HELLO, my name is David Hansen
Hometown: St. Paul. My father was a professor of forest ecology. I grew up three or four blocks from the St. Paul campus. And I was fortunate that, back then, forest ecology was taught at Itasca State Park in the summer. So I spent all summer, from the year I was born until sixth grade, at Itasca.
When did you join UMRA? My wife, Karen Lilley, retired from the University in 2011, and I think we both joined at that time.
What was your very first job? Working at a family-run resort at Leech Lake in northern Minnesota, a summer job. I did everything from cleaning fish to launching and parking boats, hauling garbage, mowing the grass, keeping customers happy, and helping at the store. It was good. Our family cabin was walking distance to the resort and next to a Native American village. So, from then till now, I have had friends and done things with the Native Americans there. That's affected my life quite a bit.
What was your role when you retired from full-time work? Making the University look good. Communicating visually, for the Minnesota Agricultural Experiment Station, the research discoveries of the University that affect everyday people, primarily in Minnesota, using pictures. Everything from agronomy to zebra mussels: crops, livestock, horticulture, family social science, alternative energy. The list goes on and on.
What did you value the most about the work? Well, it was extremely satisfying to see things about University research in print. Early in my career I photographed the first prescribed burn on the edge of Itasca State Park. It was a great science story—progressive, educational—and the Minneapolis Tribune used it on the front page.
I remember my dad saying, “By the time the public learns about research, it's usually a human generation away from when the researchers themselves knew it. That's 20 years. But something like this speeds it up so much compared to publishing in some journal and getting talked about at scientific conventions.” So, I thought, you know, we're helping the educators, we're helping the University, we're helping the public. It’s a win, win, win. And that kept me going.
Your family was close to the agronomist and Noble Peace Prize laureate Norman Borlaug. Do you have a special memory you’d be willing to share? When my father was a teaching assistant he had Norman Borlaug as a student, even though they were close in age. Somehow they clicked and became lifelong friends. One time, we were sitting and talking in the backyard at my house, just the two of us, about changing the world. What makes the biggest impact in the world besides a natural disaster? And how can humans change the world, for better or worse?
It was Norman Borlaug’s very firm opinion that education is the only way to change behavior and change the world, for the better. He loved and he understood life, people, human behavior, psychology, politics, religion. I mean, he was like a thousand-year type of thinker.
What's a fun fact about you we might not know? My full-time career now is Christmas trees. Five days a week, nine months of the year. I produce, grow, and sell Christmas trees at the Hansen Tree Farm in Anoka, north of the Twin Cities. I loved my University work, every day. Truly. But I love this, too.
And your favorite Christmas tree? Balsam fir, abies balsamea. It's a beautiful, perfect tree for the Great Lakes region.