Current position: Member, Meardon, Sueppel & Downer P.L.C., Iowa City

Past leadership positions: President, UI Student Council; President, Central Party & Entertainment Committee; Vice President, Union Board

Class: 1961 B.A. Political Science

What are some of your fondest memories from college and your student leader position?

As a freshman I was appointed to the Legislative Affairs Committee of the Student Council. The Governor had recently vetoed a capital appropriations bill for the Regents’ institutions, and I was in charge of organizing a panel to communicate to students and others the need for capital improvements. We spoke to numerous student groups and some legislators, and this was a great opportunity to learn about the costs and funding of UI. When I was President the voting age was still 21, and the Big Ten student governments jointly organized a mock Presidential election in 1960. The outcome was Nixon 10, Kennedy 0. I periodically ask people to guess how that came out, and no one has yet gotten the correct answer!

What lessons from your UI leadership position were most relevant to your career life after college?

Being able to work cooperatively with other people to accomplish common objectives; recognition that many people have good ideas; the importance of compromise, of listening, and of attempting to really “hear” what others are saying.

If you could give current UI student leaders one piece of advice, what would it be?

Be true to yourself, follow your own moral compass, use your own best judgment, but be willing to admit mistakes. I try to always keep in mind a quote from Oliver Cromwell, that I first heard from the late President Freedman, that ends with the words “Think it possible that you may be mistaken.”