Chester Fritz left more than millions of dollars to UND for construction of the library that bears his name, former librarian Dan Rylance said Wednesday as he marked the 50th anniversary of the library's dedication.
Fritz left a challenge, too, Rylance said.
It was a challenge delivered at the dedication "for others to step up" and build on the library he created.
Speaking in the same room where Fritz spoke on Oct. 13, 1961, Rylance quoted from that address:
"I am trusting that from time to time, alumni and other friends of the university will augment with private funds the regular legislative appropriations to the university for the growth of the library, so that this library will always be well-stocked with the type of books, magazines and other materials needed for scholarly work in every department" at UND.
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"He's talking to us," Rylance said.
"There are people who believe that libraries are not important anymore," he said. "But the opposite is true. We need another Chester Fritz, or many Chester Fritzes, to help continue to make this a library of distinction."
Rylance served for several years as head of the library's Department of Special Collections. He served two terms in the North Dakota House of Representatives in the late 1970s and later was editor of the Herald's editorial page.
Humble origins
In 1979, with the support of former UND President Thomas Clifford, Rylance traveled to Monaco to conduct a series of interviews with Fritz. Those conversations and other research led to publication in 1982 of an autobiography, "Ever Westward to the Far East: The Story of Chester Fritz," which Rylance co-authored.
"We had a wonderful relationship in the last years of his life," Rylance said.
He recounted Fritz's humble origins in North Dakota -- he was born in Buxton in 1892 -- and the impact of a serious injury to his father and the loss of his mother, who left the family in 1905.
"Fritz said he spent much money and effort looking for her," Rylance said, but she vanished without a trace.
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Rylance told how an aunt and uncle took the boy in, raised him and aimed him at UND, which he attended for two years before setting off on what would become his great adventure, a life of investment and trading in precious metals in China. The six-month, 7,200-mile trip Fritz made through China during a lull in his business activities "was the greatest thing he ever did."
Making his fortune
He later made a fortune in silver, built on it through investments, became a horseman, married, and, when Japanese troops overran China during World War II, spent two years in a prison camp.
Coming back to the United States after the war, he invested in and made another big score from a theatrical production: the musical "Oklahoma!"
Fritz and his first wife were divorced, but she told Rylance that she loved the man and urged him to let the world know he was a good man.
Fritz left America again, moving to Rome, where he fell in love with and married Vera Kachalina Baylin, a Russian ballerina who also had lived in China, though she and Fritz had never met there.
They lived in Rome, Switzerland and finally Monte Carlo, where Fritz died in 1983. Not long after, Rylance received a phone call from the Grand Forks airport; a package had arrived, addressed to him. It was Chester Fritz's ashes.
"He never told me he was going to do that," Rylance said.
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Fritz was buried in Grand Forks. A few years ago, Vera died and joined him here.
"Great universities build and support great libraries," Rylance said. "Fritz gave this university a great library.... Now is the time for others to step up, answer the Fritz challenge and continue to support Chester Fritz Library."
Reach Haga at (701) 780-1102; (800) 477-6572, ext. 102; or send email to chaga@gfherald.com .
