From Surf Wiki (app.surf) — the open knowledge base

James W. Abbott

American politician and academic

Summary

American politician and academic

Field	Value
name	Jim Abbott
office	President of the University of South Dakota
term_start	July 1, 1997
term_end	June 21, 2018
predecessor	Betty Asher
successor	Sheila Gestring
state_house1	South Dakota
district1	18th
term_end1	1993
term_start1	1991
birth_date
birth_place	Sioux City, Iowa, U.S.
party	Democratic
spouse
children	1
education	University of South Dakota (BA, JD)

James W. Abbott (born June 12, 1948) is an American retired politician and academic, most recently serving as the president of the University of South Dakota from 1997 to 2018. Abbott was the Democratic nominee in the 2002 South Dakotan gubernatorial election. Abbott is a distinguished alumni of the Lambda Chi Alpha Fraternity.

Career and politics

Abbott is a businessman and former politician. He represented Yankton County in the South Dakota State Legislature from 1991 to 1993. In 1994, Abbott was the Democratic nominee for Lieutenant Governor on the ticket with gubernatorial candidate Jim Beddow, a former president of Dakota Wesleyan University. The ticket was defeated by Republicans Bill Janklow and Carole Hillard. He was the Democratic nominee for Governor of South Dakota in 2002, but lost to Republican Mike Rounds. Abbott also mounted an unsuccessful bid for the Democratic nomination for U.S. House of Representatives in 1996, losing the nomination to Rick Weiland.

Academic career

Abbott was named president of his alma mater, the University of South Dakota, in 1997. Abbott received his bachelor's degree in 1970 and his Juris Doctor in 1974 from University of South Dakota School of Law.

South Dakota gubernatorial election, 2002

In 2002, Abbott took a leave of absence from the presidency to seek to Democratic nomination for Governor of South Dakota. He won the Democratic primary against State Senators Ron J. Volesky and Jim Hutmacher. He was defeated in the general election by Republican Mike Rounds.

Return to academia

After the election, Abbott returned to the presidency of the University of South Dakota.

In June 2007, Abbott took a leave of absence to donate a kidney to USD Chief diversity officer Bruce King at The Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. The surgery was successful and Abbott returned to work two weeks later. He is a member of Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity.

References

(May 4, 2016). "USD Grieves Death of First Lady Colette Abbott". University of South Dakota.
Berke, Richard. (1994-06-08). "A Governor Is Ousted, but Others Prevail". The New York Times.
"President - USD".
(August 8, 2005). "Media & Minorities: The Politics of Race in News and Entertainment". Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

1948-births living-people people-from-vermillion,-south-dakota people-from-yankton-county,-south-dakota presidents-of-the-university-of-south-dakota south-dakota-democrats university-of-south-dakota-faculty university-of-south-dakota-school-of-law-alumni 20th-century-members-of-the-south-dakota-legislature

Want to explore this topic further?

Ask Mako anything about James W. Abbott — get instant answers, deeper analysis, and related topics.

Research with Mako

Free with your Surf account

Content sourced from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

This content may have been generated or modified by AI. CloudSurf Software LLC is not responsible for the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of AI-generated content. Always verify important information from primary sources.

Report