Otto E. Gunderson
GUNDERSON
Posted By: Gordon Felland (email)
Date: 1/10/2014 at 16:50:43
Otto E. Gunderson
O. E. Gunderson, county superintendent of Worth county, was born on a farm near Northwood, Iowa, Feb. 25, 1875. His early life was divided between farm work and the rural schools of the county.
His father, Edward Gunderson, now of Kensett, one of the best of parents, thinking that an education better than the common schools could afford, was the best asset he could give his children, sent the subject of this sketch to the Northwood High School at the age of fourteen and later to the St. Ansgar Seminary from which institution he graduated in June, 1893.
At the age of eighteen he began his work as a teacher which he continued for about four years in different schools in Iowa and North Dakota. To better his qualifications as a teacher, he was, during the year 1895-96 a student at the Northern Illinois Normal School at Dixon. Illinois.
In April, 1897, Mr. Gunderson married Miss Gurine Finnesgard of Kenyon, Minn. This union has been blessed with three children, two of whom are living: Esther Oline, born April 29, 1899 and Clarence Harvey, born December 15, 1906.
In the years 1898-1902 he was engaged in business at Kensett and Hanlontown, Iowa. Upon his retirement from business, he was chosen to preside over the Hanlontown schools for the school year 1902-03. At the close of this school year he was induced to become a candidate for the county superintendency and was duly elected in the fall of the same year and again re-elected in 1906, and is now serving the fourth year of his incumbency.
Since his entrance to the office a multitude of new duties have been added to the work formerly required of the superintendent. He has organized the first Worth County Teachers' pedegogical library, has secured for each school a combination attendance and classification register, which will enable the superintendent to oversee the grading and classification of the rural schools, and to supervise their administration more intelligently. A special school department has been added to the Worth County Fair, spelling contests and corn contests have been conducted in various parts of the county, and he has been instrumental in securing supplementary sets of readers for every rural school of Worth county.
The office of county superintendent is one that can be made of much or little service to the people according to the ability or hustling qualities of the incumbent. In no other office in the county is so much discretion left to the official as to whether he will work or whether he will play. Those who have noted Supt. Gunderson's official conduct know that he is capably and honestly discharging the duties of this most important office. Source: The Semi-centennial Souvenir of Northwood, Iowa, 1907, page 13.O.E. GUNDERSON
Senator from the forty-first district, composed of Mitchell, Winnebago and Worth counties, was born in Worth county, Iowa, February 25, 1875. He was educated in the rural schools, St. Ansgar Seminary and Institute, and the Northern Illinois Normal School. For several years he was engaged in farming, merchandising and teaching. In 1903 was elected county superintendent of Worth county and served nine years. He moved to Forest City in 1913 and has been interested in farming and banking, being now an active officer of the Forest City National bank. The communities in which he has lived have called upon him to serve as town clerk, councilman, member of the county fair board, of the city commercial club and as president of the board of trustees of the city library. In 1897 he married Gurine Finnesgard of Kenyon, Minnesota, and has two children, Esther and Harvey. Another son, Maurice, accidentally drowned at Clear Lake, August 4, 1924. Elected senator in 1924. A republican in politics.Source: Iowa Official Register 1927-1928 - Biographies of State Senators
Worth Biographies maintained by Karon S. Velau.
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