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Lakeville SunThisweek.com
Feb. 8, 2019 • Volume 39 • Number 49
Established 1975
Legendary contractor, philanthropist dies at 89 Lakeville High School graduate Dick Ames founded Ames Construction in Burnsville by John Gessner SUN THISWEEK DAKOTA COUNTY TRIBUNE
Richard “Dick” Ames, whose work as a contractor is spread across the nation and legacy as a philanthropist is abundant in local communities, died Jan. 30 of pneumonia. He was 89. Ames was the local legend who stayed put, keeping the headquarters of his company, Ames Construction, in Burnsville even as it opened offices in other states and became one of the nation’s premier civil and industrial general contractors. He built and rebuilt Burnsville’s Nicollet Avenue in the 1960s when it was a gravel road. Decades later he did the grading for the Denver International Airport, one of the megaprojects that vaulted Ames Construction to the top of its industry.
A senior yearbook photo of Richard “Dick” Ames, who graduated from Lakeville High School in 1947. He and his family com- life,” Ames said a few days pany donated millions. before his death, accordHis name is on the Ames ing to his obituary. But Arena in Lakeville, the you couldn’t tell, say many Ames Sculpture in Burns- who knew him, describville and the Ames Center, ing Ames as a blue jeansBurnsville’s performing wearing common man arts center. He received who grew up with the land the first Director’s Award and still planted crops for his donations to the later in life at his farm in University of Minnesota Green Isle, Minn. Athletics Department. “When he was in his “I’ve lived a fairytale communities, his Lake-
Photo by Sue Lund
Richard “Dick” Ames was surrounded by city officials, including Mayor Elizabeth Kautz, left, at a ceremony renaming the Burnsville Performing Arts Center the Ames Center. Ames Construction has a 10-year, $1 million naming-rights deal with the city. ville, his Burnsville communities, he was just an everyday guy,” said Bob Erickson, a former city administrator and current School Board member in Lakeville. “He would always reach out to people.
You didn’t have to go to him and say, ‘I’m so and so.’ He would always come to your table. He would always come to you.” Ames’ memory for names and faces was “unreal,” said his brother and
business partner, Raymond “Butch” Ames. He was at home in a board room and on a tractor, planting corn, Butch said. The company came to Burnsville in about 1967, See Ames, 13A
Publishing a passion project Lakeville author writes, edits and publishes book off of lifelong interests by Kayla Culver SUN THISWEEK DAKOTA COUNTY TRIBUNE
In 1995 a Lakeville resident and author headed out to visit two British islands, Lindesfarne and Iona, with his wife to see the places known for their rich history on the English
church. It was that trip where George Slanger discovered the story of St. Cuthbert, a bishop who died in Lindesfarne in 687 and was then buried. When the Vikings began invading, the monks took St. Cuthbert’s body and carried
him around for 100 years while fleeing from the Vikings. It was that story that inspired Slanger to write “The Farfox Chronicles: The Posthumous Travels of St. Cuthbert, Bishop of Lindesfarne.” “I was fascinated by the
idea of these monks living in these ancient times on these islands, and so I went there. … Part of the legend of Cuthbert was his body did not decompose; his body was uncorrupt. That story fascinated me,” he said. Over the next 20 years
the story of St. Cuthbert was always in the back of Slanger’s mind. He spent his time raising a family, teaching college-level English and traveling abroad with his wife. “I looked for ways to tell that story for a long time and couldn’t really
find a way to do it until after we moved to Lakeville in 2011 from Minot, North Dakota. Then with the help of some friends I figured out a way to tell this story,” he said. Slanger decided to take a different approach to the See Farfox, 12A
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