With feud over, University of North Dakota donors sign pact

Published 7:58 pm Tuesday, August 20, 2019

GRAND FORKS, N.D. — A major donor to the University of North Dakota who had threatened to stop sending money in a dispute with the former president announced Tuesday that she will fund the school’s hockey facilities and Ralph Engelstad Arena through September 2030.

Engelstad Foundation trustee Kris Engelstad McGarry said in a news release that she appreciates interim President Joshua Wynne’s leadership.

“We are committed to a positive and productive relationship with UND and we appreciate the productive manner in which they dealt with the usage agreement extension,” McGarry said.

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McGarry’s father, Ralph Engelstad, played goaltender for UND before building a fortune as a real estate mogul and Las Vegas casino and hotel owner. Engelstad donated money to build the $110 million arena and the foundation in his name was created in 2002, the year he died.

The foundation’s current donation contract was due to run out in June 2020.

Financial terms of the extended donation contract were not included in McGarry’s release. The foundation recently donated $4 million for a $6 million hockey scoreboard.

“UND is very grateful for the generosity and support that the Engelstad family and the Engelstad Foundation have shown the university in the past and we look forward to even more productive collaborations in the future,” Wynne said in a release.

McGarry had been at odds with former UND president Mark Kennedy over the arena usage agreement and a logo for the school’s basketball and volleyball courts, among others things. The issue became public last year when McGarry told the Grand Forks Herald editorial board that Kennedy had been “very passive aggressive” and “quite hostile at times” in discussions about the operating agreement.

Kennedy, a former Minnesota congressman, declined to be interviewed at the time. He was named president at the University of Colorado in May.