BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) - Sister Thomas Welder, the longtime former president of the University of Mary and winner of North Dakota’s most prestigious award, has died. She was 80.
Welder died at her monastery home south of Bismarck, the school announced Monday. She had recently been diagnosed with kidney cancer.
“She was always giving to others, whether it was a smile, an encouraging word or a promise of prayer,” Sister Nicole Kunze, Prioress of Annunciation Monastery, said in a statement. “She often said that the greatest gift you could give a person was the gift of your time, and she did that without fail.”
Welder, who grew up in Bismarck, graduated from the College of St. Scholastica in Duluth, Minnesota and earned a master’s degree in music from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. She is a member of the Benedictine Sisters of the Annunciation Monastery.
Welder began her career as a music teacher at the university in 1963, when it was named Mary College. She became the school’s fifth president in 1978 and held that position for 31 years. During her tenure, the school earned university status, nearly tripled its enrollment and moved up from NAIA to NCAA Division II athletics.
In 2004, North Dakota Gov. John Hoeven presented her with the Theodore Roosevelt Rough Rider Award, the state’s highest honor.
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