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Ellis James Abdnor (February 13, 1923 – May 16, 2012) was an American politician who served as a member of the United States Senate from South Dakota. He was also the 15th Administrator of the Small Business Administration under presidents Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush.

Abdnor had previously represented South Dakota's 2nd congressional district in the United States House of Representatives and served as the 30th Lieutenant Governor of South Dakota and a member of the South Dakota Senate.

James George Abourezk (born February 24, 1931) is an American attorney and Democratic politician who served as a United States senator and United States representative from South Dakota. He did not seek re-election to the US Senate in 1978. He was the first Greek Orthodox Christian of Lebanese-Antiochite descent to serve in the US Senate. He was generally viewed as critical of US foreign policy in the Middle-East and North Africa (MENA) area, particularly regarding Palestine and Israel.

Abourezk represented South Dakota in the United States Senate from 1973 until 1979. He was the author of the Indian Child Welfare Act, passed by Congress in 1978 to try to preserve Indian families and tribal culture, by arranging for the placement of Indian children in homes of their cultures, as well as to reunite them with families. It gives preference to tribal courts with custody of Indian children domiciled on reservations and concurrent but presumptive jurisdiction in cases of children outside the reservation.

Dwight Lee Adams was born on July 22, 1922 in Boon, Watauga County, North Carolina to Frank C. and Gertrude (Tester) Adams. He graduated from Virginia High School in 1939 and from Infantry School in 1942.

Dwight served his country in World War Two in the ETO. As a Major he was assigned to Company D of the 329th Infantry Regiment of the 83rd Infantry Division. He served as a Platoon Commander from until October 23, 1944 when he was promoted to Company Commander. He served as D Company's Commanding Officer until May 5, 1945.

Right after the War, he married Nevorah June Wilson on October 1, 1945 in Ft. Benning, Georgia. He continued to fight for American freedom in the Korean War (1950-1953). Then he graduated from Officers Advanced Course 1959, and received a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration at the University of Georgia in 1959.

Adams moved in 1965 from Patch Barracks, Germany to Brookings, South Dakota. He served as the Army ROTC commander at South Dakota State University from 1965 until his retirement in 1973, with the one year absence during the Vietnam War were he was a military commander at a base in Vietnam. Dwight was awarded Professor Emeritus from SDSU upon his retirement.

Colonel (Ret) Dwight L. Adams died December 18, 2007, at Brookings, South Dakota.

South Dakota State University
Position: 174 weight class

J. M. (John Merton) Aldrich was born on January 28, 1866, in Olmstead County, Minnesota, the son of Levi O. and Mary Moore Aldrich. He was educated in the county and high schools of Rochester, Minnesota. In 1885, he entered Dakota Agricultural College at Brookings, South Dakota. He received his B.S. degree in the first formal commencement exercises of Dakota Agricultural College in 1888 and was the first graduate who specialized in zoological sciences. He later received B.S. and M.S. degrees from the University of Kansas and a Ph. D. from Stanford University.

Following graduation from Dakota Agricultural College in 1888, Aldrich was employed as an assistant in entomology at the college between 1889-1890 and an Assistant in Zoology from 1890-1892. During this time, he was also Assistant to the Agricultural Experiment Station Entomologist. From 1893 to 1913, he was Professor of Zoology at the University of Idaho. While at the University of Idaho, Aldrich began work on his Catalog of North American Diptera. In 1906, he took sabbatical leave to receive a Ph. D. from Stanford University, where his Catalog was accepted as his thesis.

In 1913, after his association with the University of Idaho was terminated, he was then appointed as Entomological Assistant in the U.S. Department of Agriculture Bureau of Entomology at West Lafayette, Indiana. Five years later, he was transferred to the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. In 1919, he became Custodian of the Diptera (two-winged insects) and Associate Curator of the museum in its division of insects. Aldrich was the first Dipterist employed by the Smithsonian Institution who had been previously employed by the USDA.

