Brian Schweitzer
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Radio: Bio of Brian Schweitzer
December 24, 2006
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On November 2, 2004 Brian was elected as Montana's first Democratic governor since 1988. Brian Schweitzer became the 23rd governor of the great state of Montana on January 3, 2005.
Schweitzer was born in Havre in 1955, the fourth of six children -- five sons and a daughter -- of Kay and Adam Schweitzer. He was raised on his parent's registered cattle ranch in the Judith Basin, Montana. His German and Irish grandparents immigrated to Montana near the turn of the century and homesteaded in Hill County. His parents still farm near Geyser.
Schweitzer earned a bachelor's degree in international agronomy from Colorado State University, and later earned a master's in soil science from Montana State University. Brian married Nancy Hupp, his college sweetheart, in 1981. Nancy was raised in Billings and received her bachelor's in botany from Montana State University.
After graduation, the two began a career of irrigation development that took them to Africa, Asia, Europe and South America. He has built hundreds of miles of roads, poured thousands of yards of concrete, buried many miles of pipe, and built hundreds of structures, from houses to warehouses to distillation plants. During seven years in Saudi Arabia, Schweitzer developed over 28,000 acres of irrigated cropland. They returned to Montana in 1986 to raise a family and to build a ranching and irrigation business in Montana.
His business and agricultural experience is broad and deep, including extensive farming and ranching experience in Montana, and successful agricultural business projects on five continents. Schweitzer has owned and operated Montana farms in Flathead, Sanders, Rosebud, and Judith Basin Counties.
In 1993, Schweitzer was appointed by the U.S. secretary of agriculture to serve on the Montana State USDA Farm Service Agency committee. He served for seven years with the FSA, and his three-person committee was responsible for the operation of 46 county offices, 300 employees and a budget of more than $300 million. He resigned in 1999 to run for U.S. senate.
Schweitzer has been active in developing and implementing national farm policy, and ensuring that the voice of local Montanans is heard. In 1995, he received an award from the Secretary of Agriculture for outreach efforts to Native Americans. In 1996, Schweitzer was appointed to the Montana Rural Development Partnership Board. In 1999, he was appointed to the National Drought Task Force, a 16-member national board, to review policy and report to congress an improved coordination response to drought emergencies nationwide.
Schweitzer's life experiences are extensive and diverse. He has learned to fly his own plane, obtained a Montana Boiler's license, has communicated in several languages and has a chemical applicator's license.
-- Bio provided by the governor's office
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