A ceremonial unveiling of a portrait honoring Dr. W. Robert Parks and Dr. Ellen Sorge Parks

good evening what a glorious spring evening this is and it's a time that I think I hope you will enjoy as much as I know I will in honoring two very special people that I think all of you know and have enjoyed over the years and the importance of them to this institution in this library it's so dramatic when I look at the outpouring of people who have come to this very special event and I am very proud that I can be a small part of bringing the honor that we would like to bring upon dr. W Robert parks and dr. Ellen Sorge parks this evening thank you again for coming this event is also a milestone in a very important program on campus and it's one I think you've all enjoyed but you may not know its name and it's called art on campus collection and it's a program that goes back maybe not in a formal sense but certainly goes back to the founding of this university and the design of this wonderful campus in the mid 30s and 5th to the 50s we had celebrated artists like Grant Wood in competing Christian Petersen who enriched our surroundings and fortunately the state of Iowa saw fit to start a program called Iowa art and state buildings and we were also very fortunate on campus through the vision of dr. parks to create what we call the university museums and because of both that program and the planning and the programming of the university museums art continues to flourish at Iowa State this portrait that you will be seeing this evening is the latest in this meg collection a collection I might also add with great enthusiasm is well represented in the parks library you see this late this beautiful mural over here by Doug Shelton unlimited possibilities is a striking example of the energy that we have on art on this campus and how much it grows with us as a community and of course behind us or Christian wood murals is designed by Grant Wood and again it takes us back to the 1930s this room also is a collection it also has a major collection of portraits of university presidents and again that's also part of the of the art on campus collection this is also especially meaningful event to the University Library and its staff whom I representing this evening as this evening honors and celebrates two individuals of great significance to us we are extremely pleased to join you in this historic event in being the first to view what will be a treasured representative representation of two individuals so prominent in the history of this library before I proceed with some some additional remarks I would like to take this opportunity to thank some a few individuals who are into were responsible for making this event possible but before I do quite that I'd also I'd like to thank dr. parks and his family for their wonderful enthusiasm for this project and his entire family is here this evening and I'm just delighted that you all were able to come the colleagues that I would like to mention to you are from the University museums and the library and if you wouldn't mind standing when I'm mention your name and again this list is not long but I really want you to see the people in addition to me who helped make this possible first and most importantly Lynette Pullman Lynetta as I'm sure you know was the director of university museums so I was bragging about how we all benefit from what Lynette brings to her position in what the university museums do for us she was an adventurous partner she had wonderful guidance and support she had infectious enthusiasm and an energetic and professional attention to all the aspects of this important Commission Dana Michaels is also here I believe and Dana's the curatorial assistant with university museums and she was instrumental in identifying potential artists for Lynette and me to consider and to all the aspects and details of the actual commission so Thank You Dana we had a very important committee made up of library staff who were responsible for planning this event and I would first like to mention Rick McCants who is behind you so it may be kind of hard for you to see him but Rick is the director of development for the library and he chaired this events committee and we had some tirelessly working people on this committee and if you could please stand Tanya's anich Belcher Edward get acun I just waved to you Kelly more John Mueller Nick Ausmus Wayne Peterson and Chris Sarah thank you all and thanks also to all the rest of the library staff who helped with this event as I look back on the time in which dr. Parkes was president and I was here in some fashion through all those years and it was a wonderful time as I'm sure for those of you were here remember it was a time of growth for this university we truly became a university but most importantly for me for this evening is what this library became while president parks served as our leader this library grew physically we had two additions added onto it in 1967 and then again in 1983 when dr. Parkes became president we had 9,000 journals and I'm sure at the time we thought that was a lot you may think it's a lot but believe me it isn't a lot we now have over to when dr. parks retired as president we had over 20,000 journals what that represents is a growth primarily in the research mission of the university since since journals and serials are the most important part of communicating in a very rapid way but also just as importantly to this collection was our book collection and we added over 1 million books to this building as collections during his presidency these are significant to us as we try to manage the collection and they are also in a sense rather dry statistics but most important is the sense of vision of what this library became it went from I would say probably a rather ordinary university