Steve Dille spent more than two decades interacting with Minnesota’s power elite and, sometimes, making decisions that made him unpopular — with both other politicians and some in the public.
But Dille always went about his work with the best of intentions, according to those who worked with him.
“Steve was a very dedicated and committed public servant,” state Rep. Dean Urdahl, R-Acton Township, said. “He cared about the state generally, but he also cared individually, about his constituents.”
“He was the most genuine person you would ever want to meet,” recalled Bob Ness, a former state representative and school superintendent from Dassel. “Always a gentleman. Respected by his peers and those who had a chance to work with him.”
Dille, 75, died March 25 at his home in rural Dassel. His was a political career that started as a township supervisor, then a county commissioner and school board member, and eventually grew to the state capitol.
Though he had been outside of politics and legislative proceedings for 10 years, when Dille’s death was announced Thursday on the floor of the Minnesota Senate, there were many members who still recalled his contributions. He spent 24 years in the Legislature, first in the House from 1986-1992, then the Senate from 1992 to his retirement in 2010.
“He was a very popular senator,” state Sen. Scott Newman, R-Hutchinson said. “A number of senators who served with Steve are still there. They started telling stories about him. It was very obvious that he was a popular man when he was in the Senate.”
Though he was a Republican and advocated conservative values and fiscal approaches, Dille often reached across the aisle, sometimes at great political and emotional cost.
Perhaps his most perilous vote came in 2008 when he joined the DFL majority and a handful of Republicans to override Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s veto of a $6.6 billion transportation bill, which included a gas tax increase. Long after he left the Capitol, Dille held on to a large stack of letters and emails from anti-tax residents and organizations that attacked him and his decision, political scars that came with the territory, he said.
Much of his work was far less controversial, however.
He worked tirelessly on legislation aimed at strengthening marriages, and on the Wetland Reform Act. He also teamed up with Urdahl to author legislation that created Greenleaf Lake State Recreation Area, then worked to secure state funding for land purchases for the area. They also helped secure state bonding money for an expansion of Litchfield’s wastewater treatment plant, a key component in First District Association’s ability to grow its processing facility. Dille also pushed for funding to improve the Luce Line State Trail, even though the effort was lost to a governor’s veto.
Urdahl said he appreciated being able to work with Dille on many pieces of legislation through the years.
It was a continuation of admiration Urdahl had for Dille all the way back to junior high school. Urdahl recalled as a seventh-grader watching a Litchfield High School basketball game in which Dille tipped in the winning basket in an overtime game played at what is now Bernie Aaker Auditorium.
“I remember my first real contact with him was as a junior high kid admiring the starter on the basketball team,” Urdahl said.
Though they did not always take the same approaches politically, Urdahl said he observed Dille’s ability to work with DFLers as well as Republicans to get things done.
“It comes down to, if your goal is to do the best you can for the people you represent, you have to work with both sides,” Urdahl said. “Steve knew that.”
Newman acknowledged that trait, as well, while offering a bit more of an explanation to Dille’s bipartisan nature.
“In terms of politics, he was more moderate than I am, but you have to take into consideration that was when he was in the minority, sometimes part of a very small minority,” Newman said. “At one point, I think, there were 21 Republicans out of 67 (in the Senate). In order to survive, he had to be a little more moderate.”
But in recalling Dille, there were two things Newman thought most important in his predecessor’s legacy — his involvement in Vietnam, and his sense of humor.
Dille, who earned a veterinarian degree from the University of Minnesota, spent more than three years in Vietnam as a civilian veterinary advisory during the Vietnam War. He continued to hold a special fondness for the region and its people after the war, including sponsoring families to immigrate to Minnesota.
As for his sense of humor, Newman recalled, Dille had some of the best laughs about himself.
“He had a marvelous sense of humor, a self-deprecating sense of humor,” Newman said. “When he would start telling a story, by the time he was halfway through the story, he’d be laughing so hard that everyone else would be in tears, just laughing at him laughing at himself.”
