Lorna Jorgenson Wendt, American women’s equality advocate, Died at 72

  Activist

Lorna Jorgenson Wendt was born on June 14, 1943, in Minot, North Dakota and died on February 4, 2016.

She was an American corporate wife.

She had challenged the divorce laws in Connecticut set a precedent for the value of the economic worth of corporate spouses.

Lorna argued that a wife is a 50-50 partner in a marriage, and therefore, worth half of the assets.

Wendt was ultimately awarded about one-fifth of the estimated worth of the estate.

Lorna’s father was a Lutheran minister, her mother a homemaker.

The couple met in high school; both graduated from the University of Wisconsin, after which they married in 1965.

However, Lorna Jorgenson Wendt worked as a music teacher until the birth of their first child in 1968.

In 1996. Gary C. Wendt, then CEO of the GE Capital Corporation, began divorce proceedings against his wife, in 1996. .

Despite Connecticut’s divorce law allowed for fair distribution, not community property as in some states, Jorgenson filed for half of her husband’s $100 million wealth.

Rather than the offered $8 million from her ex-husband, the court awarded her $20 million.

The ruling extended to 420 pages. She also appeared in Forbes Magazine.

Wendt appealed that ruling, wanting one-half of the estate, but the original decision was upheld in 2000.

Wendt formed the Institute for Marriage Equality in 1998, which she ran until it closed in 2006.

She lectured throughout the country on subject of the value of a wife’s contribution to a marriage

Lorna Jorgenson Wendt passed away at 72 yrs old.