"There Comes a Time in Everyone’s Life..."

Ellen (Molleston) Walvoord had two loves during her years at Iowa State — journalism and music. Now retired from a position as senior vice president of Chicago’s Abbott Laboratories, Ellen and her husband, Tom, a former senior vice president of Northern Trust, are actively working to help secure Iowa State’s future.

The two 1961 graduates (Ellen in home economics journalism and Tom in agriculture) have made lifetime gifts and commitments of more than $1 million to Iowa State, and they continue to give of their time and resources to the university they love.

Ellen was a rehearsal accompanist for Iowa State Singers during her college years, and she took piano lessons from the age of 6 with Ira Schroeder, music department faculty member, renowned recitalist and ISU’s longest tenured carillonneur. “My years of interactions with Ira and later Bob McCowen, who headed choral music, are among the highlights of my memories at Iowa State. I could see that their roles were significant and that they were extremely competent.”

Ellen was also managing editor of the Iowa State Daily while in college, a job she found all-consuming and extremely valuable. “Managing the Daily prepared me for my professional life more than anything else,” she says. “I’ve appreciated the journalism school and its faculty very much.”

As a result, the Walvoords have made numerous cash and deferred gifts to the music and theatre department and to the Greenlee School of Journalism over the years. Ellen also is leading an effort to establish a fund in honor of her sorority Kappa Alpha Theta. Although now in the beginning stages, the fund will eventually become a vehicle through which others can invest in Iowa State. “It’s appealing to me to continue to explore and discover other opportunities that match interests and my experience,” she says.

Right now her interests are directed toward helping Campaign Iowa State reach its financial goals. She is a member of the executive campaign committee, and she expects to lend her experience and capabilities to that effort. “I feel strongly about making connections with other alumni,” she says. “There are so many thousands of alumni and friends of the university who don’t live in Iowa, and it takes an extra effort to meet them; but the payoff is high for everyone!”

Few have worked as hard as Ellen to learn about the Iowa State University of today and to discover where she and Tom can be helpful. “I’m far from an expert,” she says, “but everything I see gives me confidence in investing in Iowa State. It’s well run, it’s efficient and it’s very healthy. Tom and I want to help ensure that it remains so.” Besides, Ellen says, “it’s where I learned to play the piano, learned to manage, to lead, where I met my dearest friend, where I met my husband. There comes a time in everyone’s life when you say ‘this is when I have to give back.’”