Where is Brett Whipple
Now?
By Dylan Krenka
November 10, 2005
 It
has been a long journey for Brett Whipple since he served
Nevada FFA as a state officer. He has explored the globe,
played collegiate football, finished law school and still
found time to raise a family.
The journey started twenty five years ago for Whipple when he
served as a state officer. Whipple was the 1980 Nevada
FFA State Sentinel and served his year while still in
high school at Pahranagat Valley. It was his interest
in agriculture and the world that led Whipple to take
advantage of international travels through the FFA. For
a year after being an officer he traveled around the globe
learning about other countries and their agriculture.
“It was a life changing experience,” Whipple
said.
Whipple spent five months in Germany
and the rest of his trip at an Australian sheep station.
Whipple said that his year seeing other countries was an
“amazing opportunity,” that sparked his desire
to do more.
After returning from abroad, Whipple wanted to further his
education and went to junior college in California. On top
of his strong leadership skills, Whipple was a competitive
and accomplished athlete. Whipple played football for two
years at his junior college and was named to the All-American
Second Team. He decided to use his football skills to help
continue his education and accepted a scholarship to the
University of Pennsylvania. Whipple continued playing football
there and helped the school to two Ivy League Championships.
In 1987, he graduated from the University of Pennsylvania
with a bachelor’s degree in business/accounting.
Despite being a small ranch boy from Nevada,
Whipple decided to try his luck in the Big Apple. He worked
for two years in Manhattan as a CPA before deciding to again
broaden his horizons. Brett left Manhattan and revisited
Germany where he worked as a CPA for another year.
It was after a few years of being an accountant
that Whipple stuck with his trend of trying new things and
decided to go to law school. He graduated from the University
of Arizona Law School in 1995 and only a week after his
graduation married his wife Paige.
To this day Whipple hasn’t slowed his
pace and is always looking for new challenges. After becoming
a lawyer Whipple and his wife moved to Las Vegas where he
worked with the Public Defender’s office. He worked
over 35 felony cases with the Public Defender’s office
before recently deciding to branch off and begin his own
practice. “It’s a very busy practice,”
Whipple said.
And if running his own law practice isn’t
enough, Whipple has also taken it upon himself to give back
to Nevada and education in general by becoming the Chair
of the Nevada Board of Regents. “I just really care
about education,” Whipple said. He ran as the underdog
for the position three years ago and won his seat on the
board. The Board of Regents are currently busying themselves
with the search for a new president for the University of
Nevada, Reno.
Despite living in many corners of the world,
Whipple hasn’t forgotten where he is from and has
taken an active part in the Whipple Family Ranch. He takes
care of the business portion of the working cattle ranch
located just north of Alamo, Nevada. The ranch, which runs
nearly 1,000 head of cattle, is not only a business, but
a retreat. Whipple said that he enjoys relaxing out at the
ranch with his wife and two children Hope, 4 and Shea, 3.
And in his brief windows of free time from
being a dad, a lawyer, Chair of Board of Regents, and a
ranch manager, Whipple and his family like to travel. They
have recently traveled across the country and are planning
a family trip to Europe.
Looking back on all his endeavors and accomplishments,
Whipple points back to his year of service as a state officer
that helped mold him into whom he is today. He says it was
“very, very important” to him and that the FFA
taught him many skills and gave him the opportunities to
put him where his it today. “It started because of
what I took advantage of through the FFA,” Whipple
said.
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