2013 Centennial Issue

Connections Special edition – May 2013 Alumni Association & Development Foundation Celebrating Minot State University’s CENTENNIAL PRESIDENT’S WELCOME in suits, some in work clothes listening and reflect on our first 100 years, it is a to a speaker, others high in the building good time to understand and appreciate rafters, and others wearing formal hats that the strength of our university and sitting among dignitaries. its future depends on our support for the No doubt, there are faculty, staff, many people we serve, and the support students, community members and city they provide for us. and state officials in that picture. I would This edition of Connections reveals guess, too, that they are excited about the our university’s reason for being, and its new building, the prospects for the future role in serving students, serving the cause of the new campus, and the important of learning and serving our community role this young campus will play in the and our state. The stories in the following growth and development of the com- pages make abundantly clear that Minot munity and state. Those were big dreams State University has been, and continues then by people who believed in us. to be, all about people. That’s our place When I look at that classic picture and our legacy. of Old Main on the cover and look at The reason we have done so well for the building now, I feel a sense of great 100 years is because the people, many whose names “… Minot State University has been and and stories are he panoramic picture of highlighted in the construction of Old continues to be all about the people. these pages, have Main on pages four and cared a great deal five shows a wonderful and That’s our place, and that’s our legacy.” about this special Tbusy celebration in July 1913 honoring place and its proud the placement of a cornerstone. This is a pride for our university, and in knowing legacy. Many have helped us realize that fun picture of the building and of people how well that beautiful building and our big dream of what we all know now as bustling around, standing and sitting on university have grown and served many Minot State University. stacks of bricks and planks, some dressed people over those years. As we celebrate DAVID FULLER, president 22 CONTENTS Special Edition — number 1 MSU Centennial Celebration FEATURES p. 5 COVER STORY: Minot Normal School: The dream begins The 1900s ushered in a wave of progressive thinking and the need to educate hundreds of thousands of new Americans. Minot Normal School’s purpose was never in doubt. However, it took over three years and two visits to the N.D. Supreme Court to convince others. OUR PLACE 8 WWI: Normal School contributes to war effort p. 8 MSTC answers wartime call 11 Mae McKinley: The heart of Campus School OUR LEGACY 14 One university, hundreds of memories 16 Family ties p. 10 Model School: A little school ATHLETICS with big ideas 17 Tripletts impact Beaver athletic history OUR VISION 18 DEVELOPMENT FOUNDATION p. 12 19 OUR READERS REMINISCE Exemplifying ingenuity, flexibility and service 20 ALUMNI HAPPENINGS MINOT STATE UNIVERSITY Connections is published three times a year by the Minot State University Alumni Association and Development Foundation. 24 CLASS NOTES Send comments, articles or photo submissions to Connections, MSU Alumni Office, 500 University Ave. West, Minot, ND 58707. Telephone 701-858-3399 or 1-800-777-0750. Fax 701-858-3179. Email: [email protected] 27 IN MEMORIAM Printed on Forest Stewardship Council certified stock. Third class postage paid at Fargo, ND 58101 28 BABY BEAVERS Celebrating Articles in this edition were adapted from material found in “When Dreams Come True: a Centennial History of Minot State University 1913-2013 by Jonathan Wagner and Vist the MSU Centennial website at Mark Timbrook. To purchase this book, please see page 22. 100www.minotstateu.edu/100 3 PLACE UR O September 1913 1913 1914 1922 Classes begin at Huldah Winsted declares Old Main and Normal Echo, later renamed Minot Normal School the geranium red and green Pioneer Hall open Red and Green, originates as 4 4 as the school colors the student newspaper PLACE UR The dream O begins he first 15 years of the The dream 20th century were a The agitation for a normal time of economic prosperity school in Minot began in and growth in the United the late 1890s. It arose from TStates. In that period, western a concern among politi- North Dakota came into its cians and educators over the own through an expanding 200,000 foreign-born settlers population, extensive railroad who had arrived in the state. construction, mechanized Many believed these newcom- agriculture, appearance of the ers, immigrants from Europe, automobile and rising farm needed to be converted to loyal, prices. For many North Dako- English-speaking American tans, these years represented