St. Thomas facilities worker Michael Andregg shows his personal library on evil, collapse of civilizations, spies and war. Andregg has worked out of the AARC and McCarthy gym for decades, swiping cards in the morning and doing research in the afternoon. (Mia Laube/TommieMedia)
Folding towels at the AARC in the morning, preventing societal collapse in the afternoon— all in a day’s work for Michael Andregg.
Andregg has earned a Ph.D. in behavior genetics, written the national award-winning book “On the Causes of War,” started a nonprofit, designed college courses and received a black belt in Tae Kwon Do. The University of Minnesota also archives his publications for their Digital Conservancy project.
He also swipes ID cards and folds towels for students in St. Thomas’ Anderson Athletic and Recreational Complex.
“People go, ‘what?’” Andregg said. “You fold towels in the morning, you work on nuclear weapons and global catastrophe in the afternoons and evenings. It’s just hard to understand, and it tends to lead to a series of questions I’ve answered ten thousand times.”
Andregg said he is one of about six world experts on ethics for spies. He travels the world to speak to governments and at spy conferences.
“The government of Romania took me out five times to their national intelligence academy over five years to help reform their training materials,” Andregg said. “I was able to help them a lot in that.”
Andregg leads a double life of academia and mundane gym tasks for a simple reason: to him, caring for young people and caring for humanity are the same thing.
“It bothers me intensely— that’s a severe understatement— that our society is risking the lives of our children so recklessly,” Andregg said. “I could rage and do lots more public, dramatic things expressing my discontent, and I prefer to work on solutions. That takes me all around the world.”
He gives ID cards the same attention he gives anything else by holding students accountable and making sure they know how important their safety is.
“He has the same job as we do, but he kind of goes above and beyond what’s expected,” junior AARC desk student worker Megan Zickert said.
Andregg first came to St. Thomas when his wife, JoAnn, was hired to the athletics staff in 1977. JoAnn started several of the Tommies’ varsity sports teams and is a Hall of Fame inductee. In 1991, Andregg started as an adjunct Justice and Peace Studies professor.
As associate athletic director, JoAnn hired current AARC Facilities Manager David Lepp, who has worked with Andregg for over 30 years. Lepp has seen Andregg give presentations to athletics teams where he breaks boards with his hands to show mental preparation.
“I knew he did martial arts and different things like that, but I didn’t know he was to that point,” Lepp said. “I was feeling the boards, and no way I’d try and break this thing, you know what I mean? And sure enough, he does five of them.”
Lepp said that while some students bond with Andregg, many of them only see the surface.
“He works the table for the basketball games, too, and you would never think until you got to know somebody what kind of person they really are.”
Andregg continues what he calls his “save the world work” from McCarthy Gymnasium on campus, where he keeps a personal library on war, evil and everything else he studies .
“To me, it’s a duty,” Andregg said. “If you know that civilization is in trouble, it’s a responsibility of good citizens to do something about it.”
Mia Laube can be reached at mia.laube@stthomas.edu.