Former U.S. President George Bush will take part in a fund-raiser for Iowa State’s Mary Louise Smith Endowed Chair in Des Moines tonight.

At 7 p.m. in the Iowa Ballroom of the Marriott Hotel, Bush will speak to a crowd with several people known to ISU and the state of Iowa.

Smith will be present along with ISU President Martin Jischke, Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad, former Iowa Gov. Robert Ray, Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller, and ISU Dean of Liberal Arts and Sciences Elizabeth Hoffman.

Hoffman is excited about the fund-raising event taking place for the endowed chair position in honor of Smith, a woman who, Hoffman said, “is a very important person in Iowa politics.”

“She’s the only woman ever to have chaired the National Committee of the Republican Party, (a position she held from 1974 to 1977),” Hoffman said.

In 1976 Smith also became the first woman to organize and call to order the National Convention of a major U.S. political party.

Hoffman said it’s a great idea to have a former president come to participate in an event like this, and it’s not a “Republican event,” rather it’s bipartisan.

“Tom Miller, Democrat and the Attorney General of Iowa, [along with his wife] are cosponsors with [former] Gov. Ray and his wife,” she said.

Hoffman said while Smith and Bush are very good friends, she is very well respected by both political parties in the state of Iowa, and several Republicans and Democrats will be present for the event.

The Mary Louise Smith Endowed Chair in Women and Politics was created in October 1995 with a gift of $600,000 from Marvin Pomerantz, Board of Regents president and his wife, Rose Lee; John Axel, graduate of ISU and member of the Dean’s Advisory Council for the College of Business and Liberal Arts and Sciences, and his wife Joan, of Muscatine; and Sharon Rodine, past president of the National Women’s Political Caucus and graduate of ISU in political science, and her husband Richard, of Norman, Okla. The person annually selected for the Mary Louise Smith Endowed Chair in Women and Politics will teach, and perform research and outreach activities associated with ISU’s Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics. A total of $1 million is needed to fund the endowed chair.

“For the first few years we will probably bring someone in as a visitor [to fill the position],” Hoffman said. “Tonight we will [find out] who the first chair will be. It’s going to be very exciting.”

Hoffman said the first person to be chosen for the position will be someone from outside the university.