Governor's Heritage Award - Gordon Tracie

Gordon Ekvall Tracie of Seattle, Washington was one of the world’s leading experts on Scandinavian folk music and dance. He studied Scandinavian folklore in Oslo and Stockholm during the 1940s and ’50s. In 1948, he organized a folk dance club, which later became the Skandia Folkdance Society. Traveling in Norway and Sweden, Tracie researched folk music and dance and made numerous recordings, many of which were released on LP records in the United States. Two generations of Scandinavian folk dancers in Washington owe their knowledge of Scandinavian folk dance to Tracie’s teachings. Tracie’s 1961 booklet, The Folk Music of Sweden was commissioned by the Swedish Broadcasting Corporation and, in 1975, he visited Scandinavia on behalf of the Smithsonian, to find musicians and dancers for the U.S. Bicentennial celebration. In 1962 and 1978 he received medals from the king of Sweden. Mr. Tracie passed away late in 1988, before he could be informed that he was a Governor’s Heritage Awardee.