Inside Iowa State: Iowa State University

INSIDE IOWA STATE
March 1, 2002

Alumnus endows engineering post

by Skip Derra
A $500,000 gift from Willard (W.A.) and Leitha Richardson, Omaha, will endow a faculty professorship in electrical and computer engineering in the College of Engineering. "Our goal is for this professorship to help Iowa State attract an excellent professor and keep that person at the university," W.A. Richardson said.

Richardson graduated from Iowa State in 1934, and in 1937 began a 41-year career with HDR Inc., an architecture and engineering consulting firm headquartered in Omaha. He was named vice president, secretary and treasurer in 1946 and executive vice president and treasurer in 1950. He retired in 1977 as senior vice president and partner.

The department of electrical and computer engineering is one of Iowa State's largest, with more than 1,400 undergraduate students and nearly 330 graduate students.

The Richardsons' gift is part of Iowa State's Investing in People initiative, a two-year, $50 million effort to raise private funds for undergraduate scholarships, graduate fellowships and faculty support.

The Richardsons have supported numerous Iowa State programs, including National Merit scholarships and Team PrISUm, the university's solar car project.