Senator Emmett E. Cavanaugh View All Years

EMMETT E. CAVANAUGH

MR. PRESIDENT: Your committee, appointed to prepare suitable resolutions commemorating the life, character, and public service of the late Honorable Emmett E. Cavanaugh of Fort Dodge, Iowa, begs leave to submit the following:

Emmett E. Cavanaugh was born in Lehigh, Iowa, July 29, 1881, the son of the late Thomas J. and Alice Cavanaugh, pioneer settlers of Webster county. He attended school in Lehigh, graduating from the High School in 1900. He came to Fort Dodge to enter Tobin College from which he graduated and later attended the Iowa State Teachers College at Cedar Falls. He taught in Lehigh four years, after which he was chosen superintendent of the Lehigh schools for two years. In1907 he was elected superintendent of the Webster county schools where he served four years, resigning to attend the University of Iowa School of Law and was graduated in 1912. Admitted to the bar, he began the practice of law in Fort Dodge, where he was elected county attorney and held the office for two years. In 1927, during the Forty-first, Forty-second, and the Forty-second Extra Sessions of the General Assemblies, he was State Senator from Webster-Calhoun district.

For many years he was active in civic affairs of Fort Dodge, serving on the civil service commission, board of directors of the public library, and the board of Camp Fire Girls. At the time of his death, he was president of the Blanden Memorial Art Gallery. He was appointed municipal police judge where he served several years, and was known at home and throughout the state as Judge.

Mr. Cavanaugh had diverse interests of which Masonry and the outdoors were closest. He was a member of Ashlar Lodge No.111; Delta Chapter No. 51, Royal Arch Masons; Calvary Commandery No. 24 Knights Templar; Aurora Chapter No. 311; Order of the Eastern Star; Olive Shrine No. 15, and White Shrine of Jerusalem. He was past commander of Calvary Commandery. He served as Grand Commander of the Iowa Knights Templar. At the time of his death he was a member of the Masonic Temple board and trustee of Templar Park of Spirit Lake. He long held a commission as inspector-instructor in the grand commandery of Iowa Knights Templar.

Mr. Cavanaugh had a deep love of the outdoors. He was a staunch believer in the necessity of preserving the natural resources of his state. Iowa had few more ardent supporters of projects for protecting and restoring wild life.

He was a skilled angler and hunter and for many years held state and

national casting championships. He established a world record for distance salmon fly casting. At one time he was president of the National Association of Scientific Angling Clubs.

Mr. Cavanaugh was charter member of the Mud Lake Fur Farm and duck hunting preserve near Ruthven. He was one of the best duck and game birdshots in the middle west.

Mr. Cavanaugh and Miss Belle Ingalls were married June 6, 1906. He is survived by his wife, a daughter, Lt. Mrs. Vyva Kerr, who is a marine corps women’s reserve, and also a son, Capt. Dean Cavanaugh, now ocean pilot for Pan-American Airways; two granddaughters, Vicky Kerr and Dee Ann Cavanaugh; two sisters, Mrs. Erma Dillman of Fort Dodge and Mrs. Alice Tomlinson of California; and a brother, Edward Cavanaugh, of Washington state.

There is a finality about death that seems to respect the life that appears to be fully spent. To his associates it seemed Judge Cavanaugh had many years left for the activities he loved. If this were prepared as an eulogy instead of a simple biographical sketch designed to commemorate Mr. Cavanaugh’s services to Fort Dodge and to Iowa, there are many items that could be mentioned with propriety concerning him, therefore,

Be It Resolved by the Senate of the Fifty-second General Assembly, That in the passing of the Honorable Emmett E. Cavanaugh of Fort Dodge, Iowa, the state has lost a valuable and honorable citizen, and an honest statesman.

Be It Further Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions be spread on the Journal of the Senate, and that the Secretary of the Senate be directed to forward an enrolled copy to the members of the family of the deceased.

C. V. FINDLAY,

HERMAN M. KNUDSON,

J. F. MILLER,

LEO ELTHON,

R. R. BATESON,

Committee.

The resolution was unanimously adopted.