1. Rudy Perpich's father, Anton Prpic, was a miner who had immigrated to Minnesota's Mesabi Iron Range from Croatia, and his mother, Mary, was an American of Croatian descent.
14 Facts About Rudy Perpich
1. 2.
Rudy Perpich graduated from Hibbing High School in 1946 and served two years in the United States Army.
3.
Rudy Perpich then attended Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and graduated from Marquette University Dental School in 1954, and returned to Hibbing to practice dentistry.
4.
In 1970, Rudy Perpich was elected the 39th lieutenant governor of Minnesota.
5.
Rudy Perpich was reelected in 1974 on a ticket with Governor Wendell R Anderson.
6.
Rudy Perpich was the first Iron Range resident to hold the office.
7.
Rudy Perpich worked at Control Data Corporation in New York and Austria for several years.
8.
Rudy Perpich then defeated Independent-Republican nominee Wheelock Whitney in the general election.
9.
Rudy Perpich served as the Chairman of the Midwestern Governors Association in 1984.
10.
Rudy Perpich was reelected in 1986, but lost to Arne Carlson in 1990, a bizarre campaign in which Carlson replaced the Independent-Republican Party's candidate Jon Grunseth, who had beaten Carlson in the primary.
11.
Rudy Perpich was Minnesota's last DFL governor until Mark Dayton took office in 2011.
12.
Rudy Perpich pitched an idea for a chopstick factory to be built in northern Minnesota, and proposed selling the governor's mansion in Saint Paul as a cost-saving measure.
13.
Rudy Perpich opposed the Reagan proxy war against Nicaragua in the 1980s and was one of several governors who objected to sending their National Guard units to train in US bases in Honduras, where the US-backed Contras were based.
14.
In 1995, at the age of 67, Rudy Perpich died of colon cancer in the Minneapolis suburb of Minnetonka.