James Edward Geringer, 30th Governor of Wyoming, was born April 24, 1944, in Wheatland, Wyoming. He was the second of seven children born into a family of farmers. His father was a German from Russia.

Geringer graduated from Wheatland High School in 1963. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from Kansas State University in 1967. He married Sherri Slents that year. Upon graduation, he was commissioned an officer in the United States Air Force.

During his ten-year active duty military career between 1967 and 1977, Geringer was assigned to aerospace development programs in California for the Air Force and NASA. He was involved in launching reconnaissance satellites, the NASA Viking-Mars Lander project, and the beginning of the Global Positioning Satellite System. He also served as chief of computer programming at a ground receiving station for early-warning satellites.

He resigned from the Air Force in order to return to Wyoming and raise his family in the rural farming environment. In 1977, he accepted a position as a contract administrator on the construction of the Missouri Basin Power Projects Laramie River Station at Wheatland. He and Sherri also leased a farm in the area. By 1979, Geringer was farming and running a cattle feeding operation full time. He continued to serve as a reserve officer in the United States Air Force. In the early 1980s, he was the Reserve Commander of the Peace Keeper (MX) deployment project in Cheyenne. After leasing property for several years, in 1984, the Geringers purchased their own farm.

In 1982, Geringer was elected to the Wyoming House of Representatives from Platte County, serving three terms (six years). In 1988, he moved to the Wyoming State Senate where he also served six years. Midway through his second Senate term, he won the Republican gubernatorial nomination. That fall, he defeated the Democratic nominee Kathy Karpan to win the general election. He was elected to a second term in 1998. He left office after eight years as governor in January 2003.

In 2007, Geringer continued to work in technology, focusing on global positioning satellite technology and education. He and his wife Sherri are parents of five children--Jenny, Val, Rob, Meri, and Beckie.

The James E. Geringer Papers

• Inaugural Address, 1995
• Legislature
• Message to the Legislature, 1995
• Message to the Legislature, 1996
• Message to the Legislature, 1997
• Message to the Legislature, 1997 (special session)
• Message to the Legislature, 1998
• Message to the Legislature, 1999
• Message to the Legislature, 2000
• Message to the Legislature, 2001
• Message to Legislature, 2002