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An eccentric’s resumé
Harry Welty – 1950 to present

Born in Kansas to a family of teachers Harry moved to Mankato, Minnesota in 1963 and graduated from Mankato High School in 1969 and Mankato State College in 1973 with a degree in Secondary Education.

Married to Claudia in 1974 and moved to Duluth in August of 74 to teach History and coach swimming in Proctor.

Sold insurance from 76 to 1978

Substitute teacher from 1979 to 1983

Teacher in Duluth from 1983 to 87

From 1987 to present, House Dad, snow sculptor, local eccentric

Also began a political career to rival Harold Stassen by running against Mike Jaros in 1976 for the state legislature. It was the first of seven unsuccessful political campaigns. Began turning the corner with an election victory to the School Board in 1995.

1976, 1978 vs. Jaros, lost
1989, 1991, 1993 School Board, lost
2000, State Senate Campaign, lost
1989 ran for Congress, lost
1995, 99 ran for School Board, elected & reelected

Highlights and lowlights while serving on the Duluth School Board.

Edison Schools begun 1997

Selection of a new Superintendent 1997

Passing the 1997 excess levy

Avoidance of a strike in 1998

Negotiating biddable insurance 1998

Surviving community meetings which were held in early 2001

Anecdotes:

My mother’s father, George Robb, was the last of seven surviving children born to Thomas and Lottie Robb in their home built into the side of a hill near Salina, Kansas in 1987. All the children graduated from high school, many became teachers, several attained post graduate degrees including my Grandfather who earned his masters in History from Columbia University in New York City. At age 30 he quit his job as a school principal and enlisted in the Army to fight in WW1. He was assigned to be an officer in the 369th Infantry Regiment, an all black unit raised on the streets of Harlem. He was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his services during the war.

I lived in Topeka, Kansas, when Brown vs. Topeka Board of Education was handed down in 1954. I was a second grade student in the fall of 1958 when the black students from a segregated neighborhood school arrived en mass to my elementary school.

In the fall of 1967 I was a junior in the all-white Mankato High School when my family acted as host to the school’s first black student in memory, an Ethiopian exchange student named Bedru Beshir. Bedru was probably also the first Muslim student at the high school.