Jim Vickerman Biography, Age, Height, Wife, Net Worth and Family

Vickerman died in Marshall, Minnesota, on January 19, 2021, at age 89.

On May 8, 2010, Vickerman received the Walter and Joan Mondale Award for Outstanding Public Service, recognizing distinguished lifetime achievement in public service. The award was presented at the DFL Party’s annual Humphrey Day Dinner in Minneapolis.

Vickerman was chair of the Senate Agriculture and Veterans Committee, and of the Agriculture and Veterans Budget and Policy Division of the Finance Committee. He served on the Environment and Natural Resources Committee, the Finance Committee, the State and Local Government Operations and Oversight Committee, and the Environment, Energy & Natural Resources Budget Division of the Finance Committee. He also previously served as chair of the Veterans and General Legislation Committee, the State and Local Government Operation Committee, and the Rules and Administration Committee, and as vice chair of the Health and Human Services Committee. He was Majority Whip from 2003 through 2007.

Vickerman served three terms on the Minnesota Rural Health Advisory Committee, being first appointed by Governor Arne Carlson in 1995. He was re-appointed by Governor Jesse Ventura in 1999, and by Governor Tim Pawlenty in 2003.

Vickerman, who lived just outside Tracy, represented District 22, which currently includes all of Cottonwood, Jackson, Murray, Nobles, Pipestone and Rock counties. Prior to redistricting in the early 1990s, the area was known as District 28, and included all or portions of Brown, Cottonwood, Jackson, Martin, Murray, Nobles, Redwood and Watonwan counties.

Vickerman was raised in a Minnesota farm family in Murray County. His father was involved in local township government throughout most of the senator’s childhood. This early exposure carved a path for Vickerman’s second career in politics. He initially participated in local government as a twelve-year member of the area soil and water board, and later served as a Murray County Commissioner, prior to being elected to the Minnesota Senate. He and his wife, Wava, were married in 1950, and are the parents of six children. His cousin-in-law Barbara Vickerman also served in the Minnesota legislature.

James Murray Vickerman (May 1, 1931 – January 19, 2021) was an American politician from Minnesota who served as Minnesota State Senator, first elected in 1986 in the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party’s “firestorm” that swept southwestern Minnesota during the height of the 1980s Midwestern farm crisis. In that election, he unseated incumbent Senator Doran Isackson, winning by a substantial margin. He was re-elected in 1990, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2002 and 2006. On February 22, 2010, he announced that he would not seek an eighth term, noting that he was doing so “with the satisfaction that when it’s done right, our government can and does serve people.” His term officially ended on January 3, 2011.