Representative Oscar Johannes Grau View All Years

OSCAR JOHANNES GRAU

MR. SPEAKER: Your committee appointed to prepare a suitable resolution commemorating the life, character, and public service of the late Honorable Oscar Johannes Grau, begs leave to submit the following memorial:

Oscar J. Grau was born on a farm north of Newell on June 19, 1890, the third son in a family of three boys and five girls, to Hans J. and Anna E. Bodholdt Grau.

Mr. Grau’s early education took place at the country school located one mile east of the home farm. This was followed by several winter courses at a private school, a commercial course at Grand View College, Des Moines, Iowa, during 1909-1910 and then completion of the two-year agriculture course at Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa, in 1913.

He was married to Christena Bodholdt of Waterloo, September 15, 1915, and to this union were born three children: Donald B., Robert B. and Doris.

Mr. Grau, a native of Newell, had resided in Buena Vista County all of his lifetime. After completion of his education, he began farming for himself in the Newell area where he developed a herd of polled shorthorn cattle. He was a charter member of the Farm Bureau and served as county president in 1931. While president of the county Farm Bureau, the Farm Service Company was organized. In 1936 he was named temporary chairman of the Farm Bureau Rural Electric Committee. The Buena Vista County REC was incorporated January 18, 1937, and Mr. Grau was one of the original signers. At the board’s first meeting he was elected president and served the organization in that position for 12 years. In May, 1937, the REC board voted to become a member of the Central Electric Federated Cooperative and he was named Buena Vista county representative on the board.

From 1948 to 1954 he served as the mayor of Storm Lake. He was past vice president for Development of Buena Vista College as well as serving as a college trustee for several years.

Upon his instigation in 1947, he joined four other men in the organization of a corporation to build a radio station in Storm Lake. Station KAYL went on the air in 1948 with FM being added in 1950. He served as corporation president until the Cornbelt Broadcasting Company was sold in 1972.

Mr. Grau had been a resident of Storm Lake since 1940 when he retired from active farming in Coon Township.

He was a member of Lakeside Presbyterian Church where he had served as an elder, a Scottish Rite Mason, member of the Shrine, longtime member of the Storm Lake Chamber of Commerce, Elks Lodge, Order of Eastern Star and Phi Kappa Delta Honorary Forensics fraternity. For more than twenty-five years he served as president of the Buena Vista County Mutual Insurance Association, beginning in 1944.

A Republican, Mr. Grau was a State Representative for Buena Vista county during the Forty-fifth, Forty-fifth Extra General Assemblies, serving on the committee that wrote the three-point tax law—income, sales and corporation income tax—which has since been the basis of state treasury income. He was chairman of the subcommittee promoting the police radio system and was instrumental in the location of the police broadcast station in Storm Lake.

His wife, Christena, preceded him in death in 1967. In 1969 he married Alma Bodholdt of Newell.

Mr. Grau died at the Buena Vista County Hospital July 28, 1974, after a lengthy illness.

Surviving are his wife, Alma; two sons, Donald B. of Dubuque, and Robert B. of Elkader; a daughter, Doris of San Francisco, California; six grandchildren; three great grandchildren; a brother, Jurgen (J. C.) of Newell; four sisters, Mrs. Laura Bonebrake of Diagonal; Mrs. Emma Six of Oakland, California; Mrs. Sarah Hearst of Cedar Falls. The funeral services were held in Lakeside Presbyterian Church on July 31, 1974.

Therefore, Be It Resolved by the House of Representatives of the Sixty-sixth General Assembly of Iowa: That in the passing of the Honorable Oscar Johannes Grau, 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.

KEITH BAKER

LESTER D. MENKE

OPAL MILLER

Committee