Although an engineer by trade, Kenneth Piper studied art at Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota and at the Agricultural College in Fargo. He would continue to paint on the side.

He and his wife Marion were active in the arts community in both Bismarck - where they lived - and around the state. (In fact, Marion was responsible for Sentinel Butte painter Einar Olstad’s first major exhibit in Dickinson.)

After he died in 1952, his painting “Thrashing the Sun” was donated to the McIntosh Memorial Hospital in Ashley as a memorial to him. (He was born in Ashley.)

- Ben Nemenoff

Bibliography:

• Barr, Paul E. North Dakota Artists. Grand Forks: University of North Dakota Library, 1954.