Arthur R. Kudart

Arthur Ronald Kudart was born on 27 July 1930 in Mount Vernon, Iowa, the son of Arthur E. and Lillian (Schneider) Kudart. He attended Mount Vernon schools and graduated from Mount Vernon High School in 1948. He attended Cornell College, received a B.A. from the University of Iowa in 1952, and earned a J.D. from the University of Iowa College of Law in 1958.

In 1952, during the Korean War period, he enlisted in the United States Marine Corps officer candidate program. He served on active duty and in the Marine Corps Reserve until 1960.

After law school Kudart practiced in Cedar Rapids with Donald Holmes under the firm name Kudart & Holmes. He practiced law for 58 years. In 1957-1958 he served on the field staff of U.S. Representative Fred Schwengel. He was vice president of the Young Republicans of Linn County in 1961 and held rural and city organizational chair roles in Linn County in 1962-1964.

Voters elected him to the Iowa Senate from District 13 (Linn County, Cedar Rapids area) in 1978. As a Republican he served in the 68th General Assembly (8 January 1979 to 11 January 1981) and the 69th General Assembly (12 January 1981 to 9 January 1983).

He wrote New Republican Politics (1972) and later several further books and papers about Iowa and Cedar Rapids public life, including a first-person account of his years in the Senate.

On 12 December 1954 Kudart married Patricia "Pat" Brown of Dysart, Iowa. They lived in Cedar Rapids and had two children, Kay and Tom. Their marriage lasted 61 years until Pat's death in 2016.

He was a member of Westminster Presbyterian Church, the Linn County and Iowa Bar Associations, the Iowa and American Trial Lawyers Associations, and American Legion Post 309. In later life he lived in Chicago, Illinois, near his daughter's family.

Arthur R. Kudart died on Friday, 18 September 2026, at Artis Senior Living in Chicago, Illinois. He was 96. Stewart Baxter Funeral & Memorial Services of Mount Vernon, Iowa, announced the death and scheduled a funeral service for 1:00 p.m. on Tuesday, 29 September 2026, at the Mount Vernon funeral home, followed by burial in Mount Vernon Cemetery beside his wife. A public cause of death was not stated in the funeral-home notice.

Kudart is remembered as a long-serving Cedar Rapids attorney, a two-term Iowa state senator from Linn County, a Marine Corps officer of the Korean War era, and a local author who wrote about Republican politics and Iowa civic life. His family, law practice with Donald Holmes, and books on moving Iowa and Cedar Rapids forward form the core of a public record that spans law, politics and community service.