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OPPORTUNITIES

Highlights on Giving

Faculty and Research

Roy J. Carver Charitable Trust Supports Multiple UI Colleges

The Roy J. Carver Charitable Trust in Muscatine, Iowa, the University of Iowa’s top donor, continues to make a major impact on research and discovery at the UI. In addition to its ongoing support for the University of Iowa Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine, the Carver Trust supports a number of research initiatives in other UI colleges.

This year, the Carver Trust committed more than $2.2 million to the following projects: $819,786 to the UI College of Engineering to develop a medical device design laboratory in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, $339,958 for the UI College of Liberal Arts and Sciences for the Genome Learning Center in Biology and to assist in the development of an instructional laboratory in the Department of Chemistry, $163,811 for the UI College of Education for research on college readiness and educational skills assessment, and $958,987 to the UI College of Dentistry and Dental Clinics for a research biorepository for oral health and disease and a dental and bone health study.

UI Alumnus Creates Professorship

Rodolfo N. Perez, Jr., M.D., and Margaret B. Perez, of Boulder, Colorado, have committed $1.5 million to create the Rodolfo N. Perez Jr., M.D., and Margaret B. Perez Professorship in Ophthalmology Education in the University of Iowa Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine. The professorship will support, in perpetuity, a distinguished member of the department’s faculty. The current holder is Thomas A. Oetting, M.D., who is the director of the Ophthalmology Residency Training Program, deputy director of the VA Medical Center Surgical Service and clinical professor in the department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences. Dr. Perez completed his residency and fellowship at the UI in 1977.

Gift Supports Young Driver Safety Program

The Iowa Farm Bureau Federation made a $25,000 gift to support faculty research and community outreach in the University of Iowa College of Public Health Injury Prevention Research Center. The gift, which was directed toward the center’s Young Drivers Safety Program, enhanced efforts to communicate safe driving habits for teens in rural Iowa.

Scholarships

UI Alumni Create Engineering Scholarship

Kwang Kuk and Kook-Wha K. Koh have made a $100,000 gift to enhance the Kook-Wha and Kwang Kuk Koh Engineering Scholarship, which the couple created in 2009. The scholarship is awarded annually to deserving undergraduate students in the University of Iowa Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering. The Kohs live in Northville, Michigan, and both received Ph.D. degrees from the University of Iowa, Kook-Wah in 1970 and Kwang Kuk in 1968.

Minnesota Couple Creates Fellowship Fund

Lawrence E. Sheets (1966 B.S.E.E., 1968 M.S.) and Susan J. Sheets (1968 B.A.), of Saint Paul, Minnesota, have made a $500,000 bequest to benefit students in the University of Iowa College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. The Lawrence E. Sheets and Susan J. Sheets Graduate Fellowship Fund will provide annual awards for up to two graduate students in the Department of Computer Science.

Social Justice Scholarship Honors Former UI Student

University of Iowa students who demonstrate a commitment to the principles of social justice and progress will benefit from a new scholarship fund that was created by David F. McCartney and James A. Petersen, of Iowa City. The couple has committed $25,000 to create the Stephen Lynn Smith Social Progress and Justice Scholarship Fund in honor of former UI student Stephen Smith, who McCartney says demonstrated a strong commitment to his own principles during the civil rights movement and the Vietnam War in the 1960s.

Alumnus Creates Pharmacy Scholarship

Future University of Iowa College of Pharmacy students will benefit from a $100,000 bequest made by UI alumnus Jerry Holmes (1996 Pharm.D.). The Dr. Jerry Holmes Scholarship Fund will support students in the college who demonstrate financial need. Dr. Holmes lives in Collierville, Tennessee.

UI Libraries Staff Makes Donation for Students

Each fall, many University of Iowa faculty and staff make donations to support the UI through We Are Phil, the annual giving program for employees. This year, UI Libraries employees made donations totaling $7,315 to create a new Libraries Student Employee Scholarship Fund. This new scholarship will support students who are employed by the UI Libraries.

Programs

Hawkeye Fans Create Excellence Fund

Patricia and Micheal Beal, of Iowa City, have made a $220,000 commitment to support the University of Iowa women’s basketball team. By naming the University of Iowa Foundation as the beneficiary of one of Patricia’s retirement assets, the couple will create the Patricia L. and Micheal A. Beal Women's Basketball Excellence Fund. Their generous gift will provide unrestricted support for the team at the discretion of the head coach and athletic director.

Hancher Receives Musical Gift

Richard J. Gloss (1975 B.M., 1978 M.F.A.) and Hal M. Ide (1979 M.A., 1982 M.F.A.), of Iowa City, made a $50,000 commitment to support the purchase of a Steinway grand piano for Hancher Auditorium. Donald W. Heineking (1958 B.S.C.), also of Iowa City, made a $40,000 gift toward the effort to honor Mr. Gloss and Mr. Ide, who were both longtime Hancher Box Office employees.

Gloss and Ide, who recently retired, were able to accompany Hancher Executive Director Chuck Swanson on a trip to the Steinway & Sons factory in New York City to help select the piano that will reside in the rebuilt auditorium, which opened this fall.

Former Patient Gives to the Caring Fund

Bruno Wildeboer, of Clayton, Iowa, has made gifts totaling more than $7,000 to the Caring Fund in gratitude for lifesaving care that he received at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. Gifts to the Caring Fund help ensure that UI patients and their families receive top-quality care and services by providing hospitality services to families in our intensive care waiting rooms, patient library services, and staff education—all focused on improving the patient and family experience.