Editing Rudy Perpich

{{short description|American politician}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=November 2011}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name                = Rudy Perpich
| image               = Rudy Perpich.jpg
| caption             = 
| order1              = 34th & 36th
| office1             = Governor of Minnesota
| term1               = January 3, 1983{{spaced ndash}}January 7, 1991
| lieutenant1         = [[Marlene Johnson]]
| predecessor1        = Al Quie
| successor1          = [[Arne Carlson]]
| term2               = December 29, 1976{{spaced ndash}}January 4, 1979
| 1blankname2         = [[List of Lieutenant Governors of Minnesota|Lieutenant]]
| 1namedata2          = [[Alec G. Olson]]
| predecessor2        = [[Wendell R. Anderson]]
| successor2          = [[Al Quie]]
| order3              = 39th
| office3             = Lieutenant Governor of Minnesota
| term3               = January 4, 1971{{spaced ndash}}December 29, 1976
| governor3           = Wendell R. Anderson
| predecessor3        = [[James B. Goetz]]
| successor3          = [[Alec G. Olson]]
| state_senate4       = Minnesota
| district4           = 63rd
| term4               = January 8, 1963{{spaced ndash}}January 4, 1971
| predecessor4        = [[Elmer Peter Peterson]]
| successor4          = [[George F. Perpich]]
| birth_name          = Rudolph George Prpić
| birth_date          = {{birth date|1928|6|27|mf=y}}
| birth_place         = [[Hibbing, Minnesota|Carson Lake, Minnesota]], U.S.
| death_date          = {{death date and age|mf=yes|1995|9|21|1928|6|27}}
| death_place         = [[Minnetonka, Minnesota]], U.S.
| party               = [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]] ([[Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party|DFL]])
| education           = [[Minnesota North College – Hibbing|Hibbing Junior College]]<br>[[Marquette University]] ([[Doctor of Dental Surgery|DDS]])
| profession          = Dentist
| spouse              = Delores "Lola" Perpich
| children            = 2
| allegiance          = {{flag|United States}}
| branch              = {{army|United States}}
| serviceyears        = 1946–1948
| battles             = 
| rank                = 
}}

'''Rudolph George Perpich Sr.''' (born '''Rudolph George Prpić'''; June 27, 1928{{spaced ndash}} September 21, 1995) was an American politician who served as the [[Governor of Minnesota|governor]] of [[Minnesota]] from 1976 to 1979 and again from 1983 to 1991. A member of the [[Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party|Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party]], he is labeled as Minnesota's [[List of governors of Minnesota|34th and 36th]] governor. As of 2025, he is the only governor elected to serve non-consecutive terms in the [[history of Minnesota]].

== Early life and education ==
Rudolph George Prpić was born in Carson Lake, Minnesota, which is now part of [[Hibbing, Minnesota|Hibbing]]. His father, Anton Prpić, was a miner who had immigrated to Minnesota's [[Mesabi Range|Mesabi Iron Range]] from [[Croatia]], and his mother, Mary (Vukelich),<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://archive.org/details/biographicaldire0000mull|title=Biographical directory of the governors of the United States, 1988-1994|first=Marie Marmo|last=Mullaney|date=January 31, 1994|publisher=Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press|via=Internet Archive}}</ref> was an American of [[Croats|Croatian descent]]. Perpich did not learn to speak English until at least the first grade of elementary school. At 14, he began working for the [[Great Northern Railway (U.S.)|Great Northern Railway]].<ref name=Gilman>{{cite book|last=Gilman|first=Rhonda R.|title=The Story of Minnesota's Past|publisher=Minnesota Historical Society Press|year=1989|location=Saint Paul, Minnesota|pages=42|isbn=0-87351-267-7}}</ref> He graduated from Hibbing High School in 1946 and served two years in the [[United States Army]]. He then attended [[Marquette University]] in [[Milwaukee|Milwaukee, Wisconsin]] and graduated from Marquette University Dental School in 1954, and returned to Hibbing to practice dentistry.

== Entry into politics ==
Perpich first entered politics by serving on the Hibbing [[school board]] in 1955–1956. The board gained notability for instituting [[Equal pay for equal work|equal pay]] for male and female workers. In 1962, he was elected to the [[Minnesota Senate]], representing the old 63rd District, which included portions of [[St. Louis County, Minnesota|Saint Louis County]] in the northeastern part of the state. He was reelected in 1966.

