Lucas James DeKoster (June 18, 1918 – February 23, 2000) was an American politician who served in the

Iowa Senate The Iowa Senate is the upper house of the Iowa General Assembly, United States. There are 50 seats in the Iowa Senate, representing 50 single-member districts across the state of Iowa with populations of approximately 60,927 per constituency, . ...

from 1965 to 1983. He was born to parents John and Sarah Katherine DeKoster in

Hull, Iowa Hull is a city in Sioux County, Iowa. The population was 2,384 at the time of the 2020 census. History The first settlers in the Hull area arrived in 1872. The city was incorporated on May 15, 1886. Hull was named for John A. T. Hull, a member ...

, on June 18, 1918. After graduating from

Hull High School Hull High School is a public high school located in Hull, Massachusetts, United States. It is located at 180 Main Street at the very edge of town adjacent to the Hull Gut, overlooking Boston Harbor and the Boston skyline. Hull has an approximate ...

in his hometown, DeKoster successively attended

Kansas State College Kansas State University (KSU, Kansas State, or K-State) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Manhattan, Kansas, United States. It was opened as the state's land-grant college in 1863 and was the first public instit ...

and

Iowa State College Iowa State University of Science and Technology (Iowa State University, Iowa State, or ISU) is a public land-grant research university in Ames, Iowa. Founded in 1858 as the Iowa Agricultural College and Model Farm, Iowa State became one of the n ...

, completing a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering in 1939. He was a designer of jet-propulsion engines for the aeronautical industry and worked in New Jersey, Virginia and Ohio. While an Ohio resident, DeKoster studied at the

Cleveland–Marshall College of Law Cleveland State University College of Law is the law school of Cleveland State University, a public research university in Cleveland, Ohio. The school traces its origins to Cleveland Law School (founded in 1897), which merged in 1946 with the Jo ...

. Upon passing the Iowa bar exam in June 1952, DeKoster returned to Hull and practiced general and patent law. DeKoster won election to the

for the first time in 1964, as a Republican legislator representing District 50. He subsequently served a four-year term for District 49 starting in 1967, and thereafter held the

District 1 District 1 may refer to: * I District, Turku, in Finland * District 1, Düsseldorf, a district in Düsseldorf, Germany * Sector 1 (Bucharest), also known as District 1, in Bucharest, Romania * District I, Budapest in Budapest, Hungary * District ...

seat until stepping down in 1983. In 1970, he was a Republican candidate for floor leader of the senate. Ten years after stepping down from the state senate, DeKoster served on the Iowa Senate Ethics Committee. After his retirement from politics, DeKoster undertook an in-depth study of his family's genealogy and self-published a history/memoir entitled ''The Books of Our Years''. DeKoster married Dorothea LaVonne Hymans in 1942, with whom he raised five children. He died in Hull on February 23, 2000, aged 81. The University of Iowa Libraries hold separate collections for DeKoster and his mother Sarah.

References

1918 births Kansas State University alumni Iowa State University alumni 2000 deaths Republican Party Iowa state senators 20th-century American legislators People from Hull, Iowa 20th-century American engineers Engineers from Iowa Iowa lawyers 20th-century American lawyers Cleveland State University College of Law alumni {{Iowa-politician-stub