or college library and at the end of dr. Parkes as president we were truly amateur major research library that I would stand would say that we can match any could match any research library in the country he also had the vision of powering very good people around him and one of which was after two years of a presidency Warren BQ as the director of this library and they shared a vision of what this library could be and certainly that vision became reality so to end my remarks in terms of what dr. Parkes and Ellen meant to us is that it was not only of course just statistics but it was also a sense of vision and importance of place ellen was one of the most enthusiastic users of this library and many of us who worked and worked all through those years of dr. Parkes his presidency knew her by sight she had the most energetic step you could imagine and she was just so enthusiastic and you know she could just make you smile the instant you saw her she loved this building she loved the collections but she was more than a user she also decided what she thought we should buy and how wonderful because she had an intense curiosity at in all things for those of you who knew her and her sense of scholarship was very important to her so she would write notes to the history bibliography and she would let him know or her know what she thought we should buy and so not only our collections grown but they were also enriched of with her role in how we are as a library in what we have in our collections I'd like to thank a number of you because I recognize a number of you and I know a number of you many of you contributed to the Ellen Sorge Parks Memorial Fund for four books and we have over the past nine been buying books from that collection from the from the donations that you gave in her name at some point this evening I do hope that you come over to this side of this room before or after the reception and take a look at some of the books that we have bought so you can tell that we have treasured and done a good job we've had good stewardship with the money that you gave in Ellen's name and so she lives in another way in our collections as well shortly after I became dean Lynette I don't know if she does this with all administrators but she sort of took me on a tour of the library and we looked at the art and we went through this room and then we went outside those doors and we supposed and looked at that magnificent portrait of dr. Parkes and she reminded me that that portrait was part of the presidential series and there for some reason that series ever left we wouldn't have that portrait that won't happen I assure you in our lifetimes but that in reality there was never a portrait done that represented the two individuals for whom this building is named most people think that that is a portrait that not only recognizes dr. Parkes as president but also in terms of the naming of the building this topic can come up before it was not new but and in fact Dilys Morris had brought this to the library's attention several years before and you know how days are busy and things get lost and but dhola's never forgot it and certainly Lynette never forgot it and I was immediately drawn in to the enthusiasm that both of them had on the need to have a portrait that commemorated both Ellen and dr. Parkes in their contributions to the library so we worked fast we had a trip up to mini-putt to st. Paul we had looked at portfolios of a number of artists and decided that there was really only one that we thought could do justice to these two special people and we took the portfolio over to dr. parks and his daughter Cindy looked at them as well and they agreed that it looked like this artist could probably do it so in the winter Dana and Lynette and I drove up to st. Paul and we met Curt Anderson and it was a joy to meet him and everything from his portfolio showed in terms of the work that he had in his studio so to make a long story short in that aspect we asked Curt if he would consider painting this portrait and he very happily said he would this now leads me to a more formal introduction of the artist Curt Anderson who has a few remarks that he would like to share with you Curt is a nationally recognized painter of portraits still lifes landscapes and figurative work he has exhibited in galleries around the country from New York to Carmel California and his Commission's have ranged from book covers to portraits of corporate presidents he has exhibited in numerous museum shows and has received numerous and received many important awards including the Stacey foundation scholarship for artists Kurt is the author of realistic oil painting techniques which has been for those of you who know something about painting portraits a major seller on the subs on this subject nationally and also won a prize for the 1996 Minnesota Book Award please join me in welcoming Kurt Anderson Thank You Olivia there's clearly a great tradition of here at Iowa State University of art patronage and acquisition and I consider a real honor to be Dubya chosen to paint this portrait and to have it displayed amongst so many great and significant works of art I also consider it a real honor to have been asked to be the one to create a a visual statement about the legacy of dr. and Ellen parks it's it's a responsibility I haven't taken lightly I have to tell you that when Olivia showed me where this portrait was gonna hang which is right out in the lobby area of the library facing the entrance I was amazed I realized that it was going to be a central location in this university that the library is after all probably the most central building in the university it's the building that most people who work and study here use and nrn more often than any other single building and for students it's probably their their home away from