- John Pappajohn donated $1.5 million to create the John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Center in 1996.
- More than 100,000 students participated in JPEC at the University of Iowa in 2022
- Among John Pappajohn’s many philanthropic contributions to UI is a scholarship established in 2012.
- John Pappajohn and his wife Mary also contributed $26.4 million for what is today the Pappajohn Biomedical Discovery Building.
John Pappajohn will be remembered as the most influential person in entrepreneurship in Iowa.
This is what David Hensley, executive director of the John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Center, said about the innovative philanthropist and entrepreneur who died on April 22 at the age of 94.
Pappajohn was committed to growing entrepreneurship across Iowa, including establishing entrepreneurship centers at the state’s higher education institutions. An accomplished business leader, Pappajohn made significant donations to the University of Iowa, his alma mater, although his philanthropy didn’t stop there. He and his wife, Mary, became America’s leading art collectors, particularly evident in their contributions to the 4.4-acre Pappajohn Sculpture Park in Des Moines.
The successful entrepreneur also had an “unprecedented” positive mental attitude and was someone who treated people with respect and dignity, Hensley said.
“With the creation of the (John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial) Centers and John’s energy, passion and drive to support the centers and other entrepreneurial initiatives in the state of Iowa, we now have a vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem in Iowa,” Hensley said.
John Pappajohn Entrepreneurship Centers Benefit Thousands of People
Erica Cole was a UI student when she lost her leg in a car accident. It was through the John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Center that Cole launched his company No Limbits, an adaptive clothing company that began with custom prosthetic limb covers. She has appeared on “Shark Tank” and walked away with a $100,000 investment from Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban and Emma Grede, co-founder of inclusive fashion company Good Americanthe Press-Citizen reported last year.
She is just one of hundreds of thousands of people – people with backgrounds in medicine, retail, agriculture, to name a few, according to Hensley – who have participated in JPEC programs across the state.
From 2022, 161,092 people participated in JPEC at the UI, according to the UI Center for Advancement. JPEC centers at UI, Iowa State University, University of Northern Iowa, Drake University and North Iowa Area Community College are responsible for more than 8,500 new businesses and 17,400 jobs last year, according to the UI Center for Advancement.
But the existence of these centers is thanks to Pappajohn, who saw the absence of entrepreneurship in Iowa amid a struggling economy in the mid-1990s.
He made a donation $1.5 million to create the John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Center at the UI that year, according to the Tippie College of Business, it would go on to give millions more to create and support centers at other Iowa universities and colleges.
“With the creation of a center, it allowed us to begin to educate and prepare entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial-minded leaders to start a business or join an existing business or return to join the family business and being able to apply entrepreneurial mindsets to create and grow successful businesses,” Hensley said.
The value of entrepreneurship is evident in job creation, in its ability to attract new talent to a community and retain it. Entrepreneurship results in innovation, the creation of new products or services, Hensley said.
Hensley said what is taught at JPEC is “innovative and creative problem solving.” At the UI, the program was designed so that any student could benefit from studying entrepreneurship, regardless of their career path, he said.
What stood out to Hensley about Pappajohn was his enthusiasm for people trying to start a business.
“It doesn’t matter if it’s a medical device company or someone is doing a side hustle,” Hensley said. “If they tried something, you would see a sparkle in his eye and he would do whatever he wanted. He could inspire them and connect them.
Pappajohn, who arrived in Mason City when he was just nine months old from Greece, was also telling people the following, Hensley said.
“If I can do it, you can do it.”
John Pappajohn’s contributions extend beyond JPEC
In 1952, Pappajohn graduated from Tippie College of Business.
It took him six years to complete his undergraduate degree, as he and his two younger brothers took turns attending college. When they weren’t in school, they helped their mother as she operated the family grocery store in Mason City, said Lynette Marshall, president and CEO of the UI Center for Advancement.
Pappajohn served on the board of directors of the UI Center for Advancement, among other boards and committees. He joined the company in 1989 and was elected an honorary lifetime director in 2019, according to an email from the UI Center for Advancement.
The Pappajohns, among their many philanthropic contributions, established the John and Mary Pappajohn Scholarship in 2012, which supported 18 students, some over multiple years, an email from the UI Center for Advancement says.
“I think John always had a soft spot in his heart for young people who were willing to work hard and wanted to rise up from maybe a difficult situation like he did,” Marshall said.
More:John Pappajohn, Iowa business, arts and philanthropy icon, dies at 94
When Pappajohn was 16, his father died.
“When I was a kid, I always did anything to make a living,” Pappajohn said in a Associated Press article from 2004. “I’ve done things you wouldn’t believe if I told you. My father ran a small grocery store and my brothers and I plucked 50,000 chickens by hand.
He then launched Pappajohn Capital Resources, a venture capital fund, and became involved in more than 100 start-ups and director of more than 40 public companiesaccording to the philanthropist’s website.
Pappajohn’s name can be found on the UI campus. It started with the John Pappajohn Pavilion, in which he and his wife Mary donated $3 million to the University of Iowa Hospitals in 1989. The John and Mary Pappajohn Clinical Cancer Center was completed in 1993.
They also supported the Pappajohn Business Building, which houses the Tippie College of Business.
“I view this building as a wonderful business opportunity, an investment that will pay significant dividends for the college, the university and the state of Iowa,” Pappajohn said of the building in 1992according to Press-Citizen archives.
“Life has been very generous to me and my family, and I want to give back a lot of what I have been given,” he said.
Pappajohn continued to give back, including announcing that he would donate Additional $10 million to the five JPEC centers in a celebration commemorating the 25th birthday donations that helped start the entrepreneurship centers in 2021, the Des Moines Register reported.
He and his wife Mary also contributed $26.4 million for what is today the Pappajohn Biomedical Discovery Building, a 256,000 square foot building constructed in 2014, which houses research centers including the Institute of Iowa Biomedical Imaging and Fraternal Order of Eagles Diabetes Research Center. Their last name is attached to the biomedical institute founded the same year.
“(The Pappajohn Biomedical Discovery Building) also serves as a remarkable legacy for him and Mary here on the University of Iowa campus,” Marshall said.
Hard work, kindness and an “uncanny ability” to recognize and seize opportunities are all part of Pappajohn’s legacy that people can learn from, Hensley said.
“John’s legacy and impact will live on for generations through the approach of trying to reach young people and educating students to help position them for career success,” Hensley said.
“It’s something that, hopefully, for people who have gone through our program or one of the other centers, has made them understand what it takes to be successful and that they can do it, giving them the confidence and the skills to go out and change the world,” Hensley said. “That’s what John did.”
Paris Barraza covers entertainment, lifestyle and arts at the Iowa City Press-Citizen. Contact her at PBarraza@press-citizen.com or 319-519-9731. Follow her on Twitter @ParisBarraza.
