Not every person in the same profession has the same story, and that holds true for University of Wyoming professor Kent Drummond.
Currently Drummond is a marketing professor, honors professor and an associate dean in the College of Business. He began his teaching career later in his life compared to some, yet has loved every minute, he said. He began teaching at UW 29 years ago and has never looked back, even when Laramie turned out to be different from the Jackson Hole dream he had thought he was getting into.
“I came here and it wasn’t like Jackson like I had thought it was going to be, but it’s kept me here because of that quality of life,” said Drummond, “I got married, we have two sons, we built a house, it’s the American Dream, it really has been. Laramie is a safe place. There’s a good quality education, all the things you look for, especially when you are raising a family.”
Before beginning his teaching career here in Wyoming, Drummond started at Stanford in California, where he earned his bachelor’s degree in English. From there, he earned a master’s degree in marketing from Northwestern University in Illinois and took a step outside academica into the corporate world.
“I actually sold cosmetics, and that was quite an experience,” Drummond said. “Then I worked for Pacific Bell out in the [San Francisco] Bay Area for their yellow pages division. That was at a time when those hard cover books were really important to people.
“I was able to apply my marketing degree at that point to both of those jobs and then I realized, ‘You know what, school is always something that I have loved, teaching was something I’d always wanted to try, and so why not go back and get a P.h.D.?”
While Drummond spent his childhood in Ohio and never even been to Laramie before teaching, he spent plenty of time as a child exploring the western wonders of the Rocky Mountains, Teton Range and Yellowstone National Park.
Growing up his family had always loved the Rocky Mountain region, Drummond said, so they had spent plenty of time here. Drummond knew that this was the place for him and his family once he was offered a teaching position for the fall of 1990.
“When this job came open I said no to some of the top jobs in the country, like University of Georgia, and came here instead. I said no to that, and took this,” said Drummond. “Most people would ask, ‘Why didn’t you take the higher status job?’ and that’s because the quality of life is here for me.”
In his 29 years, Drummond has taught courses in introductory levels of marketing, and even has ventured into the UW honors program with, “Marketing Manhattan.” This is an honors class that allows students the opportunity to travel to Manhattan to gain a better understanding of the ways New York was able market itself in order to bounce back after the attacks on 9/11.
While Drummond does love the classes that he is able to teach, for him it is the students that keep him teaching.
“We have students who really appreciate their education, who often have to pay for it themselves, and so they don’t take it for granted and they really want to get the most out of their education,” said Drummond. “I want to give that to them. So, it’s really been a nice partnership between me and the students and I have loved every minute of it.”