home in terms of study so the library I realized was going to create for this painting a very central location in the heart of this university and it meant that I had to create a painting that was worthy of that central location and that as well as being living up to the legacy of Robert and Ellen parks you were so central to the the contemporary history versity it was decided early on because Ellen wasn't able to pose for this portrait it was decided that we would that I would portray the parts at an earlier stage in their lives but I did get the opportunity to to draw dr. Parkes I actually came up they came down to Ames and he posed for a brief session and I did am a charcoal and chalk study was actually in a room right over here it turned out that the typing room had a nice high north facing window and so we kicked the typist out and were able to use that as a studio for a day and that was that was very important it was it was very valuable for me to be able to to get to know dr. Parkes and and it was a real pleasure to I would have enjoyed doing the entire portrait there and I also have to say that that that session gave me some some idea of how important the parts have been to the to the history and to the to the current makeup of this university when I came up here to I spent the the night at the Union and I saw the paper the next morning and they were running a series on the history of Iowa State University and it just so happened that day that they they were talking about the student unrest during the Vietnam War and what the article made clear was that dr. Parkes was was unique among university presidents in his ability to to talk to the students and to communicate and to to to deal with that situation making Iowa State University unique among universities and avoiding the sort of violence and student strikes that was happening in the universities all around the country so I asked dr. Parkes about that and got to know a little bit more about about his career here and how the university had grown exponentially under his leadership and for instance how it was under his leadership that a fine arts and studio arts program was started here so I have some idea of how this portrait is going to be seen on so many different levels by those of you who are part of the life of this University and have been part of it so recent history but I'd also like to tell you a little bit about what I was trying to bring to this portrait as the painting began to evolve on the canvas and I would come every day to my studio to paint and I would find myself looking into the eyes of Ellen and on more than one occasion I found myself talking to her and unburdening tore some of the the issues of my life and I think it was because she seemed to be the sort of person you could do that with and I think I saw in in Ellen and Robert parts perhaps a bit of my own idealized idealized vision of parents or grandparents and and I I think I brought that to bear in the painting so I you know I'm hoping that that this painting will bring sort of a familial presence to thee to this the heart of this university most most students who are here have only recently left their homes have only recently left their families and are on their own for the first time in their lives and it's kind of my hope that as they walk past this portrait or look up at it from their studies they'll feel sort of the kind sympathetic solicitous presence of a parent or a grandparent so that's that's one thing I was trying to bring to bear to this portrait but what's what's really most important to me but what I really hope is that dr. parks and his family and all those of you who have been close to them will will like this thing and will will feel that this is a fitting tribute to their lives and their legacy thank you thank you very much the next part of the program in our honoring of dr. Robert parks and dr. Ellen Sorge parks is for president just II just get to come and give some remarks of his own it is my distinct honor to introduce dr. jiske he's 13th president of Iowa State University while there have been many changes in higher education in Iowa state since dr. Park stepped down from his presidency fourteen years ago I believe that there are core institutional values that remain and they even go back to the very beginnings of this institution we are a land-grant institution and as such the state of Iowa has entrusted this institution to educate its youth encourage them to be lifelong learners as well as to help ensure that each generation of Iowans enjoys an enriched quality of life and environment as well as economic prosperity president jiske I believe has continued this rich legacy with the entire university community and it's embraced these responsibilities with passion and vigilance dr. Jesse thank you Thank You Olivia isn't it fitting that the person who is welcoming us tonight and who is now in charge of this incredible knowledge resource that our library is one of the many many very successful people who attended Iowa State between 1965 and 1986 in Olivia's case is a young student but many others who are now in positions of enormous responsibility not only here at this university but throughout the world it's very very fitting indeed there are literally thousands indeed tens of thousands of people who are products of a very special time at Iowa State a time we now all know as the parks years earlier today we celebrated the 100th birthday a 100th birthday on the campus it was the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the construction of Marston Hall and at that birthday celebration I reflected back on the contributions to Iowa State events and Marsden for whom Marston Hall was named and I made the comment that the time when Marsden came to Iowa State in the early 1890s was very much of a golden