Royce Engstrom, UofM President and bluegrass guitar player

Just read n interesting tidbit about new University of Montana President, Royce Engstrom.  He’s a a picker.

quoted from UM’s Engstrom a renaissance man by CHELSI MOY Missoulian The Billings Gazette

..Jack Williams, dean of the college of health sciences at Belmont University in Nashville, Tenn., is a longtime friend.

The families’ kids grew up together. Engstrom and Williams both served as Cub Scout leaders for their sons’ troop, and the men would take their daughters on annual camping trips. The families attended the same church.

Engstrom and Williams both worked at the University of South Dakota and still share a passion for building wooden canoes. Their wives chat often.

Yet seven years of friendship passed before Williams learned that Engstrom played a musical instrument.

“Royce is not one to really talk too much about himself and brag,” Williams said. “I wasn’t active in music, but, with his encouragement, he got me playing again.”

Now, some of Williams’ most fond memories are of the two sitting around a campfire, swapping stories and playing folk and bluegrass music, Engstrom on the guitar and Williams on the standup bass.

A 1904 Morris canoe and the wooden frame of a kayak await completion in the large shop next to the Engstroms’ upper Miller Creek home. Engstrom has built 10 wooden boats, including a rowboat for Mary as an anniversary gift….