
Joseph Jacob Foss (17 April 1915-1 January 2003) was the Republican Governor of South Dakota from 4 January 1955 to 6 January 1959, succeeding Sigurd Anderson and preceding Ralph Herseth.
Biography[]
Joseph Jacob Foss was born in Sioux Falls, South Dakota in 1915, and he served in the US Marine Corps during World War II, during which he served as a Marine aviator and was awarded the Medal of Honor after distinguishing himself during the Battle of Guadalcanal. He reached the rank of Colonel before serving in the Korean War, and he was twice elected to the South Dakota legislature as a Republican after campaigning from the cockpit of a light aircraft. He also served as Governor from 1955 to 1959, becoming the state's youngest governor at the age of 39. Foss was defeated in his 1958 bid for the US House of Representatives by fellow wartime pilot hero George McGovern, and he failed to re-enter politics, leading to Foss instead serving as the first Commissioner of the American Football League (AFL) from 1959 to 1966, as host of The American Sportsman from 1964 to 1967 and The Outdoorsman: Joe Foss from 1967 to 1974, and as President of the National Rifle Association (NRA) from 1988 to 1990. He died in 2003.