age for this institution I truly believe it was it was the beginning of this new land grant colleges programs they were being shaped in people like n stand Marston and Charles Curtis and Lewis Pamela among others who came at that time played a major role in building a foundation for the programs in agriculture and engineering that enabled them to achieve national and international prominence I also noted at this celebration that this era of Marston and Curtis was not I was States only golden age there have been others and at least two come to mind one is the era of the night forties and fifties that was defined by Iowa states big three and science Frank Spedding Henry Gilman and J lush all members of the National Academy of Science is absolutely extraordinary for such a small college at that time and the other golden era without question absolutely without question is that era I referred to as the Parkes years the presidency of dr. W Robert parks it's conventional to say that almost any record can be broken and of course we recently witnessed that in baseball with Roger Maris and then both Sosa and McGwire not just breaking a record and but shattering it and so records are made to be broken at least in baseball but I want to say as one of dr. parks successors I'm here to tell you that his record of 21 years as president of this University may be more difficult to break than McGwire 70 home runs I don't think I will do it but what makes the parks era the parks years so significant indeed a golden era is not just the span of years but what occurred during those years the record is absolutely remarkable and I must tell you as someone who is one of dr. parks successors I'm absolutely dumbfounded marvel at what happened nearly half the physical campus we now know as Iowa State was built during the term of his presidency the College of Veterinary Medicine the football field the Iowa State Center which in many ways is the physical representation of the coming of age of Iowa State as a university major academic buildings enrollment almost double three of the eight colleges of Iowa State were formed there was a tremendous growth in the humanities and the enrollments of the program offerings and I would the state developed academically into a university and it was during the first years I understand that Iowa State went to its only football bowl games four times some of us are quite envious of this although I also happen to know that the Cyclones didn't win any conference basketball titles during that time either all of this and much more including expansion of research and outreach programs residence halls student services all of this occurred during the Parkes years making it without question the most expansive period in Iowa State's history in terms of facilities in terms of students faculty and staff and in terms of expanding our academic programs search programs the cultural life of this institution it will surely be forever known as the time when Iowa State came of age as a university there's another aspect of the parks era that makes it particularly significant and special to the Iowa State University family this was not a parks singular but a parks plural era there was dr. parks the presidents of Iowa State and right alongside and I understand sometimes in front was dr. parks the first lady of Iowa State Ellen Sorge parks was an accomplished and gifted scholar in her own right but she gave up would would have been undoubtedly remarkable and outstanding career as a teacher scholar and researcher to become a partner in the team of dr. and dr. parks that was to lead Iowa State University for twenty-one years she served as wife and mother first and foremost but also a very very gracious University first lady and as we have heard a strong advocate for some of the university's most important programs and services especially this library and because they made such a great team it is altogether fitting not only that this facility be named for both of them as in the W Robert parks and Ellen Sorge parks library but that there be a portrait of this remarkable gifted and wonderful couple placed prominently in this facility the academic heart of this university they devoted so much of their lives to in which they led to unprecedented levels of excellence the entire university community and family one that as you all know extends literally to all the corners of our globe felt a great loss when Ellen parks passed away last year and we continue to express our condolences to Bob and to your family we miss her as well but the people who knew Ellen well including a great many of the people here tonight tell me she would want this party to go on and for it to be a good one a happy one so from all of your many friends and colleagues and the many thousands indeed tens of thousands of students who became products of the parks years we express our deepest and most sincere appreciation to this team this team of dr. and dr. parks the architects and builders of one of Iowa State's golden ages thank you sir well fonts the first of all I want to pay my great respect to two people Annette and then Olivia for and this should be a great night for you because by George I think you really did it you and I'm sure it wasn't all that easy but we do appreciate it very much and dr. disky you also have a few words for you first I could have done all right in athletics if I could have just put my hands on a few more jobs there was Mari John Johnny boy and Johnny majors we did all we could and I want to say this in serious mood for the doctor jiske and Patti that Ellen and I have always appreciated their thoughtfulness and their kindness and how they treated this and actually they did they added something to this old tradition of communication between the present residents and the old residents because