Why does Minnesota test tornado sirens on the first Wednesday of the month?
The local custom recently startled a New York-based cable news anchor on live television. April 30, 2021 8:20am Related coverage
The wail of sirens in the distance means one thing to most Minnesotans: It must be Wednesday.
Testing tornado sirens at 1 p.m. on the first Wednesday of the month is a local tradition. But reader Andrew Engen wanted to know the origins of this cacophonous custom, which recently startled a New York-based cable news anchor on live television.
File photo A siren installed atop a fire department building in Southeast Minneapolis is tested in January 1952.
From different backgrounds, pair launched first skyways As the pandemic casts doubt about workaday downtowns, it s fitting to flash back to this pair of downtown boosters.
By Curt Brown Special to the Star Tribune March 13, 2021 1:20pm Text size Copy shortlink:
They were born nearly 25 years and 400 miles apart in different pockets of the Midwest. But when Leslie Park and Edward Baker came together in Minneapolis more than 60 years ago, they changed the face of downtown creating the city s first skyways.
The son of a general store merchant, Park was born in 1901 in Balsam Lake, a northwestern Wisconsin town of a few hundred. Baker was born in 1926 in bustling Chicago, the son of a Russian-born Jewish traveling salesman.
Helen Munce
Helen Doloris (Graese) Munce of Sioux Falls, SD, passed away on February 24, 2021, at her son’s home surrounded by her family. She was 91 years and one week old.
Helen was born on a farm near Canova, SD, on February 17, 1930, to Arthur and Alma (Neugebauer) Graese. She graduated from Salem High School in 1948 and moved to the “big city,” AKA Sioux Falls, although she remained a farm girl at heart. She found employment (and her future husband) at Northwestern National Bank. Helen married Richard Gene Munce on May 8, 1954. Helen became a stay-at-home mother after the birth of her first child. Her children, Julie and David, gave her the maternal fulfillment she craved, a trait which would define her through her final days. Helen craved adventure; the family traveled much of the world, and most trips were sparked by her ideas. She also found joy in spending time with loved ones and reading.
By 1972, Wold and family had relocated to Grand Forks, N.D., where he became president and CEO of First National Bank, which then had three locations and dealt primarily in traditional deposit and lending activities.
Having himself benefited from the mentorship of coaches and others in life, Wold delighted in mentoring younger people at the office as well as at home. His daughters said he imbued in them the value of hard work and a love for reading and music, and all three worked at the bank as youths in some capacity or another. We started at an early age, and it was just a given that we were going to go and either file checks or work in bookkeeping, Wold s daughter, Susan Kraft, said. He made sure during college that we all worked part-time, too.
S.7 E.8: From Repo Man to Investment Firm Founder
Learning for Life @ Gustavus host Greg Kaster interviews Gustavus alum Charlie Kelley about his work in investments and investments in Gusties.
Charlie Kelley, Gustavus Class of ’75 and founder of the private equity firm Compass Capital, recalls some memorable professors and experiences at Gustavus and talks about his brief and formative stint as a repo man, his career in financial services and decision to start his own firm, and the Gustavus Hong Kong Travel Program for Economics and Management students that he started and, with his wife Emily, leads.
Season 7, Episode 8:
Greg Kaster: