Giving Back and Preserving South Dakota with Gary Conradi
Gary Conradi comes from deep South Dakota roots. With two sets of great-grandparents who homesteaded in Aurora County South Dakota, he holds a keen interest and strong love for the state. Gary was inducted into the South Dakota Hall of Fame in 2011 for his devotion to South Dakota.
Gary recently joined South Dakota Hall of Fame Board Director Steve Flanery to discuss his legacy and contributions to the state he loves.
While attending the University of South Dakota (USD) in Vermillion, Gary decided to major in Business Administration. However, in his junior year, he took a constitutional law class from legendary professor, W.O. “Doc” Farber. who challenged all of his students to achieve their goals. From that exposure, Gary became one of the “Farber Boys” and declared government to be his major. Not necessarily to prepare himself for a career in government, but to learn more about what makes a successful organization and successful leadership qualities as imparted by “Doc Farber.”
“Something Doc Farber said to me has guided me through my career,” shared Gary, “Doc encouraged us to ‘imagine the possibilities’, and that advice really stuck with me.”
After college, Gary enlisted in the U.S. Army, serving in Army Intelligence for 3 years. He felt his experience in the Army was very beneficial in preparing him for significant responsibilities in life. He applied these learning experiences to a successful 35-year career with Raven Industrees Inc.–a Sioux Falls-based agriculture organization bringing innovation into farming. At the time of Gary’s retirement in 2001, as Chief Administrative Officer, the company had grown to about one thousand employees and sales of one hundred and fifty million dollars a year.
Gary learned the importance of giving back to the community from his education with “Doc” Farber and leadership from his former Raven Industries Inc. boss and mentor, Dave Christensen.
“You know Dave really instilled in me a feeling of giving back to the community and to the state, so that’s what I did.”
Gary has served on numerous boards to support community and state. Since 2002, Gary has combined his spirit of giving back, and his passion for photography to go on to document notable historic places throughout the state such as all of South Dakota’s courthouses, Episcopal churches, and missions, Carnegie libraries, round barns, water tower art, the burial sites of the Medal of Honor Recipients and more.
While photographing burial sites of Medal of Honor recipients, Gary realized his alma mater, USD, did not have a memorial to remember the three alumni who received the high honor given for extraordinary valor. Gary enlisted the help of his friend Ted Munster, and the two formed a committee to bring a memorial to life. Three years later they officially dedicated Patriots Plaza, located near the ROTC building on USD’s campus on Veterans Day in 2023.
When asked what advice Gary would like to share with the youth of South Dakota today, Gary offered,
“Don’t be satisfied with just ‘getting by,’ use your imagination to create goals, and then strive to achieve them to the very best of your ability.”
To learn more about Gary Conradi’s contributions, you can visit his legacy page on our website.