MINNEAPOLIS — Family, friends and colleagues have said goodbye to former Minnesota Gov. Wendell Anderson.

About 300 people gathered at Mount Olivet Lutheran Church in Minneapolis Monday to pay tribute to the governor, first elected in 1970 at the age of 37.

According to a press release, Gov. Mark Dayton told the crowd that if central casting came looking for a “quintessential” Minnesota governor, they would pick Anderson because he was tall, handsome, had a beautiful family and a last name that ends in ‘son.

A 1973 Time magazine cover was a symbolic high point of Anderson’s career. He was shown hoisting a trophy fish over the headline “The Good Life in Minnesota.”

His son, Brett Anderson told the gathering that as far as his dad was concerned, people who lived in other states simply didn’t know any better.