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Autobiography

In 2020 I received notification that I have been awarded The 2020 Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award (Whose Who in America)

I was born in 1935 in Minneapolis to Scandinavian immigrant family. My father was a carpenter and my mother had been a teacher in rural North Dakota. My grandfather on my mother side was a successful business man and my grandfather on my father's side homesteaded in North Dakota and Canada. During the Great Depression my father was out of work when I was born. I had a brother and a half brother. My half brother was mentally injured as a U.S. Marine at Pearl Harbor. He is buried at the national cemetery in Minneapolis. I attended the public schools in Minneapolis and graduated from Roosevelt High School in 1953. My mother was a great fan of Lowell Thomas the famous national commentator and broadcast celebrity and she named me Thomas Lowell in place of the common practice of naming children after an ancestor or conemporary relative. In addition, my mother was instrested in astrology and from a very young age she predicted that I would become a writer. This. however seemed impossible as, like several others in my family I was was dyslectic. I learned that I was in trouble when my second grade teacher told my mother that "this boy will never learn to read". This news, however, did not seem to trouble my mother. Then when I was seven years old my mother contacted tuberculosis and was removed from our home. Needless to say, I was devastated and spent my school day in complete distraction. I was raised by a series of housekeepers who my busy father was forced to hire to run our household. My brother Joe and I managed to get rid of the housekeepers until my father fianally relented and let his two boys do the housework. In an unusual turn of events, I decided that I wanted to use the Korean Bill of Rights to attempt to attend college. Because of my poor high school record, this seemed impossible. Macalester College was my goal, but I was told that they would not accept me because of my grades while attending Roosevelt Hight School in Minneapolis, but I did graduate. I was forced to seek entry to the General College at the University of Minnesota, but before they would consider me I had to be tested. I was tested for two week with ended with the standard IQ test. The testing consulor was surprised with the result, as was I.

I entered the U. S. Airforce in 1953 and worked in security forces as a military policeman from 1953 to 1957. During this time I was stationed in California, Missouri, France and Minneapolis. I was discharged at Wold-Chamberland Air Force base in Minneapolis in June of 1957, having achieved the rank of Airman First Class.

I attended Grand View Junior College in Des Moines Iowa before transferring to Macalester College in Saint Paul Minnesota. I graduated from Macalester in 1961 with a degree in Business Administration, but returned to Macalester to complete additional work in history and geography. I completed a teacher certificate and taught in Evergreen, Colorado, for one year. I returned to Minnesota and took a position in the Edina school district to teach history, government, and geography.

In 1959 I married Nancy Beth Sturgeon and we were blessed with three daughters: Tamara, Taanya and Tracy. As a family we enjoyed family pets, which included dogs and horses. The family moved about in pursuit of educational opportunities. Nancy taught in several schools as an elementary teacher. Nancy was killed in an unfortunate horse accident in 1977. I remaried a widow, Barbara Mosshart in1980. Barbara had three daughters: Lisa, Laurie, and Lindie Mosshart. Barbara was a Speech Therapist in the Odessa schools.

In 1968 I was awarded a Master's degree at Macalester College and I continued my concentration in history and was granted a Coe Fellowship at Macalester College. In 1968 I was granted another Coe Fellowship for advanced studies in history at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California. I was teaching history at Edina High School. Nancy and our family lived in the married student housing compound while at Stanford University. While at Stanford I met Professor Richard E. Gross who would become my colleague in many future projects.

I returned to Edina High School to resume my teaching duties and was invited to attend the University of Colorado in Boulder Colorado. In 1972 I completed the Ph.D. program with an emphasis in Education and Anthropology. While still employed by Edina High School I was asked to teach at Coe College in Cedar Rapids Iowa for one year in place of a professor who had been granted a leave of absence. While at Coe College I was invited to take a position as a founding faculty member for The University of Texas of the Permian Basin (UTPB), a component of the University of Texas, to be located in Odessa, Texas. I resigned my Edina teaching position and joined the founding faculty in Texas. I have remained in Texas since 1973 and retired from the University in 1995. I was granted the title Professor Emeritus and continue to reside in Odessa where most of my time is dedicated to research and writing.

