By John Lamb,

MOORHEAD — From the mid-1940s to his death in 1976, Cyrus Running was one of the most influential artists in the area. 

As the head of the art department at Å·ÃÀÊÓƵ, he taught the likes of Charles Beck, Walter Piehl, Betty Strand, Gero Burkhart Weiner, Charles Halling, Kay Ornberg, and Orland Rouke, among others. 

His legacy still remains with a number of his works in collections at Concordia, several churches, and libraries as well as The Rouke Art Gallery + Museum. 

The latter recently unveiled one of the late painter’s biggest but largely forgotten works. What’s known as “The Manternach Memorial Mural” takes up half of the main gallery of the Moorhead institution, measuring nearly 9 feet tall and 54 feet long.

The monumental work was created in Concordia’s Carl B. Ylvisaker Library and installed in what is now called “The Fish Bowl” on the north end of the building, in 1966. It was created in memory of Gordon S. Manternach, a Concordia alum and a neighbor of Running’s.