Edith Mary Gandrud

OWATONNA -- Edith Gandrud of Owatonna, passed away at the home of her daughter, Linda Stoddard, in Cross City, Fla., Saturday, Jan. 31, 2004. She was born in Ceylon, in Freeborn County, as Edith Mary Christensen, Jan. 2, 1911 and was 93 years old. She was a cofounder and former vice president of Gandy Company, a farm equipment manufacturing company in Owatonna and a woman of influence and diplomacy that worked behind the scenes for great things in many areas of the community.

She graduated from Mankato Commercial College in 1931, where she met and roomed with Louise (Jackson) LaRue. This friendship would later be instrumental in locating Gandy Company in Owatonna. When Edith's sister Helen Howe, now of Grand Junction, Colo., went to the University of Minnesota, Edith decided to go also. It was there she met Ebenhard Gandrud, later known as Gandy, who was too shy to introduce himself to the lovely lady he frequently saw walking on campus. At a church social, he found out his roommate was from Edith's hometown and was finally introduced. After graduating with a degree in Home Economics in 1936 she and Gandy were married at the home of Edith's parents in Ceylon, on July 16, 1936, the hottest day ever in southern Minnesota, according to Gandy.

The newlyweds moved to Pipestone, where Gandy was a county agent. This was during the AAA acreage set aside era and Edith was tired of Gandy's complaining that he never could get the same land measurement twice in a row. She challenged and encouraged him to find a better way; his answer was a folding 1 rod measuring wheel. They had over $10,000 in orders before they had a commercial model or a place to make the rod measuring wheel that came out of that challenge. With this invention and patenting they had the confidence to leave the security of a government job and go into business. But many times they were down to their last $5. It was on an exploratory trip to locate the business that they stopped in Owatonna to visit Edith's ex-roommate and discovered the advantages of locating there.

Their first office was in a house on Mill Street, behind the old jail. Edith was the secretary, bookkeeper, and driver for business trips while Gandy sold and oversaw the manufacture of the measuring wheel as well as continued inventing. In 1939, they had and lost their first child, Ebenhard Stewart II.

As World War II broke out they began manufacturing a second product, a spreader-seeder. The U.S. Army Air Corps discovered it worked well for seeding landing strips to hold the sand from being pulled into airplane motors. Consequently, they were able to get steel throughout the war. But they had outgrown the garage on Mill Street and moved into the basement of the Journal Chronicle Building, now a part of the Wells Fargo Bank in Owatonna.

Edith continued organizing and supporting Gandy, and giving structure to the business first as a partnership and then as the E. S. Gandrud Corporation. Even after their children were born, a daughter, Linda in 1944 and son Dale in 1949, she continued to work at the plant 1 to 2 days per week. She continued in a supporting role until the 1990's as vice president even after Gandy's death on March 28, 1988.

Since the products they made had the name "Gandy" on them the name was changed to Gandy Company in 1958. By 1943, they again outgrew their manufacturing facility and move to the present site. That building has gone through 14 additions. The business is now being run by their son Dale.

She is survived by sister, Helen Howe of Grand Junction, Colo.; daughter, Linda (Hank) Stoddard of Cross City, Fla.; son, Dale (Jade) Gandrud of Elko; five grandsons, Ebenhard (Shelley) Stoddard, Michael Gandrud, Ryan (Michelle) Stoddard, Jonathan Gandrud and Dalen Ross Stoddard; one great-grandson, Evan Stoddard.

preceded by her parents, husband, son, two brothers, Robert and Allen Christensen.

Funeral services will be held at Trinity Lutheran Church, 609 Lincoln Ave. on Friday, Feb. 6, 2004 at 2 p.m., with Pastor John Lestock officiating. Burial will follow in the family plot at Forest Hill Cemetery. There will be a visitation held from 4 to 8 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 5, 2004 at the Michaelson Funeral Home and one hour prior to the service at the church.

In lieu of flowers, the family encourages a memorial to Hospice of the Tri-Counties, 624 N. Main St., Chiefland, Fla. 32626, Owatonna Area Hospice, Trinity Lutheran Foundation, Steele County Food Shelf or donor's choice.