Once a Soldier, Twice a Pioneer: Joshua Hobbs Brown the Story of an American Hero

Steve Grasz is a federal judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. He and his wife, Verlyne, live in Elkhorn, Nebraska. Steve grew up on his family’s farm and ranch in the Lodgepole Valley of the Nebraska panhandle near Chappell. He is the son of Jane and the late Jess Grasz, and the great-great grandson of the book’s subject, Joshua Hobbs Brown. Prior to being nominated by the President, at the recommendation of both of Nebraska’s U.S. Senators, and confirmed by the United States Senate to the federal bench, Steve practiced law in Omaha. He also served for nearly 12 years in Nebraska’s State Capitol as Chief Deputy Attorney General. He is a graduate of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (B.S. in Agriculture Honors) and the Nebraska College of Law where he was inducted into the Order of the Coif, served as Executive Editor of the Nebraska Law Review, and received the Roscoe Pound Award for Oral Advocacy. Steve has maintained his ties to the land by planting thousands of conservation trees over the past two decades on historic family property along the Lodgepole Creek in the shadow of the Oregon Trail and the path of the Pony Express.