{"id":34737,"date":"2013-12-17T15:40:49","date_gmt":"2013-12-17T21:40:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/?p=34737"},"modified":"2013-12-18T15:44:36","modified_gmt":"2013-12-18T21:44:36","slug":"vcsu-receives-large-gift-in-school-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/?p=34737","title":{"rendered":"VCSU Receives Largest Gift In School History"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><\/strong><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/Wrights.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-34776\" alt=\"Wrights\" src=\"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/Wrights-300x202.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"202\" srcset=\"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/Wrights-300x202.jpg 300w, https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/Wrights-259x175.jpg 259w, https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/Wrights.jpg 445w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>(CSi)Valley City State University has received a $2.5 million gift to the VCSU Foundation from the estate of Leonard and Marjorie (Dreis) Wright of Mukilteo, Wash.<\/p>\n<p>The gift\u2014the largest in VCSU history\u2014will be applied to the scholarship fund at VCSU.<\/p>\n<p>VCSU President, Steven Shirley says, \u201cWe will be forever thankful to the Wrights for their outstanding generosity and their commitment to education. Their gift is clearly a gift that will keep on giving, touching the lives of future generations of VCSU students.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Wrights\u2019 gift to VCSU was facilitated in part through their connection with Phil Mueller of Valley City, a 1968 Valley City State alumnus who serves on the Valley City State Foundation Board. Mueller, the nephew of Leonard Wright, spent several of his college summers working for the Wrights in Alaska and maintained contact with them throughout their lives.<\/p>\n<p>A Dazey, N.D., native, Marjorie Wright attended VCSU, then known as Valley City State Teacher\u2019s College, and became a teacher.<\/p>\n<p>Wright married Leonard Wright in 1945, and the couple moved to Alaska. Marjorie Wright taught for many years in Alaska before joining her husband\u2019s business, Badger Construction, which prospered with work on construction projects associated with the Alaska oil pipeline.<\/p>\n<p>In retirement the Wrights moved from Alaska to the U.S. mainland, traveling widely and making many return trips to the Valley City area to visit family and friends. On Leonard Wright\u2019s death in 2007, Marjorie moved to Washington. She died at the age of 91 on April 7, 2013, in Mukilteo.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLeonard and Marjorie Wright were very successful business people,\u201d said Larry Robinson, VCSU executive director of university advancement, \u201cand the foresight they had in making the arrangements for this generous gift to Valley City State shows they did not forget their North Dakota roots.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mercy Hospital also received a separate gift of $2.5 million dollars from the Wright family. \u00a0CEO Keith Heuser says it\u2019s an unbelievable gift from the family that will not only benefit Mercy hospital by the community.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(CSi)Valley City State University has received a $2.5 million gift to the VCSU Foundation from the estate of Leonard and Marjorie (Dreis) Wright of Mukilteo, Wash. The gift\u2014the largest in VCSU history\u2014will be applied to the scholarship fund at VCSU. VCSU President, Steven Shirley says, \u201cWe will be forever thankful [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":34774,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-valley-city"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=34737"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34737\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34741,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34737\/revisions\/34741"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/34774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=34737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=34737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=34737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}