April 19, 1993 is a date that is etched in the mind of many South Dakotans. It was on the late afternoon of that day that the news broke: the state plane had crashed, and Governor George S. Mickelson had been killed. It was stunning because it was so unexpected.
Soon, the news reported the names of the other passengers: Angus Anson of Northern States Power; Dave Birkeland of First Bank of South Dakota; Roland Dolly of the Governor’s Office of Economic Development; Roger Hainje of the Sioux Falls Development Foundation; Ron Reed of the state Office of Energy Policy; and state pilots Ron Becker and Dave Hansen.
Lt. Governor Walter Dale Miller became the 29th Governor of South Dakota upon Mickelson’s death; he would wait until the next day to take the oath of office. He was the first, and to date the only, lieutenant governor to take succeed to the governorship due to the death of his predecessor.
One of Miller’s first acts was to commission the Fighting Stallions Memorial on the Capitol Grounds. Five years ago, on the 25th anniversary, this blog posted pictures of the memorial, including the plaques dedicated to each of the men who was lost.
That same year, a bust of the Mickelson by sculptor James Michael Maher was placed in the lobby of the State House of Representatives. Mickelson was the second of three generations of his family to serve as speaker of the house. Mickelson’s middle name was “Speaker” because his father, George T. Mickelson, was speaker of the house at the time of his birth. George S. Mickelson would follow in his father’s footsteps, both as speaker and as governor, and his son, G. Mark Mickelson, served as speaker as well.
Jonathan Ellis of The Dakota Scout did a great interview with Mickelson’s close friend and chief of staff, Frank Brost, in observance of this 30th anniversary. It is an excellent remembrance of Mickelson and his administration, and I recommend it highly. Joe Sneve, also of The Dakota Scout, adds a short article about a 30th anniversary observative held today by the Sioux Falls Development Foundation, at which Sioux Falls Mayor Paul Ten Haken declared the day “Economic Development Leadership Day.”
And finally, a remembrance from Terry Woster, who was already a veteran Capitol reporter in 1993 and, thirty years hence, is retired but still writing a weekly column for the Mitchell Republic. He captures the feeling at the State Capitol on that tragic and historic night.
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