Julian Szczur

Julian Szczur went to Science in 1940-41 for Welding/Machine Tooling; little did he know that he would be a part of NDSCS for years to come. Szczur a native of Noonan, N.D. was asked by the National Defense Program to continue his education in their program in 1942 and then departed for Manitowoc, WI to work in a submarine yard. He spent another two years in Bremerton, Washington working in the shipyards helping to build war time submarines and ships. In 1945 he made the decision to come back to ND with his family and began teaching for NDSCS as a Welding instructor. Through the years he moved from welding instructor to Department Chair until his retirement in 1986.

In August of 2012 Julian’s friends and family decided to start an annual NDSCS Scholarship to honor Julian on his 90th birthday.  Julian decided to turn the Annual Scholarship to an Endowment with an additional donation to bring the total to $10,000. When asked why create an Endowment? Julian answered, “I wanted to have a long lasting scholarship available to NDSCS Welding students for years to come and I also wanted to take advantage of the North Dakota Endowment Gift Tax Credit.”

Many of Julian’s students through the years have commented on Julian’s style of teaching and his philosophy. It seems that he was an instructor that loved what he did and that passion showed! He stressed safety first in his instructional approach and the importance of protecting your eyes and lungs from welding smoke as well as protecting yourself from the dangerous situations with the various combustible items they were using.  Thank you Julian Szczur for your many years of service and dedication to NDSCS from all of us here at Science.