James Lyman Hetland, Jr. (1926 - May 23, 2012) was selected to be the founding chair of the Metropolitan Council in 1967 by Gov.

Harold LeVander Karl Harold Phillip LeVander (October 10, 1910March 30, 1992) was an American attorney and politician. A Republican, he served as the 32nd governor of Minnesota from January 2, 1967 to January 4, 1971, after defeating incumbent governor Karl ...

. He led the

Twin cities Twin cities are a special case of two neighboring cities or urban centres that grow into a single conurbation – or narrowly separated urban areas – over time. There are no formal criteria, but twin cities are generally comparable in stat ...

in a regionalisation effort for the seven-county metro area. One of his major projects in the first years of the Met Council was the placement of the South St. Paul Municipal Airport. At the time, the

Metropolitan Airports Commission The Minneapolis-Saint Paul Metropolitan Airports Commission (MAC) is a state-level airport authority that operates the Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport and six reliever airports in the Minneapolis-St. Paul, Twin Cities region, whic ...

(MAC) wanted it located in Ham Lake, adjacent to the Carlos Avery Game Farm. The Met Council, under Hetland's leadership, vetoed the location and chose

Minneapolis Minneapolis is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 429,954 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the state's List of cities in Minnesota, most populous city. Locat ...

rival St. Paul. His decision was due to the ecologically sensitive nature of the MAC preferred site's surrounding area.

Biography

Hetland joined the Army out of high school and served during World War II. He later earned a law degree from the

University of Minnesota Law School The University of Minnesota Law School is the law school of the University of Minnesota, a public university in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The school confers four law degrees: a Juris Doctor (J.D.), a Master of Laws (LL.M.), a Master of Science in Pa ...

, graduating first in his class. He clerked for

Supreme Court Justice The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest-ranking judicial body in the United States. Its membership, as set by the Judiciary Act of 1869, consists of the chief justice of the United States and eight associate justices, any six of ...

Thomas F. Gallagher Thomas Francis Gallagher (November 24, 1897 in Faribault, Minnesota – March 3, 1985) was a justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court from 1943 until his retirement in 1967. Early life and education Gallagher attended Saint Thomas Academy, then ...

of the

Minnesota Supreme Court The Minnesota Supreme Court is the highest court in the U.S. state of Minnesota. The court hears cases in the Supreme Court chamber in the Minnesota State Capitol or in the nearby Minnesota Judicial Center. History The court was first assemb ...

and then went into private practice. In addition to serving the Met Council from 1967 to 1971, he was active in many boards and committees. He served as chair of the

National Municipal League The National Civic League is an American nonpartisan, non-profit organization founded in 1894 as the "National Municipal League”; it adopted its new name in 1986. Its mission is to advance civic engagement to create equitable, thriving communit ...

and the Citizens Forum on Self Governance and had roles in the Advisory Committee on Rules of Civil Procedure of the Minnesota Supreme Court, the Minnesota Zoological Garden, the Minneapolis Charter Commission, The Council on Crime and Justice, and the Minneapolis Downtown Association. He was also a professor at the University of Minnesota Law School and at

William Mitchell College of Law William Mitchell College of Law was a private law school from 1956 to 2015 in Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. Accredited by the American Bar Association (ABA), it offered full- and part-time legal education in pursuit of the Juris Doctor (J. ...

References

External links

University of Minnesota Law School
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hetland, James L. 1926 births 2012 deaths Military personnel from Minnesota University of Minnesota Law School alumni University of Minnesota Law School faculty Minnesota lawyers Minnesota local politicians 20th-century American lawyers