ST. PAUL — Highway 169 between Marble and Mountain Iron will soon be known as Senator David J. Tomassoni Memorial Cross Range Expressway.
The Session Daily reported the Minnesota House of Representatives voted unanimously Wednesday, May 1, to designate the section in honor of a beloved colleague known as the “Defender of the Range.” Sponsored by DFL Rep. Dave Lislegard of Aurora and Republican Sen. Robert Farnsworth of Hibbing, the bill now heads to Gov. Tim Walz’s desk.
Tomassoni died in August 2022 after a diagnosis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or ALS. He was a former professional hockey player in Italy before returning home to the Iron Range and serving in the Legislature for three decades, starting in the House in 1993 and the Senate in 2000.
Lislegard described Tomassoni on Wednesday as a dear friend and mentor and a fierce and loyal Ranger who called Chisholm the center of the universe.
"He was one of them guys that didn't look down on no one. He didn't care if it was the Senate or the House, or you were rich or you were poor," Lislegard said. "David was David. And David loved people. He was a defender of the Iron Range. He knew what it meant to be a Ranger. He did put people before politics."
In his last year, Tomassoni spearheaded bipartisan legislation appropriating $20 million for ALS research and $5 million for caregivers.
"Knowing full well he would not benefit from what we accomplished," Lislegard added. "I probably would have been afraid, I probably would have gone into a shell. But not David. Not David."
Rep. Spencer Igo of Wabana Township said Tomassoni made him feel welcome in the Capitol and set the example of what it means to work across the aisle. The highway remembrance isn’t only for those on the Range, he said, but for all who were impacted by Tomassoni.
“It's for the people of Minnesota, but it's also for the people of both chambers of this Legislature — to remember what it was like to have a man who really was larger than life, that could work with everybody, made everyone laugh, made everyone smile," Igo said, "but delivered things that lifted up every single Minnesotan, regardless of party."
