Paul D. Running Paintings

Paul D. Running was born in Sandpoint, Idaho, on March 22nd, 1923, and was the fifth son of Rev. Alfred Running and Sophia Olsen Running. After graduation from high school in Zumbrota, Minnesota, in 1940, Running enrolled at St. Olaf College, Northfield, Minnesota, studying there until 1942. From 1943–44, he attended Carleton College, Northfield, Minnesota and Yale University. After service in the U.S. Army during World War II in Texas and the central Pacific as an Airborne Radio Marine Officer, he returned to St. Olaf and received his BA degree in 1947. He attended the  University of Iowa between 1946 and 1951, receiving his MFA in painting in 1949 and Ph.D. in art history in 1951. His dissertation was entitled, "The Flagellation of Christ: A Study in Iconography." Beginning in 1949, Running taught drawing, painting and art history at several institutions including the University of Iowa, Northwestern Michigan College, St. Olaf College, Valley City College in North Dakota and East Carolina University College in Greenville, North Carolina. He served as Professor of Drawing and Painting at Bowling Green State University from 1956 until his retirement in 1992. In addition to teaching, Running was a tour conductor in Europe for New York and Minnesota travel companies (1952 and 1958) and a trans-Atlantic shipboard art lecturer and English instructor for universities, employed by the Council on Student Travel, New York (summers 1957 and 1960). He also developed and conducted art programs in Europe for BGSE in the summers of 1962, 1963, 1965 and 1967. He frequently visited Europe, painting there throughout many summers. Since 1948, Running exhibited in numerous areas and national shows. He had at least 20 solo exhibitions in venues such as Greenville, North Carolina; Toledo Museum of Art; SUNY Cortland College, New York; St. Olaf College; Valley City State University, North Dakota; Messiah College, Pennsylvania; Hesston College, Kansas; the University of Dubuque, Iowa; William Rainey Harper College, Chicago, Illinois; Concordia College, Minnesota; Bluffton University, Ohio; Channing Gallery, Toledo, Ohio; and Mileti Alumni Center, Bowling Green, Ohio. His paintings were exhibited at Luther College in April 1982, in a solo show focused on oil and watercolor paintings resulting from trips to Switzerland, France and Spain. Running died on January 20th, 2013, in Kalamazoo, Michigan.