The Iowa Stater
May 1996
Family values
Palmer gift funds new facility
Valentine's Day brought more than candy and flowers to the College of Family and Consumer Sciences. It brought a $1 million gift from Iowa State alumni James R. and Barbara Raeder Palmer, State College, Pa. Their gift will go toward constructing a new building to house the human development and family studies department.
The two-story, 21,600-square-foot facility will bring together personnel and programs currently divided among five locations on campus. Programs to be housed in the new building include the Marriage and Family Therapy Clinic, the Financial Counseling Clinic and the Child Development Laboratory School. The building will be located adjacent to MacKay Hall, north of Carrie Chapman Catt Hall.
"We are happy to be a part of the new building for human development and family studies," said Barbara Palmer. "One of the crisis issues in our country today is the need to strengthen the family and to provide for children throughout the world. The education and research that will be housed in the new facility is important in furthering those goals."
James Palmer received a degree in electrical engineering in 1944 and Barbara Palmer received a degree in household equipment from the College of Family and Consumer Sciences (then the Home Economics College) in 1946. For 31 years, James Palmer served as chief executive of C-COR Electronics Inc., a firm that devel-ops and manufactures amplifiers and other devices for data communications and cable television industries. Barbara Palmer was a director of C-COR for 23 years.
Among the guests at a Valentine's Day reception for the Palmers were 20 kindergartners from the Child Development Laboratory School. The children presented the couple with aprons they had hand-decorated and displayed their drawings of the new building.
"This is indeed a very significant and exciting period in the history of our college," said Family and Consumer Sciences Dean Beverly Crabtree. "The Palmer gift will continue to enhance our programming related to children, families and consumers -- programming for which our college has long been recognized as a national and international leader."
Total cost of the building project is $5.3 million. To date, $4.8 million has been raised through private donations and university funds.
-- Michelle Johnson, News Service
The Iowa Stater, stater@iastate.edu, University Relations
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