Left for Dead

A Second Life after Vietnam

Jon Hovde and Maureen Anderson

About the Authors

If you've read the home page, you already know a lot about Jon Hovde (pronounced HUV-dee). And of course you can learn a lot more if you read the book!

A native of Fertile in northwestern Minnesota, Hovde left for a tour of duty in Vietnam when he was nineteen. He lost two limbs in a battlefield explosion and was given little hope for survival. While fighting for his life in the hospital, he made a deal with God. If he recovered, he would do three things--have the fastest car in Polk County, Minnesota, not depend on the government to take care of him, and make a difference with his life.

Hovde is a retired 3M executive and former president of the Minnesota School Boards Association who served sixteen years on the Fertile-Beltrami, Minnesota, school board. Jon and his wife, Darlene, live on a small farmstead near Fertile.

Maureen Anderson is a writer and an award-winning radio journalist. Her syndicated program, The Career Clinic, is broadcast across the country as a daily vignette, and as a one-hour talk show on Saturdays at noon Central on AM 1100 The Flag in Fargo. The Career Clinic helps people find work they love. "Writing is the work I love most," she says, "and I'm eager to hear what you think of Left for Dead." She is also co-author of Staying the Course: A Runner's Toughest Race. Her most recent book is The Career Clinic: Eight Simple Rules for Finding Work You Love.

Left for Dead: A Second Life after Vietnam is published by the University of Minnesota Press.

Cover photo: Jim Davis.