Prairie Patriarch

How do you get from a farm in South Dakota to a lecture hall full of sociology students? For forensic sociologist Rosemary J. Erickson, PhD, it all started with her father. Without the hard work of Dewey Erickson, she would never have had the opportunity to discover her passion. Without the life lessons Dewey taught his children, Erickson would never have had the strength to pursue it.

Erickson looks back at her father as a young man and one of twelve children in a Norwegian American family. As the sixth son, Dewey was used to getting caught in the middle. He didn't even have a middle name because his parents had run out of names by then Dewey could have resigned himself to always being overlooked, but he refused to let that be his fate. Instead, he struck out on his own and formed his own family.

In this celebration of her father's legacy, Erickson shows how Dewey carved a life for himself in the harsh wilderness of South Dakota. The lessons he taught her about perseverance, determination, and integrity gave her the strength to become an outstanding leader in a male-dominated field.