Alumni Memories

Essays on the College of Agriculture's History

History of the Iowa State University Agricultural Endowment

by Brian Meyer, director of college relations, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, and member of ISU Agricultural Endowment Board of Trustees, 2005-current

C.R. Musser

The ISU Agricultural Endowment was founded in 1937, the heart of the Depression, through the efforts of Clifton R. Musser, a man who saw first-hand the problems facing agriculture at the time and who had a vision to help farm families in solving some of those problems.

Musser was chairman of the board of the Muscatine Bank and Trust Company. Working with Iowa State President Charles Friley and Iowa State Dean of Agriculture H.H. Kildee, Musser laid the groundwork for what was originally called the Iowa State College Farm Foundation. It later became known as the Agriculural Foundation.

In 1938, Musser donated nine Iowa farms to Iowa State and $100,000. In 1942, he donated another three farms. The Agricultural Foundation leased the farms to families. Musser was alarmed by the depletion of soil and the lack of skills and resourcefulness on the part of farmers that were needed to ensure sound farm operations. With the Foundation’s leadership, its farms were used to demonstrate better ways to manage and operate the land.

Over time, the Foundation’s set of farms changed. Some were sold to the farmer tenants when they had the resources. Others were sold when it was determined they no longer met the purpose at the time. Others were bought to fill a need at the time. Many of the farmers had extensive research projects, some done in cooperation with Iowa State faculty and others developed by the Foundation’s staff and trustees.

The Foundation’s trustee list reads like a who’s who of the history of Iowa agriculture and Iowa State University. The first trustees included Friley and Kildee, Iowa State Extension Director R.K. Bliss, Iowa State Director of Agricultural Relations George W. Godfrey, farmer J.H. Anderson, businessman Deane W. Trick and Musser himself. Other familiar trustee names throughout the years included: William Murray, Floyd Andre, Carl Hamilton, Marvin Anderson Carl Hertz, James Hilton, John Pesek, W. Robert Parks, Louis Thompson, Lanoy Hazel, Neil Harl, Lee Kolmer, Kelly Tobin, Alan Tubbs, Jim Christensen, Jeff Plagge, Catherine Woteki, Maynard Hogberg, Jerry Miller, Joe Horan, Madeline Meyer, Wendy Wintersteen, Joyce Neill, Marylou Ahrens and Kate Frieberg.

At one point, 18 farms totaling nearly 5,500 acres were owned and managed by the Agricultural Foundation. At other times, the Foundation assisted Iowa State in purchasing land for research and education.

In the early years, the methods of farm management, including crop and livestock share leasing arrangements, that were practiced by the Agricultural Foundation became widely known. James Wallace, who managed the farms for more than a quarter of a century, was well-known as a pioneer in absentee farm management. Wallace gave presentations around the country on the land management ideas of the Foundation. Wallace was one of the founders of the American Society of Farm Managers and Rural Appraisers. (By the way, Wallace was not related to the famous Iowa family of Wallaces; he was originally from Pennsylvania.)

And the tenants working on the farms felt they had a valuable partnership with the Foundation.

One tenant, who rented a Foundation farm for several years before buying his own in 1946, had glowing comments on his relationship with the Foundation: “I am glad I own my own farm. But I’d rather rent from the Foundation than from anybody else I know. They are absolutely fair. A person who meets them half-way will have every opportunity to make good. The manager treated me like a business partner: we pooled our ideas and worked out our plans together . . . The manager pushes you a little with new ideas. He sold me on soil conservation and on raising hogs on clean ground.”

Another tenant in the 1940s said: “The Foundation wants to build up the farm. They are willing to spend money on the soil and to make the farm a better place on which to live and work.”

In 1956, Clifton Musser died at his home in Muscatine. At that time nearly 20 years old, the Agricultural Foundation continued to move forward on assisting Iowa families active in agriculture.

The Iowa State University Agricultural Foundation (a name change that was approved in 1961) and its management systems worked well into the early 1960s. Agriculture had entered a period of rapid change, as farms began growing larger and more mechanized and rural populations began to shrink. The farms began to take on a stronger research role and less of a tenant emphasis.

During this time, the Foundation continued to support agriculture at Iowa State and around Iowa. In 1967, the organization donated $7,000 to help found Living History Farms. In 1977, the Foundation purchased a Rhodes, Iowa, farm from Pioneer Hi-Bred that became the center for Iowa State’s beef breeding research for more than 25 years. In 1983, the organization purchased a farm near Crawfordsville that became Iowa State University’s Southeast Iowa Research and Demonstration Farm

In the 1970s and 1980s, the Foundation dealt with many of the same problems as farmers — increasing net worths, decreasing incomes, borrowed money and refinancing arrangements, escalating interest rates and rollercoaster commodity markets.

