Rudy Perpich | |
|---|---|
 | |
| 34th & 36th Governor of Minnesota | |
| In office January 3, 1983 – January 7, 1991 | |
| Lieutenant | Marlene Johnson |
| Preceded by | Al Quie |
| Succeeded by | Arne Carlson |
| In office December 29, 1976 – January 4, 1979 | |
| Lieutenant | Alec G. Olson |
| Preceded by | Wendell R. Anderson |
| Succeeded by | Al Quie |
| 39th Lieutenant Governor of Minnesota | |
| In office January 4, 1971 – December 29, 1976 | |
| Governor | Wendell R. Anderson |
| Preceded by | James B. Goetz |
| Succeeded by | Alec G. Olson |
| Member of theMinnesota Senate from the 63rd district | |
| In office January 8, 1963 – January 4, 1971 | |
| Preceded by | Elmer Peter Peterson |
| Succeeded by | George F. Perpich |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Rudolph George Prpić (1928-06-27)June 27, 1928 Carson Lake, Minnesota, U.S. |
| Died | September 21, 1995(1995-09-21) (aged 67) Minnetonka, Minnesota, U.S. |
| Political party | Democratic (DFL) |
| Spouse | Delores "Lola" Perpich |
| Children | 2 |
| Education | Hibbing Junior College Marquette University (DDS) |
| Profession | Dentist |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance |  United States |
| Branch/service |  United States Army |
| Years of service | 1946–1948 |
Rudolph George Perpich Sr. (bornRudolph George Prpić; June 27, 1928 – September 21, 1995) was an American politician who served as thegovernor ofMinnesota from 1976 to 1979 and again from 1983 to 1991. A member of theDemocratic-Farmer-Labor Party, he is labeled as Minnesota's34th and 36th governor. As of 2025, he is the only governor elected to serve non-consecutive terms in thehistory of Minnesota.
Rudolph George Prpić was born in Carson Lake, Minnesota, which is now part ofHibbing. His father, Anton Prpić, was a miner who had immigrated to Minnesota'sMesabi Iron Range fromCroatia, and his mother, Mary (Vukelich),[1] was an American ofCroatian descent. Perpich did not learn to speak English until at least the first grade of elementary school. At 14, he began working for theGreat Northern Railway.[2] He graduated from Hibbing High School in 1946 and served two years in theUnited States Army. He then attendedMarquette University inMilwaukee, Wisconsin and graduated from Marquette University Dental School in 1954, and returned to Hibbing to practice dentistry.
Perpich first entered politics by serving on the Hibbingschool board in 1955–1956. The board gained notability for institutingequal pay for male and female workers. In 1962, he was elected to theMinnesota Senate, representing the old 63rd District, which included portions ofSaint Louis County in the northeastern part of the state. He was reelected in 1966.
In 1970, Perpich was elected the 39thlieutenant governor of Minnesota. He was reelected in 1974 on aticket with GovernorWendell 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 theUnited States Senate seat vacated byWalter Mondale, who had been electedVice President of the United States. Perpich was the first Iron Range resident to hold the office.
Most of the statewideDFL Party ticket was defeated in1978; the defeated candidates included Perpich, the candidates for bothU.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 atControl Data Corporation in New York andAustria for several years. In1982, he challenged the DFL Party's endorsed candidate for governor,Warren Spannaus, in the primary election, and won. He then defeated Independent-Republican nomineeWheelock Whitney in the general election. Upon his victory, he became the state's firstRoman Catholic governor. As of 2025, he remains the only Catholic elected governor of Minnesota. Perpich served as the Chairman of theMidwestern Governors Association in 1984.
Perpich was reelected in 1986, but lost toArne Carlson in 1990, a bizarre campaign in which Carlson replaced theIndependent-Republican Party's candidateJon Grunseth, who had beaten Carlson in theprimary. (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 asex scandal just two weeks before the election. Perpich was Minnesota's last DFL governor untilMark Dayton took office in 2011.
Perpich had a reputation for colorful behavior. At one point while governor, he donated his $25,000 pay raise to help promotebocce.[3] He also pitched an idea for achopstick factory to be built in northern Minnesota, and proposed selling thegovernor'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.[4] During his last years in office, commentators wondered whether he would shoot to stardom as apresidential 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 successorArne 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 theMinnesota World Trade Center inSaint Paul, thePerpich Center for Arts Education inGolden Valley, theCenter for Victims of Torture in Minneapolis, the University of Minnesota DuluthNatural Resources Research Institute, and theMall of America inBloomington. Additionally, he worked to promote Minnesota on the international stage by traveling to 17 countries in 1984, and bringing the foreign leadersMikhail Gorbachev of theSoviet Union and Dr.Franjo Tuđman of Croatia to the state in 1990.
Perpich opposed the Reaganproxy war againstNicaragua in the 1980s and was one of several governors who objected to sending theirNational Guard units to train in U.S. bases inHonduras, where the U.S.-backedContras were based. The Contras carried out atrocities in Nicaragua to topple the leftist government there.[5][6] Perpich was the plaintiff in the 1990U.S. Supreme Court casePerpich v. Department of Defense, which established that theU.S. Department of Defense could send state National Guard units overseas over the governor's objection.
After leaving office in 1991, Perpich went toZagreb, Croatia, to assist its post-communist government. In 1992 he moved toParis, 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 theMinneapolis suburb ofMinnetonka. He is buried inLakewood Cemetery in Minneapolis.
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Lieutenant Governor of Minnesota 1971–1976 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Governor of Minnesota 1976–1979 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by Al Quie | Governor of Minnesota 1983–1991 | Succeeded by |
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Democratic nominee forLieutenant Governor of Minnesota 1970,1974 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Endorsed Gubernatorial Candidate, Minnesota DFL State Convention 1978 | Succeeded by |
| DFL nominee forGovernor of Minnesota 1978,1982,1986,1990 | Succeeded by | |
| Preceded by | Endorsed Gubernatorial Candidate, Minnesota DFL State Convention 1986,1990 | |
| International | |
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| National | |
| Other | |
