South Dakota – The Richest State? Jack Schultz

“When people become rich, they tend to give things away. We in South Dakota must be some of the richest in the country, because we keep giving away the great minds of our young people. The saddest day of the year for me is graduation day at South Dakota State University, when I see $2 million in lifetime payrolls walking across the stage to get their diplomas, and then moving out of state.” Al Kurtenbach, Chairman of publicly held Daktronics, headquartered in Brookings, SD, was addressing the Regional Economic Summit in Aberdeen.

He told of how he started Daktronics which has grown into one of the larger firms in the state with 2,200 employees, “I was a professor at SDSU for 10 years when I met another fellow professor in 1968 who also saw an opportunity to start a business to take advantage of the things being researched at SDSU and the talent that was graduating in engineering.”

By: Jack Schultz

Full Story: http://boomtownusa.blogspot.com/2006/09/richest-state.html