Hucks Gone Wi-Fi (Cont.) w/ Nils Rosdahl

DFO: How beneficial is it to you to also work as a paid journalist?
NR: The on-the-job experience is extremely valuable for teaching. The students feel that the information that you’re giving them is real and useful. It provides in-roads for my students to get internships and jobs in the news industry and public relations.

DFO: Have any of your students gone into teaching?
NR: Several. They’re all around the nation. And they all want my job.

DFO: When can they have it?
NR: I’d say two to three years. The problem is that I love my job. But I want to try writing books. I have three in mind. One would be about my father in Thompson Falls (Mont.) where he was the only doctor for many miles for 40 years. When he was in World War II, he went through Thompson Falls on a troop train and decided that was where he wanted to live. He dragged my mother out from New York City. One is about a Japanese family from central Montana who lost everything after Pearl Harbor but four of their children fought in Europe in World War II. It’s a super story. The third one would be about my cousin, Hatch Rosdahl, who was a fantastic athlete, played in Super Bowl I for the Kansas City Chiefs, and then became the ultimate pack rat who never threw away a thing — no garbage, nothing.

DFO: What would you be today if you hadn’t gone into journalism or instructing?
NR: I really liked architecture and geology. But I found out that you had to do math for each one.

DFO: How would you describe yourself for a newspaper story?
NR: I’m outgoing, kind of funny, and too emotional. I give a talk at national conventions on nonverbal communications. There’s a part of this lecture in which I can cry each time I give it.

DFO: What would you title a biography about Nils Rosdahl?
NR: “Nils Rosdahl: To Care, To Share, And To Be There.” That’s my philosophy. Whenever I see a weakness in another adviser, one of those three things aren’t there.