Lund served as executive secretary in charge of staff for Sen. Ed Thye.Lund mingled with many influential people during his time in Washington, DC. He shared a laugh with Sen. Dave Durenberger. Pictured with Mike Matanichhe met President Dwight Eisenhower. He also met President Richard Nixon.Displaying a catch from one of his many fishing trips.

Lund brought passion, progress to Staples

Lund’s connections served community

People in Staples, across Minnesota and around the country are commemorating the life of Duane Lund, the former Staples School District Superintendent who was known for accomplishing community and economic development while working for the school. According to his friends and associates, Lund’s impact on Staples was multitudinous and encompassed many areas of the community.

Lund died on Dec. 2, at age 90. His obituary can be found on page 6a.

“He had the community on his mind all the time, he was a great Staples person,” said Harriet Dent, who worked for Lund at the school district for 22 years. “It was wonderful, the best part of my life was those years in the school,” she said.

Dent said what made Lund a good boss was “He understood everything,” she said. “If you did something a little wrong, it was fine, he just cleared things up.” Dent said people from all walks of life would consult with Lund. “If anybody had any problems, they came to him, he was always helping people,” said Dent.

Stan Edin, a friend and colleague of Lund’s, gave an example of Lund’s personal impact. 

“One fall I was the assistant director of the vocational school,” said Edin. “The director, Mike Matanich, was away and somebody came into the office and asked for him. Because of our machine trades program, they wanted to build a 3M plant in Staples. I knew I was in over my head right away so I called Duane and asked him to come over. He said ‘by all means.’ He ended up doing what he always did, we sat in a circle with the 3M representatives and myself.” 

The 3M plant was eventually built in Staples, which started with that meeting.

Edin said his own account is an example of how Lund helped people on a personal level. He was a student in high school when Lund was the guidance counselor. He encouraged Edin to go to college instead of vocational school because there were fewer machine trades jobs available at the time. When Edin graduated, Lund hired him as a math teacher at the vocational school, where he stayed for 30 years, eventually becoming the director.

“He was very supportive of education and really believed in people,” said Edin. “He gave me the job and he just let me go. I did everything I could to make him proud and he inspired other people that way, too. He was easy to work for, held high standards and communicated in a nice way.”

Edin also spoke about Lund’s personal side. They were friends and fishing buddies away from work. 

“He was a spiritual soulmate and exemplified a Christian life,” said Edin. “He encouraged many others to live a Christian life.”

Everyone recognized Lund’s passion for Staples. Edin remembers fishing trips Lund would organize with local business leaders and merchants. “The whole weekend we talked about economic development stuff,” said Edin.

“He was a multi-dimensional man,” said Edin. “From a community standpoint that was even more important; he was responsible for so many things that went on behind the scenes, he was always present.”

Dick Donat was another of the behind the scenes people who helped with many of the community accomplishments, working in the same office area with Lund for 25 years. “We were up to our ears in community and economic development,” said Donat. “We did things in the arts, brought the Minnesota symphony orchestra to Dower Lake, he made sure the Region Five offices were put in Staples ... I could go through a hundred items.”

Donat said Lund started at a time when the railroad was cutting back on employment. “He said we need jobs because otherwise we won’t have students,” said Donat. “It was a simplistic way of looking at it.”

But Lund’s response was anything but simplistic. “He was a visionary, he could always see the big picture,” said Donat. “He was a great communicator. He could take complex education theory, situations or problems and make it understandable to people in the community.”

Donat gave examples of some of the big projects that were started through Lund and continue to be major institutions in Staples. “Because of his contacts, he had knowledge of people and programs and made the effort to get good programs in the area,” said Donat.

The first example was the vocational school, which started out as part of the local school district and has since expanded into Central Lakes College. Donat said Lund recognized the need for a school in the area and his connections with Washington, D.C., programs helped bring it here. 

After the school was started with machine trades and heavy equipment, Lund helped expand it by getting the school district to buy the land to start irrigation technology training, which is now the Ag and Energy Center. Lund also helped bring the Staples Airport to that area of development.

“It was really amazing how we could sit down and talk about a project, then he would say ‘Let’s go do it,’” said Donat. “But he was not a meddler. Once the project was underway, he let it go.”

Lund showed how education is important to development. “He loved working with teachers, he said they were a good group, they are do-gooders who want to help people,” said Donat.

An example of that was Matanich’s machine trades program. “He had a strong machine shop, and Lund knew that there were so many milling machines that were mothballed all around the U.S. after the war effort,” said Donat. “It was a perfect wedding, Lund was able to bring the machines that would have been unaffordable to anyone else. That’s how the first machine shops were equipped.”

Donat also gave the example of the Staples Community Center. “It took a lot of collaboration between the city and school to make that happen,” said Donat. “The heavy equipment program prepared the site, that made it affordable.”

