John R. Borchert
John Robert Borchert was an American geographer and Regents' Professor at the University of Minnesota. His most notable work, Borchert's Epochs, is still taught as a model for American Urbanization. He is the namesake for the at the University of Minnesota.
Early life and education
Borchert was born on October 24th, 1918 in Chicago, Illinois to Ernest J.Borchert and Maude Borchert. As he grew up in Crown Point, Indiana, Borchert was observant to the converging geographies within the industrial heartland. Borchert frequently traveled by train to Chicago with his father, who was a railroad postal worker. This exposure to transportation logistics gave rise to Borchert's study of mail routing in the Northeast and Midwest. He would later credit his childhood encounters, and observations of his father as some of his most formative personal and intellectual experiences.Borchert was initially interested in pursuing a career in journalism,