July 2000

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River Town Lawyer By Amy Lindgren MSBA's new president Kent Gernander is the fifth produced by the river town of Winona, and the second to hail from the firm of Streater & Murphy P.A.

"As clients, friends and colleagues attest, Gernander is incapable of ‘just showing up.’"

A sun-drenched spring day, not quite hot, with just enough breeze to shimmer the leaves and create dancing patterns on the blacktop. Kent Gernander’s ’97 red Saab convertible holds the back roads effortlessly, rounding the curves and climbing smoothly out of dips as breathtaking panoramas of tree-covered river bluffs spring into view. The leather upholstery and contemporary jazz on the car stereo add just the right ambience. This is the 20-minute drive from Gernander’s downtown Winona office to the 312-acre farm where he plans to build his next home. Gernander is not the type to gloat, but it’s a far cry from the typical commute of a Twin Cities attorney battling in from a suburb to one of the downtowns. Gernander, the new MSBA president, will be seeing a lot of his car, and less of his farm, in the coming year. That’s one of the sacrifices of the outstate presidents, who can spend two days or more in the Cities on MSBA business in a typical week. Not that the drive to the Bar office is a new one for Gernander. In the past 20 years, he has served on numerous committees and sections, causing him to joke, "That’s how I got to be president. If you hang around the Bar long enough and get on enough committees, that’s all that’s left." There’s some truth in that joke, in that Gernander’s broad variety of Bar activities makes him deeply qualified for this next stage of leadership. The false assumption, of course, is that anyone who just showed up would eventually earn the honor and responsibility of the top office. As clients, friends and colleagues attest, Gernander is incapable of "just showing up." Instead, as Gernander’s client Bob Kierlin notes, "His style is to get all the facts. Then he goes off and studies everything that’s pertinent and comes back with recommendations that we never would have thought of." Kierlin is president and chairman of the board of Fastenal, the Winona-based distributor of industrial maintenance products that has grown from one store in 1967 to more than 800 stores and 6,000 employees nationwide. Gernander, who has been Fastenal’s attorney for nearly three decades, has played a part in that growth by working on everything from stock option plans to setting up multiple companies in different states to minimize tax exposure. "Most attorneys in general practice would not go for some of the specialized things he’s been able to help us with," Kierlin says. "Kent’s a real renaissance lawyer; he can tackle just about anything." Dan Rukavina, president of Automated Vision Inspection in Winona, has a more blunt assessment of Gernander: "He’s an amazing man -- a wizard," he says. Rukavina and his wife Pat, along with their partners Dave and Muriel Arnold, first hired Gernander to advise them on the formation of their small engineering firm, EMD Associates. In the ensuing 25 years, Gernander helped the company through its life cycle, from an incredibly complicated succession plan for 13 heirs to an acquisition by Texas-based Benchmark Electronics. Now Gernander sits on the board of the Rukavina Family Foundation, which he helped them create as a charitable giving vehicle for the profits from the acquisition. Gernander also helped Rukavina form his new business, AVI, which designs products for the electronic arena. As much as Rukavina appreciates Gernander’s legal ability, he is at least as impressed with his personal qualities. "Through all of our work together, it has been Kent’s integrity, honesty, and openness to truth and the good of all that has been the key," Rukavina says. "He’s also been an important part of our family. The kids (ages 17-40) have all enjoyed their relationship with Kent very much." The fact that Gernander knows the kids at all is a testament to the close relationship he often forms with his clients. In fact, the Rukavinas aren’t the first clients to ask him to assist with a family foundation. Gernander is currently a board member for three foundations, and the president of one. After 30 years as a general practitioner in Winona, he is widely regarded as not only a top-notch attorney, but as an integral part of the community’s close-knit fabric.

