Joseph E. Gurzenda (March 24, 1937 – September 22, 2014) was a member of the
Pennsylvania State Senate
The Pennsylvania State Senate is the upper house of the Pennsylvania General Assembly, the Pennsylvania state legislature. The State Senate meets in the State Capitol building in Harrisburg. Senators are elected for four year terms, staggered ev ...
, serving from 1977 to 1980.
Formative years and family
Born in Tresckow, Carbon County, Pennsylvania on March 24, 1937, Gurzenda was a son of Joseph and Margaret (Bodnar) Gurzenda. He attended the
University of Delaware
The University of Delaware (colloquially UD or Delaware) is a public land-grant research university located in Newark, Delaware. UD is the largest university in Delaware. It offers three associate's programs, 148 bachelor's programs, 121 mas ...
and
King's College King's College or The King's College refers to two higher education institutions in the United Kingdom:
*King's College, Cambridge, a constituent of the University of Cambridge
*King's College London, a constituent of the University of London
It ca ...
.
[Pennsylvania General Assembly website, State Senate Biographies, retrieved March 28, 2019]
/ref>
He was married to Monica Mulik.[
]
Career
Gurzenda won his Pennsylvania State Senate seat in 1976 in an upset victory over Republican incumbent Fred Hobbs, becoming only the second Democratic Party member to win this seat since 1900.
After his electoral defeat in 1980, he became a business entrepreneur, owning and operating several small retail businesses. He also worked in strip mine development. He was later appointed by then Governor Edward G. Rendell in 2004, to the State Tax Equalization Board.[
]
Death
Gurzenda died in McAdoo, Pennsylvania in 2014.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gurzenda, Joseph
Democratic Party Pennsylvania state senators
1937 births
2014 deaths