Gift Highlights

• Longtime UI benefactors John (1952 B.S.C.) and Mary Pappajohn of Des Moines made a gift of $26.4 million -- the largest single gift commitment ever for the UI from individual Iowa donors -- to establish the Pappajohn Biomedical Institute and support the construction of the John and Mary Pappajohn Biomedical Discovery Building, in which the institute will be housed. Read More...
  
• Almost 34,000 contributors responded to letters, emails, and phone calls from the UI Foundation asking for gifts supporting UI colleges and programs (this figure is in addition to the thousands of loyal Hawkeye athletics supporters who make gifts annually to join the I-Club). These gifts, which provide vital discretionary resources to University, collegiate, and program administrators, totaled more than  $3.3 million.
• Susan G. Nayfield (1972 M.S., 1974 M.D.) of Gainesville, Florida, made a $3 million bequest to support medical education, research, and clinical practice in the UI Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine. Nayfield designated the first $2 million of her gift to endow the Susan G. Nayfield Chair in Geriatrics, which will support a faculty member who leads a distinguished program in geriatric medicine. The remainder of Nayfield’s gift will be added to the Elizabeth Smith Kennedy Faculty Fellowship in Geriatrics.
• The University of Iowa Dance Marathon made a two-year, $1 million gift commitment to University of Iowa Children’s Hospital to support research into pediatric cancer and blood disorders. The gift designates $750,000 for renovation of laboratory space for this purpose in the state’s only comprehensive academic medical center, and $250,000 to create a special research fund. In recognition of the gift, the renovated lab area will be named the UI Dance Marathon Pediatric Cancer and Blood Disorders Research Laboratories.
• Kevin R. (1980 B.B.A.) and Donna Gruneich of Park City, Utah, made a gift of $100,000 to establish the Philanthropic Studies Fund, making the UI home to one of the nation’s first undergraduate programs in philanthropy. The program will be administered by the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, but is an interdisciplinary initiative spanning several UI areas. Its initial curriculum was developed by Richard A. Nelson, a visiting public-relations professor from Louisiana State University who was hired through resources from the Gruneich gift.
  
• With their gift of $209,000, Terry J. (1968 B.S.) and Susan Showers (1967 B.A.) Mulligan of Bonita Springs, Florida, created the first endowed athletic scholarship for the Hawkeye men's swimming and diving team. The Terry and Susan Mulligan Swimming Scholarship will help enhance the future of the UI’s swimming and diving program as it moves into its new home in the Campus Recreation and Wellness Center.
  
• Bonnie J. and Dennis F. Geer (1966 B.B.A.) of Albuquerque, New Mexico, made a bequest of approximately $4.5 million to support various areas of the UI. Portions of their estate will establish the UI-wide Dennis F. and Bonnie J. Geer Scholarship Fund, the Bonnie J. and Dennis F. Geer Research Fund for Pediatric Medicine, and the Bonnie J. and Dennis F. Geer Education Scholarship Fund in the UI College of Education—and a portion will be added to the Tippie College of Business Excellence Fund.
  
• Roger L. Koch (1973 B.S., 1977 B.S.C.E.) of North Miami, Florida, made two $1 million gifts, one of which will support the unrestricted Roger L. Koch Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Advancement Fund in the College of Engineering, and the other to establish the Roger L. Koch Mental Illness Research Fund in the UI College of Engineering, which will support interdisciplinary research in bipolar disorders.
• Among the College of Dentistry alumni who made gifts supporting "Transformation for Tomorrow: The Campaign for the University of Iowa College of Dentistry Building" are Donald C. (1948 B.A., 1950 D.D.S.) and Betty Ostrus of Los Altos, California, who gave $500,000. Several other alumni committed $100,000 each: Terry L. (1972 D.D.S.) and Pamela Hopper of Fort Dodge, Iowa; Robert C. "Bob" Margeas (1986 D.D.S.) of Des Moines; John (1972 B.S., 1975 D.D.S.) and Frankie Olmsted of Greensboro, North Carolina; and Brett L. (1987 D.D.S.) and Lori S. (1987 D.D.S.) Veerman of Verona, Wisconsin.
  
• The College of Public Health received numerous gifts in support of its ongoing campaign, Building Today for A Healthier Tomorrow. John W. (1957 M.A.) and Mary Ann (1957 B.S.N.) Colloton of Coralville, Iowa, made a gift of $100,000 to be used at the discretion of the college’s dean. Richard C. (1980 M.A.) and Peggy L. Breon of Grand Rapids, Michigan, made a gift of $105,000, and Gregs G. and Mettie L. (1997 M.A.) Thomopulos of Iowa City made a gift of $100,000. The Breon and Thomopulos gifts support construction of the college’s new academic facility, currently under way on the UI campus and scheduled for completion in fall 2011.
  