Gernander’s ability to fit into a small town is nothing to take for granted. Natives of Winona have seen their share of professionals move in and back out again. But Gernander was raised in Duluth, son of a shipbuilder and a teacher, and grandson of four immigrants. He grew up working -- as a paperboy, baby sitter, and janitor -- and learned the rhythms of a small community. His family lived near the Diamond-Calk plant in West Duluth, where horseshoes and iron implements were made, and the workers would occasionally go on strike. During one particularly long strike of nearly a year, the enterprising young Gernander ordered extra newspapers and sold them each day directly to the picketers. It would have been easy for Gernander to attend college in Duluth or Bemidji, or to skip college altogether. Instead he applied to the only school he wanted to attend and packed his bags, assuming with the confidence of youth that he would get in. And indeed, late in the summer after high school graduation, Kent Gernander stepped off the train in Cambridge, Massachusetts, wondering where in the heck Harvard College was. He found the campus, but it took him seven tries to find his major. Finally settling on an amalgam of studies called Social Relations, he sidestepped the course offerings of LSD guru Timothy Leary ("Even the students thought he was flaky," Gernander says), graduated cum laude, and turned his attention to law school at the University of Minnesota. Here he served on the law review, clerked for local and New York firms, and graduated magna cum laude. The next step was military service, which Gernander had managed to defer throughout his studies. He enlisted in the Navy and eventually wound up on the East Coast learning to catch lobsters between the classes he taught for Naval students on legal proceedings . By 1969 Gernander was ready to return to Minnesota . He took a position at Oppenheimer Wolff & Donnelly in St. Paul, where he had clerked one summer during law school. He hadn’t been there very long however, before he started to watch for positions in smaller towns. He heard that Rip Streater was looking for an associate in Winona and was gratified when Streater flew his small plane to the Twin Cities to interview Gernander in person. The deal was made and Gernander started his career in earnest at 64 East Fourth Street in Winona, where he has hung out his shingle for the last three decades. In the beginning, with twins Bart and Leah to support and a new practice to build, Gernander pushed hard to establish himself. He did everything a general practitioner would do, including criminal defense, family law, and business formation. He even taught classes at nearby Winona State University on business law. He also wove himself into the fabric of the community, attending ball games and volunteering on boards. As he says now, "It’s a good way to practice law. In a small practice you age and mature with your clients. When you start out, you’re helping your peer group out of scrapes with the law. Then as they age, you’re helping them start businesses and you help their kids out of scrapes, and finally you’re doing estate planning. That’s where I am now." Listening to Gernander, it would be easy to mistake "lawyer in a small town" with "small town lawyer." The difference is not one of word placement, but of world view. Working the stereotype, a small town lawyer is one whose vision is circumscribed by the town itself. But while Gernander is clearly devoted to his small town, he is not defined by it. His clients have needed a national perspective and Gernander has faithfully provided it. And yet, there is something distinctly small-town about this man. He loves to tell stories, but they’re not tales of lawyerly derring-do. Instead, they reveal something about the pace of life in Winona, and Gernander’s place in it. Like the brief anecdote he tells of sitting at a Little League game with one of his clients, a business manager for the hospital, and noticing the accountant’s pager strapped to his belt. "Are you expecting a fiscal crisis?" Gernander recalls asking. He was teasing the manager for mixing business with a ball game. The irony, of course, is that Gernander himself is fully wired these days, with email, laptop, cell phone, and electronic organizer.

"while Gernander is clearly devoted to his small town, he is not defined by it"

"He’s known as ‘Kent the Gent’ on ice for his puck-passing etiquette"

