Rosenmeier, Gordon, 1907-1989.

Christian Rosenmeier was born in Denmark in 1874. At the age of 14 he emigrated with his father to the United States, where they settled in Kandiyohi county Minnesota. Until the age of 21, Rosenmeier worked on the farm and herding cows, helping to earn the money to bring his mother and sister over from Denmark. During the winter months, he attended school at Willmar Academy. In 1895 he passed the exam for county school teachers and went on to teach in rural schools for several years. In 1901 Rosenmeier graduated from Mankato Normal School (now Mankato State University) and went on to become principal of Dundee (Nobles County, Minn.) schools.

Seeing better prospects in a legal than in a teaching career, Rosenmeier entered the University of Minnesota Law School, graduating as president of his class in 1906. He moved to Royalton, Minnesota in the summer of 1906 to practice law and married primary school teacher Linda Bakken in August of that year. He was Morrison County Attorney for six years preceding his election to state Senate in 1922, representing Minnesota's 53rd district. In the Senate Rosenmeier served as chairman of the Rules Committee and eventually became majority leader. He was responsible for the legislation that created Charles A. Lindbergh State Park (1931) and for the establishment of a National Guard camp at Fort Ripley in Morrison county (1928-1929).

Christian Rosenmeier was a member of numerous service and civic organizations, including the Shriners and the Elks. He and his wife had three children: Gordon, Margaret, and Donald. Rosenmeier died June 3, 1932.

The oldest of three children born to Christian and Linda Rosenmeier, Gordon Rosenmeier was born on July 1, 1907 in Royalton, Minnesota, just south of Little Falls. After earning a B.S. from the University of Minnesota in 1928, he went on to Leland Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, graduating from the Law School there in 1932.

Rosenmeier returned to Minnesota to join his father's legal practice only one month before Christian Rosenmeier's death in 1932. Encouraged by his father's supporters, he ran in the 1932 election to take his father's place in the state Senate, but was defeated. His second attempt in 1940 was successful and began what was to be a thirty-year career as a state senator representing Minnesota's 53rd district. A formidable debater, Rosenmeier has been described as one of the most powerful figures in Minnesota legislative history. He gradually gained influence, eventually holding as many as ten committee assignments at once. Although never elected majority leader, he and his close associates dominated many of the important committees. Rosenmeier served as chairman of the Senate Judiciary committee, the State Departments subcommittee of the Senate Civil Administration committee, the Education subcommittee of the Senate Finance committee, and the Committee on Committees.

Though allied with the Senate's Conservative Bloc, Rosenmeier once described himself as a "flaming liberal" and ran with the support of his district's DFL majority in most elections. He sponsored most of the state's watershed, pollution control, and reapportionment legislation. He was the chief sponsor of the bill creating the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency in 1967, and helped create Brainerd State Hospital and Brainerd Community College. He had a hand in creating regional development commissions, the State Planning Agency, the county court system, anti-discrimination agencies, and human rights laws. He also drafted legislation to save the old Federal Courts Building in St. Paul, now the Landmark Center. His defeat in 1970 by Winston Borden is said to have hinged on Rosenmeier's support of modest liberalization of the abortion laws.

In addition to his political career, Rosenmeier was also active as a member of the Minnesota Press Council, and on the boards of several organizations including the Minnesota Historical Society, the Minnesota Zoological Garden Foundation, and the Charles A. Lindbergh Fund.

Throughout his career in the Senate, Rosenmeier continued to practice law, first in private practice (1932-1961) and later in partnership with John E. Simonett (1961-1989). In addition to his legal practice, which he continued into his final years, he maintained two cabins near Little Falls and Leech Lake where he pursued his hobbies of hunting and fishing. Gordon Rosenmeier died of a heart attack on January 17th, 1989 in the hospital in St. Cloud, Minnesota, where he had been battling pneumonia.

From the guide to the Christian and Gordon Rosenmeier papers., 1903-1989., (Minnesota Historical Society)