Background
Nils Andreas Boe was born in Baltic in Minnehaha County, South Dakota. He was the youngest son of Lutheran minister Nils N. Boe (1861-1938) and Sissel Catherine Finseth (1874-1960), both immigrants from Norway.
governor judge lawyer politician
Nils Andreas Boe was born in Baltic in Minnehaha County, South Dakota. He was the youngest son of Lutheran minister Nils N. Boe (1861-1938) and Sissel Catherine Finseth (1874-1960), both immigrants from Norway.
Bachelor of Arts Wisconsin, 1935. Bachelor of Laws, University Wisconsin, 1937. Doctor of Laws (honorary), Huron College.
Doctor of Laws (honorary), Augustana College, South Dakota, 1986.
He served as a Judge for the United States Customs Court, later the United States Court of International Trade. Boe served as a Lieutenant in the United States. Navy during World World War World War II Boe was later elected to the state legislature representing Sioux Falls from 1953 to 1958. He was the 28th Lieutenant Governor from 1963 to 1965 and Governor from 1965 to 1969.
Boe, who was unmarried, was South Dakota"s only bachelor governor.
The Boe administration improved the state"s reservoir system, enacted a worker training program to attract new industry to South Dakota, increased state aid to schools, and created a retirement program for state employees. The administration also was noteworthy for advocating property tax cuts and starting the state"s educational television system.
The legislature also passed laws prohibiting employment discrimination against women and guaranteeing women equal wages for equal work. After leaving office, Boe was appointed by Richard M. Nixon as the first director of the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs in the Executive Office of the President of the United States 1969 to 1971.
On July 28, 1971, President Nixon nominated Boe to serve as a Judge for the United States Customs Court, to the seat vacated by Judge Samuel Murray Rosenstein.
He was confirmed by the Senate on August 6, 1971 and received his commission on August 10, 1971. He served as Chief Judge of the Court from 1971 to 1977. On November 1, 1980, he was transferred by operation of law to the newly created United States Court of International Trade.
He took senior status on April 30, 1984 and served in that capacity until his death.
He was succeeded by Judge Nicholas Tsoucalas. Nils Boe died of cancer on July 30, 1992, at Sioux Valley Hospital in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
Nils Boe is memorialized by The Boe Forum on Public Affairs conducted annually at Augustana University.
He was a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison (1935), where he was a member of the track team, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison Law School (1937). In 1971, members of the Boe family had established an endowment at Augustana College (now Augustana University) for the Center for Western Studies to support a non-partisan lecture series.