By Daniel Scullard
Over this past summer a mural painted by Cyrus M. Running (1913-1976), a well-renowned professor at Concordia, was restored and put up next to the Parke Leadership Center on the second floor of Knutson Campus Center.
Originally painted in 1966 as a memorial for Gordan S Manternach, a close friend to Cyrus, the mural was commissioned by Manternach’s family and painted on the wall of the fishbowl in the Carl B Ylvisaker Library. Due to leaks in the roof, the mural had to be taken down and restored by Rourke Art Gallery and Museum.
“The Rourke took ownership of it and had pledged to try to keep it as good of condition as possible,” said Chris Mortensen, associate professor of art in the art department at Concordia.
The mural is a huge piece of Concordia’s history, totaling 13 panels of artwork, and was restored by a Concordia alumni in Minneapolis, Mark Larson.
“It took about a year and a half to fully restore,” Larson said in a news package from Prairie Public. After the restoration the mural was stored at the Rourke Art Gallery and Museum, until Mortensen noticed one of the panels on display and started the process to bring it back from where it came from Concordia College.
“There were a couple other places in the community that wanted it,” Mortensen said.
Before the mural was put up, there were photos put up by the Office of Student Engagement to replace old photos that didn’t depict student life as a whole and depicted trips and seminars. The photos to replace the old ones depicted student life as a whole.
“2023, 24 we worked on finding photos that were more current, and we wanted to represent, the breadth of campus” said Elijah Amelse, Assistant Director of Student engagement.
“Residence life, athletics, music, theater, clubs, things like that,” Amelse said. He also said that in May 2025, a year after the photos were up, they found out about the mural because they brought the pieces in to store them.
Within the mural itself, Running had to use the wall to his advantage.
“It wasn’t part of the original painting in the sense that Running didn’t draw that first then paint it,” Mortensen said. The mural was specifically designed for the fishbowl with the design painted into the wall itself as an addition.
In the same building, in between the centrum doors, the bulletin board that was used for announcements was taken down and replaced with a mural of Concordia’s logo with the quote “turn passion into purpose.” Across the hall of the mural is a brand-new bulletin board that is a replacement for the original bulletin board that is smaller but open to all for announcements.
