Abstract
1938-2019; Grand Forks City Council member and member of the North Dakota House of Representatives
Administrative/Biographical History
Eliot Glassheim was born in New York City to Raymond S. Glassheim and Edith Ruthizer on February 1938. He received a Bachelor of Arts Degree in 1960 from Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut. His first impulse after graduation was to delve into journalism which led him to Washington, D.C. where he worked as a copyboy for the Washington Post. He managed during this stint to publish ten short book reviews for the newspaper's book reviews section. He left this position in 1961 to pursue editorial production at the Wall Street Journal in New York City doing proofreading layout.
In 1963, however, Glassheim shifted focus in his career, teaching literature and grammar in grades 9th-12th at Croyden Hall in Atlantic Heights, New Jersey. Soon after, Glassheim attended graduate school at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, where he received Masters (1966) and Doctoral (1973) degrees in American Literature with concentration on Paul Goodman and the alternative school movement. As a result of these studies, Glassheim wrote his dissertation, The Community Anarchist Background of Paul Goodman's The Empire City. While working towards his doctoral degree, Glassheim was an assistant professor of English at Augusta College in Augusta, Georgia, between 1969 and 1971.
Although Glassheim moved to North Dakota in 1972 to pursue a professorship in the English Department at University of North Dakota in Grand Forks, he taught only three years before being elected to the North Dakota House of Representatives in 1975. He served until 1976, and was elected again in 1993. He served as the Assistant Minority Leader in 2003 legislative session. He has also been a member of the Grand Forks City Council for over twenty years.
He was a policy analyst for Northern Great Plains, Inc. and an executive Director for Quad County Community Action Agency. He authored The Restless Giant, a compilation of poems, and has edited several books, including Key Issues in Population Policy (1976). He also edited two books related to the 1997 Red River Valley Flood: Voices from the Flood (1999) and Behind the Scenes: Leadership and Decision-making in a Natural Disaster (2002). He also produced Eat the Day, a folk song record. He is owner of Dr. Eliot’s Twice Sold Tales, a used and rare book store.
He is married to Dyan Rey and has two children.
