Boring Bio...

I grew up on a farm in Northfield, Minnesota which is about 25 minutes south of Burnsville. My mom and younger brother still live on the farm. My dad passed away February 28, 2016. I think of him daily.  He was my best friend, role model, mentor and hero.

Growing up in the 70's on a farm were pretty lean times. However, with 3 brothers and a sister, we managed to keep ourselves entertained. When I wasn't working on the farm with my dad, I enjoyed playing baseball and hanging out at the swimming pool where my two older brothers both worked. I attended St. Dominic's Catholic grade school and then Northfield Junior High. At Northfield High School, I was active in both band, baseball, French Club, and shop classes. All throughout high school I worked at the Red Owl grocery store about 20 hours a week. I graduated in 1983...do the math if you are interested in my age....if you need to fall asleep, you may click on the link below the pictures to read the rest of the biography.

In the fall of 1984 I began pursuing an education degree at the University of Minnesota. I was set on being a high school Tech-Ed teacher. Well things went a little astray during the next five years and I eventually graduated as a high school French and ESL teacher in 1988. During those years at the U of M I worked my way up the ladder in the residence hall system until I was the Senior Resident Assistant. I really enjoyed the res-life field so when I graduated I took a position as a residence hall director at St. Olaf College.

In the fall of 1989 I signed my first teaching contract as the Valley Middle School ESL teacher with a couple hours a day at Echo Park. That year, the non-English speaking population at Echo Park exploded and I was teaching full-time at EP by Halloween. Over the next 12 years I taught ESL at 18 different schools in the district, yet Echo Park always remained my base/home school. During these years I returned to the U of M to get a masters degree in 1991 and then 60 credits beyond that degree. Most of the post-masters work was concentrated in reading. I attended the University of St. Thomas in the late 1990's where I received my elementary education certification. In the fall of 2001 I started teaching fourth grade.  I continued to teach 4th or 5th grade at Echo Park until 2012. I moved to Valley Middle School in the fall of 2012. I was hired to teach English and reading….what happened???

I married Martha Viczian, my college sweetheart, in 1991. Martha is a Project Kids Coordinator in the Burnsville School district. We liked the Echo Park community so much we decided to build a house on Butternut Lane in 1992. Over the years, we have been blessed with three great kids. Connor is a senior at the University of Minnesota….ski-u-mah! He is majoring in business marketing and human resources. He also works part-time at Sam’s Club. My second son, Casey, will be a freshman at the University of Minnesota in the fall of 2017….ski-2-mah!!  He survived two years of having his dad as a teacher at Echo Park.  He was very active in choir at AVHS and played on the ultimate Frisbee team. And finally, Princess Tara…the little girl we thought we would never have. She is 13 and attends VMSS. She is into dance, crafts and hanging out with her friends. As a family we enjoy traveling and baseball. We are recently completed a seven-year quest to visit ALL MLB baseball parks. We will be visiting Sun Trust Park, the Atlanta Braves new stadium, this summer to keep this claim to fame up to date.

Twenty-eight years ago Martha and I started cleaning office buildings to help pay for our wedding. We kept on cleaning to pay for a down payment of a house, then it was kids, daycare, college funds..you get the picture. Needless to say, we are still cleaning. Now we own our own small business. The kids help us get all of the work done in a few hours each night. I also plow snow at a couple of the buildings I clean and do a lot of do a ton of commercial floor waxing, windowes and carpet cleaning throughout the year. The extra income helps make the family vacations possible and keeps me out of trouble. So if your child tells you Mr. Dudley has to clean tonight, you know what they are talking about. And that's a wrap on...Dudley's Corner.