Hall of Famers

››› Earl B. Olson, founder of Jennie-O Turkey Store, Inc., the world’s largest grower and processor of turkeys and an innovative developer of turkey products, including turkey bologna and turkey ham.

››› Jeno Paulucci, founder of Chun King Corporation, Jeno’s, Inc., and Luigino’s, the maker of Michelina’s and Yu Sing foods. He later became the second-largest landowner (after the Walt Disney Company) in Florida.

››› John Pellegrene, marketing paragon and retailing innovator, who transformed Target’s bull’s-eye into an icon of branding, invented Dayton’s Santabear, created the first computerized bridal registry, and promoted a largely Target-funded restoration of the Washington Monument.

››› Carl Pohlad, buyer and builder of soft-drink bottlers, banks, and companies engaged in investment management and broadcasting—and owner of the Minnesota Twins, which he kept from leaving the state in 1984, and which won two World Series Championships under his ownership.

››› Gerald Rauenhorst, founder of the Opus Corporation, which since 1953 has built more than 2,000 commercial buildings throughout the United States and changed the skylines of the Twin Cities.

››› Alan "Buddy" Ruvelson, who opened the nation’s first Small Business Investment Company and helped build Minnesota’s venture-capital industry.

››› Richard Schulze, founder and chairman of Best Buy, at the time of his induction in 2003, a $21 billion, 679-store retailer of electronics equipment, appliances, and recorded music and movies. Schulze opened his first store in 1966 and showed a remarkable ability to adapt to changes in consumer demand.

››› Robert Sparboe, who moved to Litchfield, Minnesota, in 1954 to establish the Sparboe Chick Company with his life savings of $5,400. By the time of his death in October 2005, he had developed a $260 million operation that annually sold 2.4 billion eggs laid by more than 10 million hens.