Continuing our series of member spotlight stories, we asked Mark Hillman to share his perspective and personal journey with SFHS.
Mark remembers when Syrene Forsman and Norm Westberg were developing the Swedish Finn Historical Society. It was during this time when the primary focus was finding our members’ ancestors in Finland. Mark already had the names of his ancestors, so he didn’t need to build his family tree. He grew up with an understanding of Swedish traditions and culture.
What Mark discovered was the Finnish side of being a Swede Finn. Some of his ancestors moved from Sweden to Finland as early as 1324. Others made the move during the 17th century.
Being a part of SFHS gave Mark permission to consider his ‘Finnishness’.
Finland, the country that came to be the ‘Happiest Country in the World’ due to its fairness and treatment of its people. Finland has outstanding education and health care systems. Finland is a great nation. Today Mark is a proud Finn, and a proud Swede Finn.
You may know of Mark as the emcee for various SFHS events or for being an advocate of bicycling through Finland. He did both, several times. It was in the mid 1980’s when Mark became a member of the Board of Directors at SFHS.
