Arnolds Park, Iowa — More than thirty-five boats turned out Saturday evening to honor the life of a Spirit Lake native who represented northwest Iowa in Congress for more than a decade.
Berkley Bedell passed away in Naples, Florida on December 7th, at the age of 98. A memorial service for Bedell had been planned for Saturday in Spirit Lake, but due to the coronavirus, that memorial service had to be cancelled. In it’s place, Bedell’s family organized the Berkley Bedell Memorial Boat Parade, which was held Saturday evening, beginning and ending in front of the Arnolds Park Amusement Park.
More than thirty-five boats joined the parade, being led by the Queen II excursion boat which carried Bedell’s close and longtime friends that he regularly gathered with when he’d return to the lakes area.
The parade departed from the Arnolds Park Amusement Park at 6:00 Saturday evening, rounding Pillsbury Point and traveling toward Terrace Park. From there it circled Emerson Bay, crossing from Gull Point to Manhattan Beach, then followed the west shoreline to the north end of Lake West Okoboji, before returning along the east shoreline, and completing its journey back at Arnolds Park Amusement Park.
Bedell’s son said he thought a boat parade would be a perfect tribute to his father.
(As above) “There is hardly a day when dad was here in the Iowa Great Lakes that he didn’t go fishing every morning,” Tom Bedell says. “He would get up at 4:30 or five o’clock. He’s either put on his waders and go out on Fort Dodge Point or Pillsbury Point, Miller’s Bay — long before they had crowds that gather there. The lake was his soul, if you could say that, so yes, this seems very very fitting.”
Berkley Bedell was a Spirit Lake native who founded a fishing tackle business in Spirit Lake after serving in the Army in World War II.
Bedell was first elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1974, and served twelve years. He decided not to seek reelection in 1986 after being diagnosed with Lyme Disease. Bedell, a Democrat, remained active in politics and endorsed Howard Dean in 2000 and Elizabeth Warren before the 2020 Iowa Caucuses.
A few images of the Berkley Bedell Memorial Boat Parade can be seen below…………………..
