Thomas L. Dynneson

In 1973 I became a founding faculty member of The University of Texas of the Permian Basin located in Odessa, Texas. Prior to that time I had taught high school in Evergreen, Colorado and Edina, Minnesota. My teaching fields were Civics, Geography, and American History. Prior to that, I had served in the United States Air Force during the Korean War and during the Cold War. My service included a two year assignment where is was stationed in France. My military service provided me with the financial funds to attend college. My first year of college was at Grandview Junior College, and after one year, I transferred to Macalester College located in Saint Paul, Minnesota. My undergraduate degree was in Business Administration, and I was hired by the Ford Motor company as an assistant to the Plant Manager. My work at the Saint Paul Assembly Plant where I was to trouble-shoot breakdowns in production and to suggest possible solutions. After awhile, I decided to return to Macalester and to complete academic work in history and geography. This led to my public school teaching in Evergreen and Edina. In 1968,I was awarded a Master's degree under Professor of History, Earl Spangler. The title of my Masters Dissertation was: The History of the Negro Church in Minnesota. In that same year I was awarded a Coe Fellowship in history in the graduate school at Stanford University. During my stay at Stanford, I was assigned to student housing for my wife and my children. It was also at this time that I was introduced to my future academic partner, Professor Richard E. Gross of the education school at Stanford. Professor Gross was a worldwide recognized scholar, and he specialized in citizenship education and the social sciences. Upon my return to Edina, I was encouraged to pursue a Ph.D. at the University of Colorado in Boulder, Colorado. My specialization was in Anthropology and in Education. I completed my Ph.D. in 1972, and was asked to teach at Coe College in Iowa for one year. At Coe College I taught education courses, both elementary and secondary, for a person on leave of absence. During that year, I was contacted by the University of Texas regarding the founding of a new branch of the University of Texas in Odessa, Texas. I accepted this position and resigned my position in Edina. In 1973, the year that the University opened, I was asked to open the Anthropology Department until a new person could be hired. I agreed to do so, and I taught Cultural Anthropology courses and Archeology and had some part-time instructors under my supervision. Later, a full time anthropologist was hired and I returned to the education department and taught undergraduate courses and graduate courses. This continued for several years, and then the Anthropology program faltered and once again I taught most of the courses, which allowed the department to rally. Later, I was elected for one year to serve as the faculty head of the graduate school for the University, which at this time had five divisions. In 1980 I was invited back to Stanford University to assist Dr. Gross in developing NSF grants, which were successful, and led to leadership conferences for educational leaders. On my return to Texas, I began developing the foundation of a university level textbook in social studies design. The manuscript was purchased by Pentice-Hall, and became a standard book on instructional design that is still in use after three editions and a secondary publisher, and still available after thirty-years. I retired from the University in 1995 to assist my wife in a business venture that she established. At the same time, I began to publish a series of books based on the concept of civism. I used this concept as the basis for reinterpreting European History. This foundational work was entitled: Civism:Citizenship Education in European History. This book then was followed by a series of books related to Greek and Roman history. At the present time, two books are in-progress (including a book on Early Mediterranean history and a second book on the rise of Roman sea power). In 2020, I was awarded the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award for publications (Who is Who in America).