Burgum unveils official Rough Rider Award portrait of International Music Camp founder Dr. Merton Utgaard

BISMARCK, N.D. – Gov. Doug Burgum on Friday unveiled the official portrait of Worldwide Music Camp founder Dr. Merton Utgaard, who was posthumously honored in July because the forty seventh recipient of the North Dakota Theodore Roosevelt Tough Rider Award, the state’s highest commendation for its residents.

The portrait was created by Minot-based artist Vern Skaug, who since 1970 has painted most of the portraits hanging within the Theodore Roosevelt Tough Rider Corridor of Fame on the North Dakota Capitol. The portrait options a number of pictures of Utgaard at numerous phases of his profession in music schooling, together with a picture of him main a highschool marching band in Carrington, N.D.

“Below Dr. Utgaard’s steering, and with the assist of his spouse, Noella, the Worldwide Music Camp blossomed into an internationally acknowledged middle for schooling and efficiency, bringing college students, administrators and their households to North Dakota for greater than 66 years,” Burgum mentioned. “From Dr. Utgaard’s imaginative and prescient, and because of his private dedication to the success of the Worldwide Music Camp, he gifted North Dakota and our residents with a singular asset that gives alternatives to our college students and elevates North Dakota on the nationwide and world phases.”

Burgum unveiled the portrait with Secretary of State Al Jaeger, who together with State Historic Society Director Invoice Peterson concurred with Burgum’s number of Utgaard for the award. Burgum introduced the award to Utgaard’s three youngsters on July 29 on the Worldwide Music Camp that Utgaard and his spouse, Noella, based in 1956 on the Worldwide Peace Backyard in north-central North Dakota. Merton Utgaard served because the camp’s full-time director for 28 years, gaining worldwide recognition for the music program. He died Dec. 19, 1998, at age 84.

Video of the disclosing might be seen on the governor’s Fb web page right here.­