11-04-2003, 04:19 AM
[font "Arial"][size 2]NEW YORK MILLS, MN--
Howard Lund, founder of Lund Boat Co., died on October 22 at his home in Detroit Lakes, Minnesota. He was 91.
Lund grew up in New York Mills, Minnesota, and was a 1936 graduate of Minneapolis Dunwoody Institute, where he studied mechanical drafting, machine design and sheet metal layout. He worked in a California shipyard for several years before moving back to New York Mills in 1945 and opening a sheet-metal shop and furnace dealership.
Lund started his boat company after a passer-by spotted the aluminum duck boat he had built for himself because he expected a good duck hunt that year and asked him about it. That man was a salesman for the Inland Marine Corp. of Minneapolis. He asked Lund to build 50 aluminum duck boats.
By 1957, Lund had distributors in the Twin Cities. In 1961, he and two partners bought out 12 stockholders and named the company Lund Metal Craft Inc. In 1969, Lund stock was offered to the public. Nine years later, Lund American became a subsidiary of Arctic Enterprises of Thief River Falls.
Lund retired as the company's president in 1981, when Arctic Enterprises was purchased by Minneapolis financier Erwin Jacobs and became part of Genmar Holdings Inc., now the world's largest builder of recreational boats.[/size][/font]
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Howard Lund, founder of Lund Boat Co., died on October 22 at his home in Detroit Lakes, Minnesota. He was 91.
Lund grew up in New York Mills, Minnesota, and was a 1936 graduate of Minneapolis Dunwoody Institute, where he studied mechanical drafting, machine design and sheet metal layout. He worked in a California shipyard for several years before moving back to New York Mills in 1945 and opening a sheet-metal shop and furnace dealership.
Lund started his boat company after a passer-by spotted the aluminum duck boat he had built for himself because he expected a good duck hunt that year and asked him about it. That man was a salesman for the Inland Marine Corp. of Minneapolis. He asked Lund to build 50 aluminum duck boats.
By 1957, Lund had distributors in the Twin Cities. In 1961, he and two partners bought out 12 stockholders and named the company Lund Metal Craft Inc. In 1969, Lund stock was offered to the public. Nine years later, Lund American became a subsidiary of Arctic Enterprises of Thief River Falls.
Lund retired as the company's president in 1981, when Arctic Enterprises was purchased by Minneapolis financier Erwin Jacobs and became part of Genmar Holdings Inc., now the world's largest builder of recreational boats.[/size][/font]
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