Thomas A. Loftus is a United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 diplomat and Wisconsin

Wisconsin

Wisconsin is a U.S. state located in the north-central United States and is part of the Midwest. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the north. Wisconsin's capital is...

 politician.

Born in Stoughton, Wisconsin

Stoughton, Wisconsin

Stoughton is a city in Dane County, Wisconsin, United States and is a neighbor of Madison. It straddles the Yahara River about 20 miles southeast of the capital, Madison. Stoughton is part of the Madison Metropolitan Statistical Area...

, Loftus received his bachelors degree from the University of Wisconsin–Whitewater and his masters from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Loftus served in the Wisconsin State Assembly

Wisconsin State Assembly

The Wisconsin State Assembly is the lower house of the Wisconsin Legislature. Together with the smaller Wisconsin Senate, the two constitute the legislative branch of the U.S. state of Wisconsin....

 from 1977 until 1991 and was speaker of the Assembly. On November 4, 1993, President Bill Clinton

Bill Clinton

William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...

 appointed Loftus United States ambassador to Norway

Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

 and he served until December 22, 1997. Governor Jim Doyle

Jim Doyle

James Edward "Jim" Doyle is a Wisconsin politician and member of the Democratic Party. He was the 44th Governor of Wisconsin, serving from January 6, 2003 to January 3, 2011. He defeated incumbent Governor Scott McCallum by a margin of 45 percent to 41 percent; the Libertarian Party candidate Ed...

 appointed Loftus to the University of Wisconsin System

University of Wisconsin System

The University of Wisconsin System is a university system of public universities in the state of Wisconsin. It is one of the largest public higher education systems in the country, enrolling more than 182,000 students each year and employing more than 32,000 faculty and staff statewide...

Board of Regents in 2005.