Barry Michie:  

This is my first real posting on this site. I haven't paid the subscription to see everything. Actually I find the Classmates site annoying with all the cutesy stuff and the pop-ups saying there are 1,000+ women in the area who want to meet me ... where was this 50 years ago!! After graduating MHS I went on to SRJC and then Lewis & Clark College in Portland, OR, (BA History). After that spent 2 1/2 years in India with the Peace Corps in a Rural Public Health & Sanitation project. This had a major impact on subsequent things, including meeting and marrying my wife, Aruna Nayyar (married 3 July 1968 in New Delhi) and then both of us to graduate school at Michigan State University. We both came out with PhD's (she Political Science and I Anthropology) in 1976. By the way I hate to waive sheepskins in peoples' faces - including students! I have about 9 years total experience working and living in rural/village India - primarily the desert region of Rajasthan - working on issues of economic and production behavior in agriculture: research projects, consultancies, etc. Yes, I said anthropology, so what's the deal? I'm an economic anthropologist and have worked a lot with Ag Economists, Agronomists and other Aggie types. My greatest interest is in variations in the management of traditional agro-forestry systems using an indigenous species of mesquite (trees grown together with crops); there is one in Rajasthan that is a traditional system that is extremely sophisticated, developed by farmers over the centuries without benefit of ag scientists, of course. India is like another home to me - near native fluency in Hindi/Urdu and a few Rajasthani dialects. Since 1976 we have both been at Kansas State University. Currently I'm with the Office of International Programs working on faculty and curriculum development to create a South Asian Studies program that includes faculty across the board: professional and technical fields as well as social science and the humanities, and building linkages with Indian universities. We hope to have this really up and running by the end of 2012 when I retire. Personally, Aruna and I have one and only one child, a son Chetan, born in 1985. My Dad used to quip that we Michie males reproduce very slowly: my grandfather born 1876, my Dad 1897, me 1944, and Chetan 1985. Dad had good innings, though, living to age 99. Chetan is still single, living and working in Lawrence, KS, working in a high-end restaurant and (finally!) going to culinary school this year. So he is following Michie male tradition of lengtheining the gap between generations. We just quietly hope he doesn't wait until we are in our late '80s like we did to my Dad. We have lilved in M...Expand for more