Thomas Welder

She received North Dakota's highest honor, the Theodore Roosevelt Rough Rider Award, in 2004.

[2][3] Her father died of a kidney condition in 1951; her mother became a Benedictine sister in 1968, after raising Welder and her siblings.

[2] Welder returned to Bismarck to enter the community of Benedictine nuns at Annunciation Monastery.

[10] In 2004, she was granted the Theodore Roosevelt Rough Rider Award, the highest honor of the state of North Dakota.

[13] The state governor, Doug Burgum, and the senator John Hoeven expressed their condolences.

[20] Monsignor James P. Shea, President of the University of Mary, celebrated Welder's funeral Mass on June 29, and her body was buried in the monastery cemetery.

Welder's St. Mary's Central High School photo (1958).
Welder on her first day as president of the University of Mary in 1978.
Welder receives the Rough Rider Award from then-Governor John and First Lady Mikey Hoeven (2004).