Maybe the name Eric Bergeson sounds familiar to you.

For the past 15 years, several northwestern Minnesota newspapers have carried  Bergeson’s weekly columns.

Or maybe you’ve read one of six books, including “Pirates on the Prairie,” which the Minneapolis Tribune called “a Minnesota cultural and historical treasure.”

Or maybe you  saw his name in the news when he sought the DFL nomination for the Minnesota House of Representatives in District 1-B in northwestern Minnesota in 2014.

Bergeson was the third-generation owner of Bergeson Nursery in Fertile, Minn., a business started by his grandfather in 1937. (He sold the business to his brother and sister-in-law in January 2014.)

Eric  graduated from Fertile-Beltrami (Minn.) High School in 1982. He received his bachelor’s degree in history from the University of North Dakota in 1986. After completing a bachelor of science in social studies at Moorhead State University in 1988, he returned to UND, where he earned a master’s degree in history.

During college, Eric studied at Cambridge University in England, student taught in Wellington, New Zealand, and studied in Warsaw, Poland. Over the years, he has been a frequent speaker and performer in northwestern Minnesota.

When needed, Eric has taught American history courses at the University of Minnesota, Crookston. Eric recently served five years as chairman of the board of the Northwest Minnesota Foundation. He is acting chairman of the Fertile-Beltrami Community Fund. In 2011, Eric was awarded a prestigious two-year Bush Fellowship to study eldercare.

He lives in Fertile with his partner, Lance Thorn.