It became evident, as the 1980s wore on, that the mission of the Agricultural Foundation was out-of-date and in need of new direction. The Board of Trustees determined a broader approach was required to support Iowa agriculture. The Agricultural Foundation began to sell its land holdings and endow the assets to create a rich resource for scholarships, grants and other support for programs in agricultural education, research and outreach.

The board retained the vision of Clifton Musser of devoting its resources to helping families make a successful entry into agriculture and provide tools to ensure their long-term stability. The board established scholarships for agriculture students at Iowa State . (This was not altogether a new idea. As far back as 1946, the Foundation board had approved scholarships for Iowa State freshmen majoring in agriculture.) The board began to work to provide opportunities for ISU’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences to support the infrastructure vital to the future of Iowa agriculture.

In 2003, the Board of Trustees approved a name change to the Iowa State University Agricultural Endowment. The change was made to ensure the distinction between its mission and that of the Iowa State University Foundation, which is the private, nonprofit corporation that secures and manages private gifts to benefit the entire university.

The board re-committed itself to see that Musser’s vision of service to agriculture would reap benefits many years into the future. Today, the mission of the ISU Agricultural Endowment is to provide opportunities for the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences to support the people and infrastructure vital to the future of Iowa agriculture.

The ISU Agricultural Endowment, a private, nonprofit corporation, is led by a Board of Trustees made up of eight persons involved in agricultural production and agribusiness and seven university faculty and administrators, including the University President and the Dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

Today, 70 years since its establishment, the ISU Agricultural Endowment is a major contributor for student education, providing one-quarter of the scholarships awarded annually by the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. Since 1996, the Endowment has provided $840,000 for more than 1,120 scholarships and internships to ISU students. The endowment also has provided $115,000 to advance programs benefiting Iowa State and the State of Iowa.

Recent examples of the ISU Agricultural Endowment at work include:

The ISU Agricultural Endowment developed and supports the College of Agriculture and Life Science’s Science With Practice program, which provides an opportunity for a meaningful paid internship for students, who also earn class credit. Since the program began in 2005, nearly 100 students have benefited from their experiences working with 46 faculty and staff mentors in 24 departments or units.
In 2006, 47 scholarships were awarded to Iowa State freshmen, transfer students, off-campus students and students participating in international study-abroad programs.
In 2006, five Iowa State students received the ISU Agricultural Endowment’s Harold and Arlene Estes Agricultural Scholarships, which provide $1,000 awards to freshmen who plan to pursue careers in the agricultural and food industry.
In 2006, 17 ISU students received the ISU Agricultural Endowment’s Kiley and Marie Powers Scholarships in the Plant Sciences. The Powers Scholarships provide $2,000 awards to students with interests in agronomy, plant pathology, horticulture, forestry and other plant-related areas.
In 1997, the ISU Agricultural Endowment developed a summer internship program on ISU Research and Demonstration Farms. More than 80 students have been active in the program.
The ISU Agricultural Endowment has supported local agricultural associations — Northwest Iowa Agricultural Experiment Association, Southeast Iowa Agricultural Research Association, Wallace Foundation (Southwest Iowa) — in their efforts to purchase land for research and demonstration of importance to their local needs.
The ISU Agricultural Endowment has supported ISU’s Farm Financial Planning and Beginning Farmer Programs and ISU’s annual John Pesek Colloquium on Sustainable Agriculture. The organization was the major sponsor of a Farm Succession Conference held in Des Moines in 1996.
The ISU Agricultural Endowment supports the Iowa FFA Foundation’s Academic Achievement Awards.
The ISU Agricultural Endowment initiated a new opportunity to give College of Agriculture and Life Sciences students with minimal farm experience a chance to learn more about agriculture by spending a weekend with Iowa farm families. In 2006, 16 agriculture students participated in the Ag Weekend Experience program, with two Endowment trustees serving as host families.
In 2005, Clifton Musser’s daughter, Marion Musser Lloyd of Libertyville, Ill., died and left a $7,500 bequest to the ISU Agricultural Endowment, which put the funds to use in the C.R. Musser Scholarships for ISU students.

The ISU Agricultural Endowment is proud of its past and present role in assisting Iowa State University’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and in advancing Iowa’s most important industry — agriculture.