Work: Semi-retired
Spouse: Marlene
4 children
2 grandchildren
Information update: 08/03/2020

After high school there was 2 years at UMD then 3 plus years at the U of Minn. In 1966 I joined an Army Helicopter National Guard unit in St. Paul. Amazingly, because of presidential politics, we were never activated. I worked for non-profits and got married to Janice Gaarde from the suburbs of Chicago when I was 25. I started my county human services career in St. Paul in 1970. Our marriage lasted 6 years. We have a son, Derek, born in 1971. He is now in respiratory health management and lives in Elk River, MN with his wife Carrie (from Cambridge, MN) and sons Riley (age 1 and 3/4 - leap year day birthday) and Elliot (as in the dragon - age 4).

From Ramsey County I worked for the state of Minnesota for several years, then became a county director in Grand Marais, MN. There I met and (at age 40) married Marlene Nelson from Paynesville, MN. Some time after that I became a values programmer and systems response coordinator for two recently on-line genetic material continuance units - Jacob, now age 27 and a gaming supervisor at Best Buy in the Twin Cities, and Torm, age 25 and working in pharmacy research in Madison, WI. We added an additional unit, Ian, now age 23 and an Army Airborner, who's currently stationed in North Carolina.

My and Marlene's work has taken us to Bayfield, WI; Duluth, Pine City, Blue Earth, Marine on St. Croix, and Braham in MN; and to Dorchester and Waukon in Iowa. All north central midwest locations. Still, in the span of my life, I have heard candidate Dwight D. Eisenhower from atop my dad's shoulders in Duluth where someone yelled "Good luck to you! I come Esko!" I've heard Eleanor Roosevelt in a small conference room and Buckminster Fuller in a big lecture hall; B.F. Skinner and Don Shirley at UMD; and lots and lots of musicians and lots and lots of politicians. My all time favorite politician has been Rudy Perpich, and my favorite civil servant is still John Radosevich. My favorite conference was a Green Party National Convention in Milwaukee (lots of radical librarians).

In thinking about this all, it's clear there have been people - friends - that made it possible to get through high school. There have been friends in college, where I met a bunch of people in the arts, and friends at various jobs and in the communities where I've lived that really have made all the difference in my life. And I now have two lab-mix dogs that take me out to the woods every day and are trying to help me finish growing up. Many many thanks to the organizers of the DC Class of '61 for giving us all the opportunity to reflect back and the chance to meet each other again.