John Rensenbrink
| John Rensenbrink | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born |
August 30, 1928 Pease, Minnesota, USA |
| Alma mater | University of Michigan |
| Occupation | Political scientist; co-founder of the Green Party of the United States |
| Spouse(s) | Carla Washburne Resenbrink |
| Children | Kathryn, Margaret and Elizabeth |
John C. Rensenbrink (born August 30, 1928) is an American political scientist, philosopher, journalist, educational innovator, and political activist. He has initiated and helped found many organizations, the most prominent of which are the Maine Green Party (1984); the Green Party of the United States (1984-87); and the Cathance River Education Alliance in Topsham, Maine (2000).
Rensenbrink was born in 1928 in rural Pease, Minnesota, one of seven children of Dutch-American farming parents. Their mother, Effie, was born in the Netherlands; their father, John, was the eldest son of Dutch immigrants. where he worked on his family's farm. Rensenbrink and his brother Henry operated the dairy farm upon their father’s untimely death in 1943. Unable to attend high school, Rensenbrink took a correspondence course conducted by the American School in Chicago. Leaving home at the age of 18, he attended Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he studied history, English and philosophy and . His mother and siblings moved to that city the following year. He graduated from Calvin with a BA in 1950. He entered the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, focused primarily on political philosophy, and received a Masters Degree in political science in 1951. This was followed by a Fulbright Scholarship to study at the University of Amsterdam from 1951-52. Thereafter, he studied at the University of Chicago, concentrating on political philosophy, American politics, and constitutional law, and completed his Ph.D. in political science from that university in 1956. His Ph.D thesis was entitled “Technology and Utopia: the Structure of Freedom”.
Rensenbrink began teaching at Coe College in 1956 as an assistant professor of history and international relations. After a year at Coe teaching history and international relations, he taught political philosophy and American government at Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts for four years. He met Carla Washburne of Williamstown and they married in 1959. They moved to Maine in 1961. 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 U.S. Agency for International Development. He and Carla and their daughters Kathryn and Margaret, aged three and one respectively, returned to Maine in 1965. They settled in Topsham and Rensenbrink returned to his teaching at Bowdoin College. Rensenbrink was promoted to the tenured position of Associate Professor in 1968 and to full Professor in 1974. The Rensenbrink’s third child, Elizabeth, was born in January, 1968.
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