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John Mohan (1936-2003) was a Professor of Russian at Grinnell College from 1973 to 2003. He received his B.S. from Mount St. Mary’s College, an M.A. from Middlebury College, and a Ph.D. from Cornell University. A full professor since 1991, he helped establish the Russian Department in the early 1970s.

The John Mohan Russian Study Award was created in his honor and provides students who have seriously pursued the study of Russian with an opportunity to develop their language skills in the Russian-speaking world.The award enables Grinnell College students to pursue a intense language study during the summer after their second year, or a language study or a project of their own design after graduation. Funding was raised by three devoted friends of the Russian department: Diane Fisher Perkinson ’82, Sharon McKee ’82, and Emily Silliman ’81.

Paul Emmanuel Nilson graduated from Beloit College in 1911, after which he upheld the long tradition of teaching in Tarsus, Turkey, that the college had established. Harriet Fischer Nilson graduated from Wheaton College in 1912, spent a year teaching in California, and then felt called to work in the mission field; in 1913, she was assigned to teach at the Adana girl's school. Paul and Harriet met through the education and missionary system; shortly before Paul returned to the United States to enter the seminary, he proposed to Harriet, who accepted. They were married after the end of World War I. Both continued to teach in Turkey in the cities of Tarsus, Talas, Diyarbakir, and Mardin. The Nilsons retired in 1957 and returned to the United States.

(Information from Stories from the Vineyard by Dorothy Nilson Fyfe)