Jack Jewett is president and CEO of Arizona’s Flinn Foundation. Previously, he was vice president for university advancement at California State University-Monterey Bay, a president of the Arizona Board of Regents, and a five-term member of the Arizona House of Representatives. Before moderating a panel on whether Arizona’s history matters today, he sat down in the green room to talk public service, paparazzi, and President Obama.
Q. What inspires you?
A. Public service.
Q. What do you snack on?
A. I love yogurt. And I like anything with coconut in it.
Q. Did you have any nicknames as a kid?
A. My dad and my brother called me Jackson.
Q. How many hours of sleep do you typically get?
A. Probably six.
Q. If you could have a beer with anyone, living or dead, who would you choose and why?
A. Gosh, there are so many people I’d love to have a beer with. But I would love to meet President Obama and just spend half an hour with him.
Q. What’s the last thing that embarrassed you?
A. It was not being able to come with the date-it was September 11th, and I was in a semi-public setting.
Q. What’s your greatest hope for Arizona for its next hundred years?
A. Great leadership aimed at solving complex problems.
Q. What do you do to relax?
A. Golf. And reading.
Q. What are you reading now?
A. I just finished [fellow panelist] Tom Zoellner’s A Safeway in Arizona, and I’m in the midst of Boomerang by Michael Lewis.
Q. Who was the last person to take your picture?
A. I don’t know who was the last person to take my photo, but I know when it was taken: a week ago at a bioscience event my organization sponsored in Phoenix.
Q. What did you miss most about Arizona when you were living in California?
A. In Tucson it was probably the Catalina Mountains.
*Photo by Kevin Brost.