ELWYN B. ROBINSON DEPARTMENT OF SPECIAL COLLECTIONS
CHESTER FRITZ LIBRARY
UNIVERSITY OF NORTH DAKOTA
GRAND FORKS, NORTH DAKOTA 58202

KATHRINE B. TIFFANY PAPERS

COLLECTION: OGL#266

DATES: 1957-1976

SIZE: 1.25 linear feet

INTRODUCTION

ACQUISITION: The Kathrine B. Tiffany Papers were deposited in the Orin G. Libby Manuscript Collection by J. Lloyd Stone, UND Alumni Association. The acquisition records are unavailable.

ACCESS: Available for inspection under the rules and regulations of the Department of Special Collections.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

Kathrine Belanger Tiffany was born in 1878 in Neillsville, Wisconsin to Ferdinand Belanger and Margery Johnston Belanger, the second of three daughters. The family moved to North Dakota and purchased a quarter section in Morgan Township, Traill County in 1884. Kathrine graduated from the University of North Dakota in 1902 with a bachelors degree in English. She then taught English in Valley City, ND, and became principal of Lidgerwood High School, all the while continuing work on a master's degree in English, which she received in 1908. Over the years, Kathrine continued her graduate studies at the University of Chicago, University of Washington, Harvard, and Northwestern, accumulating the equivalent of three years of graduate work in various disciplines she found interesting.

Kathrine married Neil Carnot Macdonald, superintendent of Lidgerwood schools in 1904. Macdonald served in that same capacity in Mandan in 1910, was appointed state inspector of elementary schools in 1911, and was elected North Dakota Superintendent of Public Instruction in 1916. He and Kathrine pushed for rural school consolidation. Macdonald was defeated in 1918, and the Macdonalds left North Dakota in 1921 for the Pacific Northwest. Neil Macdonald died unexpectedly in 1923 of uremic poisoning while enroute to accept a deanship at Seattle Pacific College.

Kathrine went on and taught English at Seattle Pacific College and then English and rhetoric at Whitworth College in Spokane. She married Orrin E. Tiffany, who had been President at Seattle Pacific and Dean at Whitworth. Orrin turned down the Presidency of Whitworth College, and Kathrine and Orrin joined the faculty at Wheaton College in Illinois. Kathrine taught English for eighteen years at Wheaton and was considered an outstanding teacher. Orrin Tiffany died in 1950. In his memory, Kathrine established the Tiffany Lectureship.

Even after leaving North Dakota, Kathrine maintained a very close relationship with and interest in the University of North Dakota. She became a charter member in the Fellows of the University and endowed the Chester Fritz East Asian Room and donated items to it and to a Graduate Study Center in the Library named after her in 1971. Kathrine also encouraged her nephew, Chester Fritz, to establish the Chester Fritz Scholarships, the Chester Fritz Professorships, and to provide one million dollars for the building of the Chester Fritz Library dedicated in 1961 and another million dollars for the Chester Fritz Auditorium, which opened in 1972. She was persuaded to accept UND's highest alumni award, the Sioux Award in 1964, although she declined to be honored at the University's 75th anniversary celebration in 1958 with an honorary doctorate in recognition of achievement of success and evidence of quality performance in teaching.

Kathrine B. Tiffany died April 18,1978 at the Presbyterian Retirement Home in Quarryville, Pennsylvania.

SCOPE AND CONTENT NOTE

The Kathrine B. Tiffany Papers contain correspondence between UND President George W. Starcher and Chester Fritz about the funding and construction of the Chester Fritz Library, the Chester Fritz Auditorium, and other improvements at the University of North Dakota. The letters date from 1957 to 1972.

BOX AND FOLDER INVENTORY

Box 1
Folder

1. Correspondence, 1957, about an "all-faiths" chapel at UND
2. Correspondence, 1957, relating to the Chester Fritz Library at UND (funding and construction)
3. Correspondence, 1958, relating to the Chester Fritz Library at UND (funding and construction)
4. Correspondence, 1959, relating to the Chester Fritz Library at UND (funding, construction and East Asian artifacts)
5. Correspondence, 1960, relating to the Chester Fritz Library at UND (funding and construction)
6. Correspondence, 1961, relating to the Chester Fritz Library at UND (funding and construction), Carrilonic Bells at Twamley Hall and letters of appreciation for the gift of the Chester Fritz Library
7. Correspondence, 1962, relating to an bronze plaque for Twamley Hall and other assorted subjects
8. Correspondence, 1963, relating to the Old Main Memorial and the Twamley Administration Building
9. Correspondence, 1964, relating to the Speech on "Founder's Day", the planetarium project and other subjects.
10. Correspondence, 1965, relating to an additional donation of one million dollars given by Chester Fritz for the Chester Fritz Auditorium
11. Correspondence, 1966, relating to the Chester Fritz Auditorium (construction and funds) and about Edna Twamley
12. Correspondence, 1967, relating to the Chester Fritz Auditorium (construction and funds) and the "Kathrine B. Tiffany", "Maxwell M. Upson" and "Ira Frendberg" donations
13. Correspondence, 1968, relating to the "Neil C. McDonald" and "Kathrine B. Tiffany" scholarship funds.
14. Correspondence, 1969, about various subjects
15. Correspondence, 1970, about the Kathrine B. Tiffany Graduate Room and the Chester Fritz Library-Fellow of the University
16. Correspondence, 1972, relating to the "Oriental Room"
17. Correspondence about Chester Fritz

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