Frederica Freyberg:
Wisconsin’s Secretary of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection died Wednesday, drowning in Lake Superior during a trip volunteering for Habitat for Humanity.  Sixty-two-year-old Rod Nilsestuen served as Governor Doyle’s Ag Secretary since 2003.  Regarded as a visionary, Nilsestuen received many state and national awards, the Governor calling him one of the most important agriculture leaders in Wisconsin history.  Nilsestuen grew up on a dairy farm near Arcadia, got an undergraduate degree from UW-River Falls and a law degree from UW-Madison.  Buffalo County dairyman John Rosenow was a long-time friend.  He joins us from Eau Claire.  John, thank you very much for joining us. 

John Rosenow:
Thank you for inviting me. 

Frederica Freyberg:
We’re so sorry for the loss of your good friend.  How far did your friendship go back? 

John Rosenow:
I first knew Rod when I went to high school.  He was born on one side of Arcadia, and I was born on the other side, so we did not go to grade school together.  We went to college together.  And we worked professionally since. 

Frederica Freyberg:
So you’ve obviously known him for a very long time.  How would you describe him as a person, as a friend? 

John Rosenow:
He was a very, very good friend of mine.  I had a couple times in my life when I had some major, major issues, and he was the guy I turned to, to help me get through those and make the right decisions.  But he was -- what I liked about Rod is he was one of us.  He was a farmer at heart.  I met his father at a meat market in Arcadia one day.  I know Rod and his younger brother Randy.  And I asked the father about those two.  And he said he thought that Randy farms and Rod became a lawyer.  He said, “I thought it would be the other way around, because whenever an animal or something would die on the farm, Rod would be the one that would be in tears.  And Randy was always reading books.”  And so, he thought it would be other way around.  But Rod went on to be the lawyer. 

Freyberg:
How was he viewed by most Wisconsin farmers then? 

John Rosenow:
I think you can divide it into three things.  One, he was one of us.  He loved the farm.  He maintained a residence on the home farm, the old family farm.  And he actually loved that.  So he was one of us.  He was a farmer at heart.  And I think the second thing is he loved the land.  He just had that attachment to the land that all of us farmers have.  That we wanted to -- if we had a difficult time in our life, we needed to be in and amongst our land.  And the third thing, I think, that defined Rod would be that he thought we could make a difference.  And if we were smart, and intelligent, and worked hard, we could make a difference in society.  And in that sense, he believed in his work and he believed in government.  And he was very successful at it. 

Frederica Freyberg:
What kind of loss is his death to Wisconsin? 

John Rosenow:
He laid the groundwork, and Wisconsin is a very, very strong state, and agriculture’s a very strong state, and mainly because of a lot of things he did.  So we will survive.  We will build upon what he created.  But I know amongst those of us that were active in trying to make agriculture a better place, we’re going to miss his leadership.  He was always the one we turned to.  He was always the one that directed us.  Personally, I’ll miss him as a friend. 

Frederica Freyberg:
I know the Governor called him one of the most important Ag leaders in Wisconsin history.  Congressman Obey called his contributions unparalleled.  If you had to name a single, greatest contribution to Wisconsin agriculture that Rod Nilsestuen made, what might that be? 

John Rosenow:
There’s a whole list of things he’s done.  But if I had to list the one thing he did, is he took people that he identified or were identified with people of passion, and he got them to come to Madison.  He got them to work hard on the issues.  That was his strength.  He could spot people that really, really wanted to do things and had passions for things, and he opened doors for them.  And he provided venues for their work.  To me, that was his greatest accomplishment. 

Frederica Freyberg:
John Rosenow, thank you very much for your time, and again, we are sorry for your loss. 

John Rosenow:
Thank you.