Gunderson, Barbara Bates, 1917-2007

Barbara Bates Gunderson was a journalist from Rapid City, South Dakota. She married Robert W. Gunderson. In 1951 she began as a volunteer for the nomination of Dwight D. Eisenhower and became Republican National Committeewoman thereafter. She resigned her second term of that Party office when President Eisenhower appointed her as one of the first women on the Civil Service Commission. Mrs. Gunderson resided in Washington for two and a half years as one of the three-member governing board of the federal agency charged with all aspects of the federal personnel system. Gunderson developed the Federal Women's Award for meritorious women of the federal career service. She was vice-chairman of the President's Advisory on Personnel under President Johnson. She was a candidate for Republican nomination to the U.S. Senate in 1973.