My Career: University of Minnesota
My interest in politics was piqued by a surprising opportunity. I was nearing the end of my Ph.D. program, contemplating an academic career, when a notice came across my desk inviting applications for the California Legislative Intern Program. I applied for it and got it. Most of the others were law or political science majors. I think I got it mainly because I was an economist.

I served a year on the staff of the California Assembly Water Committee and enjoyed that year in Sacramento. The experience gave me a pretty good idea of how practical politics at that level were practiced. But I wasn’t going into politics—I was going into academia.

I interviewed at both the University of Illinois and the University of Minnesota, and received offers from both. I accepted the offer from the University of Minnesota (pictured at left.) When I arrived in St. Paul, I found one of my old pals from Kindergarten through high school, Jimmy Goetz (pictured at right, 1968), already in the Statehouse, as Lieutenant Governor. But then, Jimmy has always been not one or two, but several dozen steps ahead of me. That lad always had talent.

My career at the U. of Minnesota spanned twenty-three years. One day a notice came across my desk inviting applications under the Intergovernmental Personal Act for a one-year assignment as Scientific Advisor to the Assistant Secretary of the Army (Civil Works). They wanted applicants who had experience in natural resource economics. Hey, that was my specialty. I applied for the slot and got it. The Assistant Secretary was located in the E-ring of the Pentagon. It was a fantastic opportunity to see politics in action at the national level.

While at Minnesota, I spent another two of those years in Africa, as Visiting Professor of Agricultural Economics at the University of Nairobi in Kenya (picture at right.) While there I co-authored a provisional economics text with Professor C. Ackello-Ogutu, Head of the U. of Nairobi’s Agricultural Economics Department.

During my years at Minnesota I was active in local Democratic politics, serving as precinct chair for a period and delegate to various district and state conventions. That was interesting enough, but small potatoes compared to my old Republican pal, Jimmy Goetz. I sure wish I had his talent.

Click on a chapter title to read more...
Growing Up in Green County
From Farm Boy to Marine
Education: Fulfillment of "The Epiphany"
Influences of the 1960s
My Career: University of Minnesota
My Career: New Mexico State University & Sultan Qaboos University in Oman
Bush's War in the Middle East
Return to Green County