MPR: Elmer L. Anderson Turns 90

Elmer L. Anderson Turns 90
By Dan Olson
June 17, 1999

Today, June 17th, is the 90th birthday of former Minnesota Governor Elmer L. Anderson. Few Minnesotan's who held public office are held in as high esteem as the 90-year-old Arden Hills resident.

ELMER ANDERSON, VISION AND HEARING DIMMED A BIT, not quite as mobile because his legs feel the effects of a childhood bout of polio, likens reaching the age of ninety to climbing mountain.

Anderson: The air gets rarer, and you walk a little slower, but the perspective is beautiful.

Elmer Anderson is an optimist, but not a pollyanna. Living through the Great Depression influenced his thinking on just how fast life can change. Anderson says the just-enacted tax cut that is soon going to deliver a mid-summer rebate to smiling Minnesotan's is a bad idea.

Anderson: I think the challenge of good times is to prepare for bad times and to be prudent with the good fortune you have.

The advice fits with Anderson's label as conservative when he was a state senator for 10 years in the 1950s. Lawmakers then were officially labelled conservative or liberal, not Democrats or Republicans. His colleagues liked him well enough to elect him head of the caucus. He says one of his proudest achievements is co-sponsoring the Minnesota Fair Employment Practices Act which, among other things, outlawed denying people a job based on race. He defeated Orville Freeman in 1960 to win one two-year term as governor. He lost a re-election bid to Karl Rolvaag in 1963 by 91 votes.

The contentious, five-month long recount ending in his defeat was a disappointment, Anderson admits, but he has never used it as excuse for disenchantment with the political process. Quite the opposite, Anderson's advice to people disappointed with politics is to jump in.

Anderson: We have freedom to speak, freedom to write, freedom to run to office, freedom of elections and, on the whole, honest elections, so anyone who is disaffected just needs to get involved.

Elmer Anderson is best known for his business philosophy: Customers come first, employees are the second-highest priority and profit ranks third; views that these days that would cause a riot among investors addicted to making money at any cost. But his thinking on business isn't dismissed because he's been there. He bought the St. Paul adhesives company, H. B. Fuller, where he helped engineer stupendous growth.

Anderson: If making money is your first priority, then there's a temptation to cheat the customer, a temptation to pay your employees too little, or not share the benefits with them. A corporation is a privileged form of organization and it should be involved in more than making money.

Anderson's business views may be a minority voice these days, but he's insured they'll still be heard from the Elmer L. Anderson Endowed Chair of Business Ethics at the University of Minnesota - his alma mater. Until recently he published his views on life in the editorial column of the small town newspapers he bought after his stint at Fuller.

The avid bibliophile this spring gave the U another gift, thousands of volumes of rare books he has collected over the years. He's still an avid reader, but slow loss of vision is causing Anderson to invent memory tricks to hold on to details. The other day, while memorizing a street address - 4095 - he realized it's one of his goals for the future.

Anderson: If you feel like 40, go for 95. So I feel like 40, and I'm going for 95.

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