{"id":29,"date":"2007-01-26T17:24:00","date_gmt":"2007-01-26T23:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/linux\/wordpress\/?p=29"},"modified":"2017-04-06T13:43:33","modified_gmt":"2017-04-06T19:43:33","slug":"avery-continues-public-service-into-retirement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=29","title":{"rendered":"Avery continues public service into retirement"},"content":{"rendered":"

Above: Sen. Avery catches a 70 lb. tuna while deep sea fishing in the Gulf Stream off the coast of North Carolina with his son and friends.<\/em><\/p>\n

It\u2019s no accident that a visit to Sen. Bill Avery\u2019s office feels like a visit to the office of a long-time college professor. The rows of political science textbooks give him away.<\/p>\n

\u201cI probably have 5,000 books,\u201d estimated the former professor of 32 years. \u201cI brought some with me because I felt lonely without books in my office.\u201d<\/p>\n

Avery said his career as a political science professor at the University of Nebraska \u2013 Lincoln, where he taught U.S. foreign policy, political economy and American politics to thousands of young people, led naturally to his run for office.<\/p>\n

\u201cI consider that a form of public service,\u201d he said. \u201cMy decision to run for office was an extension of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Having been involved in Common Cause Nebraska, a nonprofit advocacy organization that encourages open government and citizen participation in democracy, Avery has been pleased with his initial experiences as a state senator.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think this is an absolutely fantastic, unique institution,\u201d he said. \u201cI love how open and accountable it is.\u201d<\/p>\n

He has found the Legislature\u2019s nonpartisanship to be a reality and hopes that the nonpartisanship can be sustained as term limits are implemented. The policy should remain priority, he said, and the politics should never trump the policy.<\/p>\n

While he expected to be busy, \u201cthe frantic pace of my daily life was a bit of a surprise,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He said the senators\u2019 constant \u201cto-ing and fro-ing\u201d was ironic, considering the slow pace at which legislation moves through the system.<\/p>\n

Avery\u2019s interest in politics started early.<\/p>\n

\u201cI read the politics page before I ever turned to the comics,\u201d he recalled.<\/p>\n

Originally from North Carolina, Avery is the son of an evangelical minister, so his family moved around a lot.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe longest I spent in one place was five years. I was always the new kid.\u201d<\/p>\n

His father\u2019s work as a minister taught him the importance of giving of oneself to others and devoting one\u2019s work to the people. He credits this experience with teaching him to adapt, make friends and develop the people skills that he hopes will serve him well as a legislator.<\/p>\n

After serving in the Air Force, the G.I. bill jump-started his education. He received bachelor\u2019s and master\u2019s degrees from the University of Tennessee and a Ph.D. from Tulane University.<\/p>\n

Upon moving to Nebraska, he found the state to be a family friendly state with good schools, a low crime rate and people who respect civic values.<\/p>\n

\u201cNebraskans are hardworking people who play by the rules and don\u2019t ask for very much but a safe place to live and a good education for their children,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s turned down offers to teach in other states over the years because he\u2019s become so fond of the state. So he\u2019s a Nebraskan by choice, he said.<\/p>\n

But Avery is no bookish professor sequestered away in an office.<\/p>\n

\u201cI bike, I fish, downhill ski, water ski and boogie board \u2026 I never mastered surfing standing up,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd football is a passion.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also has traveled throughout Latin America, Central Asia and Europe, including a year spent in Poland during the time it was a communist country. In all his travels, however, he still names the Niobrara River as one of his favorite places in the world, where he goes often to canoe.<\/p>\n

But he doesn\u2019t expect to get to any of those activities any time soon.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard to say I have a life outside the Legislature, because right now I don\u2019t,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s no accident that a visit to Sen. Bill Avery\u2019s office feels like a visit to the office of a long-time college professor. The rows of political science textbooks give him away.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21440,"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":[230],"class_list":["post-29","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-senator-features","tag-sen-avery-catches"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/MeetAvery_blog2017.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29","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=29"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21742,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29\/revisions\/21742"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/21440"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}