Terry MacTaggart was born in Buffalo, N.Y., the son of an Army quartermaster sergeant. He spent his youth moving every three years. Growing up, he lived in Germany, Japan, Kentucky and Virginia.

He returned to Buffalo to go to college, earning his bachelor’s degree in 1967 from Canisius College, where he studied literature and philosophy.

In 1969 he joined the Army and served as a supply sergeant in the central highlands of Vietnam.

After his Vietnam tour, he was stationed in Fort Lewis, Wash. He was a supply sergeant by day and taught basic English composition by night to soldiers pursuing college degrees.

One night, he fell into conversation with another soldier who said that he was going to get a doctorate in university administration.

“A light bulb went off,” MacTaggart said. He decided to target a similar course.

After being discharged from the Army, he went to St. Louis University in Missouri, where he earned a master’s degree and a doctorate in English literature.

MacTaggart became an English professor at first. But by 1977 at Webster University in St. Louis, he landed his first administrative position.

After stints at the University of Alaska at Fairbanks, Saint Cloud State University in Minnesota, and Metropolitan State University in St. Paul, he was named interim vice chancellor for academic affairs in the Minnesota State University System in 1986.

A year later he became chancellor at the University of Wisconsin-Superior. In 1991 he returned to the Minnesota state system as chancellor, a position he held until he came to Maine in 1996.

Aiming for administration was “an intuitive choice,” MacTaggart said. “It was a result of insight, and I’ve never regretted it.”