North Dakota. Governor (1985-1993 : Sinner)

George A. Sinner was born in Fargo in 1928, but was raised in Casselton. He attended St. John's University in Minnesota, receiving a degree in philosophy in 1950 before serving in the Air Force until 1951. In 1952 he became a partner in Sinner Brothers & Bresnahan, a small-grain, sugarbeet and cattle feeding family partnership in Casselton. Sinner was involved in both politics and farming before being elected Governor in 1985. He served in the North Dakota State Senate from 1962-1966, and serving in the North Dakota State House of Representatives in 1982. He was also a part of the North Dakota Constitutional Convention of 1972. Sinner was president of the Red River Valley Sugarbeet Growers Association Board from 1975-1979, founded the North Dakota Crops Council, and served as Chairman of the Northern Crops Institute Council from 1981-1983, as well as being a member of a variety of other North Dakota agriculture organizations. He also was a member of the State Board of Education from 1966-1975. Sinner served as North Dakota's chief executive during the worst droughts in the state since the Great Depression of the 1930s, saw the state through its Centennial in 1989, and watched North Dakota National Guard troops be called up to serve in the Persian Gulf during Operation Desert Storm.