Des Moines Business Record
10-01-06
2006 Central Iowa Activist Awards: Education & Youth Advocacy
By Jim Pollock
jimpollock@bpcdm.com
When Marvin Pomerantz was a first-grader at Greenwood Elementary School,
nobody would have predicted a particularly bright future for him.
"I failed the first half of first grade," Pomerantz said. But he took extra courses,
one of his teachers, Mrs. Stanley, dedicated some time to helping him, and he
left that early failure behind. Far behind. In the decades since, he turned out to
be not only an immensely successful businessman but also an ardent and
generous supporter of education.
The countless hours devoted to education issues and the millions of dollars
donated to the cause all stem from that one rough autumn long ago, Pomerantz
says. "I was on the margin, conquered it, and it made a major difference in my
life."
In recognition of his lifelong efforts to help others have that same experience, the
Des Moines Business Record selected Pomerantz as the recipient of the 2006
Central Iowa Activist Award for Education and Youth Advocacy.
The founder, chairman and chief executive officer of the Mid-America Group
became president of the Iowa Board of Regents in 1987. He served for the next
six years, and later held the job again for a year.
In 1997, he chaired the Commission on Educational Excellence for the 21st
Century, which analyzed Iowa's educational system from pre-kindergarten
through community college, and has remained focused on that topic ever since.
Pomerantz currently serves on the Institute for Tomorrow's Workforce, created by
the Iowa Legislature last year to suggest reforms in the educational system.
In his opinion, the state needs to adopt a system of performance-based pay in its
public schools and consolidate a number of school districts. The hoped-for result:
"Quality teachers who get paid for their capabilities, and students who get an
education that will make them competitive on a worldwide basis," Pomerantz
said.
"In the last 10 years, education has given up a tremendous amount of
resources," he said. "The Legislature and the governor share the responsibility
for that. Iowa was 26th in teacher pay 10 years ago, and now we're 42nd. That
tells me we're not going in the right direction."
As a member of the Board of Regents, Pomerantz took responsibility for treating
Iowa State University, the University of Iowa and the University of Northern
Iowa fairly. As a private citizen, he has devoted enormous amounts of time and
money to the University of Iowa, his alma mater.
He and his wife, Rose, contributed $10 million toward the $18 million Pomerantz
Career Center, which was dedicated a year ago on the Iowa campus. He has
provided support for two faculty chairs and for the Pomerantz Family Pavilion at
the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, and the library in the Henry B. Tippie
College of Business is named in his honor.
Pomerantz also was the co-chairman of the "Good. Better. Best." campaign,
which raised a staggering $1 billion for the university. "That had never before
been done in Iowa," he said.
"That goal was a sign that Marvin was pushing everyone to reach beyond
themselves," said Gary Fethke, the interim president of the University of Iowa.
"Iowans are sometimes reluctant to think that they can do big things, and he's
always out front saying, 'You can do more.'"
Fethke has known Pomerantz for more than 20 years, and calls him "one of the
most unusual individuals I've ever met in my life. I can't believe how driven he is."
Pomerantz showed that drive as a football player at Roosevelt High School,
where he was named an all-city tackle, and at Iowa, where he graduated in
"three years and three months," he reports. "I took a hard look at law school, but
we got married when I was a junior, 14 months later we had a child, and it was
time to go to work."
He still pushes himself. Last week, after attending a dinner hosted by President
George W. Bush in Washington on Tuesday night, he showed up at his office the
next morning, ready to receive a visit from representatives of the U of I
department of religious studies. They wanted to talk about a possible chair
endowment.
"As a young person, he was encouraged to support the community," Fethke said.
"He has a sense of giving back that's hard to define. He gives in spite of himself;
he can't help himself. And he will hold other people's arms up behind their back
and encourage them with a capital E."
"You can never be satisfied and think 'that's all I'm going to do,'" Pomerantz said.
"If I think I'm right, I'll never quit."
He keeps pictures of Leonardo da Vinci and Albert Einstein on his office wall as
inspiration, but his own claim to intellectual achievement is that he never got less
than a "C" at Iowa. If he had his high school years to do over, "I would open more
books."
During his years in Iowa City, at least once he had a direct effect on a young
Iowan's education without sitting on a single committee or writing a check.
The late Des Moines businessman Bill Reichardt was a star on the Hawkeye
football team when he came to Pomerantz looking for help. An economics test
was looming, he hadn't studied and he knew a monitor would be watching him
closely.
The wily future businessmen worked out a system that involved Pomerantz
tapping out answers with his toe on Reichardt's heel.
It worked - but Pomerantz doesn't recommend that approach to students now. He
said, "If you just use those skills to do the right thing …"