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MARSHALL -- Former Minnesota House Speaker Dave Jennings was known for his personality as a legislator, as well as for bringing the 1986 House session to a controversial close. But Jennings also had connections with the Marshall area community.
Not only was Jennings an executive at Schwan's Co. in Marshall for several years, he still had political knowledge to share, said Marshall resident and former Minnesota Rep. Marty Seifert.
"Dave Jennings served as my first campaign chair when I ran in 1996 for the House of Representatives," Seifert said. Seifert said Jennings was able to give him good advice about representing his district.
Jennings died May 21, at the age of 74.
Jennings, who was born in Truman, Minn., worked in a few different career fields over the course of his life. He served in the Marines for five years, and was discharged as a staff sergeant in 1972. He was elected to the Minnesota House in 1979, and went on to become Republican minority leader and later Speaker of the House.
Seifert said Jennings was mainly known in Marshall through his work with Schwan's, and as a person who had been Speaker of the House in the state legislature. As Seifert's campaign chair, he said, "We met several times, and he had sound advice to work hard, speak the truth and remember the district that I'd represent."
"After I was elected, older lawmakers I served with told me that Jennings was a very controversial Speaker of the House, and unilaterally adjourned the House in 1986 without a tax bill and other bills getting done that many members wanted finished," Seifert said. "Several House members were standing on their desks yelling and screaming at him as he stormed from the rostrum."
After the 1986 session, Jennings sought the Republican endorsement for governor, but lost to state Sen. Cal Ludeman.
"I think that losing the 1986 Republican Convention for Governor humbled him a bit. He called it quits when it came to elective office after that," Seifert said. "While he was seen as a partisan early in his career when he entered the House of Representatives in 1978 and as Minority Leader and Speaker in the mid 1980s, he mellowed and became much more bipartisan after he left the legislature."
In the 1990s, Jennings went into the private sector, working at Schwan's. In the 1990s Jennings was a company spokesman as Schwan's dealt with a public relations crisis, when a major salmonella outbreak was linked to Schwan's ice cream. In 1994, the company issued a nationwide recall of its ice cream.
Seifert said Jennings "had credibility with the public" in the response to the salmonella outbreak.
Jennings would later go on to briefly serve in Gov. Jesse Ventura's cabinet. He also became CEO of the Minneapolis Regional Chamber of Commerce, and ended his career as superintendent of the Eastern Carver County School District.
Seifert said he remembered Jennings' outgoing personality.
"Dave was a candid and likable guy that was fun to talk to. I enjoyed his knowledge of history and love of Minnesota," Seifert said.