Five people will be inducted into the Nebraska Business Hall of Fame at a 7 p.m. event Thursday at the Cornhusker Hotel in Lincoln.
The Nebraska Chamber of Commerce & Industry and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln College of Business Administration started the Hall of Fame in 1992 to recognize the state's most important business leaders and their contributions to the free enterprise system.
The 2012 inductees:
» John Gottschalk, former publisher of The World-Herald and philanthropist. A native of Rushville, he once owned the Sidney, Neb., newspaper and joined The World-Herald in 1975.
He was a key figure in downtown Omaha's growth and development and served on a wide range of civic groups in Nebraska.
He and his wife, Carmen, now run a charitable foundation.
» Hal Lainson Jr. of Hastings, who died in 2010 at age 98, helped develop Dutton-Lainson Co. into a major manufacturer of marine, agricultural, industrial and automotive products.
He was a Nebraska chamber board member most of his life and spent more than 70 years with the company, turning it into a solid economic force in south-central Nebraska.
» Robert and Cynthia Milligan of Lincoln. Bob is chairman of MI Industries, a pet food company, and the first Nebraskan to serve as chairman of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
He is president of CNMC International, a Christian ministry. Cynthia is UNL's business dean emeritus, practiced law in Washington, D.C., and Lincoln, and is former director of banking and finance for the State of Nebraska.
» Eldon N. Roth of Dakota Dunes, S.D., founder and president of BPI Technology Inc., a meat-processing company with operations in Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas and Texas, and a research and development operation at its plant in South Sioux City, Neb.
He improved meat refrigerator design and reinvented the way lean meat is separated from beef and pork trimmings.
Contact the writer: 402-444-1080, steve.jordon@owh.com, twitter.com/buffettOWH
Copyright ©2012 Omaha World-Herald®. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, displayed or redistributed for any purpose without permission from the Omaha World-Herald.