I am the author of many research papers, articles, chapters in books, monographs, textbooks, etc. While at the University I organized the anthropology department, served on the graduate faculty in education, served as the chairman of the graduate council. In addition, I served at Stanford University as a Visiting Scholar, and organized the Citizenship Development Study Project in connection with Stanford and my University. Currently, I am continuing my research into civism, a concept that I pioneered as a result of my work at Stanford related to citizenship education.

 

In 1994 Dr. Richard E Gross and I received a book contract from Pentice-Hall to write a textbook on secondary social studies and the first edition of that textbook was published in 1994. The textbook was entitled: Designing Effective Inatruction for Seconday Social Studies. This textbook was in prints for over twenty-years and was issued in three editions. Several thousand copies were sold and in later years after textbook fell out of date but it was reissued by Wayland Publishing of Chicago and stayed in print for about eight to ten years. This textbook sold thousands of copies and the basic structure was never changed. Occassioinally a copy of the book will sell as it remains a classic for designing instruction in that provides a blueprint for teachers insterested in desiging their own instructional programs. I remain the lead author of this work and currently hold the copyright.

Civism, as I have described it, is a special insight into the means that states and state leaders use to influence, shape and direct the citizens understanding of their role and their identify in reference to the state. This research has led me to investigate the use of persuasive means for the purpose of influencing the political mindset of citizens in various cultures and societies. After completing two written works on civism, I am working on a theoretical work aimed at specifically clarifying the role of civism in politics, society, and culture. This study includes the development of a means, methodology, for analyzing political rhetoric, which is based on ten common themes related to my studies of civism.

 

In 1995 I retired my full professorship from The University of Texas of the Permian basin to pursue my writing interests related to civism and I began writing a series of books related to European history. My initial book entitled Civism: Cultivating Citizenship in European History  which attempted to establish my thoughts on the role of civism in the interpretation of culture, politics, education and great world events. This book  was then followed by a study on Ancient Greek history and philosophy entitled City-state Civism an Anciet Athens. A relatively short but compact study that traced Athenian history, which was followed by a series of biographies of anient Greek scholars, scientists, and phiosophers, and writers. My next project to attempt a series of historical works on Roman History, whch began with two published books enntitled: Rise of the Roman Republic: Reflections on Becoming Roman and Rise of the Roman Empire: The Will to Endure. During my early years of retirement I delivered papers in Europe, which included Oxford University and many visits  to Greece where I delivered several papers at International Philosophical societies sponsored by The University of Athen. During this time, I spent many years traveling throught the Eastern and Central Mediterranean.

 

In 2019 Barbara and I relocated to Georgetown, Texas where we currently live in a senior retirement center. We live near The University of Texas at Austin, which has assisted me with maps, etc. for several years. At present I continue to write major works. My current projects include an early history of the Mediterranean and a third book on Rome related to the rise of Roman sea power. At the same time, my papers are housed in the archival collection at The University of Texas of the Permain Basin where I served as a founding faculty, full professor, and professor emeritus. During these latter years I have received awards for my work and in 2020 I received the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award (Who is Wh in America).

I give credit to my family, especially my mother and my two wives, for the help they gave me during my efforts to construct a successful academic career. I am indebted to Professor Earl Spangler of Macalester College, Professor Bob L. Taylor of the University of Colorado and Professor Richard E. Gross of Stanford University. Professor Gross was my colleague and my friend. We were in constant contact from 1968 to his death in 2004. Dick Gross made it possible for me to go through many doors that are often closed to young scholars, a man with an active and curious mind, but more than that, he was wise and competent in the ways of the intellectual world.