Representative Gerhardt Henry Hesse View All Years

G. H. HESSE

MR. SPEAKER: Your committee appointed to prepare a suitable resolution commemorating the life, character, and public service of the late honorable G. H. Hesse, begs leave to submit the following memorial:

Gerhardt Henry Hesse was born October 3, 1894, in Minonk, Illinois, son of Henry and Mary Melberg Hesse. He came with his parents to Hartley in 1899 and graduated from Hartley High School in 1913. He attended the University of Minnesota School of Agriculture and graduated in 1916. He attended the University of Minnesota until World War I was declared. He served in the United States Army during World War I and then helped organize the Arthur Kirckoff Post of the American Legion in Hartley, and served as Commander in 1930.

Mr. Hesse married Margaret Olsen on February 2, 1918, at Sioux City, Iowa, and to this union were born three daughters. They lived at Hartley, Des Moines and at Rock Rapids, Iowa, for the last twenty-five years.

He was engaged in farming in O’Brien County and helped found the Farm Bureau in O’Brien County, being a charter member. He helped found Little League Baseball in Iowa where it caught on and spread to other parts of the United States. He was an agricultural leader in northwest Iowa, having become during his lifetime a professional farmer.

Mr. Hesse was affiliated with the Phi Kappa Epsilon and Masonic fraternities. He was a member of the United Methodist Church of Rock Rapids.

Mr. Hesse, a Republican, was elected to the House of Representatives in 1930.

He passed away at Butler, Pennsylvania, where he had been visiting his daughter, on January 28, 1975, at the age of eighty. Preceding him in death was his wife in January of 1974. He is survived by his three daughters and their husbands: Mrs. William H. (Billie) Fleming of Butler, Pennsylvania; Mrs. Warren (Betty Lou) Newel of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and Mrs. H. R. (Gayle) Brunson of Wichita, Kansas; seven grandchildren, one great grandson, one brother and his wife, William H. and Nina Hesse, and one sister and her husband, Dorothea and Everett Dunn, all of Hartley.

Therefore, Be It Resolved by the House of Representatives of the Sixty-sixth General Assembly of Iowa: That in the passing of the Honorable G. H. Hesse, the state has lost an honored citizen and a faithful and useful public servant, and the House by this Resolution would express its appreciation of his service, and tender its sympathy to the members of his family.

Be It Further Resolved: That a copy of this Resolution be spread upon the Journal of the House, and that the Chief Clerk be directed to forward an enrolled copy to the family of the deceased.

INGWER L. HANSEN

LESTER D. MENKE

KEITH BAKER

Committee