Posted March 6, 2002

Related links:
Main press release
Other recent Carver gifts
Additional information from UI Health Care

What is the Roy J. Carver Charitable Trust?
The Roy J. Carver Charitable Trust is the largest private foundation in the state of Iowa with assets totaling $300 million and an annual grant-making budget of more than $14 million. It was created through the will of Roy J. Carver, a Muscatine industrialist and philanthropist, who died in 1981. Since the beginning of the trust's grant-making activities in 1987, more than $130 million has been distributed in the form of 1,046 individual grants. Scientific research, scholarships, general education and other issues related to the needs of youth are the program areas of greatest interest to the Carver Charitable Trust.

The Carver Charitable Trust is governed by a seven-member board of trustees that meets on a quarterly basis to consider formal written grant requests from I.R.S. designated, 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organizations. The projects or programs receiving support generally fall within the established guidelines of program interest. The great majority of grants are awarded for initiatives to be undertaken within the state of Iowa and a portion of western Illinois.

For more information on the Carver Trust, visit its web site at www.carvertrust.org.

What is the Trust's history of support for the UI?
The Carver Trust has been supporting the UI since the trust began its grant-making activities in 1987, and it has made gifts to UI programs every year since that time. Carver Trust gifts and pledges to the university, including the most recent College of Medicine commitment, in addition to gifts made by Roy and Lucille Carver, total approximately $109 million. Like Roy Carver himself, the trust has distributed its generous support throughout the UI campus. In addition to gifts to the College of Medicine, the trust has supported University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics; the Colleges of Dentistry, Engineering, Education, Law, and Liberal Arts and Sciences; the UI Libraries; Hancher Auditorium; UI athletics; student aid; and other UI programs.

This latest gift from the Roy J. Carver Charitable Trust is the largest ever to the University of Iowa, the UI Foundation, the UI College of Medicine and, according to UI Foundation research, the largest ever to a U.S. public medical school.

Biographical information on Roy J. Carver and Lucille A. Carver
Educated as an engineer (at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) and possessing the instincts of an entrepreneur, Roy J. Carver launched several successful firms, including the Muscatine-based Carver Pump Company, Carver Foundry Products, and Bandag Company, the world's largest producer of tire retread materials and equipment. He had a passion for quality in all that he undertook, and he was especially interested in helping young people obtain a good education and in advancing knowledge and better health through biomedical and scientific research. His commitments to youth, education and research are the cornerstones of the Roy J. Carver Charitable Trust.

Lucille Carver attended the UI and in 1972 received the Distinguished Service Award from the UI Alumni Association. A former director of the Carver Pump Company, she currently serves as a member of the board of directors of Bandag Inc. of Muscatine and also served on the UI Foundation board from 1981 to 1985.

Biographical sketch of Troy K. Ross, Executive Administrator, Roy J. Carver Charitable Trust
Troy K. Ross, Ph.D., is executive administrator of the Roy J. Carver Charitable Trust. Dr. Ross joined the Carver Trust in 1994 as program officer, responsible for administration of the Trust's biomedical and scientific research grants. In December of 1995, he was named to the position of executive administrator.

Prior to becoming a member of the Carver Trust staff, Dr. Ross was a research fellow and National Research Service Award recipient in the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. During a six-year period at Wisconsin, he won federal research funding from the National Institutes of Health and private research support from the American Cancer Society.

Dr. Ross holds a B.S. degree in microbiology from the University of Iowa and a Ph.D. in microbiology from Louisiana State University. He is the author of a number of scientific articles and abstracts, as well as a chapter in a book published by Academic Press. In addition, he holds two United States scientific patents.

When did the Carvers begin supporting the UI?
Roy J. Carver made his first gift to the University of Iowa in 1969, in support of the UI's general student aid fund. His support quickly broadened to include athletics and the UI Museum of Art (gifts to both areas began in 1971) and many other programs throughout the UI campus. His support for the UI College of Medicine began in 1974 and continued until his death in 1981.

How much have the Carvers given to the UI, as individuals, and to what areas?
During Roy's lifetime, he and Lucille contributed approximately $8.67 million to UI programs. Their most generous gifts were made to the Museum of Art, athletics, UI Hospitals and Clinics, and the College of Medicine. They also supported the Colleges of Business and Liberal Arts; campus-wide student aid; and other programs.

