Joe Voss

BISMARK, S.D.—Former governor and World War II hero, Joe Voss, died Wednesday after spending nine months unconscious due to an aneurysm he had last summer.

Voss served as a colonel in the Air Force as well as a Marine pilot in World War II, where he shot down 26 enemy planes, earning him the Congressional Medal of Honor and the Distinguished Flying Cross.

His love for flying dated back to his childhood when he would wave to the airplanes flying over his family’s farm in Wogansport, North Dakota.

“I can’t remember a time when I didn’t want to fly,” Voss wrote in his 1993 autobiography, “Proud to Be an American”. “I thought, ‘Someday I’m gonna trade these horses for an airplane.’”

Voss also served in the state Legislature for five years before becoming the governor of North Dakota in 1955, serving two consecutive 4-year terms.

Following his terms in office, Voss served as the commissioner of the Canadian Football League from 1965-1975 and also hosted the ABC television show, “The Great Outdoorsman”, in the mid-70s. He was elected president of the National Outdoorsman Association in 1988, where he served for three years.

Voss’s positive outlook on life kept him going for 99 years. “I always had the attitude that every day will be a great day,” he said in a 1987 interview. “I look forward to it like a kid in a candy store, wherever I am.”