Gamerdinger

GRAF NOLTE JONES DOHERTY BLOMQUIST DICKEY

Posted By: Carlyss Noland (email)
Date: 4/14/2014 at 13:33:39

Dr. Gamerdinger

Dr. Gamerdinger joined the Service club in 1924 and that group undertook to get a road built east of Stuart. There had been a road between Stuart and Dexter, but the bridges were all washed out or so rotten that they were unusable. The state did not want to be bothered with the new construction, so the men of Stuart began on their own. They met one day with their saws, axes, shovels and horse teams and for two days worked to clear the roadway. They cut down the trees and used them to fill the low places. When finished they had a dirt surfaced road that connected with a hard surfaced road west of Dexter. The state highway commission was persuaded to gravel the roadway and that road is now Highway 6. Dr. Gamerdinger became secretary-treasurer of the Service Club in the early 1930’s.
He is a member of the Odd Fellows, Rebekahs and the Masonic Lodge. He served on the Adair County Republican Central Committee for twenty years.
Municipal government has been very high on the doctor’s list of priorities. He has served on the Stuart City Council under ten different mayors, beginning with Mayor C. J. Graf in 1935. As councilman during Dr. Nolte’s administration, he was appointed chairman of the Stuart Light Committee before the light plant was governed by a board of trustees.
On September 15, 1960, as mayor pro-tem, Dr. Gamerdinger turned the valve that brought the first commercial natural gas supply into Stuart. Fifty residents in the northeast part of town were supplied with natural gas, and two weeks later, natural gas was available for the first time to all Stuart residents.
An honor to Dr. Gamerdinger and to the city of Stuart was the doctor’s election as vice-president and later as president of the Iowa League of Municipalities in 1961. The League represents the 860 communities in the state.
Again as acting mayor pro-tem in 1964, Dr. Gamerdinger accomplished another first when he placed the first direct distance dialing telephone call from Stuart on April 19. The call was to Holmes Jones, a Stuart resident visiting his son in Fairfield, California. When the new equipment went into operation that day, Stuart was one of only four cities in the United States with touch tone dialing facilities.
He is married to the former Ruth Doherty They have two children, Joan (Mrs. Wayne Blomquist), and George C. Gamerdinger, Jr. They have seven grandchildren, Steven and Nancy Blomquist (Dickey), Susan, Ann, Bill, Ellen and Mary Gamerdinger.
Ruth Gamerdinger served on the Board of Education of the Stuart Public Schools, later becoming secretary for 26 ½ years retiring in 1972. She enjoyed the association with the students, faculty and co-workers with many pleasant memories. She was made an Honorary Chapter Farmer of the Stuart Chapter FFA and the annual yearbook was didicated to her by the classes of 1952 and 1961.
She has been bookkeeper for several local businesses and secretary for a number of social organizations. She is presently City Treasurer for Stuart.
Transcribed from Adair County History 1976
page 68-69