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Stan Bolsenga is shown with two wooden shorebirds he carved and painted.
The Ice Man Carveth
Retired glacial researcher is wood-carving artist
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Story by Joseph Zyble - Photos courtesy of Stan Bolsenga
unising resident Stan Bolsenga has an eye for detail. It’s evident in the bird sculptures he carves and paints. It’s also apparent in the many scientific studies and reports he’s authored or co-authored while he was active as a research glaciologist for 30 years. A wood carving titled “short-billed dowitcher” that he entered in the 2019 Northern Exposure Exhibit, an annual regional art competition sponsored by the Bonifas Arts Center in Escanaba, was chosen as the Marquette Monthly’s best in show.
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Marquette Monthly
October 2021
For Bolsenga, art was not something that he thought about early in his life. Of course, becoming a glaciologist wasn’t in his plans either. Nor would he have ever imagined he would spend his retirement years in the U.P. “It’s kind of a funny story,” he said about his first job after college, which actually led him to the U.P. Bolsenga, who was raised near Evanston, Ill., graduated from the University of Colorado with a degree in geology. The Snow, Ice and Permafrost Research Establishment, a company that was based near his
hometown, offered him a job. “They were looking for a geologist that they could turn into a glaciologist,” Bolsenga said, noting that the field station where he would be assigned was in a town in Michigan he was not familiar with: Houghton. He considered the company’s offer, looked at the map and spied Houghton Lake. “I thought, well, that’s not too bad. I can drive home every weekend and party with my friends,” he said. He accepted the job, found out that Houghton was not Houghton Lake,
