Fifty Years of the Chester Fritz Library

This week is a big week for the Chester Fritz library.  Fifty years ago this month, the cornerstone of this building was set.  Some three years earlier, Chester Fritz, a North Dakota native who had attended the University of North Dakota for a mere 3 semesters, offered to donate $1,000,000 to the University for the construction of a new library.

His argument in his letter to UND’s President George W. Starcher was direct:

It has been my observation that an adequate library tends to raise the level of the total scholarship of a university, and that it adds immeasurably to the greatness of the university. For the students, it induces more mature and disciplined thinking; for the faculty. it attracts outstanding scholars and helps to hold outstanding teachers and for the people of the  State beyond the UniversIty campus, it serves as an educational and cultural center. These major functions of anadequate university are all necessary. I believe. for any university that aspires to greatness in scholarship and service.

Fritz made his fortune financing the mining tungsten and other metals in China in the 1920 as the representative of the American Metal Company. This experience led him to finance and investment and in 1929 he founded the firm of Swan, Cubertson, and Fritz.  In the 1930s, this firm became the first Chinese firm on the New York Stock Exchange and among the largest foreign companies listed there. The disruptions to international markets brought about by World War II more or less ended his work in China, but by then his firm had expanded into insurance brokerage apparently in South America. The firms office in Montevideo, Uruguay held the funds for the library. (For a short bio on Fritz check out the library’s collection of his papers.)

To celebrate the Fritz donation and the impressive facility that the Chester Fritz Library has become, the library will host a series of events this week.

On Wednesday evening at 7 pm, Dan Rylance, Fritz’s biographer, will speak on “Reflections on the Life and Legacy of Chester Fritz” in the Main Reading Room of the library.

Then on Friday from 3-5 pm, there will be an all campus reception in the Main Reading Room of the library.

For more on events and the history of the library, check out the Fritz at 50 webpage and explore all the associated content.