Nan and Ben Friesen Endowed Scholarship

Ben Friesen graduated from Fraser High School in 1941 as salutatorian. Not long after, he was inducted into the U.S. Army and served several years in the South Pacific theatre. When he received his honorable discharge and a Bronze Star medal, he returned to the family farm in the Luster community and spent the next 40+ year of his life as a wheat farmer. Ben passed away September 6, 2007. Nan C. Friesen attended several colleges before entering Eastern Montana College (now MSU Billings) in 1964. She brought credits from the College at Bozeman, College of Great Falls, and Rocky Mountain College with her. She graduated Cum Laude from EMC in June of 1967 with a B.A. in English, a history minor, and a secondary education minor. She taught in Harlowton High School for three years, and then in Red Lodge High School and junior high school for three years. She wrote poetry, some of which has been published, and authored two self-published books after entering her 70s. When Nan attended MSU Billings as EMC from 1964 to 1967, she was given a great deal of help with scholarships, grants, and work-study that allowed her to devote much time to her studies. Her way of thanking MSU Billings was to create a scholarship endowment to help others do the same. Nan passed away July 31, 2008. The first scholarship from the endowment was awarded in academic year 2009-2010.