Three U.S. governors are MU grads
When Gov.-elect Jay Nixon takes the oath of office on Jan. 12, he will be one of three former Missouri Tigers serving as a state's executive.
Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine, a Democrat who was elected governor of the state in 2005, picked up an economics degree from MU in 1979 and went on to Harvard Law School, where he graduated in 1983. While he was born in St. Paul, Minn., he grew up in the Kansas City, Mo. area, and graduated from Rockhurst High School in Kansas City.
Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski, who was first elected to the office in 2002, then re-elected in 2006, was born in rural Missouri in 1940, and was reared in a Catholic boys' home in St. Louis. The Democrat earned both his undergraduate and law degrees from MU, as did Nixon. Kulongoski obtained his law degree in 1970, and Nixon obtained his in 1980.