Longtime House majority leader, UND promoter Strinden dies

GRAND FORKS, N.D. (AP) — Former North Dakota Republican House Majority Leader and prominent University of North Dakota booster Earl Strinden has died. He was 90.

State Treasurer Thomas Beadle said his grandfather died Tuesday afternoon, The Bismarck Tribune reported.

Strinden, who represented Grand Forks, served in the state House from 1966-88. He was the House majority leader on and off from 1974-88. Strinden ran unsuccessfully for U.S. Senate in 1988 against longtime Democratic incumbent Quentin Burdick.

A Litchfield native, Strinden worked for the University of North Dakota Alumni Association beginning in 1969. He was its president from 1974-2000. He established the UND Foundation in 1978 and served as its executive vice president until 2000.

“Earl had such a strong belief in the power of a college degree and what it could do to propel students to live the American dream,” UND Alumni Association and Foundation CEO DeAnna Carlson Zink said. She added that he worked hard to build the university "into an institution the entire state could be proud of.”