Herman Ekern

Herman Lewis Ekern was born in 1872 near Pigeon Falls, Wisconsin. He was the son of Even Ekern and Elizabeth ({{nee}} Grimsrud) Ekern. He received a law degree from the University of Wisconsin Law School in 1894. Following his graduation, he practiced law at Whitehall, Wisconsin in co-partnership with H. A. Anderson under the firm name of Anderson & Ekern.[http://personal.atl.bellsouth.net/f/h/fhat/ekern.htm Ekern is a Norwegian name (Origin of The Name Ekern)] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110609121329/http://personal.atl.bellsouth.net/f/h/fhat/ekern.htm |date=2011-06-09 }}

Five years later was elected district attorney of Trempealeau County. He served three terms in the Wisconsin State Assembly, from 1903 until 1907, and was the speaker of the Assembly in his final term.'Wisconsin Blue Book 1907,' Biographical Sketch of Herman L. Ekern, pg. 1172 During his time in the Assembly, he was noted for helping design Wisconsin's life insurance code. From 1911 until 1915, he served as Wisconsin's insurance commissioner. Afterwards, he helped form a law partnership which specialized in insurance cases and helped write the Federal Soldiers' and Sailors' War Risk Insurance Act.[http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/dictionary/index.asp?action=view&term_id=2260&term_type_id=1&letter=E Term: Ekern, Herman Lewis 1872 - 1954 (Dictionary of Wisconsin History)]

Lifelong Lutherans, Herman Ekern and J. A. O. Preus, Minnesota insurance commissioner and future Governor of Minnesota (1921–1925) had proposed launching a not-for-profit mutual aid society. The founding of Lutheran Brotherhood came as a result of the 1917 merger convention of the Norwegian Lutheran Church of America. In 1929, Herman Ekern became president in the organization which would grow in time to become Thrivent Financial for Lutherans.[https://www.thrivent.com/aboutus/whoweare/history.html The Early Years (Thrivent Financial for Lutherans)]

Ekern later returned to his political career, serving as Wisconsin's Attorney General from 1923 until 1927. After Lieutenant Governor Henry Gunderson resigned in 1937, Governor Philip La Follette named Ekern Lieutenant Governor the following year. The appointment was challenged and upheld in State ex rel. Martin v. Ekern. After his term ended in 1939, Ekern served on the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin until 1943. Ekern later was in private law practice in Chicago and Madison.[http://ltgov.wisconsin.gov/subcategory.asp?linksubcatid=2092&linkcatid=2042&linkid=1070&locid=126 Herman L. Ekern, 1938-1939 (Office of the Lieutenant Governor of Wisconsin)]

In 1949, he received a Distinguished Alumni Award from the Alumni Association of the University of Wisconsin. Herman Ekern died in 1954. The papers of Herman Ekern are maintained within the archives of the Wisconsin Historical Society.[http://arcat.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?Search_Arg=rlin+%22wihv93-A1217%22&SL=None&Search_Code=CMD&DB=local&CNT=30 Papers of Herman L. Ekern (Wisconsin Historical Society)]{{Cite web |url=http://www.uwalumni.com/alpha.aspx |title=Herman L. Ekern, Madison, 1949 Distinguished Alumni Award (Wisconsin Alumni Association) |access-date=2010-09-03 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101219205246/http://www.uwalumni.com/alpha.aspx |archive-date=2010-12-19 |url-status=dead }}

{{Reflist}}

• Brøndal, Jørn. Ethnic Leadership and Midwestern Politics: Scandinavian Americans and the Progressive Movement in Wisconsin, 1890-1914. Northfield, Minn.: Norwegian-American Historical Association, 2004.

• {{cite web|url=http://www.legis.state.wi.us/lrb/bb/05bb/695-743.pdf |title=Wisconsin Constitutional Officers; Lieutenant Governors |date=July 2005 |work=State of Wisconsin Blue Book 2005–2006 |publisher=Wisconsin Legislative Reference Bureau |pages=31 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071025041703/http://www.legis.state.wi.us/lrb/bb/05bb/695-743.pdf |archive-date=2007-10-25 }}

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{{s-ttl|title =Republican nominee for Attorney General of Wisconsin|years=1922, 1924}}

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{{s-ttl|title=Progressive nominee for U.S. Senator from Wisconsin
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{{s-ttl|title = {{nobreak|Member of the Wisconsin State Assembly}} {{nobreak|from the Trempealeau County district}} |years= January 5, 1903{{spaced ndash}}January 4, 1909 }}

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{{s-ttl|title = Attorney General of Wisconsin|years=1923–1927}}

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{{s-ttl|title = {{nobreak|Commissioner of Insurance of Wisconsin}}|years= January 2, 1911{{spaced ndash}}June 30, 1915}}

{{s-aft|after = M. J. Cleary }}

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| title = Lieutenant Governor of Wisconsin

| before = Henry Gunderson

| after = Walter Samuel Goodland

| years = 1938–1939}}

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{{Lieutenant Governors of Wisconsin}}

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Category:1872 births

Category:1954 deaths

Category:People from Trempealeau County, Wisconsin

Category:Republican Party members of the Wisconsin State Assembly

Category:Speakers of the Wisconsin State Assembly

Category:Lieutenant governors of Wisconsin

Category:Wisconsin attorneys general

Category:District attorneys in Wisconsin

Category:American Lutherans

Category:Wisconsin Progressives (1924)

Category:20th-century members of the Wisconsin Legislature

Category:University of Wisconsin Law School alumni

Category:American people of Norwegian descent