a citizens as soon as possible. “Golden Age of Agriculture.” In 1890, the state already had The political realm mirrored normal schools in Valley City the economic buoyancy. The 17 and Mayville, but the supply years from 1900 to America’s of graduates could not fill the involvement in Europe’s Great increased demand for teachers. War were a time of political When the N.D. Legislature reform. This progressive context convened in the fall of 1898, explains why Minot’s Normal adding another normal school School appeared when it did. in the northwest was at the top Progressives believed that only of the agenda. education could raise citizens Located at the crossroads of to a proper level of understand- two major railroad lines and ing and responsibility. Minot’s five highways, Minot had a lot Normal School would produce to offer a new school. Minot’s Old Main Cornerstone teachers, who would become rapid growth in the first decade Dedication Cereemony, the instruments to educate a of the new century made it the July 25, 1913. growing population. state’s third-largest city, with a 1924 1925 1925 1928 Name changes to Beaver becomes the official First bachelor’s degrees First Homecoming game Minot State Teachers College athletic mascot in teaching awarded and parade 5 5 5 PLACE UR O Students study and relax in Pioneer Hall in 1916. One of the first dorm rooms — 1915. population of 6,188 in 1910. other would involve amending related to Minot’s continued ratified the constitutional Local politicians and business- the constitution. Undeterred, reputation as a “boisterous amendment, clearing the way men recognized that the pres- Minot lawyer C.A. Johnson, frontier town” and the ongo- for North Dakota’s newest ence of a normal school would a representative from District ing, not-very-successful battle normal school. bring prestige, jobs, economic 29, proposed House Bill 116, by the city fathers to rid the Still the battle had not stimulus and state resources which called for an amend- community of its illegal liquor ended. Citing the necessity to Minot. They rallied behind ment to establish a normal establishments, known as of holding a constitutional the cause. school in Minot. “blind pigs.” convention to validate an In the House, the Johnson The Velva charges had amendment, the state attorney The challenge bill endured an unsuccessful some merit. At the beginning general filed an injunction Before the idea could challenge from Rugby sup- of the 20th century, Minot against proceeding with the bloom, however, it had to porters and passed. In the did have a liquor problem. school. After several delays, overcome three obstacles: the Senate, Minot advocates Although the municipal anti- the case reached the N.D. first was constitutional; the defeated efforts to substitute vice laws were revised in 1909, Supreme Court. On Dec. 18, second was competition from Towner and Washburn for the problem persisted. The 1909, the court quashed the neighboring towns, such as Minot. On March 5, 1907, likelihood of Velva’s attack injunction and ruled in favor Rugby, Velva and Towner; and the Senate passed the bill, rec- succeeding prompted Joseph of proceeding with the new the third was internal conflict ommending that the proposed M. Devine, a past governor school at Minot. about where to locate the constitutional amendment on and president of the North school in Minot. the new school be referred to Dakota Education Associa- The place Section I, Article XIV of the state’s voters at the next tion, to travel to Bismarck in While constitutional the North Dakota Constitution general election. February 1909 to testify on and legal battles continued, (1889) decreed that the State At the next Legislative Minot’s behalf before the another conflict arose in Superintendent of Public Assembly two years later, Legislature. Devine’s interven- Minot among promoters Instruction may “designate not opponents again attacked the tion thwarted the Velva attack, of the school — where to to exceed three universities, Minot proposal. This time and the Legislature approved build it. Several places were colleges or academies.” Because the main challenge came from Minot as the site for the new suggested: the Olson-Grow, the state already possessed Velva. Velva spokesmen ar- school. Two years later, it ap- Jacobson and SOO-Valley three institutions (Mayville, gued that Minot was “too im- proved funding. The following sites. Erik Ramstad, Minot’s Valley City and the University moral to be a fit place for such November, an overwhelming founder, complicated matters of North Dakota), adding an- a normal school.” The charge majority of the state’s voters by offering 60 acres on the 1930 1946 Model School is constructed First non-teaching bachelor of arts degree offered 6 6 PLACE UR O 1916 faculty group photo.

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