Val Bjornson
Kristjan Valdimar "Val" Bjornson was a Minnesota writer, newspaper editor, and politician who served as State Treasurer for more than two decades.
Bjornson was born in Minneota, Minnesota of Icelandic descent. In World War II, he served in Navy intelligence, stationed in Iceland. Besides English, he was fluent in Icelandic, Finnish, Danish, Swedish, and Norwegian.
He was part owner of the Minneota Mascot newspaper and an associate editor at the St. Paul Pioneer Press.
Running as the Republican candidate in the 1954 United States Senate elections, Bjornson lost to Hubert Humphrey, with whom he sometimes shared a car to travel around the state.
Bjornson died in Minneapolis on March 10th, 1987. The University of Minnesota, his alma mater, and the University of Iceland have a student exchange scholarship named in his honor.
