Wendell Richard "Wendy" Anderson (February 1, 1933 – July 17, 2016) was an American hockey player, politician, and the 33rd

governor of Minnesota The governor of Minnesota is the head of government of the U.S. state of Minnesota, leading the state's executive branch. Forty people have been governor of Minnesota, though historically there were also three governors of Minnesota Territory. ...

, serving from January 4, 1971, to December 29, 1976. In late 1976 he resigned as governor in order to be appointed to the

U.S. Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and powe ...

after Senator

Walter Mondale Walter Frederick "Fritz" Mondale (January 5, 1928 – April 19, 2021) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 42nd vice president of the United States from 1977 to 1981 under President Jimmy Carter. A U.S. senator from Minnesota ...

was elected

Vice President of the United States The vice president of the United States (VPOTUS) is the second-highest officer in the executive branch of the U.S. federal government, after the president of the United States, and ranks first in the presidential line of succession. The vice ...

. Anderson served in the Senate from December 30, 1976, to December 29, 1978. (After losing the 1978 Senate election to

Rudy Boschwitz Rudolph Ely Boschwitz (born November 7, 1930) is an American politician and businessman who served as a United States senator from Minnesota from 1978 until 1991. Boschwitz is a member of the Republican Party. He was born in Berlin to a Jewish ...

, he resigned a few days before the end of his term to give Boschwitz seniority.)

Background

Anderson was born in

Saint Paul, Minnesota Saint Paul (abbreviated St. Paul) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital of the U.S. state of Minnesota and the county seat of Ramsey County, Minnesota, Ramsey County. Situated on high bluffs overlooking a bend in the Mississip ...

, in 1933. He attended Saint Paul's Johnson High School and the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...

, where he received a

B.A. Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

in 1954. He earned a law degree from the

University of Minnesota Law School The University of Minnesota Law School is the law school of the University of Minnesota, located in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The school confers four law degrees: a Juris Doctor (J.D.), a Master of Laws (LL.M.), a Master of Science in Patent Law ...

in 1960. Anderson served in the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

from 1955 to 1957, reaching the rank of

First Lieutenant First lieutenant is a commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces; in some forces, it is an appointment. The rank of lieutenant has different meanings in different military formations, but in most forces it is sub-divided into a s ...

. He later served with an intelligence unit in the

Army Reserve A military reserve force is a military organization whose members have military and civilian occupations. They are not normally kept under arms, and their main role is to be available when their military requires additional manpower. Reserve ...

Hockey career

Anderson played defense for the

from 1951 to 1954, and was a member of the U.S. hockey team that won a silver medal at the

1956 Winter Olympics The 1956 Winter Olympics, officially known as the VII Olympic Winter Games ( it, VII Giochi Olimpici invernali) and commonly known as Cortina d'Ampezzo 1956 ( lld, Anpezo 1956 or ), was a multi-sport event held in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, from ...

. Long after his on-ice career ended, he was drafted by the

Minnesota Fighting Saints The Minnesota Fighting Saints was the name of two professional ice hockey teams based in Saint Paul, Minnesota, that played in the World Hockey Association. The first team was one of the WHA's original twelve franchises, playing from 1972 to 19 ...

in the inaugural

World Hockey Association The World Hockey Association (french: Association mondiale de hockey) was a professional ice hockey major league that operated in North America from 1972 to 1979. It was the first major league to compete with the National Hockey League (NHL) ...

draft of 1972, in what was seen as a publicity stunt. (Not to be outdone, another WHA team selected Soviet Premier

Alexei Kosygin Alexei Nikolayevich Kosygin ( rus, Алексе́й Никола́евич Косы́гин, p=ɐlʲɪkˈsʲej nʲɪkɐˈla(j)ɪvʲɪtɕ kɐˈsɨɡʲɪn; – 18 December 1980) was a Soviet statesman during the Cold War. He served as the Premi ...

.) While flattered, Anderson chose to remain governor.

Political career

Anderson served in the

Minnesota House of Representatives The Minnesota House of Representatives is the lower house of the Legislature of the U.S. state of Minnesota. There are 134 members, twice as many as the Minnesota Senate. Floor sessions are held in the north wing of the State Capitol in Saint Pa ...

from 1959 to 1962 and in the

Minnesota State Senate The Minnesota Senate is the upper house of the Legislature of the U.S. state of Minnesota. At 67 members, half as many as the Minnesota House of Representatives, it is the largest upper house of any U.S. state legislature. Floor sessions are hel ...

from 1963 to 1970. He was elected governor of Minnesota in

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity scale, Mercalli intensity of X (''Extrem ...

. His signature accomplishment as governor was helping to create the "Minnesota Miracle of 1971", an innovative reform in financing of Minnesota public schools and local governments that created a fairer distribution in taxation and education. For his efforts Anderson was featured on a 1973 cover of ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...

'' magazine. After U.S. Senator

was elected vice president in

1976 Events January * January 3 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force. * January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea. * January 11 – The 1976 Phila ...

