About Joe Wiegand

Joe Wiegand is a political science graduate of The University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee.  Twice elected to head Sewanee’s student government, Joe had earlier been elected Governor of the American Legion Illinois Boys State and President of the American Legion Boys Nation program.   Joe served as a graduate assistant at the Center for Governmental Studies at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Illinois, before launching his own business as a political campaign consultant and public policy expert.  

Joe has been named a Wilkins Scholar, a Harry S. Truman Scholar, and a Thomas J. Watson Fellow.  Joe served six years as a member of the DeKalb County, Illinois Board of Commissioners.  Joe was working in public policy and running election campaigns when he began performing as Theodore Roosevelt in 2002.

In 2008, Joe, his wife, Jenny, daughter, Sam, and golden retriever, Faith, traveled across America in celebration of Theodore Roosevelt’s 150th birthday and the final centennial year of TR’s historic presidency. Performances at the White House and TR’s New York City birthplace highlighted the fifty state adventure.  Joe has been featured as President Roosevelt in “The Men Who Built America” on the History Channel, served as the model for the newest TR sculpture at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, and has a feature role in “National Parks Adventure” a film about our national parks still showing in IMAX theaters throughout the country.

Today, the Wiegands live in Medora, North Dakota, where Joe works for the Theodore Roosevelt Medora Foundation.   Joe is a thirty year member of Rotary International and a member of the National Association for Interpretation.  Joe’s performance tour is highlighted in summer by a daily matinee in Medora, gateway to Theodore Roosevelt National Park and the future home of Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library.