Art grew up in St. Paul Minnesota, the oldest of
three boys. Each went through the public school system
and on the University of Minnesota, each grew up in
Macalester Presbyterian Church, on the edge of
Macalester College, each went through Scouting from Cubs
to Explorers, and each become an Eagle Scout. Their Dad
would have received the “Silver Beaver” Award for
service to Scouting on behalf of his boys – except for
the one-year break between the two older brothers
finishing with the Explorer Post and their younger
brother beginning with the Pack.
Mom’s family hosted the summers at their lake
cottages in Northern Wisconsin – where these Minnesotans
learned to fish, swim, water ski – and drive the power
boats they built at home over the winters.
His Dad and Grandfather owned a small advertising
specialties business which, at one time or another,
employed each of the boys and other family members.
Family gatherings were peppered with stories of
business, selling, and clients -- along with the lake,
school, and “the old days.” (Great grandparents, great
aunts and great uncles had immigrated from England,
Scotland, and Germany. The parents’ generation was the
first in these families to go to college – and all of
the siblings went. Mom and Dad had gone to “the U” with
Marlin Perkins, Eric Severide, and Charles Schultz. You
can just imagine the stories.)
Graduation from the University sent the boys three
ways: the youngest into journalism (he is now one of the
five science writers for the Associated Press in New
York), the middle into teaching and then in to the
ministry (having served in the pulpit, at his
seminary, and at the Presbyterian Foundation as its Vice
President for Development, he now runs a private
fund-raising firm serving non-profits around the world),
and Art (the Electrical Engineer who “majored in ROTC,”
according to the Dean of Electrical Engineering) to the
United States Air Force. Art flew in combat, served wing
and major command staffs, and commanded a squadron that
brought a new weapon system from full-scale development
to operational status.
During his military career, Art served under men on
their way to become, for example, the first head of the
Department of Defense Test and Evaluation (upon its
creation), the Commandant of the Air Force Academy, The
Commander of the Tactical Air Command, the Vice Chief of
Staff of the Air Force, and the Chief of Staff of the
Air Force. This “school in residence” provided
unparalleled insight into how great leaders develop –
and into how very large organizations operate in the
clash of competition for scarce resources with which to
achieve missions of national importance.
He also earned Master’s Degrees in both Public and
Business Administration, served on the Board of
Directors of the Quality and Productivity Institute in
Nevada, and on the faculty of the US Senate Productivity
Award, both teaching the examiners and participating
with them in business, health care, and academic
applicant examinations for this Malcolm Baldrige-based
award.
With these experiences, he launched his private
management consulting practice, serving both public
sector and private sector clients – from one-deep
product businesses to major research public
institutions.
He returned full-time to Nellis Air Force Base as a
contractor after 911, providing six years of technical
writing services and advice on Air Force weapons test
design, planning, and reporting. While there as the task
lead, he provided technical proposal consulting to his
$26+ Billion technical services company and ran the
recruiting and selection processes to staff the
contractor support to the client’s five fighter test
teams (A-10, F-15C and F-15E, F-16, and F-22). Several
of these teams have won national awards.
Today, his company provides management and business
start-up, tune-up, strategy, and process design advice
to owner-entrepreneurs, non-profit Boards, churches and
faith-based services ministries, the defense industry
and government (on operational test issues), and other
consulting services for clients primarily in Nevada.
Through an associate, he also provides professional
website content expression advice across the country.
He and his family have remained involved in their
church throughout Art’s military career – across the
country and around the world. A Presbyterian all his
life, Art is has been ordained
and has served both as an Elder and (with his wife) as a
Deacon in his local church. He has been an Elder-Commissioner
from his local church to the Nevada Presbytery, now
serves
the Presbytery : as its Southern Nevada delegate to
the Religious Alliance In Nevada, on its Committee on
Preparation for the Ministry, its Personnel Committee,
as its Vice Moderator, Moderator, and now Past Moderator
(Coordinating Council Chair) - and has served as one of its
Elder-Commissioners to the Synod of the Pacific which he
served as a member of the Nominating and Mission
Personnel Committees. Art regularly presents at
Regional and National conferences of the Administrative
Personnel Association and the Presbytery's Equipping
Ministries events.
Art is married to Georgia - his college sweetheart - who runs the
gift shop she has owned since 1978. They have
two married daughters (one a high school English
teacher, the other a sign-language interpreter for the deaf), two
great sons-in-law (one a high school administrator, the
other (a retired military inspector and trainer of Air Force
ammunition units) now a warehouse receiving supervisor), and three grandchildren
in high school and college (!) and who are just
the lights of their grandparents' lives.