they started I suppose they're still doing calling the place our place because we live there so long I suppose your place they always said I can remember patty here calling Ellen up several times saying Ellen would you come over and see what we're doing to your place internally and so forth and she did but do you know that really was just a pretty sentiment sentiment because actually it wasn't done because there's no way the doctor disky the personnel that he has a strong strong personality and awesome power could ever pull it off because he couldn't he shouldn't he couldn't and he wouldn't change the ownership of that board that house really and the reason I know that it never got changed is that in all the ten years that they have lived in our house I have yet to see a rental check coming in but I really know mine matter of fact they don't give up completely because you know when it rains it's poor so it might be just a possibility outside possibility and I might get my check on the very day that it's announced that I won the jackpot we'll see anyway we'll remain friends now Kurt once there were two about Kirk here I had intended to say more actually well we have some personal relationship we shared the same boss his mother was also one of my bosses on the Board of Regents she was a good one a pig was a very good one and but jump and she their homework she was one thing she was never showed any personality partiality a1 university over the other two and believe me they were watched for that sort of thing she supported the university but she was no rubber stamp you could always hear Peg's voice and curt tells me he could hear a voice - for a long time I was going to say some more blow his horn a little bit more but that work he's done but I decided but all the oohs and ahhs that he got maybe I wouldn't do that because I started worrying whether Olivia and Lynette we're actually good enough business people to sign that guy - a real fixed contract when he when he took his commission because you know artists are not supposed to care for money but you know his appraise goes up sometimes - the price goes up also well enough of this get down to business if if Ellen could be here tonight oh god I wish I wish this could be but if she could be here tonight she wouldn't be pleased with everything I think no I don't know what I that's a little modifier that I put on the end of it but it has meaning I'm gonna ask my two daughters here Andrea and Cynthia to back me up in this because I put in that modification that condition is that Ellen absolutely did not like to have her picture taken am i right see you see your hand she did not like that and it became we knew it all the time because when we somebody tried to take her picture did get a grimace or say get the heck out of here and go away something like that but it came to us really very forcefully when Bob Underhill I see sure tonight Bob Underhill was doing this biography which did I think raised some interest locally called alone among friends and he in the press base very much wanted some good pictures of Ellen because absolutely she was the one among friends who was most alone with me and they wanted some good pictures of her but then the institutional pictures were there of course the pictures that are taken when your virtual ladies so-called there were good pictures and happily so because that was one of them right there from which Curt did his wonderful work but what they really wanted something she had a life of her own beyond that and they wanted pictures some meaningful some good pictures of her as a part of that life something that told some stepping stones as you could believe in her life because there were many good ones but actually we we tried to do the best we could for Bob so our daughters the two of us the three of us the girls now I went down to the basement looked off those old shoe boxes where we had pictures stored and we found out really worked there really weren't any good pictures taken by a capable of our photographer of those years there were lots of pictures to be sure but they were all sort of you know build two-by-four pictures really sort of candid camera shot because that's the only kind you could get to her and they were very redundant very repetitive there are quite a bit of those but they were very repetitive because they most of all them were done in two different around different places and on different occasions when I'm one of them was great many pictures from our son during a summer vacation in Cape Cod which he liked very much and she'd be sitting on the beach there battling under her umbrella and it was easy after all access to the cake to the book to the beach was free be easy to slip up and take a picture although she might at that time put her big floppy hat over her face but one thing see more likely to do is try to cover herself with a beach towel because if there's anything she did not want was have her picture taken on swimsuit and distributed here and there forever another another cage in the second one which is really important in a picture you could see it over and over again I say it was redundant whose really repetitive because the same thing happened year after year but that this it was a tradition which I'm sure familiar to most of you Christmas morning now on Christmas morning these things happen first thing whoever was a youngest grandchild that happened to be ill at Caroline there for some time I had the job of getting all the old folks out of bed before they wanted to get out of bed but then we assembled in the living room where the Christmas tree was located and we started opening the packages and our sons-in-law Doug man howling and David elephant here seemed to take that as a clarion call to start taking pictures right in the lab which they did and in that day