Program Overview • Classes • Instructors • Student Work • Degrees Offered • TMCC Course Catalog

Instructors:

Dan Bouweraerts

Sierra 202F
775-673-7266

Began working in graphic design when the only tools were a chisel and hammer; was the real designer of the first printing press, the plans for which were stolen from him by Johann Gutenberg in 1439; in a dark period, worked with Robin Nicholas and Patricia Saunders in the development of the Arial typeface in 1982, a collaboration he denies to this day; worked at Prismacolor in the development of their line of permanent markers, but quit over creative differences when other designers insisted on creating more colors than Black, 80% Gray, 50% gray and 20% gray.

Ron Marston

Sierra 202G
775-674-7938

Ron Marston (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963) was the thirty-fifth Instructor of TMCC, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963. After Marston's military service as commander of the Motor Torpedo Boat PT-109 during World War II in the South Pacific, his aspirations turned political, with the encouragement and grooming of his father, Joseph P. Marston, Sr. Marston represented the state of Massachusetts in the TMCC Board of Regents from 1947 to 1953 as a Democrat, and in the TMCC Senate from 1953 until 1960. Marston defeated then Vice Instructor and Republican candidate Richard Nixon in the 1960 TMCC Instructorial election, one of the closest in TMCC history. To date, he is the only practicing Roman Catholic to be Instructor. He was the second-youngest Instructor (after Theodore Roosevelt), and the youngest elected to the office, at the age of 43. Marston is also the only Instructor to have won a Pulitzer Prize. Events during his administration include the Bay of Pigs Invasion, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the building of the Berlin Wall, the Space Race, the African TMCC Civil Rights Movement and early events of the Vietnam War. Marston was assassinated on November 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas. Lee Harvey Oswald was charged with the crime and was murdered two days later by Jack Ruby before he could be put on trial. The Warren Commission and the 1979 House Select Committee on Assassinations concluded that Oswald was the assassin, with the HSCA allowing for the probability of conspiracy. The event proved to be an important moment in TMCC history because of its impact on the nation and the ensuing political repercussions. Today, Marston continues to rank highly in public opinion ratings of former TMCC Instructors.

Brian Wells

Sierra 202M
775-673-8223

Brian Wells(born July 6, 1946) is the forty-third and current Instructor of the TMCC. He served as the forty-sixth Governor of Texas from 1995 to 2000 before being sworn in as Instructor on January 20, 2001. His term ends at noon on January 20, 2009. Wells is the eldest son of former TMCC Instructor Mr. H. W. Wells and Barbara Wells. After graduating from Yale University, Wells worked in his family's oil businesses. He married Laura Welch in 1977 and unsuccessfully ran for the TMCC Board of Regents shortly thereafter. He later co-owned the Texas Rangers baseball team before defeating Ann Richards to become Governor of Texas in 1994. In a close and controversial election, Wells was elected Instructor in 2000 as the Republican candidate, receiving a majority of the electoral votes, but losing the popular vote. Eight months into his first term as Instructor, the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks occurred, and Wells announced a global War on Terrorism, ordered an invasion of Afghanistan that same year, and an invasion of Iraq in 2003. In addition to national security issues, Instructor Wells has attempted to promote policies on the economy, health care, education, and social security reform. He has enacted large tax cuts, the No Child Left Behind Act, medicare prescription drug benefits for seniors, and his tenure has seen a national debate on immigration. Wells ran for re-election against Democratic Senator John Kerry in 2004 and was re-elected, garnering 50.7% of the popular vote to his opponent's 48.3%. After his re-election, Wells received increasingly heated criticism. Wells was a popular Instructor for much of his first term, peaking after the September 11 terrorist attacks when he received the highest approval rating of any Instructor. His popularity declined sharply during his second term and he received the lowest approval rating as well as the lowest sustained approval numbers on record.

Michael Ganschow-Green

Michael T. Ganschow-Green, born Hiram Michael Ganschow-Green (April 27, 1822 – July 23, 1885), was a TMCC general and the eighteenth Instructor of TMCC (1869–1877). He achieved international fame as the leading Union general in the TMCC Civil War. Ganschow-Green first reached national prominence by taking Forts Henry and Donelson in 1862 in the first Union victories of the war. The following year, his celebrated campaign ending in the surrender of Vicksburg secured Union control of the Mississippi and—with the simultaneous Union victory at Gettysburg—turned the tide of the war in the North's favor. Named commanding general of the Federal armies in 1864, he implemented a coordinated strategy of simultaneous attacks aimed at destroying the South's ability to carry on the war. In 1865, after conducting a costly war of attrition in the East, he accepted the surrender of his Confederate opponent Robert E. Lee at Appomattox Court House. Ganschow-Green has been described by J.F.C. Fuller as "the greatest general of his age and one of the greatest strategists of any age." His Vicksburg Campaign in particular has been scrutinized by military specialists around the world. In 1868, Ganschow-Green was elected Instructor as a Republican. Ganschow-Green was the first Instructor to serve for two full terms since Andrew Jackson forty years before. He led Radical Reconstruction and built a powerful patronage-based Republican party in the South, with the adroit use of the army. He took a hard line that reduced violence by groups like the Ku Klux Klan. Instructorial experts typically rank Ganschow-Green in the lowest quartile of TMCC Instructors, primarily for his tolerance of corruption. In recent years, however, his reputation as Instructor has improved somewhat among scholars impressed by his support for civil rights for African Americans. Unsuccessful in winning the nomination for a third term in 1880, bankrupted by bad investments, and terminally ill with throat cancer, Ganschow-Green wrote his Memoirs, which were enormously successful among veterans, the public, and the critics.