The Greater Des Moines Committee has named Richard Levitt, former vice chairman of Wells Fargo & Co. and former chairman of Wells Fargo Financial, and Berkley and Thomas Bedell, the father-and-son team behind the international rise of Pure Fishing Co. of Spirit Lake, as its 2005 inductees into the Iowa Business Hall of Fame.

Levitt began his career in the finance industry in Des Moines in 1954 and held various leadership roles within Wells Fargo. While working for the company as its vice chairman in Minneapolis, he was instrumental in moving the headquarters of Wells Fargo’s mortgage banking operations, now known as Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, to Des Moines in 1985.

Tom Bedell, a fourth-generation native of Spirit Lake, left a career in political consulting in Washington, D.C., in 1979 to return to his hometown to work for his father’s fishing and tackle business. As CEO of Pure Fishing, he helped increase its revenues from $20 million to $270 million. In 2003, he became chairman of the company. He currently teaches an executive M.B.A class on entrepreneurship in Des Moines through the University of Iowa.

Berkley Bedell, in addition to forming the company that is now Pure Fishing, served Northwest Iowa in the U.S. Congress for 12 years starting in 1975. A survivor of Lyme disease and cancer, he established the National Foundation for Alternative Medicine in 1997.

Levitt and the Bedells will be honored at the Committee’s annual Black Tie Dinner on Thursday, Dec. 8, at Hy-Vee Hall in the Iowa Events Center, 730 Third St. It is an invitation-only event.

The Iowa Business Hall of Fame was founded by the Greater Des Moines Committee in 1975 to honor Iowans who have made outstanding contributions to the development and enhancement of Iowa’s business climate.