Famous Kearney Co. citizens

William Petersen (1880-1962) lived at Minden, Kearney County, and DeWitt, Saline County. 
Inventor, businessman, known for inventing vise grip pliers in 1921, and adding a locking lever 
devise to the wrench in 1924, when he founded his family-owned business that eventually created 
33 different products with the vise-grip trademark; it was restructured in 1985 by his grandson 
as a subsidiary of American Tool, a holding company that became the largest privately-held manufacturer 
of hand tools in the world, with more than 4,600 employees at 23 plants in six states and 11 foreign countries, 
which in 2002 anticipated further expansion upon purchase by Newell Rubbermaid. Consult Nebraska on the March, 
October 1950, pp. 4-5 and May 1959, pp. 2-3 and Peter L. Petersen, The Danes in America (Lerner Publication, 1987) 81-82 
and Beatrice Daily Sun, January 18, 1997, pp. A-1, A-2 and March 5, 2002, p. A-3. 

Harold Warp (1903-1994) born near Minden, Kearney County. Plastics industry pioneer, inventor of Flex-O-Glass in 1924, 
first to manufacture Polyethylene food wrap and plastic garbage bags, held 50 patents; was a promoter of tourism, and 
founder of Pioneer Village in Minden in 1953, which houses over 50,000 historical items, many displayed in their chronological 
order of development throughout history; recipient of 1979 Horatio Alger Award and 30 other awards from various state and national 
organizations. Consult Nebraska on the March, May 1954, pp. 1, 3 and September 1961, pp. 10, 12 and Sunday/Omaha/World Herald Magazine 
of the Midlands, July 27, 1986, pp. 12-14 and Kearney Hub, July 23, 1990, p. A-3 and obituary of April 9-10, 1994, pp. A-1, A-3. 

Carl T. Curtis (1905-2000) born at Minden, Kearney County. Educator, attorney, served as U.S. Congressman from 1939 to 1954, and U.S. 
Senator from 1955 to 1979 for a combined total of 40 years as a politician, authored a measure to force the federal government to go on 
a pay-as-you-go basis in the absence of war or grave national emergency; his ideas to extend Social Security to school teachers, college 
professors, county, state and municipal employees and self-employed persons, including farmers and businessmen, were incorporated into the 
1950 Social Security Act. Consult Current Biography (1954) 223-225 and George Douth, Leaders In Profile: The United States Senate (Sperr & 
Douth, 1972) 252-255 and Omaha World Herald obituary, January 26, 2000, pp. 1, 3 and American National Biography, Sup 1 (2002) 142-144. 

Andrew C. Hove Jr. (1934- ) born at Minden, Kearney County, lived in Lincoln. Banker, federal agency administrator, served as the first vice chairman 
of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, an independent regulatory agency created under the Banking Act of 1933 to supervise more than 7,700 state 
banks that do not belong to the Federal Reserve System, from 1990 to 2001, including three years as acting chairman; was chief executive of bank in Minden 
for 30 years and a leader in the banking industry on the state and national levels, recipient of award in 1998 from Nebraskaland Foundation. Consult ABA Banking 
Journal, October 1990, pp. 12, 15, 17 and Northwestern Financial Review, April 9, 1994, pp. 12-15 and Omaha World Herald, January 12, 2001, pp. 29, 32 and Who's Who 
in America, Vol 1 (2002) 2464. 


Taken from 700 Famous Nebraskans at www.nebpress.com.