Rudy Perpich

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Rudolph George "Rudy" Perpich, Sr. (June 27, 1928 – September 21, 1995) was an American dentist and politician. A member of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, he served as the 34th and 36th governor of Minnesota from December 29, 1976 to January 4, 1979, and from January 3, 1983 to January 7, 1991. This was the longest tenure among the state's governors. He was also the state's only Roman Catholic governor and the only one to serve non-consecutive terms.

[edit] Early life and education

Rudolph George Perpić was born in Carson Lake, Minnesota, which is now part of Hibbing, Minnesota. His father, Anton Prpić, was a miner who had immigrated from Croatia to the Mesabi Iron Range of Minnesota, and his mother was an American of Croatian descent. Perpich did not learn to speak English until at least the first grade of elementary school. At 14, he began working for the Great Northern Railway.^[1] In 1946, he graduated from Hibbing High School (where he was inaugurated as governor in 1983) and went on to serve in the United States Army for two years. After Army service, Perpich attended Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and graduated from the Marquette University Dental School in 1954. He returned to Hibbing to practice dentistry.

[edit] Entry into politics

He first entered into politics by serving on the Hibbing school board in 1955 and 1956, which instituted a policy to provide equal pay to both male and female workers. Six years later in 1962, Perpich was elected to the Minnesota Senate. He was re-elected in 1966. In 1970, he was elected the 39th lieutenant governor. In 1974, he was re-elected, this time on a ticket with Gov. Wendell Anderson. (Prior to 1974, the governor and lieutenant governor were elected separately.) Perpich became governor when Anderson resigned in 1976 to take the United States Senate seat vacated by Walter Mondale, who had been elected U.S. Vice President.

[edit] Later career

Nearly the entire DFL ticket was defeated in 1978, including Perpich and the DFL candidates for both U.S. Senate seats. Anderson's arranging for his own appointment to the Senate and Perpich's role in it were factors in their defeats. Perpich worked at Control Data Corporation in New York and Austria until winning back the governor's office in the 1982 election cycle by challenging the DFL Party's endorsed candidate, Warren Spannaus, and then winning the primary election. Perpich was re-elected in 1986, but lost the gubernatorial general election to Arne Carlson in 1990 in a bizarre election that had Carlson replace the Independent-Republican Party's candidate Jon Grunseth (who had beaten him in the primary election) just two weeks before the election after Grunseth was forced to withdraw amid allegations of a sex scandal.

Perpich was known for eccentric behavior, such as stopping speeders on the freeway and returning to the ghost town where he was born to commune with his ancestors^{[citation needed]}. At one point in his gubernatorial term, he donated his $25,000 pay raise to help promote bocce-ball.^[2] Another time, he pitched an idea for a chopstick factory to be built in northern Minnesota. He also proposed selling the governor's mansion in St. Paul as a cost-saving measure (an idea later governor Jesse Ventura would modify, choosing to shut it down and stay at his ranch in Maple Grove). Newsweek magazine brought him national attention by bestowing the nickname "Governor Goofy," crystallizing the combination of affection and resentment his habits elicited. During his last years in office, commentators wondered whether he would shoot to stardom as a presidential hopeful or, as governor, sour Minnesota voters on the DFL party with questionable public relations. However, Perpich's activist vision of the governor's role was later cited as an important contribution to the Minnesota economy -- even by unlikely admirers like his 1990 rival and successor Arne Carlson, who said in 2005 that Perpich "was the first person that I was aware of to focus on the international role that states are going to have to play."

His legacy of projects in Minnesota include the Minnesota World Trade Center in St. Paul, the Perpich Center for Arts Education in Golden Valley, the Center for Victims of Torture in Minneapolis and the Mall of America in Bloomington. Additionally, Perpich worked to promote Minnesota on the international stage by traveling to 17 countries in 1984, and bringing the foreign leaders Mikhail Gorbachev of the Soviet Union and Dr. Franjo Tuđman of Croatia to the state in 1990.

[edit] Post-political life

After leaving office in 1991 he went to Zagreb, Croatia, to assist in the post-communist government. He moved to Paris, France for a business consulting position in 1992, but returned to Minnesota in 1993. After a battle with colon cancer, Perpich died in the Minneapolis suburb of Minnetonka at the age of 67. He is buried in Lakewood Cemetery in Minneapolis.

[edit] References

• In Memoriam Gov. Rudy Perpich (1928-1995), accessed January 27, 2004.

[edit] See also

• County Road 4 - Governor Rudy Perpich Memorial Drive

[edit] External links

• Rudy Perpich at Minnesota Legislators Past & Present
• Rudy Perpich's Gravesite

v • d • e Governors of Minnesota Sibley • Ramsey • Swift • Miller • Marshall • Austin • Davis • Pillsbury • Hubbard • McGill • Merriam • Nelson • Clough • Lind • Van Sant • Johnson • Eberhart • Hammond • Burnquist • Preus • Christianson • Olson • Petersen • Benson • Stassen • Thye • Youngdahl • E. Anderson • Freeman • Andersen • Rolvaag • LeVander • W. Anderson • Perpich • Quie • Perpich • Carlson • Ventura • Pawlenty

v • d • e Lieutenant Governors of Minnesota Holcombe • Donnelly • Swift • Sherwood • Armstrong • Yale • Barto • Wakefield • Gilman • Rice • Ives • Clough • Day • Gibbs • L. Smith • Jones • Eberhart • E. Smith • Gordon • Burnquist • Sullivan • Frankson • Collins • Nolan • Adams • Arens • Solberg • Petersen • Richardson (acting) • Lindsten • Anderson • Thye • Miller • Anderson • Nelsen • Wright • Rolvaag • Keith • Goetz • Perpich • Olson • Wangberg • Johnson • Dyrstad • Benson • Schunk • Molnau