Rod Nilsestuen, who has led the state Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection as its secretary since 2003, drowned Wednesday evening while swimming in Lake Superior off Michigan?s Upper Peninsula.
….Nilsestuen, 62, was president and CEO of the Wisconsin Federation of Cooperatives from 1978 until September 2002. He grew up on a dairy farm near Arcadia and earned bachelor?s degrees in political science and sociology from UW-River Falls in 1970 and a law degree from the University of Wisconsin in 1974.