Hometown: Kearney, Nebraska

When did you become a member of UMRA? In 2007, six months after I retired. 

What was your very first job? I grew up on a farm and was involved in farm work as soon as I was able. My father died when I was a sophomore in high school. Then my work as a farmer/rancher increased tremendously. My mother and I entered into an agreement with my cousin’s husband to work and manage our two farms cooperatively. There was no paycheck. Classes in vocational agriculture in high school required keeping records of income, expenses, and hours worked. One year showed that I had lost about 25 cents for every hour worked. This prompted me to consider alternative career options!

What was your occupation when you retired from FT work? At the conclusion of my 39 years on the biochemistry faculty I was busy teaching biochemistry and also a high-enrollment course in biology that fulfilled a liberal education requirement. Especially satisfying was the development of an online course in biochemistry which, over a period of 6 years, reached more than 200 students in 25 states and 6 foreign countries. I also served as director of the general biology program.  

If you could learn a new skill, what would you like it to be? It would be fun to renew and expand my acquaintance with playing the piano.

Do you have a favorite place on the U of M campus? The Itasca Biological Station and Laboratories located in Itasca State Park. I participated in Nature of Life, the program of the College of Biological Sciences that welcomes and introduces incoming freshman students in the college to the collegiate experience. Until the pandemic interrupted, 17 years of this program welcomed more than 6,000 students at Itasca. One can’t help but enjoy this place where the pine trees tower overhead and the wild rice and water lilies grow in the shallows of the lake.

What is a fun fact about you we might not know? One summer when I was an undergraduate and doing farm work, I used a farm tractor and a two-bottom plow to form about 8,000 feet of terraces which now, 60 years later, are clearly evident in the satellite view of the farm where I grew up. I left my mark on the earth!