Ira Leon Rush was born June 14, 1890, in Bushnell, Illinois to John T. Rush and Ida Mae (Aten) Rush. He was raised in Minot, where he attended the local schools, graduating from Minot High School in 1909. He worked as an architectural drafter until enrolling in the University of Minnesota in 1910, but left the university after a year to return to work. In 1912 he resumed his education at the University of Illinois, graduating in 1915 with a BS in architectural engineering. He then returned to Minot where he opened his own office as an architect.[2][3] Rush practiced architecture in Minot for over thirty years, and won several design competitions for courthouses.[4]
Personal life and death
Rush was married in 1917 to Eula Margaret Brooks of Urbana, Illinois. They had two children: Dorothy, born in 1918, and Ira Leon Jr., born in 1919.[2][3] Rush died in the early morning of May 9, 1949 in an auto accident near Surrey, east of Minot.[1]
Legacy
In 1950 Ira L. Rush Jr. graduated from the University of Minnesota and returned to Minot, where he operated his father's architectural office under his own name into the 1970s.[5]
