{"id":16952,"date":"2015-03-26T15:38:52","date_gmt":"2015-03-26T21:38:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=16952"},"modified":"2017-04-06T13:01:56","modified_gmt":"2017-04-06T19:01:56","slug":"riepe-steps-up-to-the-plate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=16952","title":{"rendered":"Riepe steps up to the plate"},"content":{"rendered":"

Above: Sen. Riepe gets a hug from grandchildren Brynn (left) and Drew.<\/em><\/p>\n

Delivered at the family home in rural Iowa with his grandmother\u2019s assistance, Sen. Merv Riepe\u2019s life began with the help of a strong woman\u2014and that has been a theme ever since.<\/p>\n

As the only son in a family of three sisters, he was the natural choice to follow in their father\u2019s footsteps and run the family farm. But Riepe\u2019s father wanted him to find his own path, which led him to join the U.S. Navy at 17 and become a hospital corpsman.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy dad told me that I should take over the farm only because I wanted to, not because I had to,\u201d he said. \u201cI ended up studying respiratory therapy at the University of California, Los Angeles because the program was a bit like being on a farm; it felt like family.\u201d<\/p>\n

There also may have been a girlfriend involved in the decision to stay in California, \u201cbut that\u2019s a story for another day,\u201d he said, laughing.<\/p>\n

After developing an interest in finance and administration, Riepe worked his way through undergraduate school at the University of Nebraska at Omaha and graduate school at the University of Iowa. He went on to become a hospital administrator. Riepe retired in 2008, but found himself taking a variety of interim positions.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t do retirement very well,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

His late wife, Janet, was the driving force in Riepe\u2019s interest in politics. Her father was a sheriff in Hastings, he said, and she was as adept at helping her father win support as any seasoned politician.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe could work a room,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd she would push me to engage with people. It was a great way to learn about what\u2019s important to folks and how to connect.\u201d<\/p>\n

Janet lost a 17-year struggle with multiple sclerosis, and Riepe focused on being a father to their son and on work.<\/p>\n

While on the administrative staff of Children\u2019s Hospital, he was traveling from Dallas back to Omaha and spotted a woman in the St. Louis airport. As luck would have it, they ended up on the same plane with only one seat separating them. Riepe learned that she was headed to Omaha to see family.<\/p>\n

\u201cI told her that 10 days seemed like a long time to spend with just family,\u201d he said, hoping for a lunch date. Sparks flew and he has been married to Jody for 17 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s a very talented interior designer,\u201d Riepe said. \u201cShe saw my office at the Capitol and said, \u2018We have to do something about this!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The space now reflects the new senator\u2019s personality, with photos taken by his wife and several pieces of sculpture and artwork. Not that he has much time to enjoy the ambience.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe learning curve here is steep,\u201d Riepe said. \u201cI joke with people that the pace is similar to being in a batting cage with a toy bat\u2014facing two high-speed machines and without a helmet.\u201d<\/p>\n

In spite of the challenges, Riepe said he is looking forward to bringing his work experience to the Legislature. He hopes to focus on Medicaid reform and developing better systems for health care delivery.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs I always tell my son, the important thing in life is to be coachable,\u201d Riepe said. \u201cI have a great deal to learn, but I am excited about all of it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Delivered at the family home in rural Iowa with his grandmother\u2019s assistance, Sen. Merv Riepe\u2019s life began with the help of a strong woman\u2014and that has been a theme ever since.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21314,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[167,18],"tags":[200],"class_list":["post-16952","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-senator-features","tag-sen-riepe-gets"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/MeetRiepe_blog2017.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16952","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16952"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16952\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21670,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16952\/revisions\/21670"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/21314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}