NOLS' First Core Value.“Wilderness is at the heart of what we do. We seek out the natural, remote, and uncertain for the kind of accountability, inspiration, and meaningful challenge that only wilderness can provide.”
For the past six years, the Gans Chair for Public Policy position has gone unfilled. There was the COVID pandemic, NOLS President transitions from John Gans to Terri Watson to Sandy Colhoun first as Interim President then as NOLS new President - rapid change and uncertainty. The endowment was not fully funded, and NOLS did not have surplus cash to cover the shortfall. Now on better financial footing and having reached the endowment's $2MM funding goal, NOLS should be ready to fill the Public Policy Chair.
By staffing the endowed position, NOLS can publicly recognize Gans for having successfully led the school for 25 years – the longest serving of any NOLS executive director or president. During his tenure, every year NOLS was financially in the black, the number of students educated increased over 10 fold from 2,700 a year to 29,000 a year, the endowment went from non-existent to $60 million and the net worth of the school grew from $6.5 to $100 million.
NOLS Self-Assembly
Our purpose is to serve as a link between NOLS and the greater NOLS community for an open discussion about how NOLS can stay true to its Mission and the practice of Expedition Behavior. We have consistently reached out to the NOLS Board and the Executive Team as a group. We aim to engage with open inquiry and constructive and generative dialogue.
