Archie M. Gubbrud

The bronze went up two years after Gubbrud left office in January 1965 and returned to the family farm about seven and a half miles northeast of Alcester. His public life was not over. In 1968 Republicans pressed him to run for the U.S. Senate, and he reluctantly did, losing to the incumbent, George McGovern. Richard Nixon then made him South Dakota's state director of the Farmers Home Administration, a post he held from 1969 to 1977. He died of lung cancer at McKennan Hospital in Sioux Falls on April 26, 1987, and is buried at Lands Lutheran Church.

What the plaque says

Archie M. Gubbrud Twenty-Second Governor of South Dakota Archie M. Gubbrud was born December 31, 1910, the eldest son of Marius T. Gubbrud and Ella Rommereim Gubbrud at his parental farm home in Norway Township, Lincoln County. He was brought up on this farmstead with a post office address of Alcester, South Dakota, and attended the rural school in this district. He graduated from Augustana Academy, Canton, in 1929, where his interests were many, including athletics. The death of his father in 1934 placed a heavy load of farm management on Gubbrud during depression years. In 1939 he married Florence Dexter of Canton. They have two children, John D. and Maxine Roberts. Elected to the House of Representatives from Lincoln County in 1950 and his re-election for four successive terms concluded with Gubbrud serving as Speaker of the House in 1959 session. He has been a leader in soil conservation, an outstanding farmer and livestock feeder, and a Director of the State Bank of Alcester since 1952. The Republican loss of governorship in 1958 resulted in a still hunt for a man who could re-win this office. Gubbrud was drafted. He not only won the governorship in 1960 by a small margin, but again in 1962 by a much larger majority. Erected in 1967 by Home Town Friends and the State Highway Commission

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Spirit Mound Historic Prairie — 20 mi
  A lone hill north of Vermillion that Lewis and Clark walked to on a scorching day in 1804, now one of the few places left where you can stand exactly where they stood.
• National Music Museum — 23 mi
  One of the great collections of musical instruments in the world, on a college campus in a prairie town, built around a band teacher's thousands of horns, fiddles and curiosities.

More markers nearby

• Civilian Conservation Corps Camp - Alcester — steps away
• William J. Bulow — 8.3 mi
• Southeast South Dakota Experiment Farm — 14 mi
• Giants in the Earth Country — 18 mi