Another of his stories is even more revealing of Gernander’s small-town persona. It seems he had a client in the mid-1980s who asked him to look into a troubling situation at a local bank. One thing led to another and Gernander discovered a tangle of bank fraud that eventually made its way to the national news. One day a reporter came to town and interviewed Gernander in his office. She then asked directions to the small Minnesota town of Houston, pronouncing it like the city in Texas. Gernander corrected her, explaining that in these parts it was called Who-stun. Later, Gernander’s secretary corrected him, saying, "It’s just the Norwegians who say it that way." And that’s the point of Gernander’s story, to use an exaggerated Norwegian accent and explain how the town’s pronunciation came to be. Oh, and the reporter? That was just Jane Bryant Quinn, the national economics journalist, and her camera crew. Presumably they made it to Houston without incident. Despite these peeks into Gernander’s personality, the Jimmy Stewart-as-country-lawyer mantle doesn’t completely fit on his shoulders. Although he does enjoy turkey hunting -- if you want to get a reaction, ask him what he’s using for a scope these days, and how his stitches are healing -- there’s a more compelling love in his life: hockey. He says, "Hockey has always been a part of my life," and indeed it has. He grew up the second of three athletic boys, always playing at school and with friends. His older brother is now the chief scout for the NHL Dallas Stars, while his younger brother is a college basketball coach. At Harvard, Gernander played on the freshman hockey team, then gave it up to concentrate on his studies. That may be the longest time he’s gone without a stick in his hands. Today he plays twice weekly on an old-timers team whose players range in age "from 18 to me." At 59, Gernander is the oldest member of the team. He’s also among the oldest players at the annual tournament of Bar members who play for the prestigious Barrister’s Cup. He’s known as "Kent the Gent" on ice for his puck-passing etiquette, and plays for the Duluth Sharks, claiming eligibility because, "I like to think of Duluth as a concept, not a place." In addition to playing hockey, Gernander has been an in-line skater for 15 years and now regularly competes in a 26-mile marathon for skaters. He also runs, and goes on frequent long-distance bike rides with his daughter Rachel, 20, who lives and works in Duluth. It’s hard to know how Gernander’s life will change over the next year. Adding the duties of the Bar presidency and the additional commuting days means something will have to give. Unless he takes the advice of friend and former Bar president Mike Galvin Jr., who says, "What you do is just increase your marching hours. You extend your working day in either direction and you just get both jobs done." On the other hand, Galvin has also advised Gernander to seek balance during his term. "There’s a risk at the beginning to try to do too much, and there’s a risk at the end to do too little," Galvin notes. As for Gernander, he plans to hit the ground running. He has already been working on some of his key themes for the year, which include the issues of diversity, poverty, and technology. He is also deeply interested in the challenges facing new attorneys and solo practitioners, and plans to lead the Bar in adding new resources and tangible benefits for association members. However his life changes, his wife Elizabeth Burke says they are both looking forward to it. With two of the kids, Nick and Eric, graduating from college and high school, and Burke off for the summer from her work as a counselor at Winona State University, she anticipates a little empty-nest syndrome ahead. Of course, if the plans to build a new home on the farm materialize, that will fill in the extra time nicely. Burke and Gernander have been looking forward to that move for some years. Perhaps the only person who won’t be as happy about it is Mike Galvin Jr., who has come to appreciate the current Burke-Gernander home on the Winona golf course. It seems that Galvin has been in the habit of requesting that a cooler full of beverages be left for him at the 5th hole when he comes to play the course before the annual Third District meeting. Gernander has always cheerfully complied with the request. While he’ll miss the golf course hospitality, Galvin is looking forward to seeing his friend take the reins as MSBA president. "He’s a real leader," Galvin says of Gernander. "He leads by example and by enthusiasm, and he has wonderful people skills. I think Kent will be an outstanding president for the Minnesota State Bar Association."

Kent A. Gernander Born: November 27, 1940, Duluth, Minnesota, second of three boys. Education: Denfeld High School, Duluth, 1959; Harvard College, A.B. in Social Relations, cum laude, 1963; University of Minnesota Law School, J.D., magna cum laude, 1966. Military: Lieutenant, U.S. Navy, Judge Advocate General’s Corps, 1966-69. Early Jobs: Newspaper delivery, snow shoveling, babysitting, grocery delivery, janitorial, merchant seaman on Great Lakes ore carriers, construction laborer, coach, part-time nanny. Law Positions: Streater & Murphy, P.A., Winona, Minnesota, 1970 - present; Oppenheimer Wolff & Donnelly, St. Paul, 1966, 1969-70. MSBA Activities: President, 1999-2000; Board of Governors, 1988-94, 1997-2000; Executive Committee, 1992-94, 1997-2000; MCLE Board, 19942000 (chair, 1995-1998); Member of Sections on Litigation, Health Law, Business Law, Outstate Practice; Statewide Lawyer Referral Service Committee, member and chair, 1984-87. Other Activities: Minnesota Commission on Judicial Selection, 1990-99; Minnesota Lawyers Professional Responsibility Board, 1992-99; Third District Ethics Committee, member and chair, 1988-92; Winona County Bar Association, president, 1982; Men’s Hockey Coach, St. Mary’s College, Winona, 1974-1976; Business Law Instructor, Winona State University, 1978-79. Board Activities: Winona State University Foundation; Elizabeth Callender King Foundation; Rukavina Family Foundation; Winona Banc Holding Company; Winona National & Savings Bank; Town & Country State Bank; Hiawatha Broadband Communications Inc. Interests: Playing hockey, turkey hunting, in-line skating, running, distance biking Family: Wife Elizabeth Burke; Children: Bart - 30, Leah - 30, Nick - 22, Rachel - 20, Eric - 18; Grandchild: Jordan - 1

