Nobel Peace Prize Winner

The summer of my freshmen year in high school my mom worked in a rest home in Cresco. She talked about two of her clients, a husband and wife named Henry and Clara. She always told me to go into their room and talk to them. Henry always brought the conversation around to their son Norman. He was so proud of Norman.


Norman was a Big Ten wrestling champion at the University of Minnesota, and he made the sport almost as popular in Minnesota as it is in Iowa.

He talked about how Norman was working in countries around the world such as Mexico, Pakistan, and several African nations helping the poor.

I would always hear the same stories and try to escape. One day Henry said his son and wife Margaret were coming to Cresco for a couple weeks, and needed help planting trees on one of the family farms. I promised I would help his son and wife plant those. Actually, I think it was my mom who made the promise.

Early one June Monday morning I found myself out is a field with Norman and Margaret planting trees. For two weeks we planted thousands of mostly pine trees. They paid me around five dollars an hour to help, which at that time was a lot of money. The three of us worked like slaves, yet, Norman and Margaret were incredibly interesting, telling me about all of the places that they had lived.

When we were done we shook hands and I never saw them again. Well that is not exactly true, I did see Norman on TV, hear him on the radio, and read about him for the rest of my life.

You see, that Norman was Norman Borlaug the Nobel Peace Prize winner.  Read More about Norman and the difference he made.