Late Iron Range native donates $638K to Virginia education fund

A Virginia High School graduate who dedicated his life to education left $638,000 to the Virginia Community Foundation’s education fund.

Marvin Hoyle Skaurud, 97, died Feb. 11, 2012, in Texas. His bequest will help support educational opportunities for students in Virginia Public Schools.

Born and raised in Virginia, he served in the U.S. Navy during World War II and piloted a tugboat towing a fuel barge across the Atlantic for the Normandy invasion.

According to his obituary, Skaurud held bachelor’s and master’s degrees and a doctorate in history from the University of Minnesota. He taught history for the Minneapolis school system and was a professor at the University of Maryland, teaching summer sessions in many locations around the world. After retiring, he and his family moved to Texas and traveled the world by ship, rail and air. Skaurud visited 119 countries during his life, surviving at plane crash in South America, a cruise ship fire near Borneo, and being stranded in a primitive section Africa without a guide.

During the 1950s he was a contestant on TV quiz shows “The Big Payoff” and “Camouflage.”

Skaurud’s wife of 62 years, Ruth Andrus Skaurud, died in February 2005. He is survived by nieces in Ohio, California and Texas and a nephew in Georgia.

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