Joe Satrom (born 10 October 1945) is a businessman and environmental lobbyist from the U.S. state of North Dakota. He won the 2004 Democratic-NPL nomination for Governor, but was defeated by the Republican incumbent, John Hoeven.
Satrom was born on his family's farm in Broadlawn Township in Steele County, North Dakota. He attended North Dakota State University and was editor-in-chief of the campus newspaper, The Spectrum, for two years.
In 1968 Satrom graduated from NDSU with a B.S. in Agricultural Education. He sat as a delegate to the state Democratic convention that year. Late that year he inquired with Governor Guy about possible positions for him in the administration, and was offered a job as Travel Director.
In summer of 1969 he married Katherine Platt in Fargo. In 1971 they opened Viking Travel, a travel agency in Bismarck. They sold it a couple of years later. In 1978 Joe and Katherine opened Satrom Travel and Tour as a completely independent travel company, and expanded to eight locations in North Dakota and Montana; all but two were eventually sold.
In 1980 Satrom lost a race to be a Representative from District 47, however in 1982 he ran for Senate in District 52 and won. He served until 1992.
He is a shareholder and sits on the board of Borgen Systems, a refrigerated display case firm based in Des Moines, Iowa.
Satrom is a member of Ducks Unlimited and the Nature Conservancy.
Famous quotes containing the word joe:
“This might be the end of the world. If Joe lost we were back in slavery and beyond help. It would all be true, the accusations that we were lower types of human beings. Only a little higher than apes. True that we were stupid and ugly and lazy and dirty and, unlucky and worst of all, that God Himself hated us and ordained us to be hewers of wood and drawers of water, forever and ever, world without end.”
—Maya Angelou (b. 1928)