Posted May 1, 2001

IOWA CITY -- Two gifts totaling $610,000 from a trust established by the late Ida P. Haller will provide increased support for teaching, research and patient care in child psychiatry at the University of Iowa College of Medicine. The gifts were made through the University of Iowa Foundation.

The Ida P. Haller Professorship in Child Psychiatry, an endowed faculty position created in 1972, will be upgraded to the Haller Chair in Child Psychiatry by a $360,000 gift from the Haller Trust.

An additional commitment of $250,000 from the trust will establish the Ida P. Haller Patient Care Research Fund in the Division of Child Psychiatry, part of the psychiatry department in the UI College of Medicine.

A high school home economics teacher from Davenport, Iowa, Haller designated her entire estate to create the Haller Trust. Gifts from this trust have supported programs in the UI Division of Child Psychiatry since Haller died in 1971.

"This generous gift to endow a chair in child psychiatry is very rare and will be a great inducement to a senior investigator to come to the University of Iowa," said Dr. Robert G. Robinson, chair of the UI Department of Psychiatry.

"The patient care research fund will help our researchers to undertake a new line of investigation that will lead to more effective ways of caring for mental disorders in children and provide new outreach services to more children than we currently see," Robinson added.

"As someone who spent much of her life advocating for increased research and clinical support for child psychiatry, Ms. Haller would be very proud of the establishment of the Haller Chair and the Haller Patient Care Research Fund," said Haller Trust trustee Stephen L. Schalk, a 1972 Iowa Law School graduate who lives in Davenport.

These latest gifts from the Haller Trust are part of the university's planned comprehensive campaign to advance the UI's strategic goals for the years 2000-2005. Under the guidance of the UI Foundation, the campaign-which is in its early stages and for which no final dollar goal has been established-will raise funds to increase the number of student scholarships and endowed faculty chairs and professorships; support new educational and research facilities; fund outreach and service programs throughout the state of Iowa; build the UI's endowment; and launch new initiatives in the arts, sciences, business, engineering, health care, and other fields.

The UI Foundation is the preferred channel for private contributions to all areas of the university. Foundation staff work with alumni and friends to generate funds for scholarships, professorships, facilities improvements, equipment purchases, research and other UI initiatives.

Contact Information

Sheila Baldwin
Assistant Director of Development, College of Medicine
(319) 335-3305 or (800) 648-6973

Additional information about supporting the UI College of Medicine also is available on this site.