1. John C Rensenbrink was an American political scientist, philosopher, journalist, conservationist, and political activist.
24 Facts About John Rensenbrink
1. 2.
John Rensenbrink initiated many organizations, the most prominent of which are the Maine Green Party ; the Green Party of the United States for both of which he was a principal founder; and the Cathance River Education Alliance, a hands-on ecological education project for local schools, schoolchildren and high school students in mid-coast Maine.
3.
John Rensenbrink's mother, Effie, was born in the Netherlands; his father, John Rensenbrink, was the eldest son of Dutch immigrants.
4.
Unable to attend high school, John Rensenbrink took a correspondence course conducted by the American School in Chicago.
5.
John Rensenbrink left the farm in 1946 to attend Calvin College, an evangelical college in Grand Rapids, Michigan; his mother and siblings moved to that city the following year.
6.
John Rensenbrink studied history, English and philosophy at Calvin and was editor of the college newspaper during his junior and senior years.
7.
John Rensenbrink then enrolled at the University of Michigan wher he focused primarily on political philosophy, and received a master's degree in political science in 1951.
8.
John Rensenbrink began teaching at Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa in 1956.
9.
John Rensenbrink taught political philosophy and history at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, for one year before taking a job in 1962 for three years as education advisor to the governments of Kenya and Tanzania, sponsored by the US Agency for International Development.
10.
John Rensenbrink was promoted to the tenured position of associate professor in 1968 and to full professor in 1974.
11.
John Rensenbrink spent the first six months of 1983 in Poland, accompanied by his wife and three daughters, as a research professor at the Marie Sklodowska University in Lublin, sponsored jointly by that university and Lock Haven State University in Pennsylvania.
12.
John Rensenbrink presented several papers at their world Congresses, held every two years, and served as its secretary and vice president before being elected president at the Helsinki Congress in 2005.
13.
John Rensenbrink delivered one of three keynote addresses to the 11th Congress of ISUD in Warsaw on July 11,2016.
14.
John Rensenbrink's first foray into politics was a letter-to-the-editor at the age of 14 praising Minnesota's political leader Harold Stassen.
15.
John Rensenbrink left the Republican Party and became a Democrat after listening to the speeches of Adlai Stevenson, the Democratic nominee for president in 1952 and 1956.
16.
John Rensenbrink came up short both times, losing by only 170 votes in 1978.
17.
That summer, on his way back to the United States, John Rensenbrink stopped off in Munich and in Frankfurt to visit friends who had joined the German Green Party and were celebrating their unexpected parliamentary success.
18.
John Rensenbrink quickly made plans to seek early retirement and threw himself into Green Party organizing in Maine and in the United States.
19.
John Rensenbrink has continued to be active in the USGP's National Committee and annual Conventions and Presidential campaigns and in its International Committee, which he had founded in 1997 as part of ASGP.
20.
John Rensenbrink was the Maine Green Party's candidate for US Senator in 1996 against Republican Susan Collins and Democrat Joe Brennan.
21.
John Rensenbrink worked as campaign manager for two gubernatorial campaigns: Jonathan Carter in 1994 and Pat LaMarche in 1998 and worked as a major advisor in the others.
22.
Together with Professor Paul Hazelton of Bowdoin College's Education Department, John Rensenbrink developed and wrote for MCA the first successfully funded anti-poverty program in Maine and served on MCA's board of directors for several years.
23.
Together with several other concerned and influential citizens of Topsham in 2008, John Rensenbrink helped defeat at the polls a proposal to replace Topsham's Town Meeting form of government with a council form of government.
24.
John Rensenbrink was its chief editor together with co-editor Steve Welzer of the New Jersey Green Party.