Performance in Motion, Volume 3, Number 1, Spring 1995

Spartan Profiles

PIM: Who is Vern Seefeldt?

VS: I am a hard-working individual who devoted my educational career to making things better for children and youth. I wanted to improve the social and physical well-being of youth.

PIM: . . . and what else would you say about yourself?

VS: I am a quiet, private individual who loves to go fishing, hiking, walking in the woods, being in the solitude of nature, watching the animals. It brings a balance in my life which my father taught me.

PIM: What do you mean by "balance"?

VS: Mental and physical balance. The mental balance is to step back and see others as they really are. It's important to place the professional life into perspective and apply it (profession) to problems of society. The physical balance is in getting out and exercising. Many ideas come to me either when I'm asleep or exercising. I usually run on my treadmill for 30 minutes between 1:00 and 2:00 in the morning. I go to bed at 2:00 a.m. and get up at 6:00 a.m.

PIM: Why did you pick the field (discipline) that you are in?

VS: I grew up on a farm and life was difficult. This was in northern Wisconsin during the depression. We lived below the poverty level. My father would take me hunting and fishing for food for the family. I have three brothers and one sister, and along with my father we played sports, baseball in particular. I used to baby-sit other children and found that I was interested in growth and development. I loved to work with children.

PIM: Go on.

VS: When I was at University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, I took courses in biology and psychology. I ran track and earned a letter. I ran the half-mile and mile. My biology and psychology background developed into a growth and development major with an emphasis in exercise physiology. In pursuing my Ph.D., I studied under Larry Rarick and took courses at the University of Wisconsin Medical School. That is when my interests changed to motor development.

PIM: Tell us about your family.

VS: The bright part is Nancy my wife who is tolerant and supportive of me. I have one daughter, Lynne, who is married and teaches in Houston. I have two grandchildren. I also have one son, John, who is married and is a golf course superintendent in Ann Arbor.

PIM: What is your greatest achievement?

VS: Teaching graduate students to look at persons as individuals and accommodate their individual differences.

PIM: What is your greatest disappointment?

VS: As a professional - not to be able to communicate more effectively through the written word. I have not written as extensively as I should have in the scholarly community. I did not tell enough about what we are doing at Michigan State. Data are still unpublished. We have 27 years of Motor Performance data, but I have few publications. (Vern Seefeldt has 120 printed publication and over 330 presentations).

PIM: What do you want to be remembered as?

VS: Professionally, someone who produced accurate scientific and scholarly work. A teacher who inspired students to be better than the mentor.

PIM: Do you plan to go quietly into the sunset? Do you see yourself going out as Tom Mix or as Clint Eastwood and John Wayne?

VS: That's a tough question. I hadn't thought about that. I do not plan to hang around and look over the shoulder of the person who is replacing me. I will not be critical, but I will be supportive. I plan to write children's stories, outdoors stories and explore photography. I'm choosing what I want to do. I love to work, but I don't have to work unless I want to. I want to be more physically active. Playing more golf, at least four times per week will, I hope, get my score to be respectable.

Performance in Motion wishes to thank Vern Seefeldt for his willingness to share his time and to serve as our first interviewee for the Spartan Profiles section.