The Most Frustrating Job in the World

By Karl Kurtz

Credit: Narayan Mahon for NPR

Wisconsin's Sen. Fred Risser, 85, the longest serving state legislator in the country is featured today in NPR's series on people working after the age of 65. There are some great quotes from him in the article:

Risser was first elected in 1956. He says he remembers when the Legislature was made up entirely of white men.

"There were no females, there were no minorities or diversity. In fact, they didn't even have a woman's john on the legislative floor," he says. "Now it's much more diversified, which is good."

Other changes, he finds, are not so good.

"The Legislature is more polarized than I've ever seen it. There are more straight party-line votes than there have ever been. I can remember when the rurals would fight the urbans or the eastern part of the state would fight the western part or the north would fight south. But now it isn't that way," he says. "Now it's Democrats versus Republicans."

Nevertheless, he has no inclination to call it quits. "It's the most frustrating job in the world, but it keeps the adrenalin going and it gets you up in the morning. You learn something new every day," he says. "You see different people every day."

I've known Sen. Risser for 35 or so of the 57 years that he has served in the Wisconsin Legislature. He was the leader of a memorable NCSL delegation to Israel that I accompanied in the early 1980s. I knew that his father had served in the Legislature and that he is an avid bicycle commuter, but I was not aware that he was a fourth generation legislator. His father,  grandfather and great-grandfather served before him, as shown in the photo.