What has been made possible through Carver gifts to the College of Medicine and UI Hospitals and Clinics?
The Roy J. Carver Pavilion in the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics is home to the Burns and Reconstructive Surgery Service, the Emergency Medicine Program, the Departments of Neurology and Urology, and the UIHC Trauma Service.

Roy J. Carver professorships have been held by some of the UI's most esteemed investigators, enabling significant research advances in numerous areas. Carver professors in the UI College of medicine include:

• Dr. James A. Clifton, emeritus Roy J. Carver Professor of Internal Medicine and former interim dean of the college


• John P. Long, emeritus Roy J. Carver Professor of Pharmacology


• Allyn L. Mark, Roy J. Carver Professor of Internal Medicine and interim executive dean of the college


• Kevin Campbell, Roy J. Carver Professor of Physiology and Biophysics, interim head of Physiology and Biophysics, and Howard Hughes Investigator


• Michael Welsh, Roy J. Carver Professor of Internal Medicine and Physiology and Biophysics, and Howard Hughes Investigator; Beverly Davidson, Roy J. Carver Professor of Internal Medicine

What else on the UI campus carries the Carver name?
In recognition of generous gifts from Roy and Lucille Carver, and/or the Carver Trust, the following UI facilities have been named in their honor:

• Carver-Hawkeye Arena


• Roy J. Carver Pavilion, UI Hospitals and Clinics


• Roy J. Carver Center of Comparative Genomics, Department of Biological Sciences, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
  [Web site, press release]


• Roy J. Carver Molecular Science Research Center, located within the new Medical Education Research Facility (MERF) [Press release]


• Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver Biomedical Research Building, to begin construction this fall [Press release]


• Lucille A. Carver River Research and Education Facility, College of Engineering, located near Muscatine [Press release]


• Roy J. Carver Molecular Ophthalmology Laboratory


• Carver Laboratory for the Study of Inherited Diseases


• Carver Gallery, Museum of Art

In addition, several endowed faculty chairs and professorships in the College of Medicine have been funded by and named in honor of the Carver Trust, as well as endowed professorships in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

The "Carver Scholars" are deserving UI undergraduate students from Iowa who receive financial aid awards from a scholarship fund established by the trust. The Carver Trust also annually funds two named scientific and medical research grant programs at the UI.

What effect does the research emphasis of this gift have on medical education at the UI? And how will this gift benefit the citizens of Iowa, beyond Johnson County?
Research, education and patient care are inextricably intertwined in an academic medical center such as the UI. A prime example of this is demonstrated by the fact that the new Medical Education Research Facility contains both state-of-the-art medical education facilities and cutting-edge research laboratories. Discoveries are a key element of the culture of creating and disseminating knowledge. It is no coincidence that U.S. medical schools with the best reputation for medical education are also known for their excellence in medical research. The benefits of this gift to Iowans are broad, deep and long-term, since the quality of the state's only academic medical center has a direct bearing on the health of the state's residents.

Are there other colleges in the Regents' system named for donors?
The Henry B. Tippie College of Business at the University of Iowa is the only other named college in the Regents system; it was named in honor of Mr. Tippie's $30 million commitment in 1998. At Iowa State University, the Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication was named in 1998 for a $9 million gift from ISU graduates Robert and Diane Greenlee of Boulder, Colo.

Named U.S. medical schools

Feinberg School of Medicine
Northwestern University
Chicago, Illinois
Named February 2002 in recognition of $103 million in total support, including a new gift of $75 million, from the Joseph and Bessie Feinberg Foundation of Chicago.

Keck School of Medicine
University of Southern California
Los Angeles, California
In June 1999, the Keck Foundation pledged $110 million over 10 years to name the medical school.

Joan and Sanford I. Weill Medical College
Cornell University
Ithaca, New York
Named for Joan and Sanford I. Weill in 1998, based on their $100 million outright gift.

Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine
Marshall University
Huntington, West Virginia
Named for Joan C. Edwards for a $16 million bequest made in September 2000.

Brody School of Medicine
East Carolina University
Greenville, North Carolina
Named in December 1999 for the six members of the Brody family of Greenville, N.C., based on a gift of more than $22 million.

The Pritzker School of Medicine
University of Chicago
Chicago, Illinois
University of Chicago trustee Jay Pritzker made a $12 million pledge in June 1968.