Representative Charles V. Findlay View All Years

CHARLES V. FINDLAY

MR. PRESIDENT: Your committee, appointed to prepare a suitable resolution commemorating the life, character and public service of the late Honorable Charles V. Findlay, begs leave to submit be following memorial:

Charles V. Findlay was born at Pawpaw, Illinois, on September 18, 1866. He came to Iowa with his parents in 1870 in a covered wagon drawn by a yoke of oxen. The Findlays homesteaded in Clay County, and in 1877 moved to Webster County. Mr. Findlay received his early education in the rural schools of Clay and Webster Counties, and taught school in and near Kalo in Webster County for several years. He was graduated from Highland Park College in Des Moines in 1891 as a member of the first class, with a bachelor of science degree. In 1898 he received his master’s degree. Mr. Findlay was Webster County superintendent of schools from 1892 until 1900 when he became president of Tobin College in Fort Dodge. He served in that capacity until 1931. He was married on June 29, 1899, to Miss Mabel Southwick of Lake Mills, whom he met while both were students at Highland Park College. Mr. and Mrs. Findlay both taught classes at Tobin College where hundreds of young men and women from northwest Iowa farms and communities were their pupils.

Mr. Findlay was a member of the House of Representatives from Webster County in the Thirty-seventh, Thirty-eighth and Thirty-eighth Extra sessions of the General Assembly. He was elected State Senator from the Webster-Calhoun district and served in the Forty-ninth, Fiftieth, Fiftieth Extra, Fifty-first and Fifty-second General Assemblies. He was elected mayor of Fort Dodge in 1923, and served ten years in that office. He was a member of the National Association of Parliamentarians, and was also editor and publisher of a textbook, “Parliamentary Law Made Easy.” He was a member of the First Congregational Church of Fort Dodge, and served as a deacon of the church. In 1903 Mr. Findlay became a member of the board of trustees of the Fort Dodge Public Library. He served as president of the board from June 15, 1911, until August of 1950 when he resigned because of ill health. He was a member of the Iowa State Library Association and served as president of that group in 1928. For many years a member of the board of directors of the Y.M.C.A., he was also on the board of directors of the Fort Dodge Chamber of Commerce. He spent several terms as a member of the local Boy Scout Council. Mr. Findlay also belonged to Ashlar Masonic Lodge, Delta Chapter of Royal Arch Masons and Calvary Commandery of Knights Templar. A farm owner, he had a great deal of interest in agriculture and his hobbies included gardening and outdoor sports.

Mr. Findlay, one of Fort Dodge’s best known citizens, died March 3, 1951 at the age of 84. Mr. and Mrs. Findlay observed their golden wedding anniversary with a family reunion in Fort Dodge in June of 1949. Surviving him are his wife and a son, Dr. James Franklin Findlay, president of Drury College at Springfield, Missouri, and two grandchildren, Mrs. G. T. Odom, Jr., of Norman, Oklahoma, and J. F. Findlay, Jr., of Springfield. One son, Maurice Southwick Findlay, died while a student at Grinnell College.

Therefore, Be It Resolved by the Senate of the Fifty-fourth General Assembly of Iowa: That in the passing of the Honorable Charles V. Findlay, the state has lost an able and honored citizen and the Senate tenders, by this resolution, its sincere sympathy to the surviving members of his family in their sorrow.

Be It Further Resolved: That a copy of this resolution be spread upon the Journal of the Senate and that the Secretary be directed to forward enrolled copies to the members of the family of the deceased.

PAUL E. MCCARVILLE,

R. J. OLTMAN,

ALAN VEST,

Committee.

The resolution was unanimously adopted.