In 1935, Louise Whitbeck Fraser founded a school to teach children with disabilities who would have otherwise been institutionalized. Fraser is going strong 90 years later. Here is a look at the longtime disability services provider’s history, excerpted from an organization history.
Louise Whitbeck Fraser led a difficult life. She was orphaned at age three and raised by her aunt. As an adult, she moved to Grand Forks and attended Valley City Normal School to earn a teaching certificate. She’d soon marry and have four children with husband Wesley.
The family’s early life was tragic. Son Robert died at age three after falling from a car. Not long after the accident, Louise’s husband Wesley was murdered. He was a Special Agent for the Department of the Treasury-Internal Revenue Service, in the Division of the Bureau of Prohibition. He was shot and killed in 1934 while investigating a “moonshine” operation in South St. Paul…