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Permanent LinkSenator Otto E. Gunderson View All Years
OTTO E. GUNDERSON
MR. PRESIDENT: Your committee, appointed to prepare a suitable resolution commemorating the life, character and public service of the late Otto E. Gunderson, begs leave to submit the following:
Otto E. Gunderson was born in Worth County on February 25, 1875, the son of Edward and Olivia Kalgaarden Gunderson, who had come to the United States from Norway. He was married to Gunine Finnesgaard on April 19, 1897, in Kenyon, Minnesota.
Mr. Gunderson passed away at the Forest City Municipal Hospital in Forest City, Iowa on January 25, 1958. Surviving members of his family include a daughter, Esther Gunderson of Forest City, Iowa and a son, Lieutenant Colonel Harvey Gunderson of Fort Meade, Maryland, two grandchildren and one great-grandchild.
After farming with his father for a year in Worth County, Mr. Gunderson established his own store in Kensett, Iowa which he operated for three years. He then moved to Hanlontown where he operated a store for another three years before being named County Superintendent of Schools for Worth County in 1904. He held this position for nine years, during which time he lived in Northwood, Iowa.
In 1913, Mr. Gunderson moved to Forest City, Iowa to accept the position of assistant cashier of the Forest City National Bank. He was associated with the bank until 1928 when he resigned to devote his time to politics, having been elected State Senator from this district in 1923. He served in the Senate of the Iowa General Assembly for two four-year terms.
Following his service in the State Legislature, Mr. Gunderson was named postmaster in 1932 and continued in that position through 1936. In that year, he organized the Forest City Farm Loan Association which handles federal land bank loans in Winnebago and Hancock Counties, and served as its first secretary. During these years, Mr. Gunderson served as Republican County Chairman for Winnebago County for six years and was a delegate to the National Republican Convention of 1940 in Philadelphia.
Mr. Gunderson was a member of the Immanuel Lutheran Church of Forest City, Iowa.
Therefore, Be It Resolved by the Senate of the Fifty-eighth General Assembly: That in the passing of the Honorable Otto E. Gunderson, the State of Iowa has lost a valuable and honorable citizen and by this resolution tenders its sincere sympathy to the surviving members of his family.
Be It Further Resolved: That a copy of this resolution 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.
JACOB GRIMSTEAD,
WALTER E. EDELEN,
DUANE E. DEWEL,
Committee.
The resolution was unanimously adopted.