Favorite Saint: Elena Guerra – Very recently canonized. She appears to be related to my Grandfather. Investigation continues.
Favorite Outside-Of-Work Activity: I like to fish. There is a good chance that I came to work by boat (in the fall and spring). I probably went fishing en route.
Favorite Moment at OLL: When my daughter attended OLL, she made a “Fathers’ Day Tie” in Mrs. Erdman’s kindergarten class. I wore it every year on Fathers’ Day and to her graduation. She has come a long way. Thank you OLL faculty and staff. I love the way she turned out.
Favorite Children’s Book: When I was a child my parents gave me a big fat book for Christmas. It is called “Tell Me Why” and it is still in my personal home library to this day. In one or two pages it fundamentally and succinctly answered hundreds of questions about the natural world, like “What is Thunder? and How Big are Whales? Please see me if you would like to read it.
Favorite Place In Minnesota: Corner booth at Matt’s Bar in South Minneapolis, Home of the original — and best — Juicy Lucy. If you know, you know. They say “you are what you eat.” Is that TMI?
Qualities Your Favorite Teacher Possessed: An Ode to Mr. Rocheleau: You smoked incessantly, like a potbelly stove stoked with wet alder. You personified grumpy, acerbic, and sarcastic better than the old guy from the movie “Up.” You never deemed my potential anything more than mediocrity. Yet, you were a brilliant mathematician — at least so it seemed to a high school student who did not have the answers in his version of the textbook. I remember EVERY teacher I ever had, but you stand out. You believed in the Sisyphean task of satiating the hungry mind. Thank you.
When/how you knew you wanted to work in Education: There is an old saying: “People make Plans, and God Chuckles.” I never planned to work in Education
Education: Altar Boy Award as presented by the Serra Club for 1978 and 1979. Boy Scout, First Class, 1980. Bachelor of Arts from Saint John’s University with majors in Economics and Spanish 1987. Masters of Business Administration from the University of Minnesota Carlson School of Management with an emphasis in finance 1992. Juris Doctorate from the University of Minnesota Law School 1993. Father Of The Year: 2002, 2004, and 2006-09 (according to my collection of coffee cups).