they were mostly interested of course they're mostly interested in taking pictures their own kid to see what they didn't said but they took one or two of grandparents to which we submitted to but the whole thing I want to say here is that Ellen was excessively modest about how she looked in pictures and she didn't like to have them taken but you can't say it wouldn't be right to say in there many people in this audience who would correct me you can't say that she was equally modest and all other things because she was darn smart and she knew it she didn't flaunt it at least not very much but there are people who were witness to her wide store of knowledge I see Jean Peters him back there and he'll roy members of our book club Judy and Dave Hoffman and Gillian Dave Wilson all the members of our book club and they knew that Ellen was there well what she really was what she really was a servant in an encyclopedia in residence because most of the questions that were more they turn to her particularly questions having to do with English history which job some people thought she must have done her graduate work in that field actually true she didn't do it that way because she only had one what we call it structured instruction in English history which was a survey course as an undergrad at the University of Wisconsin but that must have planted the seed that martin indicated there I went because she kept building books after books in that field until she had according to Warren Kuhn what a really fine collection of of English letters and and and wit and tapes and Will's now the what I guess I'm trying to say is it Ellen carried an awful lot of information around in her head she seemed to remember just about everything had happened she could remember when she what she read what she heard where she was where she'd been and that sort of thing and where she didn't go where it wasn't and that was fine I enjoyed that but the frightening part is she remembered the same thing about me is she remembered about herself so I think it could be reasonably stated that to live with someone who has that kind of ammunition ready to fire at any time as short of a job it's sort of a trial but I'll say this if it was a trial we managed for 59 good years and I'd much rather live with that trial than to try to make a life without it now I started off by saying that Ellen would be pleased if she could be here god I wish and I do but I think was the qualification now all things considered we'd have to really change that opening statement of this saying if Ellen could be here she would be pleased with everything I'm pretty sure of it because of this sort of things these sort of things all things considered number one is Ellen was a very considerate person she appreciated things that people did for her or with her and oftentimes this became really the base of forming of friendships many of the people here and also the basis for her friendship developing with the wide diversity of people now secondly about the portrait itself although she didn't like her picture taken she liked it because what's not to like about it and she'd probably say I'm sure she would she talked to say was flattered her but you know I can live with that because in my book if an artist if an artist can't produce a portrait which looks a little better than the person in real life far as I'm concerned that artist should cut his fees and half or perhaps she's looking for another job another thing that makes me sure that she would like everything here tonight beside the appreciation for those who did this was the and her another fantasy about Ellen in the portrait I can just see some that afternoon she would get the keys to the car if she could find them and she would say to me Bob I'm gonna be gone for a while because I'm gonna stop off at the library in order to see what's what's new in the reading room the leisure reading room and of course to get to the leaders the reading room you'd have to go right by that picture and matter of fact I believe we're where we leave you intends to hang it you'd have to go right by that portrait to get anywhere in the library so she would stop them take a look at it I'm sure another thing that I think she would like and this sounds a little self-serving but I do think she would appreciate us joining together in this picture just as it meant so very much to her to have our names joined together on the front of this building engraved in concrete no less but and as I look at this portrait I considered to be Ellen's portrait it's the only one she had taken whereas my likeness it's scattered around recent years it started disgusting this was her this was her and another thing I'm sure she would like about the portrait is that it is to be placed permanently in the library the place she was very simple so very fond of and finally you know this has to be a sentimental occasion and I think Ellen would be very glad indeed all the members of her family could be here for this which may indeed be the last round of the last opportunity that all of us will have in public to say what Ellen was who she was and how very much she meant to us so in conclusion I want to say on Ellen's behalf on the half of the half of the family and myself that we do appreciate what's been done we sincerely do appreciate that um that everybody whoever did everything to make this occasion happen thank you thank you so much dr. Parkes that was a wonderful tribute to a woman who meant so much to all of us in this room and thank you for sharing her with us everyone who comes into this building will see two individuals who are so honored in this community so please accept my heartfelt thanks for coming this evening and I look forward to having you cool off downstairs and I hope to see and say hello to you downstairs and thank you again