Dickinson State University’s Heritage Foundation has received its biggest gift to date: $10 million from the Rob and Melani Walton Foundation.
The money is to support the Theodore Roosevelt Center.
DSU President Steve Easton saids the Center has been dependent upon special appropriations from the state Legislature – and he said that will no longer be the case.
"The primary thing the Theodore Roosevelt Center does is the digital indexing of papers related to Theodore Roosevelt," Easton said in an interview.
The Center also sponsors a yearly symposium on Roosevelt.
"We also produce K-16 programs about Roosevelt," Easton said. "There is an emphasis on his time in North Dakota, and his conservation legacy, that developed starting in North Dakota."
The money will also allow DSU to create a special chaired professorship in Theodore Roosevelt studies – something Easton said is new for the University.
The center is currently in the Stoxen Library on campus. But Easton sids it will be moving to Pulver Hall, which is being renovated.
"In addition to its offices on the second floor, the first floor of Pulver Hall will be exhibit space," Easton said.
Easton also said the TR Center will be intertwined with the proposed Theodore Roosevelt Library, to be built in Medora.
"Our digital library will be the TR Library's digital library," Easton said.
Easton said the TR Professor will serve as the University's liason to the Library," Easton said. "It will give us a direct link to the Library."
More than 70,000 documents have been digitized thuis far.
