Senator Garritt E. Roelofs View All Years

GARRITT E. ROELOFS

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

Garritt E. Roelofs was born in Prinsburg, Minnesota, and lived to be 76 years of age. He died at home in Grand Rapids, Michigan, of a heart condition.

Mr. Roelofs was educated at Calvin Preparatory School and Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He taught at and was principal of the Christian High School of Holland, Michigan, and of schools in Edgerton, Minnesota, and Hull, Iowa.

Mr. Roelofs founded and published the Sioux Center News and was elected to the Iowa Senate from Lyon, O’Brien, Osceola and Sioux Counties in 1932 and served during the Forty-fifth and Forty-sixth General Assemblies. He later became the first director of the Iowa State Unemployment Compensation Commission.

He joined the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 1938 as North Central Regional Information Officer and later was advisor to the Office of Price Administration (OPA ) on agricultural rationing and pricing policies.

After World War II, Mr. Roelofs served as a civilian consultant on the staff of General Douglas MacArthur during the occupation of Japan, and received a Meritorious Achievement Award for his work and a citation from the Japanese government.

He served with the Rockefeller Foundation in India and with Robert R. Nathan Associates in Burma. In 1960 he was an agricultural extension advisor with the Agency for International Development in Bogota, Colombia.

He is survived by his wife, Luella; a son, Gerritt W., both of Grand Rapids, Michigan; two brothers and three sisters.

Therefore, Be It Resolved by the Senate of the Sixty-seventh General Assembly of Iowa: That in the passing of the Honorable Garritt E. Roelofs, the state has lost an honored citizen and a faithful and useful public servant, and the Senate by this resolution would express its appreciation of his service to his community, state and nation and tender its sympathy and kindest regards to the members of his family.

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

LUCAS J. DE KOSTER, Chairperson

IRVIN L. BERGMAN

BERL E. PRIEBE

Committee

The resolution was unanimously adopted.