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Senator Rudy Boschwitz will deliver his speech entitled "Magnificent America" traces the history of the world since WWII. He'll note the growth of Democracy, the rise of 4 billion people world-wide out of poverty to the middle class (just as South Korea has experience) and the longest period of time in history (74 years) that have had no wars between major powers. Click "Read More" to get a peek into the extraordinary life Sen. Boschwitz continues to experience.
Rudy Boschwitz was born in Berlin, Germany in 1930. Being an immigrant, Rudy can never be President, which led Bob Dole to remark: “He’s the only Senator I trust. He can’t run for President.” As an after-thought, Bob would add: “and at last count Rudy was the only Senator not running!”
Rudy’s Dad came home in Berlin the day Hitler came to power (1/30/33) and told the family they would leave Germany forever. They left in July 1933 and for 2-1/2 years went from country to country seeking a visa to the U.SA., finally arriving December 23, 1935. They settled in New Rochelle, New York.
Rudy attended Johns Hopkins University and New York University, completing college at 19, and receiving a law degree at 22. After a couple of years in the U.S. Army, he soon found legal work too confining, so “I decided to become a client instead.”
He joined his brother in a plywood manufacturing business in Oshkosh, Wisconsin in 1957 (my New York friends though I had lost my sanity…moving to Oshkosh!!), and came to Minnesota in September 1963, where he started Plywood Minnesota in an old railroad building in Fridley.
Fifteen years later (by which time the company had grown to 68 stores), Rudy ran successfully for the U.S. Senate, where he served from 1978-1991, whereupon the voters returned him to his business. “It wasn’t part of the plan, but it was in the midst of a recession, and I was able to be of some help to my sons who were running the business, as this was their first recession."
In the Senate, Rudy was a member of the following committees: Agriculture, Foreign Affairs, Budget, Small Business, and Veterans. Rudy was elected by his Republican colleagues to the leadership of the Senate, the only Minnesota Senator other than Hubert Humphrey to attain a leadership position in the 20th century.
That led to Rudy - as part of the Senate and House Republican leadership - to be part of bi-weekly meetings with President Reagan at the White House. "Those meetings really were the high point of my Senate service," said Rudy. "One never left a meeting with Reagan asking 'what did he say?' If he was interested in the subject, you knew what he said. If he wasn't interested, he said nothing. That's when he munched on the ever present jelly beans. One of his great strengths was his focus."
Rudy was President GHW Bush’s Emissary to Ethiopia in the Spring of 1991. His mission resulted in Operation Solomon, the rescue of the Black Jewish community of Ethiopia and their dramatic airlift to Israel. The negotiations also ended the decades-long civil war in Ethiopia. In a Rose Garden ceremony in June 1991, President Bush awarded Senator Boschwitz the Citizen’s Medal for his achievements in the Horn of Africa. “I have truly lived the American Dream," said Rudy.
In 2005 President George “W” Bush appointed Rudy to be the Ambassador to the UN Commission on Human Rights in Geneva, Switzerland. Geneva was lovely. The Commission unfortunately wasn’t. It’s main order of business was condemning Israel. Yet Israel was the only UN member which could not be a member of the Commission. Israel’s defender- most
often it only defender- was the U.S. It was a busy, interesting and important place to be.
Rudy and his wife of 63 years, Ellen, reside in Plymouth, Minnesota. Tragically, they lost their eldest son, Gerry age 60, to cancer last December. Their other sons Ken, Dan, and Tom all live in the Twin Cities. They have two granddaughters and five grandsons. “Our family is our greatest success.”