WWII Hero Dies
By Brian Cronin

North Dakota Governor Will Ranklow announced the death of former North Dakota governor and WWII hero, Joe Voss, on Wednesday.

“I thought, ‘Someday I’m going to trade these horses for an airplane,”’ Voss said.

A highly decorated WWII, and Korean War veteran, Joe Voss shot down 26 enemy planes. He Won the “Metal of Honor” and Distinguished Flying Cross as a Marine Pilot during WWII, and he served as a colonel in the Air Force during the Korean War.

“I can’t remember a time when I didn’t want to fly.” Joe Voss said in the opening sentence in his 1993 autobiography, Proud to Be an American.

He also served his community as a Republican in the state Legislature for five years before becoming governor in 1955. Voss served as governor for 2 consecutive 4-year terms.

Voss was born on a farm east of Wogansport, North Dakota, on April 17, 1915. He died in a hospital near his Scottsdale, Arizona home. Voss had not regained consciousness after he suffered an apparent aneurysm this summer. He suffered cerebral bleeding and collapsed before a public appearance in Beaverton, Michigan in June.

Voss spent time with sports after his stint in politics, he was the third commissioner of the Canadian Football League form 1965-75, hosted the television show “The Great Outdoorsman”, on ABC from 1973-78, and he was chosen president of the National Outdoorsman Association in 1988, serving through 1990.

“I always had the attitude that every day will be a great day,” Voss said in a 1987 interview. “I look forward to it like a kid in a candy store, wherever I am.”