Hubert Horatio Humphrey, Jr. (May 27, 1911 – January 13, 1978) served under President Lyndon B. Johnson as the 38th Vice President of the United States. Humphrey twice served as a United States Senator from Minnesota, and served as Democratic Majority Whip. He was a founder of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party and Americans for Democratic Action. He also served as Mayor of Minneapolis, Minnesota, 1945–1949. In 1968, Humphrey was the nominee of the Democratic Party in the 1968 presidential election but narrowly lost to the Republican nominee, Richard Nixon.

Humphrey was born in Wallace, Codington County, South Dakota. He was the son of Hubert Humphrey, Sr. and Ragnild Kristine Sannes, who was Norwegian. Humphrey spent most of his youth in the small town of Doland, South Dakota, on the Dakota prairie; during his years living in Doland the town's population was around 700. His father was the town pharmacist and a community leader; he served as Doland's mayor and as a town council member. In the late 1920s a severe economic downturn hit Doland; both of the town's banks closed and Humphrey's father struggled to keep his drugstore open.

After his son graduated from Doland's high school, Hubert, Sr. left Doland and opened a new drugstore in the larger town of Huron, South Dakota (population 11,000), where he hoped to improve his fortunes. As a result of the family's financial struggles, Hubert had to leave the University of Minnesota after just one year to help his father in the new drugstore. He earned a pharmacist's license from the Capitol College of Pharmacy in Denver, Colorado (completing a two-year licensure program in just six months), and spent the years from 1930 to 1937 helping his father run the family drugstore. He was a brother of Phi Delta Chi (Theta Chapter), a professional pharmaceutical fraternity and an honorary brother of Alpha Phi Alpha, an African-American fraternity. He was also a brother of Tau Delta Phi. Over time the "Humphrey Drug Company" in Huron became a profitable enterprise and the family was able to prosper again.