Completed in 1970 and dedicated on May 28, 1973, to best friends Dr. Harold T. Hagg and Dr. Philip R. Sauer, Hagg-Sauer Hall was built during an era of dramatic growth for the Bemidji State College campus. The 82,478-square-foot classroom and faculty office complex is one of eight buildings that were either constructed or planned during the two-and-a-half-year presidency of Dr. Harry Bangsberg, which began in September 1964 and was cut tragically short when Bangsberg and his entire advisory party were killed in a March 1967 plane crash in Vietnam.

In its nearly 50-year history, more than a dozen academic programs have made their homes in Hagg-Sauer Hall, and more than 750 faculty, staff and graduate assistants have had offices in the building. Departments housed in the building have included criminal justice, mathematics and computer science, English, geography, history, modern languages and indigenous and ethnic studies, philosophy, political science, psychology, ROTC, sociology, social work, women’s and gender studies, and more. The hall also has provided class-rooms and seminar rooms, writing centers, various media centers and program-specific libraries, cartography and computer labs and tutoring rooms. Other organizations such as the Center for Professional Development, Honors Program and Liberal Education Committee also have made their homes in the building.

Hagg-Sauer Hall was built directly on the practice field used by the Minnesota Vikings when they held their summer camps in Bemidji between 1961-65.

The university updated its master facilities plan in the mid-2000s and identified an update to Hagg-Sauer Hall as one of its top priorities. A years-long campaign to replace the aging building took its first significant step forward in 2014, when BSU received $1 million from the state legislature for construction and renovation planning. Gov. Mark Dayton included the project on his pre-session bonding priorities list in both 2016 and 2017. But it took until 2018 for the project to become a reality, when the legislature allocated $22.512 million for construction. Gov. Dayton signed that bill into law on May 30, 2018.

Dr. Harold T. Hagg

Dr. Harold T. Hagg joined the Bemidji State faculty in 1936, where he would spend four decades immersed in research on the Northern Minnesota region before he retired in 1976. He wrote prolifically on the history and geography of Bemidji, the Mississippi Headwaters region and the state of Minnesota throughout his career.

Born July 24, 1909, to Theodore and Sigrid (Tenggren) Hagg in Rochelle, Ill., Hagg earned a bachelor’s degree from Cornell College in Iowa before teaching at the University of Iowa High School. He went on to earn master’s and doctorate degrees from the University of Iowa, in 1933 and 1936, respectively.

He joined the Bemidji State Teachers College faculty as an instructor and later as a professor and division chair for history. He also served in the U.S. Navy during World War II.

He married Renate Fandrey on June 27, 1940, in Carver, Minn. At the time of his death in 2001 at age 96, Hagg and his wife had two daughters, four grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.

Dr. Philip R. Sauer

Dr. Philip R. Sauer joined the Bemidji State Teachers College faculty in 1937 as a professor of English and rose through the ranks to become division chair of languages and literature before retiring in 1975.

After agreeing to temporarily replace the school’s only other foreign-languages faculty member, he enjoyed a position as a professor of German — a temporary assignment he held for 25 years.

A native of Winona, Minn., Sauer taught at Winona High School for three years before earning his doctorate and joining the BSTC faculty. He published numerous articles and books on church history and hymns, education and language, nature study and German culture.

He earned his undergraduate degree at Northwestern College, earned his master’s degree at the University of Wisconsin and his doctorate from the University of Freiburg, Germany.

Sauer married Elizabeth “Betty” McLaughlin on July 1, 1936, in Winona, Minn. They lived across from the A.C. Clark Library, next door to the David Park House. The Sauer family donated the house to the university, and since 2004 the Sauer House has been home to the BSU Alumni Association.

At the time of his death in 2001, Sauer and his wife had three sons, nine grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren.

Bemidji State University thanks the more than 750 faculty, staff and graduate assistants who have called Hagg-Sauer Hall home since 1974. This list has been compiled by the Office of Communications & Marketing using the best available resources, and we regret any oversights or omissions.

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