Faribault County native son Arlen Erdahl, above, served in both the Minnesota House of Representatives and the U.S House of Representatives in his career.

Blue Earth lost one of its iconic native sons recently with the death of Arlen Erdahl on Sept. 21, at the age of 92.

Erdahl, who was born, along with his twin brother Lowell, in Blue Earth on Feb. 27, 1931, spent a lifetime in public service in a variety of positions and roles over the years.

He was a state representative from Faribault County for eight years, Minnesota Secretary of State for four years, U.S. Congressman for four years, as well as many other positions in the U.S. government.

Arlen went to St. Olaf College, then got his master’s degree at Harvard University.

“What I most admired about Arlen was that he never forgot that he came from an Emerald Township farm in Faribault County,” says Larry Anderson, who served as Erdahl’s deputy when he was Secretary of State. “He never acted too big for his britches. He never got rid of being a farmer and was a farmer to the very end.”

After a two-year stint in the U.S. Army, Arlen returned to Faribault County and operated the family grain and livestock farm near Blue Earth. Arlen married a teacher, Ellen, and they had four sons and two daughters and many grandchildren. Ellen died this past June.

While back on the family farm, Arlen decided to run for the state representative seat from Faribault County. Vic Johnson, Blue Earth, was his campaign chairman, Arlen says. Others on the campaign committee included Lud Gunderson, Don Berkland, Don Frederick, Oscar Sabin and Hartwick Larson.

“They were an outstanding group of people,” Arlen told the Faribault County Register during an interview in April of 2011. “They gave sound advice and had good connections. We never had much money so we spent more of ourselves on the campaign.” That means they wrote their own ads, news releases and brochures. Probably the best-known advertisement in Minnesota political history at the time was Arlen’s in 1965. It featured his son Lars’ baby picture. The caption read; “Who’s Arlen Erdahl? He’s my dad and he’s your man for state representative, and here’s why…” Years later perfect strangers came up to Arlen and Ellen and said they remembered the ad and loved it. The campaigning was not easy. Arlen was running against three other candidates at the time.

“All were better known and better financed than I was,” he said during the interview. “The key to winning was our going door-to-door to as many homes in the county as we could.”

Except for the city of Frost, near where his family farm was located.

“I figured I was pretty well known there, and wouldn’t be able to change anyone’s opinion of me,” he explained.

When the balloting was done, he had all but four of the votes in Frost.

Arlen didn’t believe in – or practice – negative campaigning. His mantra was “mud thrown, is ground lost,” which followed his farming background. His campaign style was to get his name known, present his record and qualifications and take a stand on the issues. Campaigning also meant getting his name in the public eye by attending a lot of public events and meeting people.

“The kids and I often went along with to town festivals,” Ellen Erdahl recalled during the 2011 interview. “They would all wear Erdahl campaign buttons or stickers and ride all the merry-go-rounds and other rides – with their stickers showing.” By the time the election came around in November, Arlen figured he had done all of the campaigning that he could, so he jumped on his tractor on the farm and put in a long day of plowing.

By the time the polls closed, his wife Ellen related, he had eaten a big dinner and went to bed after the news with Cedric Adams on WCCO.

“I couldn’t sleep until I knew the results, so I called the county auditors’ offices and checked the vote count every few hours,” Ellen Erdahl re-called. “Then I woke him up and told him the results.”

After that first close race, Arlen was re-elected to the post by margins which averaged 85 percent of the vote in the next three elections.

Next, Arlen ran for the office of Minnesota Secretary of State, was elected, and served from 1970-74.

“Arlen was a true gentleman and never had to apologize for anything he said or did,” Anderson says. “I remember when I was his deputy, we got in an affidavit of candidacy from someone in Washington, and that person had forgotten to include his $100 filing fee. Arlen covered it for him, even though he was from the other party. He did it because it was the right thing to do.”

When Al Quie decided to give up his congressional seat and run for governor, Arlen decided to run for Congress in 1978. He won another close race and was elected to Congress and was easily re-elected in 1980.

However, his bid in1982 saw him suffer his first election defeat. Redistricting threw him into an endorsement battle with Second District Congressional representative Tom Hagedorn. Erdahl lost to Hagedorn by a narrow margin, then Hagedorn lost in the general election to State Sen. Tim Penny.

After Penny’s retirement, Erdahl sought the nomination for his old seat again, but was defeated in the primary by State Rep. Gil Gutknecht, the eventual winner.

The loss did not signal the end to Arlen Erdahl’s career in public service. He spent six years as an administrator with the U.S. Peace Corps. Half of his time he was the country director in Jamaica and the other half he was associate director in Washington, D.C. There he did recruiting, training and placement of Peace Corps volunteers.

His last federal appointment was as principal deputy and acting assistant director for international affairs and energy emergencies, Department of Energy, in Washington.

In 1995 he returned to Minnesota and became executive director of Minnesota International Health. His work took him to places such as Jamaica, Japan, Kenya, Uganda, Nicaragua and other points in Europe, Asia, Africa and the Caribbean.

“My favorite story about Arlen is when he was on a diplomatic flight to Europe one time,” Anderson recalls. “U.S. Ambassador Black was also on the flight. Arlen, who was a teetotaler, ordered a Shirley Temple, and Ambassador Shirley Temple-Black ordered a whiskey sour.”

But Anderson stresses the best thing about Arlen Erdahl was that he never forgot who he was and where he came from.

“He was of Norwegian immigrant parents, a farmer, and had a strong faith and a strong Scandinavian background,” Anderson says. “There was nothing phony about him. What you saw was what you got. Despite all his offices he held, being a Harvard grad, and all the places he went and things he did, he was still just a farm boy from Faribault County.”