Gerald David Lorge, longtime Republican Party leader, was born at Bear Creek, Outagamie County on July 9, 1922, the sixth of seven children of Joseph J. Lorge and Anna Peterson Lorge. He attended local Catholic school and Appleton Vocational School, and in his spare time worked on his uncle's farm and assisted his father in the family blacksmith shop.
Immediately after the beginning of World War II, Lorge enlisted in the Marines. He served four years in the service (three years in the South Pacific), rising from private to technical sergeant. After leaving the military, he briefly enrolled at the University of Michigan in 1945 and in 1946 transferred to Marquette University. As part of the school's three-year program, Lorge was admitted to law school in 1948 and received his J.D. degree in 1952.
Even as an undergraduate, Lorge exhibited great interest in electoral politics. He began his career by heading the veterans' organization at Marquette that supported the senatorial candidacy of Joseph R. McCarthy and by running unsuccessfully for the Legislature himself in a heavily Democratic district. In 1948 he became Republican committeeman from Milwaukee's Fourth Ward. In 1950, while still in law school, he won election to the Assembly, and then took a leave to attend the 1951 session. Lorge was re-elected in 1952 and in 1954 was a successful candidate in the special election to fill the seat in the state Senate vacated by Gordon Bubolz.
In 1957 Lorge was one of several Republican candidates in the special election for Senator McCarthy's seat. Attempting to run as the senator's most logical successor, Lorge stressed his conservative philosophy and his record in the Marines. He also promised, if successful, to attempt to expunge the censure of McCarthy by the Senate. In subsequent years, Lorge repeatedly exhibited his ambition for higher elective office, and his name was mentioned in conjunction with runs for the U.S. Senate, the House of Representatives, and the lieutenant governorship, as well as leadership positions within the Wisconsin Senate. In 1974 he waged an unsuccessful campaign to become state attorney general. Despite such setbacks, however, Lorge was successfully reelected to his Senate seat, sometimes running without opposition.
Within the Senate, Lorge gradually won a reputation as a somewhat garrulous maverick, and his political views were difficult to define. Repeatedly appointed to the Senate Committee on Labor, Taxation, Insurance, and Banking, he served as chairman of that hard-working committee for several sessions. He also served on several special legislative study committees concerned with insurance, and his interest in that area was recognized by the National Conference of Insurance Legislators, which he headed in 1974.
A complete list of Lorge's committee assignments and offices are listed in the biennial editions of the Blue Book. In addition to his legislative work, Lorge was a member of the American Legion, state and county bar associations, and the Outagamie Conservation Club.
Lorge was married to Christina Ziegler in 1958 and they are the parents of five children. After leaving the Legislature in 1984, Lorge resumed his Bear Creek law practice in which his son Robert was a partner.