In 1970, Perpich was elected the 39th [[lieutenant governor of Minnesota]]. He was reelected in 1974 on a [[Ticket (election)|ticket]] with Governor [[Wendell R. Anderson]]. (Before 1974, the governor and lieutenant governor were elected separately in Minnesota.) He became governor when Anderson resigned in 1976 to accept appointment to the [[United States Senate]] seat vacated by [[Walter Mondale]], who had been elected [[Vice President of the United States]]. Perpich was the first Iron Range resident to hold the office.

==Gubernatorial campaigns==
Most of the statewide [[Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party|DFL Party]] ticket was defeated in [[1978 Minnesota gubernatorial election|1978]]; the defeated candidates included Perpich, the candidates for both [[United States Senate|U.S. Senate]] seats, and Auditor Robert Mattson. Anderson's arrangement to have himself appointed to the Senate and Perpich's role in that appointment were deemed major factors in those defeats.

Perpich worked at [[Control Data Corporation]] in New York and [[Austria]] for several years. In [[1982 Minnesota gubernatorial election|1982]], he challenged the DFL Party's endorsed candidate for governor, [[Warren Spannaus]], in the primary election, and won. He then defeated Independent-Republican nominee [[Wheelock Whitney, Jr.|Wheelock Whitney]] in the general election. Upon his victory, he became the state's first [[Roman Catholic]] governor. As of 2025, he remains the only Catholic elected governor of Minnesota. Perpich served as the Chairman of the [[Midwestern Governors Association]] in 1984.

Perpich was reelected in 1986, but lost to [[Arne H. Carlson|Arne Carlson]] in 1990, a bizarre campaign in which Carlson replaced the [[Republican Party of Minnesota|Independent-Republican Party's]] candidate [[Jon Grunseth]], who had beaten Carlson in the [[Partisan primary|primary]]. (After Carlson's surprise primary defeat, a bipartisan, grassroots group, Minnesotans for the WRITE Choice, launched a noisy, media-intensive campaign urging Carlson to re-challenge Grunseth.) Grunseth was forced to withdraw amid allegations of a [[sex scandal]] just two weeks before the election. Perpich was Minnesota's last DFL governor until [[Mark Dayton]] took office in 2011.

==Colorful behavior and international goals==
Perpich had a reputation for colorful behavior. At one point while governor, he donated his $25,000 pay raise to help promote [[bocce]].<ref>1978-04-26. Kinney requests bocce balls. Duluth News Tribune, 5B</ref> He also pitched an idea for a [[chopstick]] factory to be built in northern Minnesota, and proposed selling the [[Minnesota Governor's Mansion|governor's mansion]] in Saint Paul as a cost-saving measure.

''[[Newsweek]]'' brought Perpich national attention by bestowing on him the nickname "Governor Goofy", crystallizing the combination of affection and resentment his habits elicited.<ref>[http://www.newsweek.com/1990/06/17/bad-manners-in-minnesota.html Newsweek – June 17, 1990: "Bad Manners In Minnesota"]</ref> During his last years in office, commentators wondered whether he would shoot to stardom as a [[POTUS|presidential]] hopeful or, as governor, sour Minnesota voters on the DFL party with questionable public relations. But Perpich's activist vision of the governor's role was later cited as an important contribution to the Minnesota economy, even by such unlikely admirers as his 1990 rival and successor [[Arne Carlson]], who said in 2005 that Perpich "was the first person that I was aware of to focus on the international role that states are going to have to play."

Perpich's legacy of projects in Minnesota include the [[Wells Fargo Place|Minnesota World Trade Center]] in [[Saint Paul, Minnesota|Saint Paul]], the [[Perpich Center for Arts Education]] in [[Golden Valley, Minnesota|Golden Valley]], the [[Center for Victims of Torture]] in Minneapolis, the University of Minnesota Duluth [[Natural Resources Research Institute]], and the [[Mall of America]] in [[Bloomington, Minnesota|Bloomington]]. Additionally, he worked to promote Minnesota on the international stage by traveling to 17 countries in 1984, and bringing the foreign leaders [[Mikhail Gorbachev]] of the [[Soviet Union]] and Dr. [[Franjo Tudjman|Franjo Tuđman]] of Croatia to the state in 1990.

