UI Alumnus Creates Scholarship in Real Estate Law

Posted Nov. 2, 2007

University of Iowa graduate Ted Seldin and his wife, Sarah, of Omaha, Neb., have made a gift to the Iowa Law School Foundation to endow a scholarship in real estate law at the University of Iowa College of Law.

The Theodore M. and Sarah N. Seldin Scholarship in Real Estate Law will be awarded to law students who demonstrate financial need and share Seldin’s interest in improving the quality of life in the Midwest through well-planned real estate development, including the preservation of affordable housing.

Seldin received a B.A. degree in economics in 1953 and a J.D. degree in 1955 from the University of Iowa. For 50 years he has been a principal in the Seldin family’s real estate, development and management business in Iowa, Nebraska and Kansas. Established by Seldin’s father in Council Bluffs, Iowa, in 1923, the Seldin Company’s core value is to serve the community. Its headquarters have been in Omaha since 1958.

The Seldins created the scholarship in honor of UI law professor and UI president emeritus Willard “Sandy” Boyd, Ted Seldin’s professor and longtime friend. “I am greatly touched by Ted’s gift and am exceedingly proud of his work combining law and business in service to the community,” Boyd said.

Dean Carolyn Jones of the UI College of Law said the gift will provide invaluable support for students interested in pursuing real estate law.

“Much of Ted’s career has focused on providing affordable housing for low- and moderate-income families, with a special focus on housing for seniors,” Jones said. “This scholarship will not only help UI students receive a world-class education in real estate law, but it will also encourage them to carry on Ted’s legacy of improving communities by helping to provide affordable housing.”

Since his graduation and throughout his career, Seldin has kept close ties with the university as a member of the UI Alumni Association and as a member of that group’s board of directors from 1978 to 1983. Since 1983, Seldin and other principals of the Seldin firm have been members of the UI Presidents Club, which recognizes the UI’s most generous benefactors.

In the 1960’s, his firm developed the Mayflower student apartments in Iowa City, which leased to graduate students and incoming faculty members and in 1967 became the first home of the UI’s International Writing Program. In 1983, the university acquired the apartment complex, an acquisition that was enabled by the timely donation of $2 million by Seldin and his partners and provided much-needed additional student housing for a growing UI student population.

The UI acknowledges the UI Foundation as the preferred channel for private contributions that benefit all areas of the university. For more information, visit the foundation’s web site at www.uiowafoundation.org.

Contact Information

Andrew Sheehy
Executive Director of Development, UI College of Law
(319) 335-3305 or (800) 648-6973