• Russell A. and Ann S. Gerdin of North Liberty, Iowa, made the largest athletic scholarship gift in University history. Their $5 million commitment has established the Russ and Ann Gerdin Family Athletic Scholarship Fund, which will provide multiple scholarships each year for student-athletes in football, men’s and women’s basketball, wrestling, and other men’s and women’s sports on a rotating basis.
  
• The Roy J. Carver Charitable Trust of Muscatine, Iowa, continued its extraordinary support for the University with new grants totaling more than $2.5 million for these UI areas:
  • College of Dentistry
  • College of Education
  • College of Public Health
  • Department of Chemistry in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
  • UI-wide student aid
  • Lakeside Laboratories
  • Office of the Vice President for Research
• ACT, Inc., committed $5 million to endow the ACT Scholars Program at the UI, which will launch a significant, University-wide initiative in support of graduate students—especially those from underrepresented racial and ethnic backgrounds.
• The AEGON Transamerica Foundation committed $1 million over the next two years to support the Emmett J. Vaughan Institute of Risk Management and Insurance in the UI Henry B. Tippie College of Business. The gift will create the AEGON Transamerica Fund for Excellence at the Vaughan Institute to provide for faculty development; research projects; support for student internships, scholarships, conference attendance, and leadership development opportunities; and the institute’s overall program excellence.
• One year after making a historic five-year, $25 million pledge to establish The Fraternal Order of Eagles Diabetes Research Center at The University of Iowa, the Eagles delivered the first $5 million installment in a pre-game ceremony at the Hawkeye football game with Arkansas State University on Saturday, October 3, 2009.
  
• R. Dean Mills (1965 B.A.) and Sue Cornick Mills (1965 B.A.) of Columbia, Missouri, made a bequest of approximately $200,000, of which half will establish the Helene Scriabine Undergraduate Prize in Russian Studies and half will establish the John and Shirley Harrison Prize in Journalism, both to support international travel opportunities for students in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.
• Molly A. Osterhaus Whitmore (1984 B.S.N.) and Robert “Bob” W. Whitmore (1986 B.S.E.) of Minneapolis made a $1 million gift to fund the Ponseti International Association.  The association will train health-care professionals worldwide to use the clubfoot treatment known as the Ponseti method, a low-cost, non-surgical, and highly effective treatment developed by Ignacio V. Ponseti, a UI professor emeritus in the UI Carver College of Medicine, who died in 2009 at the age of 95 after almost 70 years of service to the University.
  
• A gift of $1 million from the estate of Herman J. “Herm” Schmidt (1938 B.A.) of Greenwich, Connecticut, will establish the Herman J. and Eileen S. Schmidt Chair, an endowed position in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences that will support a faculty member, in any one of the college’s departments, who demonstrates an emphasis on teaching undergraduates.
  
• Ronnie Lester (1981 B.G.S.) of Manhattan Beach, California, made a $100,000 gift to support the Carver-Hawkeye Arena Enhancements Campaign. A former All-American UI basketball player and the current assistant general manager of the Los Angeles Lakers, Lester asked the UI Department of Intercollegiate Athletics to name the training room at the remodeled Carver-Hawkeye Arena in honor of longtime UI athletic trainer John Streif (1970 B.S.) of Iowa City.
  
• Barbara Csomay (1956 M.A.) of Kanawha, Iowa, made a more than $2.2 million gift commitment in support of the UI College of Nursing’s gerontology program. The commitment will establish the Barbara and Richard Csomay Center for Gerontological Nursing Excellence, as well as the Barbara and Richard Csomay Doctoral Scholarship, the Barbara and Richard Csomay Gerontological Nurse Practitioner Scholarship, and Barbara and Richard Csomay Doctorate of Nursing Practice Scholarship, and the Barbara and Richard Csomay Scholarship in Gerontology.

John and Mary Pappajohn

Kevin Gruneich

Terry and Susan Showers Mulligan

Bonnie and Dennis Geer

Donald and Betty Ostrus

John Colloton

Russ and Ann Gerdin

The Fraternal Order of Eagles

Molly and Robert Whitmore

Herman J. 'Herm' Schmidt

Ronnie Lester