Aldrich was known for his unusual success in obtaining rare specimens of insect life in various sections of the western hemisphere, including the western United States, Alaska, and Guatemala. Many of the insects he captured were previously unknown to science. Because of his extensive knowledge of North American Diptera fauna, his eminence made the National Museum the center for studies on New World Diptera. In 1923, Aldrich turned over his specimen collection of more than 45,000 insects, with more than 4,000 classifications.
In addition, he donated to the museum a card catalog file of North American literature on these specimens. This collection is among the most important general Diptera collection in the National Museum. In addition to his work at the National Museum, Aldrich wrote extensively on subjects of insect life. He was also President of the Entomological Society of America (1921) and received many honors and awards.

Aldrich died in 1934 but is still honored today by the existence of the Aldrich Entomology Club, which was formed in 1961 at the University of Idaho. This club provides a forum for student, faculty, and other interested persons to share their enthusiasm for insect biology.

Ruth Ann Alexander February, 13 1924 – February 1, 2010

Born in Lansing, MI on February 13, 1924 to Harry and Anne (Green) Musselman, Ms. Alexander graduated from East Lansing High School and Michigan State University with a BA in English in 1945. She completed her masters in American studies at the University of Minnesota and her PhD in American intellectual history at Michigan State. She married William Alexander in 1955 and had three children.

Ms. Alexander taught English at South Dakota State University for 34 years, becoming full professor and the first woman to head the English Department (1981-1989). She developed the university's first courses focusing on women writers and African American and Native American literature. She chaired the committee that created the Women's Studies major. Ms. Alexander received numerous grants and fellowships, including a Bunting Fellowship at Harvard in 1987. She received SDSU's Outstanding Educator Award" in 1971, 1972, and 1974. Upon retirement in 1989, she was named Professor Emeritus and continued to research South Dakota women writers and women in the Episcopal Church. From 1994 to 2002 she wrote a column about women in the Episcopal Church called All Sorts and Conditions of Women" for South Dakota Church News. In 2003, she published the collected columns in Patches in a History Quilt: Episcopal Women in the Diocese of South Dakota, 1868-2000. She wrote numerous scholarly articles on such South Dakota writers as Elaine Goodale Eastman and Kate Boyles Bingham. She was a touring member of the Great Plains Chautauqua series, portraying Elizabeth Cady Stanton from 1989-91 and acting as series moderator from 1998-2001.

A life-long advocate of equal opportunities for women and girls, Ms. Alexander was the first woman on the Brookings School Board (1970-1975) and worked for equal funding for activities for girls and boys and higher academic standards. In 1972 Governor Kneip appointed her to the first statewide Commission on the Status of Women where she served until 1979. She also served on the Board of Directors for the South Dakota Historical Association from 1988-2000; the Episcopal Church History Association from 1992-1997 and for the Episcopal Women's Church History Project from 1991-1997. She helped found the Brookings Food Pantry and was chair of the Emergency Services Commission from 1983-1999.

Ruth Ann Alexander died of lymphoma on February 1 in Brookings, South Dakota. She was preceded in death by her husband, William Alexander in 1979; her sister, Jane (Musselman) Addams of Houston, Texas in 2008; and her late life sweetheart, Wes Kelley of Brookings in October 2009. She is survived by her three children: Jane Alexander (Mark Johnson) of New Orleans; Andrew Alexander ( Linda Kruckenberg) of Wayne, NE; and Sarah Alexander of Sioux Falls; and by her siblings: George Musselman of Grand Haven, MI; Sarah (Musselman) Phelps of Madison, WI; and Mary (Musselman) Fischer of Hastings, MN .

• South Dakota State University
• Weight Class: 177 lbs., Heavyweight

• South Dakota State University
• Weight Class: 177 lbs.

• South Dakota State University
• Weight Class: 134 lbs.

• South Dakota State University
• Weight Class: 150 lbs., 158 lbs.,165 lbs.

• South Dakota State University
• Weight Class: 174 lbs., 184 lbs.

• South Dakota State University
• Position: 177 Weight Class

• South Dakota State University
• Weight Class: 174 lbs.