05/23/2026
âNot the slight shaft
Of slender marble on his resting place;
But the tall shining tower on the sky
Outlined against a background of blue space.
This was the dream he had; these splendid spires,
Beauty and service met in one clear word,
And crystallized in lasting stone to make,
A memorial, impregnable, unblurred.â
-Introduction to âHibbing Junior College in World War II and the Korean Crisis: Volume I,â Collected and Compiled by Mona Penfound.
Our collection at the historical society includes many thoroughly kept scrapbooks that capture moments in time. This Memorial Day weekend, weâd like to highlight a set of 3 books with a lasting impact and the teacher from Hibbing who created them.
Mona Helen Penfound was born in 1887, in Canada, to Nicholas and Alice Penfound. Her father was a carpenter, and his work brought their family to Superior, Wisconsin, in 1891 where he was employed by the Superior Shipbuilding company.
After graduating from high school, Mona began her teaching career in Superior. While teaching, she continued her education, enrolling in the Superior Normal School, which was created by the Wisconsin legislature specifically to train schoolteachers. Eventually becoming part of the University of Wisconsin, the Library School graduated Ms. Penfound in 1914 with a 4-year Bachelor of Arts.
After graduation, Miss Penfound came to Hibbing. She began teaching 5th grade at the Jefferson and Washington School buildings in North Hibbing in 1915, before becoming an English teacher at the Lincoln High School. By the 1921-22 school year, she had moved to the Hibbing High School.
In 1923, she was solely responsible for adding Journalism as a course to the high school curriculum. In addition to the regular students she taught, she required that the entire staff of the weekly newsletter and annual Hematite attend the class each year. She was the staff advisor for both publications.
Throughout the 1920s and 30s, in addition to becoming a naturalized citizen, she moved from the Hibbing High School to the Hibbing Junior College. She worked with the University of Minnesota extension division to offer Shakespeare courses and programs for the students commemorating notable poets and authors.
As was customary for teachers at the time, she never married. Instead, she spent her time devoted to her students, venturing with the Travel Club to Ireland, serving on various committees for school activities, and using her writing skills to publicize student organizations.
In 1948, the Junior College Annual was dedicated to her:
âWebsterâs definition of the noun âdedicationâ applies very well to this 1948 Annual, for âto devote to the service of beingâ certainly refers to the adviser of the yearly publication, Miss Mona Penfound. Her âdevotion and serviceâ have long been a behind-the-scenes force in creating a series of annuals which have been treasured as life keepsakes by students of the Hibbing Junior College. Miss Penfoundâs efforts and labors have spurred on many a Collegian staff to produce an annual worth of the high esteem of students and faculty alike. This year we express our most sincere appreciation for her years of counsel and advice.â
She retired sometime in the early 1950s, and eventually moved back to Superior to be with family still residing there. She died on June 5, 1986, at 99 years old.
These three scrapbooks were kept in the Hibbing Junior College Library until she donated them to the Museum in April of 1981.
Entitled âHibbing Junior College in World War II and the Korean Crisis,â her three books contain hundreds of clippings about local young people, honoring their service and, sometimes, recording their deaths.
For Miss Penfound, this wasnât just an auxiliary project. These were her students. They were families in a community sheâd been a part of for 40 years.
For an entire decade, from September of 1943 until 1953, she diligently saved articles from local papers, tracing their movements, achievements, and tragedies from the time they enlisted. She placed a gold star by those who were killed in action.