Perpich opposed the Reagan [[proxy war]] against [[Nicaragua]] in the 1980s and was one of several governors who objected to sending their [[National Guard of the United States|National Guard]] units to train in U.S. bases in [[Honduras]], where the U.S.-backed [[Contras]] were based. The Contras carried out atrocities in Nicaragua to topple the leftist government there.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/why-are-we-in-honduras/Content?oid=871883|title = Why Are We in Honduras?|date = March 10, 1988}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.potowmack.org/|title=Potow Mack|website=Potow Mack}}</ref> Perpich was the plaintiff in the 1990 [[U.S. Supreme Court]] case ''[[Perpich v. Department of Defense]],'' which established that the [[U.S. Department of Defense]] could send state National Guard units overseas over the governor's objection.

== Post-political life ==
After leaving office in 1991, Perpich went to [[Zagreb]], Croatia, to assist its post-communist government. In 1992 he moved to [[Paris]], France, for a business consulting position. He returned to Minnesota in 1993. In 1995, at the age of 67, Perpich died of colon cancer in the [[Minneapolis]] suburb of [[Minnetonka, Minnesota|Minnetonka]]. He is buried in [[Lakewood Cemetery]] in Minneapolis.

== See also ==
*[[Perpich Center for Arts Education]]
*[[County roads in St. Louis County, Minnesota#4|Saint Louis County Road 4 – Governor Rudy Perpich Memorial Drive]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/19990117014921/http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/1302/perpich.html Rudy Perpich: Detailed chronological biography and reference site]

== External links ==
{{MN-legdb|10522}}
*[http://reocities.com/Heartland/1302/perpich.html In Memoriam Gov. Rudy Perpich (1928–1995)]
*[http://www.croatianhistory.net/etf/perpich.html Rudy Perpich Biography on croatianhistory.net]
*[https://www.nytimes.com/1995/09/22/obituaries/rudy-perpich-67-led-minnesota-for-10-years.html New York Times Obituary: September 22, 1995]
*{{Find a Grave|5143}}
* [http://www.mnopedia.org/person/perpich-rudy-1928-1995 Rudy Perpich in MNopedia, the Minnesota Encyclopedia]
*{{C-SPAN|3409}}

{{s-start}}
{{s-off}}
{{succession box
|title=[[List of Lieutenant Governors of Minnesota|Lieutenant Governor of Minnesota]]
|years = 1971–1976
|before = [[James B. Goetz]]
|after = [[Alec G. Olson]]
}}
{{succession box
|title=[[List of Governors of Minnesota|Governor of Minnesota]]
|years = 1976–1979
|before = [[Wendell R. Anderson]]
|after = [[Al Quie]]
}}
{{succession box
|title=[[List of Governors of Minnesota|Governor of Minnesota]]
|years = 1983–1991
|before = Al Quie
|after = [[Arne Carlson]]
}}
{{s-ppo}}
{{s-bef|before=[[Bob Short]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]] nominee for [[Lieutenant Governor of Minnesota]]|years=[[1970 Minnesota lieutenant gubernatorial election|1970]], [[1974 Minnesota gubernatorial election|1974]]}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Alec G. Olson]]}}
{{s-bef|rows=2|before=[[Wendell R. Anderson]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party|Endorsed Gubernatorial Candidate,<br>Minnesota DFL State Convention]]|years=[[1978 Minnesota gubernatorial election|1978]]}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Warren Spannaus]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party|DFL nominee for]] [[Governor of Minnesota]]| years=[[1978 Minnesota gubernatorial election|1978]], [[1982 Minnesota gubernatorial election|1982]], [[1986 Minnesota gubernatorial election|1986]], [[1990 Minnesota gubernatorial election|1990]]}}
{{s-aft|rows=2|after=[[John Marty]]}}
{{s-bef|before=[[Warren Spannaus]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party|Endorsed Gubernatorial Candidate,<br>Minnesota DFL State Convention]]|years=[[1986 Minnesota gubernatorial election|1986]], [[1990 Minnesota gubernatorial election|1990]]}}
{{s-end}}

{{Governors of Minnesota}}
{{MNLieutenantGovernors}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Perpich, Rudy}}
[[Category:1928 births]]
[[Category:1995 deaths]]
[[Category:Politicians from Hibbing, Minnesota]]
[[Category:American people of Croatian descent]]
[[Category:Deaths from colorectal cancer in Minnesota]]
[[Category:Democratic Party governors of Minnesota]]
[[Category:Lieutenant governors of Minnesota]]
[[Category:Democratic Party Minnesota state senators]]
[[Category:Marquette University alumni]]
[[Category:Burials at Lakewood Cemetery]]
[[Category:Military personnel from Minnesota]]
[[Category:Catholics from Minnesota]]
[[Category:20th-century American dentists]]
[[Category:20th-century members of the Minnesota Legislature]]