Monmouth College receives $100,000 from
late alumna
Release Date: February 28, 2003
MONMOUTH, Ill. — Monmouth College
recently received an unrestricted $100,000 gift from the estate of alumna
Joanne Dutcher Maxwell. Gifts to the college in memory of Maxwell, who
died last June after serving on Monmouth’s board of trustees for the
previous seven years, totaled an additional $12,000.
“Joanne’s work on behalf of Monmouth
College spanned half a century and continued until just weeks before she
passed away,” said Monmouth College president Richard Giese. “She was a
past national chair for our annual fund, and she was also very involved
with Kappa Kappa Gamma, the national women’s fraternity which started at
Monmouth.”
While Maxwell’s gift will help keep her
memory alive, so will the college’s recently-published sesquicentennial
history book, “A Thousand Hearts’ Devotion.” In the acknowledgements,
co-author Jeffrey Rankin writes, “This book is dedicated to the memory of
Joanne Dutcher Maxwell ’53, a college trustee responsible for its
production and writing. She offered invaluable advice, both as an alumna
with personal insight to key chapters of Monmouth College history, and as
a writer, editor, and publicist, which was her lifelong profession.”
After graduating from Monmouth College,
where she served as editor of the Oracle and student publicity director,
Maxwell became editor and owner of the Naperville Clarion, and in 1960 was
the first woman to be named “Editor of the Year” by the Illinois Press
Association.
She later became a public relations
executive and Republican strategist who helped direct a number of
candidates to the state and national stage, including House Speaker Dennis
Hastert. She began her political career in 1960, defeating an incumbent
recorder of deeds to become the first woman elected to a countywide office
in suburban Chicago’s DuPage County.
Released
by the Office of College Communications
Barry McNamara, Associate Director of College Communications
Phone: 309-457-2117
Fax: 309-457-2330
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