When Myron Wold’s family reminisces about the lifelong Watford City, N.D., cattleman and longtime North Dakota Stockmen’s Association (NDSA) member, they think about his love for green tractors, Red Angus cattle and spending time with his wife Darlene and their children and grandchildren. When he passed away in 2018, at age 82, they decided to honor him and carry on his support for the next generation of agricultural leaders by creating two collegiate scholarships through the North Dakota Stockmen’s Foundation (NDSF).
“This was a great match for all the things our dad was passionate about,” explained his daughter, Dianne McDonald, of Hastings, Minn. “Our family looks forward to meeting and learning about the students who are selected to receive these scholarships each year and knows that Dad would be proud to play a small part in these students’ educational journeys and careers.”
The Wold family felt so strongly about the NDSF’s scholarship program and what it does to encourage young leaders and help them gain footholds in the industry that they provided another generous gift to the NDSF to create an endowment fund to provide these scholarships into perpetuity. “We knew this is something we wanted to do and that Dad would want us to do, because he was such a strong supporter of both the cattle industry and youth,” McDonald explained. “It’s a way to preserve his memory and support the up-and-coming leaders who will carry the torch into the future.”
The scholarships are now called the Myron Wold Memorial Endowment Scholarships. Two scholarships, valued at $1,000 each, will be offered this year. Application forms for them, as well as the other NDSF scholarships, are available at www.ndstockmen.org/foundation. March 1 is the submission deadline.
Wold was born in May 1935. In 1970, he and Darlene took over the family ranch, where they continued to live until the time of his passing. He took pride in the family’s operation and could spend hours going through the fields and pastures checking on the crops and cattle. In addition to being an NDSA member, Wold served on the North Dakota Beef Cattle Improvement Association Board of Directors.
