Gene C. Amondson (October 15, 1943 – July 20, 2009) was a painter, woodcarver, Christian minister and prohibition activist, who was the 2004 US presidential nominee for one faction of the Prohibition Party and the nominee of the unified party in 2008.
The son of a logger, Amondson was born into a Pacific Northwest lumberjack culture laden with alcoholism. He became interested in the temperance movement while attending Divinity School. After establishing himself as a preacher and artist in the community of Vashon Island, Washington, Amondson began touring the nation reenacting Billy Sunday sermons and attending events dressed as the Grim Reaper to protest alcohol corporations.
Amondson's activism attracted notice from the Prohibition Party, which had been divided into two factions in 2003. In 2004, Amondson received the presidential nomination of the larger faction. On Election Day, he tallied over a thousand votes and finished in third place in several Louisiana parishes. With the death of the other faction leader in 2007, the party reunified. In 2008, Amondson again received the party's presidential nomination, but fell short of his 2004 vote total.
Early life
Gene Amondson was born to Owen and Ruby Amondson and his father, who was nicknamed "Red", was a Norwegian American logger, an industry then rampant with alcoholism. As a child, neither of Gene's parents drank, but he saw drunken logger fights and attended school with children neglected by alcoholic parents. In addition, he remembered witnessing a drunk logger molest a classmate when Amondson was five years old. and his brother Neil served in the Washington State Senate as a Republican.
Amondson attended Warner Pacific College in Portland, Oregon, and graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in zoology. In college, he occasionally drank wine. His anti-alcohol views did not take root until he attended Asbury Theological Seminary in Kentucky in 1966, and learned about temperance leader and preacher Billy Sunday. Amondson estimated that after divinity school, he drank beer about twice a year. In the 1970s, he moved to the liberal community of Vashon Island, Washington, where he began preaching at Cove Road Church. and The Sermon Against Alcohol.