Now and Tomorrow: Iowa State Center (1965)

homecoming 1965 will go down as one of the most significant in the history of Iowa State University it had the usual homecoming events the display a queen and of course a football game but it had something more something that marked a new direction for a university world fame for its achievements in technical and agricultural education ground was broken for the multi-million dollar iowa state center for buildings that will sit on 30 acres at the corner of Lincoln Way and beech Avenue just off the southeast corner of the Iowa State University campus it should be completed in 1969 credit for the iowa state center will go to many men in the years to come but in the beginning it was one man one man who had an idea some ten years ago dr. hilton over in these acres now occupied by cattle and animals horses there's going to be a lot of brick and mortar go up here how long is it going to take for the whole thing well of course depends on how rapidly we were able to get the rest of the money needed to finish the center but i would say it would take somewhere between five or six years to have all of the buildings up we start the auditorium this late winter fall axle we'd plan to start at this fall but the architects just simply aren't ready with their plans we will start the auditorium and late winter or early spring and it'll be about two years the time we start before that's ready and then the big Colosseum will take another two and a half years to build the auditorium of course will go right here in this area the little theater over here on this pile up there how is the big Colosseum will go down in this area between here in those woods and the continuing education center up and down this this role here first will be the auditorium then the Coliseum and then I'm not sure yet which of the other buildings will start next but probably will both be started about the same time dr. Hilton what do you think this complex is going to mean for the University and its royal up in the state well we are of course located about the center of the state people can come into our state spend a few hours or a few days very easily and I think it will provide an opportunity for the university to extend its service to all people of Iowa in every imaginable type of discipline that we offer here on the campus but it will do more than that it will provide our students with an opportunity to develop their own talents it was provided an opportunity for the students to see and to observe and to participate in many of the Performing Arts it will provide an opportunity for the staff to enjoy some of the finer things of the cultural center cultural areas of the work of the University and their own interests it will do many things I think will give Iowa State the proper dimension that we do that's the way I felt from the very beginning when you started in the beginning how did you start how do you start a large project like this must seem like a massive almost developer wanting I did I can see the idea then I asked the department of architecture to sketch out a series of buildings and we sketched out an auditorium a Coliseum a continuing education center and a little theater and then in the discussions that ensued for few years after that we we tried out ideas on a round building that did not work and we finally came back to the four units that we have now but to go back that was those with the plans those was he had to have something to look after to portray to the people just what I had in mind and then of course the job was to get some of our prominent alumni boom on who had a real interest in the university who were loyal and who had some funds to help and to sell them on the idea and to convince them that the state had tremendous load to carry financially to provide classroom and laboratory buildings and staff and salaries for staff and that we would have to get this through gifts and grants and bequests once we got that and we got seven or eight or nine to start with and then I think we've moved it up to about 17 and then 28 now we have about sixty one of our throughout the United States well I would imagine you encountered many problems in this whole effort oh yes sure because the problems with these it's a weight of a lot of money why can't the state do it we pay money for taxes and we feel that the support should go on into the private institutions and the nothing against supporting private institutions it was a job to sell the people on the full significance and importance of the project it was a problem to sell the people from whom we have gotten our money the needs for supporting a public university like Iowa State University but they have supported and they've done very well by I met in you're a very proud man of over this whole thing as well very instrumental in the building the planning the course I am very pleased with it but the thing that I appreciate most of all and the thing that everybody must appreciate that we never could have had the center had it not been for these fine alumni who have so unselfishly and it was spent so much of their time helping with the campaign and again I want to pay high tribute to see why Stevens who gave us the first big gift got the program's got the the campaign off the ground Sam Hamilton Harold Brent imported Jarvis I couldn't bill Fisher I could name doesn't go on for a long time yeah well how about the people who will be using the center the students the people of Iowa and everything what will they be seeing here what will they be doing you well of course in the auditorium less the first building will do it will build will be used by the students to staff people in Iowa and they'll have an opportunity to see some of the leading plays in the country's some of the best-known artists the farming artists in the little theater which is the building to go over here the smaller of the four buildings will be primarily for students and their training and developing of their talents it's called it will be called an experimental theatre now the big Colosseum of course will be used by every imaginable group people students the staff the people in Iowa for things like I mentioned earlier in the discussion from commencements Bishop Christmas Festival the music that I suppose in time to come they'll be playing basketball games in this big arena and the continuing education will be used largely by the staff and the general public and let in in keeping their education up to date and keeping their knowledge of today what's a great thing dr. Hilton did you ever worry that maybe it might not happen all there were some tough no I worried