View Research Topics | View Complete Article List | Visit the Library

Jerry Nagel and Bruce Brorson Among Torch and Shield Recipients

2007-11-04

October 30, 2002<- The University of Minnesota, Crookston (UMC) honored six individuals with the Torch and Shield Award at the annual Torch and Shield Banquet, held Wednesday, October 30, on the UMC campus.  The awards recognize individuals who have provided leadership and who have aided in the development of the campus.  Among those receiving awards wereJerry Nagel, Northern Great Plains Inc. President and Bruce Brorson, former Northern Great Plains Inc. Vice President of Technology.  Other recipients were Dale Knotek, Kathleen Kasprick, Lyle Kasprick, and Bev Durgan. 

Jerry Nagel
Employed by UMC, Jerry Nagel serves as the President of Northern Great Plains Inc., a network of business, academic and public policy leaders working to build a strong economic and ecologic future for the people and communities of this region.  The core of the NGP mission is to develop and implement regional solutions to issues, concerns and opportunities in the Northern Great Plains that can best be addressed through regionally focused action.  He also works with Valley Technology Park, a collaborative business incubator involving UMC and the City of Crookston, in overall organization management and new project development.

Nagel’s work in the field of rural and economic development is accomplished and wide-ranging. He has served as director for several regional organizations including the Association for Human Development, North Dakota Rural Development Corporation, the Crookston Enterprise Development Center, the Northwest Regional Development Commission, and the Red River Trade Council. He also serves on several boards of directors and advisory committees including the Canadian-American Border Trade Alliance, the Great Plains Institute for Sustainable Development, the Greater Minnesota Housing Fund, and the Consensus Council.

In 2002 he was named a Fannie Mae Foundation Fellow and took part in the Executives in State and Local Government Program at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. Nagel holds both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in economics from the University of North Dakota.  He has two adult children and lives with his wife, Brenda Menier, in Crookston.

Bruce Brorson
Associate Professor Bruce Brorson serves as director for the Information Technology Management Program at UMC. He has held many titles since he began his career at UMC in December of 1975, but there has been one constant:  technology. Brorson has been instrumental in technology planning and in developing a vision of technology integration for the campus.  He played a pivotal role as an early faculty adopter and advocate for the laptop computer initiative UMC undertook in 1993, and he continues to embrace emerging technologies. 

Brorson is regionally and nationally known for his technology expertise. He currently serves on the Corporate Partners Advisory Committee of eWeek Magazine, the Northern Tier Technology Corridor Advisory Corridor, the Minnesota Municipal Utilities Telecommunications Taskforce, and the State of Minnesota’s Technology Action Group. He has also worked on numerous technology and telecommunications grant funded projects with the Red River Trade Council and Northern Great Plains, Inc.

A native of Grafton, North Dakota, Brorson holds his bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and his master’s in Vocational Technical Education from the University of North Dakota. He met his wife Susan in 1973 in Moorhead, Minnesota, during his first year of teaching at Moorhead,Area Vocational Technical College.  They were married in 1977 just before Sue joined the UMC faculty in the Business Division.  She is currently a Professor of Business Management and director of UMC’s Business Management Program. Their daughter Megan is currently a student at UMC; daughter Sara and son Nick are both UMC grads; and daughter Carly is a high school student.  The Brorsons were long time Crookston residents, but recently moved to Maple Lake near Mentor.