Joe Perske; My Life [PODCAST]

My guest this time on WJON's My Life series is Stearns County Commissioner Joe Perske.  Joe is a Central Minnesota native having grown up in Sauk Rapids and St. Cloud.  He is an Apollo High School graduate before moving on to college at St. John's.  He and his wife Jan met in high school and have been married for 42 years.  The two have 3 daughters. The Perske's spent some time oversees living and working in Germany before returning to Minnesota.  The two were both teachers for many years.  Joe taught in the Osakis and Albany school districts before taking a job in Sartell working as a physical education teacher.  He held that position at Sartell Middle School for 25 years. Listen to our 4-part conversation below.

Joe Perske participating in both track and field and cross in high school at Apollo and in college at St. John's.  He has run and won numerous distance running competitions from marathons to ultra marathons and represented the United States in competitions.  In addition to running Perske also ran for political office numerous times.  He served as Sartell City Councilman for 6 years starting in 2004 before being elected Mayor of Sartell in 2010.  He served as Sartell mayor for 4 years. He made an attempt at the 6th District Congressman position in 2014 but lost to Tom Emmer.  Perske was out of politics for a short period of time before being elected as Stearns County Commissioner in 2016. He is currently serving in that role.  Perske is also involved in numerous community boards and organizations despite being technically retired.

WJON's My Life series airs 6-7 a.m. Saturdays.

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