Please Remember in Your Prayers Gary DeCramer

Gary DeCramer

Please remember in your prayers Gary DeCramer, a former state senator and director of the mid-career Master of Public Affairs program at the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs.

DeCramer, 67, died suddenly March 7 while on a trip to Morris.  He held two degrees from the University of St. Thomas, a 1966 bachelor’s and a 1997 doctorate in educational leadership. He also held a master’s in English from the University of Oklahoma.

DeCramer was born near Marshall and represented southwestern Minnesota during three terms in the Minnesota Senate, from 1983 to 1993. He joined the Humphrey School in 1992, where he led the mid-career master’s program and taught courses on leadership.

He also had served as state director of USDA Rural Development, planning analyst for Hennepin County’s Office of Planning and Development, senior fellow in the Humphrey School’s State and Local Policy Program and the University of Minnesota’s Center for Transportation Studies, and interim president of Southwest State University in Marshall.

A resident of Mendota Heights, he formerly chaired the board of DARTS, a nonprofit organization that provided transportation, care-giver and other services throughout Dakota County.

He is survived by his wife, Estelle Brouwer, and three daughters. Funeral arrangements are pending.