It wasn’t just the people in Staples who were influenced by Lund. Staples-Motley School Superintendent Mary Klamm has worked in Staples only two years but knew Lund’s reputation from working in education elsewhere in Minnesota. “I remember visiting with a business consultant many years ago about what it takes for a community to be prosperous,” said Klamm. “This particular person had the opportunity to work with many communities throughout our region. He used Staples as an example of a community where the superintendent had a large impact on the success of the community. He stated that not only did the superintendent work to improve the schools in his community, but also to bring economic opportunity to the region.” The consultant was talking about Lund. 

“As Superintendent of Staples-Motley School District, I greatly admire the work and dedication of Dr. Lund,” said Klamm. “I can’t tell you how much I’ve enjoyed listening to the stories about him and marvel at the influence he had on this community and the region. When visiting with him, it was amazing to see that even though he struggled physically, his thirst for learning and curiosity were still very much a part of his everyday life. I will forever be thankful for the opportunity to meet Dr. Duane Lund and will work to live out his lasting legacy of dedication to the students and communities of Staples and Motley.”

Klamm said she has heard the story of how Stan Edin, Jim Krile, Dr. Ted Lelwica and Ray Gildow, all longtime friends of Lund’s, presented Dr. Lund’s Community Foundation Award, which is now named after him. She said according to the Brainerd Dispatch, “they good-humoredly poked fun at Lund’s size, his love of food, his bachelorhood and his hunting habits. But they also honored Dr. Lund, in his work with children, working to better the schools and bring economic opportunity to Staples. Stanley Edin noted that they were honoring a living legend that evening.”

The following biography is taken from the program at that awards dinner, written by Ray Gildow.

Lund graduated from Brainerd High School at age 16 and attended Macalester College in St. Paul.

Lund’s father Richard was an avid hunter and fisherman and Duane spent much of his time as a youth hunting and fishing with his father in the Brainerd Lakes area. His favorite fishing spot was on the Mississippi River just below the paper mill dam in Brainerd. 

A family friend owned a resort on Lake Edwards and Lund helped get the Department of Natural Resources to stock the lake with walleye.

In high school, Lund dreamed of becoming an outdoor sportswriter. He wrote an outdoor article for a class project, but his teacher gave him an “F” because she thought he had copied it from a magazine. His mother convinced the teacher the article was authentic and the grade changed to an “A.”

Lund majored in political science and economics in college and was active in politics in college. He graduated from Macalester in 1948 and began teaching in Staples. It was a smaller community than he had wanted, but his uncle, W.J. Lund, was a medical doctor in town.

His first job was teaching senior social studies. He became the school counselor and earned a masters degree while teaching. He joined the Minnesota Young Republicans and later served on the National Board of Young Republicans.

Lund was a good friend of C. Elmer Anderson and worked as campaign manager for Anderson’s campaign for governor.

U.S. Senator Ed Thye offered Lund a position on his staff in Washington, D.C. He worked as Executive Secretary in charge of staff for four years. The position taught Lund lessons about government and politics. It also helped him establish life-long relationships that would later benefit him and the Staples community.

After his five years in Washington, D.C., Lund had many job offers, including one from President Dwight Eisenhower to be Regional Director for the Department of Health and Welfare in Denver. Instead, Lund decided to finish his doctorate degree at the University of Minnesota.

The following year, Staples Superintendent Perry Atwood and School Board Chair Dr. Charles Reichelderfer asked Lund to come back to Staples to be principal for one year and then replace Atwood as superintendent. He held that position for 25 years until his retirement in 1985.

Developments in addition to the ones already mentioned during the Lund era included a number of manufacturing companies moving to Staples, two being McCourtney Plastics (now McKechnie Tooling) and Benson Optical (now Twin Cities Optical).

Lund surrounded himself with administrators who were skilled in grant writing and innovation. Those included Dr. Stanley Edin, Michael Matanich, Dick Donat,Bob Rego, Jack Nelson, Dick Hegre and Don Droubie. The Staples School District established itself as one of the premier innovative districts in the nation, winning recognition at both the vocational and K-12 levels. 

The school and city’s reputation helped attract many professionals to the community. Many of them say that the impact of the school and Lund was a big part of their decision.

Near the end of his tenure in Staples, Lund started working with the Blandin Foundation as the director of a leadership program for elementary and high school principals. He also started working with Blandin’s Community Leadership Program. He worked with 75 different communities through this program. 

Lund was quoted with some of his thoughts on Staples: “This is a wonderful place with wonderful people who care about you because of who you are, not what you are. It doesn’t matter where you come from, you are welcomed in Staples. That is why I stayed here,” said Lund.

When asked what his greatest accomplishment is, Duane answered “Seeing Staples kids succeed in life.”

Lund wrote and published 36 books, mostly history books and cookbooks. His first book was about the history of Lake of the Woods. He was an avid outdoors person enjoying hunting and fishing and has introduced many kids to the great outdoors. He also enjoyed cooking and painting. 

He was a member of the Staples Rotary Club and Staples United Methodist Church.

 

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