Archibald Minard

Archibald Minard impacted NDAC in many different ways and over a long period of time.

Minard was born in Nova Scotia on January 18th, 1878. When he was 11 years old, he moved to the United States with his parents. Upon earning his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Harvard, he became a professor of English and Philosophy at NDAC in 1904. Minard worked his way up to becoming the head of the English Department. When D.L. Coulter resigned as president in 1929, Minard was named acting president from July to September 1929. During that time and until 1949, he served as the Dean of the School of Applied Arts and Sciences. After 1949, when he retired as dean, he continued to teach philosophy. As a token of gratitude, NDSU renamed Science Hall to Minard Hall in 1951. [1]

Fun fact about Archibald Minard is that in 1908, he helped create the school song that we still use today. The university had been in existence for 18 years and still did not have a school song. He wanted to incorporate the school colors, yellow and green, with North Dakota’s landscape and characteristics. Minard thought he could use his song as well for the State’s song. Minard wrote the lyrics and then took the song to Clarence Putnam, the head of the music department at the time. “The Yellow And The Green” did become the University's official school song, but it did make it as the state’s song as Minard would have hoped. Instead, Putnam wrote the music for what became the state's song in 1947 and used the lyrics from James W. Foley’s “The North Dakota Hymn.” There has been some controversy surrounding the school song. In the third stanza of the song, it speaks of the red man scavenging the land for scraps, while the white anglo saxons prevail and conquer the prairies. Nonetheless, Minard wrote a beautiful song that we still use today at NDSU.

Sources:

1. Finding Aid to the President Archibald Ellsworth. University Archives. North Dakota State University, Fargo.
2. Isern, Thomas. “The Yellow and the Green.” Accessed October 18th, http://historyrfd.net/isern/life/yellow.htm.
3. Photo by NDSU Archives, https://flic.kr/p/8XaKid.