about the slowness in which the funds were coming in but I never questioned once we thought we'd have the Senate ground was broken for the center this morning among the speakers was Stanley rediker president of the board of regents stevens and family honored guests it's a great pleasure to be here representing the board of regents and therefore the state of iowa in this fine program is a compliment I guess to know that you considers to be capable of being involved in something of more importance than an Iowa State football game work may be burying the Union through the years the members of your board and people of this state have watched the three institutions which we govern grow in a great many ways one of these of course as you well know is a vast growth in number of students in enrollment along with this it has been very apparent that another type of growth has been very necessary it has become obvious that the university at Iowa City could no longer be a strictly university in the terms of liberal arts that the college at Cedar Falls could no longer be merely a teacher's college and here at Iowa State it is evident that this school can no longer be just a school of scientific and technical bench we have seen that in order to produce the so-called whole man that something else is evidently needed here at Iowa State I think it has been obvious that there has been a an outstripping of social understanding by scientific knowledge fortunately among your people you have those that have been very aware of this obvious need a need for in fact a new dimension in education on this campus it is these two these people that we are attempting to honor today and to these people that the Board of Regents and the state of Iowa are extremely grateful we would like in every way possible to thank those that have given up their time efforts and money in a voluntary way to satisfy this need on this campus thank you very much thank you Miss Redeker we're delighted to have as a new member of the board of governors as he assumed his office of the presidency of the University and to have him as a member of our board of directors and a member of our executive committee dr. w robert parks and already he's made great contributions in our deliberations and were delighted to have him speak on this occasion today dr. Park hamilton de thoresen mrs. Stevens and family students faculty board of governors lum nigh friends viola state I think this covers most everyone I'm sure that by this time on the program most of the important things that can be said about the center and its use to Iowa State have been said I would like to say just one or two things in for emphasis I could not agree more than I do with mr. Thorson who said that we're fortunate at Iowa State those of us who are students faculty members residents of the city of Ames are indeed fortunate to have this wonderful facility come to reality but I've learned from some experience that when we're fortunate there's usually someone who's responsible for it it doesn't often just happen many people are of course responsible for the fact that we're going to have this Iowa State University cultural center I think that we here at the University are extremely grateful and we want to say so here now to the board of governors of the foundation important men and women busy men and women who are willing to take their time and give us their great talent to see the center become a reality for our University I did not have the privilege of knowing well mr. CY Stevens mr. Hilton who did knowing well will speak to this point later but I have been much interested in such a man I still don't know whether he was born with his characteristic whether he acquired in Georgia before he came to iowa state whether we helped to give it to him here or whether this characteristic developed in his association with his wonderful wife and family cy Stevens of all men I have known at all had a genuine humanitarianism about him and we're reaping the results of this here today and in the future there's a man who wanted other people to have the good things which came rather hard for him and he wanted other people to have them with much less effort so they could carry on from there I see that I'm bill to speak on the challenge of excellence I and I assume in connection with the center or maybe they were just looking for a title by this time then he rated my first meeting with the faculty and staff of Iowa State last September my convocation talk I attempted to discuss with my colleagues three goals for the future of Iowa State these were not original I listed them in this order and deliberately the first being that of excellence all of our other work all of our other ambitions come to naught if ever we lose the quality of excellent secondly I listed as mr. Rhett occur as mentioned here in connection with the growth and development of the school the goal of diversity this institution must become is becoming a broad-based University where excellence can come from all places on our campuses surely the science and technologies but also from the humanities and the social sciences and I listed as a third goal for the future that of service to the state this goal as old as iowa state university itself is seems to me as we think about the center the facilities that will afford US that it will help us mightily in achieving all of these goals the facilities here will not only encourage excellence they in fact will demand it will require it of us such fine facilities they will be they will surely add this new dimension or help us continue to add this new dimension and the Performing Arts in the fine arts which Iowa State is interested in achieving the role of diversity the goal of service clearly will be served by the coliseum by the theater auditorium and in particular the continuing education center which will give us a facility to go with our talent and assisting the people of Iowa and the economic and social development of the state I'm afraid I've left my subject maybe I've enjoyed being with you and in behalf of Iowa State University I want to thank everyone who has played such an important role in making this inner reality you give us hope we look to the future with great optimism thank more than 12 years ago just a little more than 12 years ago dr. Hilton came back to this campus as its president the president of this of Iowa State College at that time he planted seeds and nourished them that now have grown flourished and we have a reality many realized that what he had maybe just a dream but with their assistance in his leadership it is where we are today many people of course shared