Cover Story

Jerry wore a happy face. But inside he was crying.

Through his company BAMCO, Inc., he owned and operated McDonald’s franchises in Northfield, Faribault, and three in Mankato. He had every reason to be hilariously happy, including his selling of Happy Meals, and having been with McDonald’s since 1958—billions and billions of sandwiches before Ray Kroc dreamed up two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun. Having been in on the ground floor of the greatest restaurant success story of all time, Jerry was so steeped in the happy ways of McDonald’s that he and it were as one.

First, meet Kevin Santos.

Over the years some of his favorite wrestlers have been The Undertaker, Sergeant Slaughter and Rowdy Roddy Piper. And he likes watching the Minnesota Twins hammer away at the Metrodome.

Up North, amid emerald-green Norwegian pine forests that overlook crystalline walleye lakes and throngs of moose and bear and wolves, grew Dr. Bill Rupp, president and chief executive officer of 2,100-employee, $200 million ISJ-Mayo Health System.

He spent his first 18 years of life in 5,290-population Chisholm, a boom-and-bust mining outpost that straddled U.S. 169 seven miles north of Hibbing. There, Rupp’s father Clarence and uncle Glenn co-owned two businesses, Rupp Furniture and Rupp Funeral Home.

The erudite and delightful woman helping transform southern Minnesotans into global adventurers has fixed her heart on other worthy causes that facilitate communication and relationships.

She is Dr. Yvonne Cariveau, but she grimaces as if stabbed when you call her that. Just plain “Yvonne” would be satisfactory, thank you.