Rudy Perpich

Rudy grew up speaking Croatian, as the son of miner Georg and Mary Perpic, in Hibbing, on Minnesota's Iron Range.
While working as a dentist in Hibbing, he served on the Hibbing School Board, before being elected to the MN State Senate, where he gained prominence and notoriety. 
From January 1, 1983 to January 1, 1987, he served as the 34th Governor of the state of Minnesota, after beating Wheelock Whitney Jr. in the 1982 election, 57.90% to 42.10%. During his time as governor, several transformative pieces of legislation passed. "Governor Goofy" as the St. Paul press dubbed him, was known for erratic and occasionally stubborn behavior while in office, including an aborted attempt to sell the aging governor's mansion, a habit of disappearing from the capital to go out and commune with nature or rural residents for days without notice, and for an ultimately doomed last-minute attempt to make Bocce a high school level competitive sport in the waning hours of his last legislative session as governor.
Following his time as governor, he was nominated for, and successfully won the presidency of the International Bocce Federation (FIB), from which he continues to work to expand the game on the national and international level. In April 1987, after the dropping out of the only other member of the Great Society Caucus for the Democratic Party Presidential Primary for the 1988 Presidential Election, Marianne Williamson [who?], he entered the Primary, the last of the 3 delegate-winning candidates to enter the race.
Category:Characters