John Blatnik

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American politician (1911–1991)

title: "John Blatnik" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1911-births", "1991-deaths", "people-from-chisholm,-minnesota", "american-people-of-slovenian-descent", "democratic-party-united-states-representatives-from-minnesota", "democratic-party-minnesota-state-senators", "winona-state-university-alumni", "civilian-conservation-corps-people", "people-of-the-office-of-strategic-services", "united-states-army-air-forces-soldiers", "military-personnel-from-minnesota", "united-states-army-air-forces-personnel-of-world-war-ii", "20th-century-united-states-representatives", "20th-century-members-of-the-minnesota-legislature"] description: "American politician (1911–1991)" topic_path: "history" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Blatnik" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary American politician (1911–1991) ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox officeholder"]

Field	Value
name	John Anton Blatnik
caption	circa 1950s
birth_date
birth_place	Chisholm, Minnesota, U.S.
death_date
death_place	Forest Heights, Maryland, U.S.
state1	Minnesota
district1	8th
term_start1	January 3, 1947
term_end1	December 31, 1974
preceded1	William Pittenger
succeeded1	Jim Oberstar
office2	Member of the Minnesota Senate
term2	1940–1944
party	Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party
spouse	Gisela Hager
Evelyn Castiglioni
::

John Anton Blatnik (August 17, 1911 – December 17, 1991) was a United States Congressman from Minnesota. He was a member of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (DFL), which is affiliated with the Democratic Party.

Early life

Blatnik was born in Chisholm, Minnesota, to Slovene immigrant parents. He graduated from Winona State Teachers College (today Winona State University) and worked as a chemistry teacher in Chisholm.

Career

From 1940 to 1944, he served in the Minnesota State Senate and volunteered to serve in the United States Army Air Corps in 1942. While in the Army Air Corps (the predecessor to the Air Force), he was chief of the Office of Strategic Services's mission with Tito's Yugoslav partisans for almost a year.

In 1946, Blatnik was elected to Congress representing Minnesota's 8th District in the northeastern part of the state, running on the newly unified ticket of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party. He was reelected 13 times without much difficulty. He served in the 80th, 81st, 82nd, 83rd, 84th, 85th, 86th, 87th, 88th, 89th, 90th, 91st, 92nd, and 93rd congresses, (January 3, 1947 – December 31, 1974).

In 1963, Blatnik, introduced a bill to make Leif Erikson Day a nationwide observance. The following year Congress adopted this unanimously.

Blatnik voted for the Civil Rights Act of 1964. He was an early supporter of the Saint Lawrence Seaway and helped develop the original legislation to build it. He served as chairman of the Public Works Committee (now known as the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee) during his last two terms in Congress. As chairman, he shepherded the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, better known as the Clean Water Act, to passage in 1972.

Upon retirement, Blatnik endorsed his long-time administrative assistant, Jim Oberstar, to replace him in Congress; Oberstar won easily in the 1974 election.

In 1980, Blatnik was among the American delegation that attended the state funeral of Josip Tito held in Belgrade.

Personal life and death

In 1955, Blatnik married the former Gisela Hager. They had three children. Blatnik died in Forest Heights, Maryland on December 17, 1991. He was survived by his second wife, the former Evelyn Castiglioni.

Legacy

The bridge for Interstate 535 crossing the Superior Bay and the Saint Louis Bay between Wisconsin and Minnesota was renamed the John A. Blatnik Bridge in his honor on September 24, 1971.

References

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