State Senator Dennis Utter dead at 72

Nebraska State Senator Dennis Utter

Republican state Sen. Dennis Utter of Hastings has died.

Utter died Tuesday. He was 72.

He had been suffering from lung disease but his wife Kathy says he spent Christmas at home with family. He was hospitalized again Tuesday morning, and he died a few hours later.
Speaker Mike Flood says in a statement that Utter was likable and effective and embodied the very best of Nebraska .
Utter was elected in 2008. He was chairman of the Revenue Committee and served on the Banking Commerce and Insurance Committee.
He represented the city of Hastings, Adams County and part of Hall County. He was born in Wheatland, Wyo., in 1939. He and his wife have three grown children.
From his biography on the Unicameral website we learn more about the representative from the Nebraska 33rd District.
Some might call it being focused; 0thers might call it being rooted in what you know. Whatever one calls it, Sen. Dennis Utter is pleased to say that he has had only three jobs since finishing college, all in banking. His most recent was with the Adams County Bank in Kenesaw, from which he is semi-retired.
But Utter had his share of varied and interesting jobs while attending the University of Wyoming.
His freshman year, Utter was a grasshopper scout. He explained that grasshopper infestations were common in Wyoming at that time, so the state hired young people to map the insects’ patterns. Scouts were issued surplus army jeeps to track down the grasshoppers and direct pilots where to spray the infested areas.
He also fed lab rats in the biology department and cleaned out their cages, a job that seems to have left a lasting impression. “I hate rats to this day,” Utter laughed. “I don’t care if they’re white or not.”
One of the things Utter loved was growing up on a farm in Wyoming.
“There’s quite a bit of farm blood running through these veins,” he said. In fact, early in his career, Utter briefly considered going to back to the farm. But with a family to support, Utter said, he stuck with a career in banking instead. Still, he found ways to stay connected to farm life.
Utter volunteered to help friends with harvest and cattle feeding. “It was a chance to get back and drive a tractor again,” he said. He also fed cattle as a second job, thinking that he’d make extra money to put in his three children’s college funds. But the money he made didn’t turn out to be “extra.”
“I’m the only one who got an education from that job,” he said.
Utter said he’s always been political and, as a former city council member and mayor of McCook, felt that he had valuable experience to bring to the Legislature. But his interest in the work of the state’s lawmaking body also is personal.
Utter said he’s very concerned about economic development in rural Nebraska, especially when it comes to providing the state’s young people the opportunities they need.
“We need to make sure our kids are able to stay here,” he said.
Utter’s own three children have all left Nebraska. One son is a banker in South Sioux City, but lives in Iowa. Another son resides in rural Pennsylvania.
His daughter is in Ft. Riley, Kansas, where her husband, who recently began a second tour in Iraq, is stationed.
“I wish they were here,” Utter said. “I wish they’d stayed.”
An avid golfer, Utter said his wife likely would describe him as a “golfaholic.” When asked if he’d ever shot a hole-in-one, Utter laughed. “I’ve played enough golf that I should have, but I never said I was good at it.”
But time for golf was in short supply during the campaign, and Utter doesn’t see that changing anytime soon. The pace of the Legislature has been a little more intense than he expected, and he expressed “great admiration” for the younger members of the body.
“The young people who have full-time jobs and small children – I honestly don’t know how they do it,” Utter said.
He also appreciates the tradition that guides the legislative process in the Unicameral.
“Some might say it’s archaic, but I think it’s really important to honor those traditions,” Utter said.
And tradition is important to a man who has been married as long as he has.
Utter met his wife, Kathryn, through family when they were teenagers. Both had won trips to the United Nations in high school, he from Wyoming and she from Nebraska.
Utter worked for Kathryn’s uncle at his filling station as an after-school job, and her uncle decided the two teenagers should get to know each other better.
“And the rest, as they say, is history,” Utter said. “That was over 50 years ago.” Utter smiled warmly. “And now I’ve spilled all my family secrets.”