Boyers pledge $50,000 to Cornell campaign

MOUNT VERNON – As a Cornell College student in the 1980s, Gilda Boyer received extra financial aid and work-study when her parents both lost their jobs, thanks to the generosity of alumni. Now she and her Cornell classmate and husband, Barry Boyer, are giving back for a new generation of students.

The Boyers have pledged $50,000 to the Cornell College Extraordinary Opportunities campaign. The gift is unrestricted and will be used where it is most needed for the campaign.

“Many classes before us have been very generous, and it’s time for those of us in the ‘80s and thereafter to start that type of giving to the college,” Gilda said. “It’s a culmination of supporting the college over the years, and now we’re finally in a position to make a more substantial gift. With the Cornell campaign winding down, we wanted to start that giving now rather than later.”

The Boyers graduated from Cornell in 1984 and are deeply involved in service and leadership in their hometown of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where they live with their children Erik and Lauren.

“Barry and Gilda have been leaders on this campus since they were students in the 1980s. We are grateful for their continued campus leadership and their generous support,” said Cornell College Vice President for Alumni and College Advancement Peter Wilch.

Gilda is a retired attorney, of counsel with Shuttleworth & Ingersoll. She serves on the Cornell Board of Trustees and the Cornell Pre-Law Advisory Board, works with the Iowa Legal Aid Foundation and has chaired numerous boards in the area. The Boyers are incoming co-chairs of the United Way of East Central Iowa campaign.

Barry is president and CEO of Van Meter Industrial and a member of the advisory board of Cornell’s Berry Center for Economics, Business, and Public Policy. He is the chair-elect of the board of Priority One, the Cedar Rapids/Iowa City economic development group.

The Boyers’ gift is part of Cornell College’s comprehensive campaign Extraordinary Opportunities: The Campaign for Cornell College which will continue through June 2010. The campaign will enhance the Cornell experience by increasing the college’s endowment, upgrading its facilities, and enhancing academic programs.

For more information about the campaign or making a gift, visit cornellcollege.edu/campaign or contact Peter Wilch, Vice President for Alumni and College Advancement at 319-895-4315 or pwilch@cornellcollege.edu.