with dr. Hilton the high ideals and objectives for a cultural center for most of course was mr. stephen and i am happy to press to present president emeritus hilton who will pay a special tribute to this one individual and to present our guest of honor mrs. stephen dr. hill president Carson doctor miss parks Lum my students that Friends of the University this is a story of a dream come true hundreds have worked to make it a reality thousands have contributed their names will stand tall in the history of Iowa State and indeed stand tall in the history of all of Iowa and the shadows that will be cast by the work they have done will reach farther into the history than perhaps any of us can even faintly comprehend here today but out of the hundreds who have worked so hard and the thousands who have contributed so much the name of one man stands out among all others that is CY Steve a graduate of Iowa State and one of the great dairy leaders of the dairy industry cy was most was a most remarkable man the story of his arrival on this campus with virtually nothing but a desire for an education followed by his business success his philanthropist is concerned for other people all of these became a tradition within his lifetime of all the remarkable things that this unusual man accomplished doing his life his contributions to the center here at Iowa State may well the capstone of his work it was his original gift to the center plus his untying efforts with others which made groundbreaking possible here today cy summed up his dedication to the center project with these words and they're on your program and they're on this card over I would have liked to write a fine poem or a great book are made a worthy discovery in science but since all of these discoveries have been denied me I shall give as much money as possible to train many others to do these things I would have done see why I can be with us only in spirit today but we are fortunate and highly pleased to have his family with us for this event which will make his name immortal in the history of this institution it is totally fitting that cwise lifetime campaign and one who is also an Iowa State ER should turn the first shovel of dirt in the ceremony down through the years Mary Anne Stephens has shared cwise love and dedication for this university and it is right but the honor of breaking ground for this Center today should be heard Mary Ann maybe you have a few things you'd like thank you dr. Hilton Sam all of you who have spoken for my husband I do thank you and all of you who who are here today it's wonderful to be here we're very happy as a family to be here for this wonderful occasion and when I say we I mean all of the Stevens family you could possibly be here today we are here to stand tall for Steve for an adored father a devoted brother and a respected leader in industry and an education speaking for him now his sentiment is best expressed in the first talks he made for the beginning of the dried before the Ames Chamber of Commerce in january nineteen sixty-two I have taken a few I think three paragraphs from that beat that talks to read to you today tonight I hope to convey to you a part of my sentiment for and my interest in Iowa State University and the Iowa State Standards just to say that my feeling is intense put it mildly my debt of gratitude to Ames is of such magnitude that it can never be fully repaid I say Ames because the University will ever be aims to me and because Ames is the community it is the people and it is the state each played a paramount part in my life i came to iowa state as a timid country boy of the red clay hills of North Georgia Renee to be stowed opportunities Cheerilee my scholastic background was meager the country school was built from donations by the community lumber flavors very little money the timbers were put together with wooden pegs there was no money for nails it was here that I learned to yearn for things beyond the horizon I shall never forget stepping off the early morning train from Chicago here in ames on that wrist September morning in 1920 the air had the feeling of early fall and it smelled fresh and do I was in a new and wonderful land it was high adventure to be so far from home and to be in the middle of the Prairie country I had read and dreamed about this land of broad cornfield black soil was such a contrast to the red hills of North Georgia for most of the land had to be terrorists to keep it from washing away and farming was done with a single mule and a walking plow and at a college where a poor student could earn money for college education where shoddy clothes and still have the respect of everyone the people were a little different from those back homes but they were friendly and considerate I liked them immediately this was the beginning of the four most pleasant and rewarding years of my life silastic requirements seems a little rough but I gradually acquired knowledge and a little ploys and the great appreciation for good music and genetics but most important of all I acquired a world of self confidence with a burning urge to do many things all kinds of things and to do them well this tells the story of my husband it tells a little bit more of the things that were spoken with him I think it said this morning and again i want to say we are so happy to be here today to see his dreams become a reality thank you well mrs. Stephen family please form a circle right around here just in front of these thickness beyond this little pile of dirt ship please stand close together we're now in the position where they are getting prepared now to break the ground by the center dr hilton and mrs. Stevens now have the shovel in a lot of us now I'm mrs. Stevens is preparing to turn the first shovel full of Earth there's so many photographers in front of us that we're having a hard time to see what's going on the crew shovel has been turned mr. Stevens now they are posing for the photographer's the shovel is in the hands of mr. Hamilton and he is presenting it to dr. Kelvin after hilton and mr. Hamill now are opposing with it mr. Hamilton has asked dr. Dalton he returned the second shovel of dirt horse entered a dream for a long time dr. James Hill and president emeritus of Iowa State and now mr. Thorson president of the student body will represent the students in now on time to come and turning the shovel shovel Oh Dave here at the center shop it was a big weekend whether you were a freshman girl having that first homecoming date a football player for the winning cyclones for an institution that was seeing the start of a dream come true it was a little bit of now and tomorrow