General Information

Participants listened and gathered new ideas during the 2004 Entrepreneuring in North Dakota conference.

The Fifth Annual "Entrepreneuring in North Dakota" is an event sponsored by Dickinson State University, with the support of Mr. and Mrs. Jerome Strom, North Dakota natives and entrepreneurs.

This conference is structured to inspire and encourage the entrepreneurial spirit within and amongst the residents of the state of North Dakota and the surrounding region. It promises its participants an abundance of educational and stimulating ideas presented specifically to reinforce their determination and desires to succeed in a chosen business, as well as their search for an enhanced lifestyle. The conference is based on the premise that the more we can encourage community involvement in valued educational activities, the more willpower and determination on the part of present and future entrepreneurs will be sustained and realized. This event will provide ideas, encouragement, and valuable interaction resulting in an increase in the potential for growth in southwest North Dakota and throughout the entire state.

Jerome and Rosie Ann Strom are Dickinson State College alumni who live in Los Altos Hills, Calif. They have been enthusiastic supporters of Dickinson State since their graduation in 1958 and 1960.

The Stroms have supported and contributed financially to Dickinson State University’s entrepreneurship conferences since its inception in 2001. They have stressed that there continues to be a need for new job opportunities within the state. Stroms, like many other graduates of the North Dakota school system, left the state in 1960, because opportunities were more apparent in other states. After teaching in Oregon and California, they have been in private business since 1963.

They credit their success in private business to the importance of commitment that was stressed by their North Dakota heritage. It is their belief that because of increased education, communication and transportation capabilities, North Dakota will become, more and more, a job destination.

Jerome Strom, B.S. 1960, is a native of Beulah, N.D., and Mrs. Strom, B.S. 1958, the former Rosie Ann Ridl, is from Dickinson. They established the Strom Business Scholarship fund in 1982, which remains the largest single business scholarship at Dickinson State. In addition, they have funded many different activities, including being the sole contributor for Dickinson State University’s North Dakota Entrepreneurship conference. They own and operate Yale Investment Company, a private real estate Investment firm in Palo Alto, California.

Jerome and Rosie Strom have two children and four grandchildren.