Beginning in 2015, the department of civil, construction and environmental engineering at Iowa State will feature the new endowed Greenwood department chair position.

The new position will be named after and made possible by contributions from ISU alumni Don and Sharon Greenwood. Their contributions will soon climb to the $2 million mark.

“Department funds are very limited. Most of them are committed to faculty lines, staff positions, graduate assistants, scholarships, etc. There’s not a lot of flexibility in the budget,” said Mufit Akinc, interim dean of the College of Engineering at Iowa State.

The Greenwoods’ contributions will help to bolster the civil, construction and environmental engineering department by means of providing added flexibility for fund allocation.

“When you bring in something like this, it provides the flexibility for the department chair. If they have a vision to emphasize certain areas — whether it’s for research, for scholarships — they have this fund to really move and make an impact in a short time without waiting for the funds to come,” Akinc said.

The quality of faculty in the department is also expected to be strengthened.

“The idea for endowing the fund is to get better, more qualified professors [for the position], which hopefully, in turn, allows that person to hire better teachers and professors and hopefully allows us, as a company, to have a big relationship with civil, construction and environmental engineering to have access to good students,” Don said.

Don is the president of the construction division of Burns & McDonnell, a firm out of Kansas City, Mo.

In the end, students are those intended to benefit most from the position’s establishment.

“Whether we see it [the funds] renovating space or whether we provide scholarships or whether we provide stipends for graduate students, all of that is about getting a better education environment for the students. The faculty or the department chair does not take an additional salary; it’s used for operation of this department to make it better,” Akinc said.

The Greenwoods elected to increase their contributions, which have gradually increased over a five-year period; Don alluded to a timing aspect.

“Basically, we had the ability to do it, and I wanted to be able to take advantage of developing a long-term association with Iowa State before I retired. It just made sense, I thought, because we had the latitude and ability to do it now instead of waiting,” Don said.

Also, an affinity for the university played a part in the decision.

“I’ve always appreciated what Iowa State did for me in terms of giving me a good education that allowed me to never stop my activities in construction,” Don said.

“We love Iowa State; we wish the best for Iowa State.”