John Chandler Gurney

Chan Gurney
Chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee
In office January 3, 1947 – January 3, 1949
Preceded by	David I. Walsh
Succeeded by	Millard Tydings
Secretary of the Senate Republican Conference
In office September 30, 1945 – January 3, 1946
Leader	Wallace H. White Jr.
Preceded by	Harold Hitz Burton
Succeeded by	Milton Young
United States Senator from South Dakota
In office January 3, 1939 – January 3, 1951
Preceded by	Gladys Pyle
Succeeded by	Francis H. Case
Personal details
Born	(1896-05-21)May 21, 1896 Yankton, South Dakota, U.S.
Died	March 9, 1985(1985-03-09) (aged 88) Yankton, South Dakota, U.S.
Political party	Republican

John Chandler "Chan" Gurney (May 21, 1896 – March 9, 1985) was a U.S. Senator from South Dakota.

Born in Yankton, South Dakota, Gurney attended the public schools. During World War I, he served as a sergeant in Company A, Thirty-Fourth Engineers, United States Army, with service overseas from 1918 to 1919. He also engaged in his family's seed and nursery business (Gurney's Seed and Nursery Company) from 1914 to 1926, and was the operator of a radio station (WNAX) at Yankton from 1926 to 1932. He then moved to Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and engaged in the wholesale gasoline and oil business from 1932 to 1936.

In 1936, Gurney ran unsuccessfully for election to the United States Senate, but he was elected as a Republican in 1938. He was reelected in 1944 and served in all from January 3, 1939 to January 3, 1951. He was chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services. He sought to be re-elected in 1950, but was defeated in the Republican primary by Francis Case.

After his time in Congress, Gurney was appointed a member of the Civil Aeronautics Board in 1951, became chairman in 1954, and served until 1964. He retired to Yankton, where he died and was buried in Yankton Cemetery.

Chan Gurney Municipal Airport in Yankton is named after him.

Sources

• United States Congress. "John Chandler Gurney (id: G000532)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. Retrieved April 27, 2013.
• "John Chandler Gurney". Find a Grave. Retrieved April 27, 2013.
• Pressler, Larry. "John Chandler Gurney." In U.S. Senators from the Prairie, pp. 114–23. Vermillion, SD: Dakota Press, 1982.