Mr. Nolteâ??s interests extended well beyond the Middle East. From 1988 to 1996, he was chairman of the American Geographical Society. The organization has provided geographical counseling to foreign policymakers since 1851, advising on matters like the Panama Canal and European borders for the Versailles Peace Treaty after World War I.
Mary Lynne Bird, the current executive director of the society, said Mr. Nolte led negotiations with the University of Wisconsin in 1978 when ownership of the societyâ??s collection of maps, journals by explorers, artifacts from explorations and surveys went to the university, transferred to its library in a caravan of 20 trucks.