The Unofficial History of the Minnesota Breakfast

In 1964, ten Minneapolis men wintering in Naples started getting together every Friday for breakfast. There was a lot to discuss that winter. Calvin Griffith’s Twins had a good season in ’63, winning 90 games behind hitters Harmon Killebrew and Tony Oliva. The Beatles rocked America with their appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show and Cassius Clay beat Sonny Liston.

The late Al Leonard is considered our club’s founder; he organized the list and got the restaurant at the Edgewater Beach Hotel to be our clubhouse. Then, we moved to the Naples Beach Hotel & Golf Club and stayed there for five decades until that was sold and demolished in 2020. We survived Covid by holding our meetings online. That worked quite well, but we are social animals meant to meet in person. Now we are happily back together at The Club at the Strand in North Naples.

Stalwart early members include names many of you will recognize: Heinie Albrecht, Art Bredesen, Bob Diercks, Paul Foss, Les Malkerson, Fred Herfurth, and Bob Gisselbeck.

At the time of Al Leonard’s passing, Bob Bennett agreed to keep the roster and locate interesting speakers. You could count on seeing Bob’s 1936 Ford at 7:00 a.m. in front of the hotel every Friday, and he would be standing at the door greeting, collecting money, passing out name tags, and taking new names and address changes. Since then, the leadership has passed to Gordy Alexander, then to Art Klobe. Like most of our leaders, Art was overqualified for the post. The youngest bird colonel in WWII at age 34, Art reported directly to General Omar Bradley and helped plan the Normandy invasion. When Art passed away, the reins were passed to Gene Frey. Gene recently turned to Mike Schumann and appointed a cabinet to help with the important but laborious behind-the-scenes work.

Recent Speakers

Tim Pawlenty spoke here each of the eight years he served as Governor of Minnesota. Governor Walz is a regular. Bud Grant (three times), Amy Klobuchar (twice), and R.T. Rybak, Glen Taylor, Mike Veeck, General Joe Votel, Commander, United States Central Command, Denis McDonough, Chief of Staff to President Obama, and the CEOs of Cargill, 3M, Ecolab, Wells Fargo, US Bank, and the Mayo Clinic. We aim for a mix of people you’d like to hear from in business, sports and politics.

You should know that regardless of how famous or important they are, our speakers do not receive an honorarium. (For Ole and Sven, that means they don’t get paid.) Only two rules: You can’t be trying to sell us something, and you can’t be running for political office.

Just let us know if you are even thinking about attending

As you can imagine, with speakers like these, attendance in recent years has been climbing. We average 200 attendees every Friday. A wide variation in attendance, however, drove our breakfast staff crazy. So, a few years ago, Mike Schumann invented the world’s most casual reservation system. On Tuesday, an email tells members who the speaker is and asks you if you are “thinking about coming.” That’s all. Gene Frey said it would never work. The caterers said it would never work. The “system” if we dare call it that, has proven to be over 90% accurate which is close enough if you are serving scrambled eggs. (So, please continue to respond to that Tuesday email. And feel free to bring your spouse, visitors, kids, or grandkids. Just tell us how many are coming.) Note: Our RSVP system just gives us a guide to our attendance. If you didn’t get the reminder e-mail, or you changed your plans, just show up. We’ll make a place for you!

A Financial Report, Unaudited

You pay the at the door for breakfast. We sell ads in this directory. Thank you, sponsors! If there’s a shortfall, we pass the hat at the final March meeting. Starting in 2024, to encourage members to bring their children, visitors, and grandkids and expose them to this wonderful institution, we will be paying for the breakfast for all attendees 21 and under.

A Club for Thrifty Scandinavians

There are no dues, rules, or formal membership. We have an e-mail list with over 2,400 subscribers. Be sure to pick up a copy of our roster and scan for old friends. Anyone can be listed. Just go to our website (mnbreakfast.org) to add or edit your listing. Each year, several of us “move on.” If you know a member who has moved on, please let us know so we can correct the roster. Email any changes to roster@mnbreakfast.org.

Doors open at 7:00. Breakfast at 7:15. Program at 8:00 every Friday, from mid-January until the end of March.

We guarantee you’ll reconnect with someone you know from Minnesota. You’ll walk out by 9:00 feeling a lot smarter and better informed – and you’ll still have a full day of Florida sunshine ahead of you. We remain extremely grateful to all those who kept this club going for over 60 years.

And we’re glad you are now a part of this story.