, the governor had to appoint Mondale's successor. Anderson agreed with his lieutenant governor,

Rudy Perpich Rudolph George Perpich Sr. (June 27, 1928 September 21, 1995) was an American politician and the longest-serving governor of Minnesota, serving a total of just over 10 years. A member of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, he served as the 34t ...

, that Anderson would resign as governor, and Perpich, as the new governor, would appoint Anderson to the Senate. In what became known as the "Minnesota Massacre", nearly the entire DFL Party ticket was defeated in 1978, including Perpich and the candidates for both

seats, Anderson and

Bob Short Robert Earl Short (July 20, 1917 – November 20, 1982) was an American businessman, sport teams owner, and politician. Background Short graduated from the College of Saint Thomas (now the University of St. Thomas (Minnesota), University of St. ...

. Anderson's arrangement to have himself appointed to the Senate—and Perpich's role in that appointment—were deemed central factors in the defeats. From 1995 to 2001 Anderson served as a director for and head of the legal committee of Turbodyne Technologies Inc. (TRBD) in

Carpinteria, California Carpinteria (; es, Carpintería, meaning "Carpentry") is a small seaside city in southeastern Santa Barbara County, California. Located on the Central Coast (California), Central Coast of California, it had a population of 13,264 at the 2020 U ...

. In his later years he was regularly called upon to act as a commentator on Minnesota politics for local stations such as

KSTP-TV KSTP-TV (channel 5) is a television station licensed to Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States, serving the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Twin Cities area as an affiliate of American Broadcasting Company, ABC. It is the Flagship (broadcasting), flagsh ...

Personal life

Anderson married Mary Christine McKee (1939-2018) of

Bemidji, Minnesota Bemidji ( ) is a city and the county seat of Beltrami County, in northern Minnesota, United States. The population was 14,574 at the 2020 census. According to 2021 census estimates, the city is estimated to have a population of 15,279, making it ...

, in 1963. They had three children: Amy, Elizabeth, and Brett. They divorced in 1990. In the 1970s, Anderson appeared on the TV

game show A game show is a genre of broadcast viewing entertainment (radio, television, internet, stage or other) where contestants compete for a reward. These programs can either be participatory or Let's Play, demonstrative and are typically directed b ...

What's My Line? ''What's My Line?'' is a panel game show that originally ran in the United States on the CBS Television Network from 1950 to 1967, originally in black and white and later in color, with subsequent U.S. revivals. The game uses celebrity panelis ...

" A panel consisting of

Gene Rayburn Gene Rayburn (born Eugene Peter Jeljenic; December 22, 1917 – November 29, 1999) was an American radio and television personality. He is best known as the host of various editions of the American television game show ''Match Game'' for over tw ...

Arlene Francis Arlene Francis (born Arline Francis Kazanjian; October 20, 1907 – May 31, 2001) was an American actress, radio and television talk show host, and game show panelist. She is known for her long-running role as a panelist on the television game s ...

Gene Shalit Eugene Shalit (born March 25, 1926) is an American retired journalist, television personality, film and book critic and author. After starting to work part-time on NBC's ''The Today Show'' in 1970, he filled those roles from January 15, 1973, ...

and

Sheila MacRae Sheila Margaret MacRae (née Stephens; 24 September 1921 – 6 March 2014) was an English-born American actress, singer, and dancer. Career MacRae appeared in such films as '' Caged'' (1950), '' Backfire'' (1950), and ''Sex and the Single Gir ...

was unable to guess that he was the governor of Minnesota. In 1975, two of the Swedish District lodges of the

Vasa Order of America Vasa Order of America ( sv, Vasa Orden av Amerika) is a Swedish-American fraternal, cultural and educational organization. The organization seeks to benefit its members by sharing Swedish and Scandinavian culture and heritage. Philosophy The obje ...

selected Anderson as Swedish-American of the Year. Anderson died on July 17, 2016, of complications of

Alzheimer's disease Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegeneration, neurodegenerative disease that usually starts slowly and progressively worsens. It is the cause of 60–70% of cases of dementia. The most common early symptom is difficulty in short-term me ...

. He was 83.

References

External links

Wendell Anderson on the cover of TIME magazine: August 13, 1973
* , - , - , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Anderson, Wendell 1933 births 2016 deaths Politicians from Saint Paul, Minnesota Ice hockey players from Saint Paul, Minnesota Lutherans from Minnesota Democratic Party United States senators from Minnesota Democratic Party governors of Minnesota Democratic Party members of the Minnesota House of Representatives Democratic Party Minnesota state senators American men's ice hockey defensemen Minnesota Golden Gophers men's ice hockey players Ice hockey players at the 1956 Winter Olympics American athlete-politicians 20th-century Lutherans 20th-century American politicians University of Minnesota Law School alumni United States Army officers Military personnel from Minnesota Medalists at the 1956 Winter Olympics Olympic silver medalists for the United States in ice hockey