1980s: Resided and worked in Libya and Saudi Arabia
Brian Schweitzer was born in 1955 in Havre, a railroad town in north-central Montana. Schweitzer pursued two degrees in the agriculture sciences and shipped off to the Middle East for 7 years in the 1980s to develop irrigation systems there. Among the
places he lived were Libya and Saudi Arabia, giving the young Schweitzer a worldliness not enjoyed by most sons of Montana. (On a recent TV panel discussion on the Middle East, Schweitzer showed off his Arabic with a hearty "marhaba," or "welcome.")
Source: Michael Warren in The Weekly Standard magazine
, Dec 23, 2013