From the St Paul Pioneer Press

Lund, whose boat became a keeper, dies at 91
His durable aluminum craft found on almost every in state lake
BY THERESA MONSOUR
Pioneer Press

The man whose name is floating on nearly every lake in Minnesota has
died.

G. Howard Lund, founder of Lund Boat Co., died Wednesday at his Detroit
Lakes home. He was 91.

Lund's impact on the Land of Lakes can be seen on the water. Of 750,000
registered boats in Minnesota, 110,000 are Lunds.

Services are Monday in New York Mills, the birthplace of the famous
aluminum craft and the community that continues to serve as company
headquarters. Two red boats will be parked on the lawn of the funeral
home to honor his memory. Red and white Lund Boat flags will decorate
the streets of the town, located about 200 miles northwest of the Twin
Cities.

In the town of 1,100, the boat company employs 575 people. Nearly
everyone works at Lund or has relatives who do. Although Lund himself
had been retired from the company since 1981 - and it is now a division
of Genmar Holdings, a company led by Minneapolis financier Irwin
Jacobs - he remained in the hearts and minds of New York Mills. He
fished and hunted with folks from town after his retirement. A park with
a baseball diamond and playground is named after him.

G. Howard Lund - the "G" stood for Gordon, but no one in town ever
called him that - was born in Gary, Minn. His father, a railroad depot
agent in Twin Valley, Minn., died when Lund was young. The family moved
to New York Mills where his mother and grandmother ran the Lund and
Dennison Variety Store. He graduated from New York Mills High School in
1930, attended the University of Minnesota, then went to Dunwoody
Institute in Minneapolis, where he learned mechanical drafting and
fabrication.

He worked for a sheet-metal fabricating and roofing company in Albert
Lea, and then for the U.S. Navy at Mare Island Navy Yard in Vallejo,
Calif., repairing ships and submarines that came into the harbor.

In 1946, he returned to New York Mills, where he operated a sawmill and
worked as a roofer. He also worked with galvanized metal doing ductwork
for a heating business, said Keith Boyne, vice president of marketing
for Lund Boat Co.

Boyne, 52, grew up knowing the man and started working for Lund in 1969.
Boyne's father, Thomas Boyne, hunted and fished with Lund. When Lund
started making boats - the very first were wooden duck boats - Thomas
Boyne bought one, said the younger Boyne. Lund started making crafts
with galvanized sheet metal and graduated to aluminum. According to the
history of the company, Lund built his first aluminum duck boat in 1947
and the boat company officially began in 1949.

Boyne's father worked for Lund for a period in the 1950s. He spent
weekends helping Lund carry boats to the basement of a local car
dealership and paint the crafts. They were basic fishing boats at the
time of about 15 feet.

The Lund children were involved in the business as youngsters. Lindy
Kilde of Moorhead, the youngest daughter, remembered the family taking
the boats on a lake to test durability. They'd dump buckets of water
into them.

"We never could get them to sink," she said.

The tests were important to her father, she said.

"He just wanted to make the best boat possible," she said, "and he did."

Boyne echoed those sentiments: "Howard really keyed in on quality. He
made the product strong enough and durable and safe."

That durability is what makes aluminum boats so popular in Minnesota,
said Kim Elverum, boat and water safety coordinator for the Minnesota
Department of Natural Resources. Wooden boats were fraught with
maintenance problems, such as rotting.

"When the aluminum boat came along and got popular in the late 1950s and
early 1960s, it was a perfect boat in Minnesota." He said the other two
popular aluminum boats in Minnesota, also locally made, are Alumacraft
and Crestliner.

"But in Minnesota, if you see a red aluminum boat, it's a Lund," he
said, recalling that for many years, that was the color for a Lund.

The company has 250 dealers in the United States, 120 in Canada and two
in Europe. In addition to the plants in New York Mills, there is a site
in Steinbach, Manitoba, that employs 150 workers, said Boyne.

Boyne remembers the man as much as his boats.

"He was always such a kind, kind man," said Boyne. "Soft-spoken, yet
people knew when he meant business. He had the time to talk with you on
the street. On the sidewalk. Ask how the family was."

The visitation will be from 4 to 8 p.m. Sunday at Karvonen & Son Funeral
Home in New York Mills. The funeral will be 11 a.m. Monday at St.
Peter's Evangelical Lutheran Church in New York Mills. Burial will be in
Greenwood Cemetery in New York Mills.

Lund's first wife, Elfie, preceded him in death. He is survived by his
wife, Stella Lund of Detroit Lakes; three daughters, Judy Albaugh of New
York Mills, Karen Dahl of Detroit Lakes and Lindy Kilde of Moorhead; one
son, Gordy Lund of Fergus Falls; 14 grandchildren, 23
great-grandchildren and three great-great-grandchildren.