Winona -- Land of Outstate MSBA Presidents Go ahead and do the math. The Minnesota State Bar Association is 117 years old. There have been over 100 presidents, 45 of them selected from dozens of towns, including Red Wing, Duluth, Crookston, Rochester . . .. So isn’t it just a little odd that five have come from the little river town of Winona? There’s Marshall B. Webber, who was president in the early years of the MSBA -- 1902-03, to be exact. Then came L.L. Brown, who carried the mantle in 1918-19. Mike Galvin Sr. served in 1946-47. Roger Brosnahan carried on the tradition in 1974-75, and now there’s Kent Gernander. That’s roughly 11 percent of all the outstate presidents. If you count Winona native Mike Galvin, Jr. (which you can’t, since he was living in St. Paul in 1994-95 when he was president), six MSBA presidents have roots in this one small community. But wait, there’s more. Two of those presidents -- Brosnahan and Gernander -- came from the same law firm, Streater & Murphy, P.A., and both were hired by then-senior partner, Rip Streater. Streater, who is of counsel to the firm these days, should maybe consider a new career as an executive recruiter. He clearly has the talent to spot talent, and the ability to let it develop. It’s only slightly ironic that the man who hired two MSBA presidents never belonged to the Bar Association himself. In those days, the work of building a practice from scratch was enough of a challenge. Even sending associates to Bar events was a sacrifice at times. "In a small firm, with only five or six attorneys, having one serve as president was an honor, but also something of a burden," he notes. But things have worked out well for the firm and for the Bar, and Winona continues its tradition of sending presidents to the Cities.

From the President’s Kitchen (or, Cooking with Kent) What does a busy MSBA president do to relax? If he’s Kent Gernander, and he’s not stealing the puck from a fellow attorney in the annual Barrister’s Cup hockey tournament, he might don an apron and turn out a few loaves of Swedish rye bread. The recipe is a favorite of his children, who enjoy receiving a loaf in the mail. When they’re home, a small fight might ensue among Bart and Leah, both 30, and Rachel 20. That’s because Gernander generally makes four loaves, to be divided among them. According to Bart, Rachel tries to win the fourth loaf by claiming she makes less money than her siblings, and Leah pleads a case of geographical hardship, since she has to come from Denver to claim the prize. Nick, who graduated from college this year, and Eric, who just finished high school, ) presumably get enough loaves of their own while the other kids are standing by their mailboxes. Bread isn’t Gernander’s only recipe, however. He also makes a mean pasty (an Iron Range delicacy consisting of last night’s leftovers baked into a pie) and the mustard pickle relish that goes with it. Bart Gernander says the relish is a rare treat, mainly because Gernander’s wife Elizabeth Burke won’t let him make it more than once every three years, and then only if the wind is right. "You have to pick a day that’s breezy and not too cold," Bart laughs, "so you can leave the doors open and air the place out." On those special days, Gernander tries to look ahead by canning extra to give to family and friends. Bob Kierlin, President of Winona-based Fastenal, and a long-time client and friend of Gernander’s, has tasted the pasty / relish combination and declares it delicious. He was a guest at what Elizabeth calls "our Iron Range culture night" when Gernander also served potica, a walnut pastry similar in design to baklava. While a presidential cookbook may not be on Gernander’s list of MSBA projects this year, he gladly shares the bread recipe that keeps his kids coming back for more. Signe Gernander’s Rye Bread (From the recipes of Kent’s Norwegian grandmother) 1 T salt, 3/4 cup brown sugar, 1/4 cup molasses, 2 T shortening, 2 cups water, 1/3 cake (2 packages dry) yeast, 2 cups rye flour, 4 cups white flour, 1 t fennel seed Dissolve yeast in 1/2 cup warm water plus 1 T sugar. Pour remaining water (hot) over salt, brown sugar, molasses, shortening, and fennel. Stir to dissolve. When lukewarm, add dissolved yeast. Add 2 cups white flour, then 2 cups rye flour, then rest of white flour. Mix well, then knead on floured board. Put in bowl, cover and let rise. Shape into 2 loaves. Place in greased loaf pans. Bake at 350 about 40 minutes.