Ken Dragseth

Follow your dreams. What do you want to do tomorrow? What do you want to do today? What are your dreams? If you don’t live your drams, you don’t live your life. Life is not a spectator sport. You want to be in the field playing! I applaud you for getting involved.

Ken Dragseth

My name is Ken Dragseth. I was born September 10th, 1945, on a dairy farm near Madison, South Dakota. Along with three brothers and one sister, twenty cousins lived within nine miles of our house. I graduated with twenty kids that had stayed together from kindergarten through twelfth grade. Sports made the school days go by quicker.

I played a lot of baseball. Pitching for two Little League teams in one summer ruined my arm; however, both of my teams made it to the championship. After much thought, I chose to pitch for the underdogs.

My brothers were also good at sports. However, my brother Gary suffered from polio. He spent eleven years in and out of the hospital. When Gary finally came home with a cast, kids made fun of him. Through this experience, I learned that kids can be cruel. My brother never would have survived without someone to help him.

My mother was a school teacher before I was born. Dad was a free spirit. Senators Humphrey and McGovern came to my house to talk politics. I thought this was a normal experience that all kids had.

My parents were unable to give any money for my college. Gary’s operations nearly wiped them out. I was a good student, so I was able to receive some scholarships. However, I still had to work four jobs to pay the bills.

At my meat packing plant job, I learned not to waste. We used everything on a pig right down to the pituitary gland. Through this work experience I also realized that getting a good education was very important. I did not want to spend the rest of my life working at the plant splitting swine skulls in half.

When I graduated from college, I was offered a job teaching math at South View Middle School in Edina. While teaching there, I received a call from someone about my brother, David. He had been diagnosed with cancer. I went to see my brother David, not thinking this would be my last visit with him. Through my brother’s life and death, I learned about the impact a person can have on many other people’s lives. My brother was a teacher.

I was drafted during the Vietnam War. For two years I served as a supply officer for the Navy. When I came back from serving our country, a teacher asked me how my summer was. This reminded me that treating others with respect and making them feel like you actually care about them is important.

Now at the age of 60, I am finishing my career in education as the superintendent of Edina’s public schools. I plan to spend more time with my wife, children and grandchildren.