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NEWS RELEASE

05-01-01

Contacts:
Tom Mitchell, ISU Foundation, (515) 294-4607
James McCormick, Political Science, (515) 294-8682
Dave Gieseke, Liberal Arts & Sciences Public Relations, (515) 294-7742
Steve Sullivan, News Service, (515) 294-3720

ISU ALUMNUS CREATES FACULTY AWARD IN PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

AMES, Iowa -- Dwight Ink, a 1947 graduate of Iowa State University, and his wife, Dona Wolf, have pledged $100,000 to the ISU Foundation to create the Dwight Ink Faculty Award for Excellence in Public Administration.

The award will be given to a departmental faculty member in the public administration area within Iowa State's political science department. The recipient may use the proceeds from the award for research projects, new and innovative teaching projects, or significant outreach activities.

"I am pleased that Dwight and Dona have created a faculty excellence award in public administration through their generous gift," said James McCormick, professor and chair of political science. "I am hoping that the department can create similar faculty excellence endowments in the department's other fine subfields in the near future."

Ink and Wolf, Langdowen, Va., are members of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Dean's Council and the Order of Knoll, the ISU Foundation's donor recognition society.

"Dwight has served his university well as a volunteer leader and major donor," said Tom Mitchell, president of the ISU Foundation. "We are pleased that this award will bear his name."

Ink is the first person to graduate from Iowa State's political science department. During his years in Washington, D.C., he served seven U.S. presidents in federal policy positions, including urban affairs, environment and energy, education and anti-poverty, foreign aid, arms reduction and disaster reconstruction.

His long career of government service include stints with the Federal Bureau of Reclamation and the Atomic Energy Commission where he worked in the area of nuclear test bans under Presidents Eisenhower and Kennedy.

In the Johnson Administration he helped establish the Department of Housing and Urban Development and was the assistant director for executive management in the Office of Management and Budget during Richard Nixon's presidency. He also helped set up the Environmental Protection Agency and the Office of Management and Budget. He served twice as the acting administrator for the General Services Administration.

From 1976-80, he was director of American University's Center for Local and State Government and director of the Continuing Education Office.

President Carter appointed Ink as executive director of the President's Personnel Management project and he was in charge of designing the Civil Services reform, the first major overhaul of the federal civil service since 1883.

Under Ronald Reagan, Ink was head of the Bureau for Latin America and Caribbean region of AID. He retired in 1993 as president of the Institute of Public Administration, the first institution to provide public administration education and research. Dona Wolf handled the training for about 18,000 international students coming to the United States under funding by the U.S. government, and was later in charge of training and development for the two million federal employees.

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