Katherine Kilbourne Burgum ( born February 26, 1915, Minneapolis, Minnesota – Died April 12, 2005, Fargo, North Dakota) was acknowledged for her civil pride and commitment to excellence.
Katherine was the daughter to Mr and Mrs Burton Kane Kilbourne who moved to Fargo from Kansas in 1923. Mr Kilbourne was a medical officer for one out of five public health demonstration sites in the United States. Taking after her father, she started out in the spot light at age 12 when she won a writing contest and represented North Dakota at the National Red Cross convention in Washington, DC. She made the trip alone and it inspired her youth towards civil service.
She graduated from Fargo Central High School in 1933 and also attended North Dakota State University, previously known as North Dakota Agricultural College, and graduated with majors in Home Economics, Education, Foods and Nutrition and a minor in Journalism. She started working at Sayville Junior High School in Sayville, Long Island, New York teaching Home Economics. She later would attend Columbia University, receiving a Masters Degree in Home Economics, Education and Related Art from that institution in 1939. She was an instructor and assistant professor from 1939-1947 in the Department of Home Economics at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. While at Wayne State she revolutionized packing methods for fresh foods and her research awarded her the Aviation Writers Prize in 1949.
Mr Joseph Burgum took her hand in marriage on April 8, 1944 but war would drive them apart as he enlisted in the Navy after the attack at Pearl Harbor. After the war they returned to Arthur, North Dakota to run Mr. Burgum’s family’s grain business and while building a family, she was active in the United Methodist church, Authur School Board, and appointed the first president of the St. Luke Hospital Auxiliary. Additionally, she served two terms at the state president of the North Dakota Hospital Auxiliary Association and was the founder of the Cass County Historical Society where she served on its first board of directors. Uncommonly vigilant, she was active in the March of Dimes and the North Dakota Cancer Society, as well as the Campfire Girls, the PTA, the Red Cross, and both the Red River Valley and Cass County Fair Associations.
As a stout Republican, she actively participated in political roles including serving as North Dakota’s Committeeman from 1968-1972. After Mr Burgum’s death, Katherine would serve as Dean of North Dakota State University’s college of Home Economics and during that appointment she would found a new addition for the college’s physical plant, which was deemed the Katharine Kilbourne Burgum Family Life Center. She would later play a role in the 1989 election of President George H.W. Bush as the Republican Presidential Elector for the North Dakota Ballot in the National Electoral College.
Humble to the end, she always insisted that the greatest achievement of her life was her kids.
“Katherine Burgum,” Boulger Funeral Home, http://boulgerfuneralhome.com/obituaries/katherine-burgum/.
