Montpelier - Reidun D. Nuquist, aged 78, of Montpelier passed away on November 26, 2018 at her home from cancer.
She was born Gerd Reidun Dahle on June 13, 1940, in Kongsberg, Norway, two months after German forces invaded the country in the Second World War. Although residents of Oslo, her parents, Jon Eilefeson and Margit (Haugen) Dahle, chose a hospital closer to Reidun's maternal grandparents for her delivery.
Reidun attended Oslo public schools, majoring in English from the local gymnasium. Following language study in England, she entered the three-year Norwegian State Library School, where she focused on special and academic library work.
While still in school, Reidun met Andrew S. Nuquist of Burlington, Vermont, through common relatives who resided in Oslo. They were married on July 12, 1963, in the small Norwegian country church where her parents and grandparents had been married. Andrew and Reidun's first home together was officers' quarters at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, where Andrew served as a commissioned social work officer at the post hospital.
His tour of duty over, they moved to Cleveland where Reidun worked in the foreign language department of the main Cleveland Public Library, in charge of Scandinavian and other language collections. Their son Andrew Jon Nuquist was born in Cleveland in 1967.
That year they moved to Boston where Andrew had a fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital, and Reidun was a stay-at-home mother. Although content in Boston's Back Bay and later in Brookline, they chose to bring up their son in Vermont, closer to grandparents and nature. Thus, in 1970 they moved north to Montpelier where Andrew went to work for the Department of Mental Health.
The following year, Reidun was hired as assistant librarian of the Vermont Historical Society, a position she held until 1983 when she was appointed head librarian. Her years at the VHS were professionally fulfilling. A lifelong student of history, she reveled in the 'sleuthing' required to answer reference questions, and worked hard to make the society library resources more accessible to research.
In addition to extensive cataloging, she indexed thousands of pages of the society's periodicals. She also indexed books on Vermont history. She initiated a Vermont History column, which presented excerpts from the library's rich manuscript collections, and regular bibliographic listings of new additions to the library. At the VHS Reidun worked under five executive directors, most notably Weston A. Cate and Michael Sherman.
From 1991 to 2000, Reidun worked as a reference librarian at the University of Vermont's Bailey/Howe Library, starting in the Special Collections Department and moving on to the Documents and Maps Department and the Reference

Departments, where her duties included course-specific bibliographic instruction. She retired as assistant library professor in 2000.
Having grown up hiking, biking, and cross-country skiing in Norway, the outdoors were always an important part of Reidun's life. She and Andrew were long-time members of the Green Mountain Club (GMC). Together they led over 400 club outings. Reidun served as president of the club's Montpelier Section in three different decades and on the club's board of directors. Combining her interests and skills, she wrote numerous articles on GMC and Long Trail history for the Long Trail News; was chief author of A Trip Leaders' Handbook: Advice for Successful GMC Outings; edited So Cool, So Clear, So Grand: A 1931 Hike on Vermont's Long Trail by James Gordon Hindes; and wrote a key chapter of the GMC's centennial history, A Century in the Mountains: Celebrating Vermont's Long Trail. During the last years of her life she completed A Century of Long Trail Guidebooks: A Retrospective. In spite of her love of research and writing, Reidun always said that her favorite volunteer work was grubbing on the Long Trail, especially cleaning out waterbars. For her many contributions, the GMC made her an honorary life member in 1995 and presented her with two president's awards.
Reidun's life was always a balance of outdoors and cultural activities. She took pleasure in literature, art, film, theater, and music, particularly opera. She and Andrew attended numerous live opera performances every year, in Vermont, New Hampshire, Montreal, Boston, and Cooperstown, N.Y. While the Green Mountain Opera Festival lasted, both served on the festival's advisory council.
Reidun also volunteered for the Green Mountain Film Festival, the T. W. Wood Gallery, and the Central Vermont chapter of UVM's Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, where she was long involved with programming. She was a member of the Center for Research on Vermont and a fellow of the Vermont Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 1975, she and two good friends started a book discussion group that is still going strong.
With Andrew, Reidun was an ardent traveler. They visited family and friends in Norway most years, often including hiking in her childhood mountains of Telemark. While still in their twenties, they did Europe on three-month Eurail Passes on under $5 a day, including opera and museum tickets. With friends, they took long camping and canoe trips in Canada, and in 1988 they led a Lake Champlain end-to-end paddling trip, co-sponsored by the GMC and the Lake Champlain Committee. After retiring, they took many overseas trips with non­ profit Road Scholar. On their own, they walked several of the national trails in Great Britain.
Reidun is survived by her husband Andrew of 55 years; her son Andrew Jon Nuquist of Malden, Mass; her brother Harald Dahle and wife Sissel of Kobotn, Norway; sister-in-law Elizabeth (Nuquist) Raby and husband Jim of North Miami Beach, Florida; nephew Omar Sobrino and his family of Miami, Florida; niece Sara A. Sobrino of New Braunfels, Texas; goddaughters Jill (Phillips) Berry of Stroud, England, and Randi Skardal of Valer, Norway; as well as numerous Norwegian cousins and friends.

Memorial contributions may be made to the Green Mountain Club, 4711 Waterbury-Stowe Road, Waterbury Center, VT 05677, www.greenmountainclub.org; or to the T. W. Wood Gallery, 46 Barre Street, Montpelier, VT 05602, www.twwoodgallery.org.
A celebration of Reidun's life will be held at the Green Mountain Club Visitor Center in Waterbury Center on Saturday December 15, 2018 starting at 2:00 pm. All are welcome.