{"id":38,"date":"2007-01-26T18:26:00","date_gmt":"2007-01-27T00:26:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/linux\/wordpress\/?p=38"},"modified":"2017-04-06T13:42:34","modified_gmt":"2017-04-06T19:42:34","slug":"fulton-engineers-a-seat-in-the-nebraska-legislature","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=38","title":{"rendered":"Fulton engineers a seat in the Nebraska Legislature"},"content":{"rendered":"

Above: Sen. Fulton, his wife, Judy, and his son, Basil, pose before the Governor’s Inaugural Ball.<\/em><\/p>\n

Sen. Tony Fulton was considering running for office himself when he was appointed last November to represent south Lincoln in the Nebraska Legislature. He replaced Sen. Mike Foley, who was elected State Auditor.<\/p>\n

Fulton, an engineer by profession, said his background is helping him as a new senator.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s helped me analyze bills, to break things down to their basic elements,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s what engineers do.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Fulton\u2019s background includes much more than engineering. Halfway into his engineering degree at the University of Nebraska \u2013 Lincoln, he took two years off to intensively study philosophy through Kansas Newman University and theology at Mount St. Mary\u2019s University, a private college in Maryland.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a time in my life when I was looking for deeper meaning,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Fulton said this experience has enabled him to look at problems while considering different philosophies and world views. This broader perspective has served him well in his profession.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s important not to ignore the liberal arts\u2014it makes for better engineers,\u201d Fulton said.<\/p>\n

After graduating in 1997, Fulton worked in Lincoln as an engineering consultant and continues to do consulting work for international energy projects.<\/p>\n

Somehow, Fulton still makes time to run his own homecare business. He is CEO of Guardian Angels Homecare, a business concept that started when he was a young boy growing up in Auburn, Nebraska.<\/p>\n

\u201cAn older lady from church called my mom to ask if she could send someone over to help her. I was the oldest boy, so she sent me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fulton began helping the older woman by cleaning her home and running errands. He was paid 50 cents per job and spent it on baseball and football cards.<\/p>\n

\u201cI bought the entire 1985 football set because it used to have gum in it. Several collectors have offered to buy it,\u201d he said proudly.<\/p>\n

That first client referred him to several of her friends who also needed a little help around the house. Years later, Fulton\u2019s helpfulness has grown into a successful business.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis has allowed me to do something entrepreneurial as a means to do good, to change the culture for the better. That\u2019s deeply satisfying to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fulton named weight lifting as a hobby. While he does it now to maintain strength, he used to take it more seriously.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did body building for a couple of years,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In 1998, Fulton married Judy Vandewalle, a fellow student he met at church while attending UNL. Five children have followed: Thomas and Augustine, seven-year-old twins; Bede, 5; Bernadette, 3; and Basil, 3 months.<\/p>\n

Each was named after Catholic saints who were scholars, Fulton explained, except for Bernadette.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just really liked that name,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

What do his children think of his new post as senator?<\/p>\n

\u201cThe day I was appointed, I picked them up from school to tell them. They wanted to know if this meant they could get access to see what was behind all the \u2018secret doors\u2019 in the Capitol building,\u201d he said, grinning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sen. Tony Fulton was considering running for office himself when he was appointed last November to represent south Lincoln in the Nebraska Legislature. He replaced Sen. Mike Foley, who was elected State Auditor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21432,"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":[127],"class_list":["post-38","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-senator-features","tag-sen-tony-fulton"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/MeetFulton_blog2017.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38","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=38"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21736,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38\/revisions\/21736"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/21432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=38"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=38"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=38"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}