Robert Feldmeier learned to wrestle more than 70 years ago at the YMCA in Little Falls, NY. As a high school senior in 1938, wrestling at 125-lbs., he won the New York State Interscholastic Championship Tournament at St. Lawrence University, defeating an opponent from Mephem, Long Island, in the finals. He continued to wrestle at Princeton University until 1942 when he enlisted in the Marine Corps. In 1952, having developed a state-of-the-art heat exchanger for pasteurization, Robert founded Feldmeier Equipment, Inc. For more than fifty years this company has developed, patented and marketed innovative products and services for the dairy, beverage, food, egg processing and pharmaceutical industries. It currently has five manufacturing facilities located in Syracuse (NY), Little Falls (NY), Shell Rock (IA), Montgomery (AL) and Reno (NV). It employs more than 400 people, many of whom are former high school and collegiate wrestlers. Still C.E.O. of the company, Bob Feldmeier is emphatically not retired and still going to work every day at the age of 86. The company is a true family enterprise. Not only are Bob and his wife, Margaret (Peggy Lou), involved in its daily operations, their four children, John (as President), Robert E., Jeanne Jackson and Lisa Clark, all occupy important management roles. Bob Feldmeier is a tireless promoter of amateur wrestling at all levels. In 1969 he purchased some 200 acres in the Adirondacks and built a wrestling camp that drew kids and top coaches from across the country for ten weeks each summer of superb teaching and training. He has traveled widely to attend events such as the World Championships, Olympics and NCAA Championships in many corners of the world. He has provided generous financial support in all the communities where his company has a presence, and wherever he has seen the need to help our sport. Organizations which have received financial help from Bob Feldmeier include: the Syracuse University Mat-Mens Club, the AAU, U.S. Olympic Wrestling Teams, the U.S.W.F., the National Wrestling Hall of Fame, the Wrestling Museum in Waterloo, Iowa, and the Mohawk Valley Wrestling Club. Individual members of that latter-most organization have benefited from Bob's generosity with help in travel expenses for foreign exhibitions. Individual Olympic athletes have also been helped, most notably by his sponsorship of Jason Gleasman and Jamal Kelly in their quests for Olympic glory in 2000 and 2004, respectively. Bob Feldmeier's other contributions to our sport include: wrestling mats for St. James High School in Montgomery, Alabama, sponsorship of the Reno Tournament of Champions, continual input and financial support for the wrestling program at the Little Falls YMCA, and the recent purchase of a forty-two foot mat for the East Syracuse Area YMCA to help revive wrestling in this suburban area. When collegiate wrestling programs, and the programs of other "smaller" sports, came under budget pressures, Bob Feldmeier stepped forward. First, he contributed considerable time and money to help save the program at Princeton. Two years later, he was less successful backing the effort to keep wrestling at Syracuse. Nevertheless, Bob's contributions to that cause were enormous. They include his funding of the National Wrestling Coaches Association's court case challenging the University's, and the government's, interpretation and application of Title IX. Most recently, Bob Feldmeier has undertaken to bring the excitement of amateur wrestling into homes across the country by establishing Live Sports Video, an internet web casting company dedicated to Olympic sports which receive no, or inadequate, television coverage. Enter www.livesportsvideo.com into your computer tonight and see what's coming up. Past wrestling events covered include the Chicago Cup, Olympic Trials, NCAA All-Star matches, the National Duals, and the Dave Schultz Memorial. Free web casts! On your home computer - or even connect it to your flat-panel TV! What a great idea! The New York State Chapter of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame is proud to honor Robert H. Feldmeier as the 2008 Outstanding American from New York.