WILLIAM "BILLY" BUDGE (1852-1938)
The Rockefeller of the University of North Dakota

One man with determination and important political and economic connections saved the University of North Dakota. Because of the success William “Billy” Budge had in the mid-1890s in raising money to keep the University solvent, historian Louis Geiger in University of the Northern Plains labeled Budge, “The Rockefeller of the University of North Dakota.”